effect he has on me, and he’s playing dirty.
“Careful, Wolf,” I warn, my tone seductive as I trail a finger down my chest. “Two can play that game.” He pulls me closer, and I lean in toward his mouth, loving the heat in his eyes. At the last minute, I veer to the side, denying him a kiss, and whisper in his ear, “Let’s be super quiet as we sneak out of here; maybe they won’t notice that we’ve left.” I don’t wait for him to answer before I’m reaching for the door and pulling it open. He growls irritably and reaches for me, and I laugh quietly and make a run for it.
I freeze just outside of the doorway, and Torrez slams into me. “Shit,” Torrez swears as he grabs my waist and keeps me from tumbling down the front stairs. “You can’t just stop…” he starts to tell me, and then he stops talking as he sees what I’m seeing. A couple of female shifters and a handful of males all straighten up as we stumble out of the door. All of them sniff at the air, and I watch as each of their faces fall, and a couple of them make irritated noises before walking away.
“Um, what the fuck was that?” I ask Torrez, who moves to stand shoulder to shoulder with me.
“Those were the members of the pack who were hoping to give challenge, just in case your mating wasn’t sealed,” Manya explains as she and Fedor walk toward us from the surrounding trees. “But it looks, and smells, like everything is in order. Congratulations, you two,” she exclaims, opening her arms and pulling Torrez and me in for a hug.
“She’s no Brun, but she’s stronger than she looks,” Fedor tells Torrez, with some hard slaps to his back, like he needs the words of encouragement or consolation.
Torrez looks down at me, and I can just tell he’s silently warning me not to nut punch the alpha. “She’s no Brun,” I mock in my head and then jump when Torrez sneakily drops his hand from around my waist and pinches my ass. “Don’t do it, TGV,” he warns me casually.
I choke on a laugh at the abbreviation of my horrible superhero name as Torrez leads me away from the alpha couple.
Yep, I should never be allowed to choose names for anything…ever.
14
My phone vibrates, pulling me out of that in-between gray world that exists when you’re trying to sleep, but you’re not, and yet you’re not completely awake either. I look at the incoming text and smile, quickly gauging how difficult it will be to sneak out of here without waking anyone up. Bastien’s hand is resting on my hip, and I gingerly lift it and set it on the mattress next to his warm body. Then I untangle my legs from Ryker’s and have to unthread Knox’s fingers from out of my hair. Sabin, one bookend to this little cuddle party, has his back to me. While Valen, who’s on the other end, is holding the corner of my long pillow with an outstretched hand. The room is filled with the slow, deep breaths of sleep, and I tiptoe my way out of the room, trying not to jostle anyone too much.
I discovered one night when I had to get up to pee, that Torrez likes to run as a wolf at night. So I’m not overly surprised that he’s not fast asleep like the others. I don’t know how he’s not a walking zombie all the time, between training all day and running at night. He’s been pushing hard to catch up with the rest of my Chosen since he got all of his Sentinel runes, and I figured he’d crash at the end of the day like the rest of us. I guess there’s no hitting the snooze button when it’s time to feed the beast, as Torrez likes to call it.
I make my way out the front door and circle to the back of the house. My phone lights up when I unlock it, and I click on the text message that brought me out here in the first place. I send a quick reply as I move toward the trunk of a fallen tree just inside the tree line behind the house. I click on the contact and press the green phone button, bringing my phone up to my ear.
“Hey, Vin, did I wake you up?”
“Na, I was pretty much up but