I turned and almost squeaked when I realized that he was right in front of me. I hadn’t noticed him when I started out the door. He was even more feral than usual. It was hard to tell when I was dealing with the wolf and dealing with the man.
“Hey there growly voice, I haven’t even seen you in a couple days.” I got annoyed and pushed his chest.
“I asked you a question, Colette.”
“Calm down.”
Hunter let out a low growl. His top lip lifting, baring his teeth. The scruff on his jaw twitched, movement with his grinding teeth. My back grew tense with his own anxiety.
“Look, I was going to grab the twins and see if they wanted to come hang out with us tonight. I have a game I want to play. I think it would be fun. I was going to try and surprise you, but because you decided to finally show your face, I guess it’s ruined.”
I shrugged a shoulder, keeping my voice level and calm.
“You want to play a game?” Hunter’s brow furrowed as if he didn’t quite understand. Hunter was too serious for his own good. This was ridiculous.
“Yes I want to play a game,” I answered.
“We…” Hunter trailed off.
I realized almost immediately what he was going to say. It was the reason that Griffin and I started searching for different new fun games to play outside of monopoly, which was banned at our house anyways. Something about an incident. Keith and Isaac said no more. Weres typically liked to play in their wolf form. Most were-play occurred when shifted. I couldn’t. I had never been able to shift and, quite frankly, my wolf had quieted down in the last few days, and with her my hopes that I might someday be able to shift. I could feel her closer, but only when Hunter was around.
“Yeah, so I’ll go grab them. Get a table ready.”
I started to head off to find them when Hunter grabbed my arm. He held it so I couldn’t leave, but his touch was gentle.
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”
Without warning, he cupped my cheek. My breath stuttered. Warmth filled my body. I wanted to lean into his touch as my eyes started to shut, but as I drew near I saw the change in his eyes. He was starting to close off again.
I pulled away before he could do the same.
“The twins live four houses to the right.”
I nodded and headed out. I huffed out of breath. It took minutes for my body to relax from my encounter with Hunter. I thought about his words, about his apology. I dawdled, thinking, but before long, I had arrived.
I found the twins easily enough. Billy was in his wolf form when I found them. He yipped and ran at me. Werewolves were bigger than normal wolves, but they weren’t monstrously big, as some fairy tales would lead you to believe. Billy came to about my middle of my stomach in height. Jameson came out of the house at his brother’s call. I watched Billy, whose wolf had a dirty blonde coat, run around me.
“Colette,” Jameson stared at me with a questioning look.
“You can call me Lettie. But I came over here to invite you guys to come play a game with me and Hunter.”
Jameson looked down at his brother. Billy nodded and headed into the house.
“Do you mind if we invite our sister?” Billy called from the doorway.
I looked over at him where Jen, there sister stood. She was blonde like her brothers and had pretty big brown eyes. I knew she was closer to my age. She was a little shorter than her brothers. And she was gorgeous, and I remembered from the party she was rather shy.
“Hi Jen, you want to play a board game with us?”
Jen nodded. We headed back to the house.
Hunter eyed the twins and their sister as we came into the house. He led us to the back of the house to a den. There was a table with a couple chairs around it. It was be perfect! I grabbed the game, coming back to find everyone had taken their seat. The only seat left was sandwiched between Jen and Hunter. I moved forward and set the game box in the middle of the table.
Billy snorted first as they all leaned in to read the title of the game.