Hunter
Is he fucking kidding me?
I hear the door to the cabin close and footsteps outside my door as Evans gets in the shower after his run. The plan for the day was to spend it by the lake with my family and not to have a mini crisis about my best friend admitting that I’m his safe space last night.
I’d hoped that being away from him here would’ve given me clarity about what I wanted and perhaps what he wanted, instead I find myself trapped in the same cabin as my tormenter.
And I’d slept like shit because I’d spent the night tossing and turning because Evans Crawford was having some sort of realisation. But it wasn’t the right one.
Ivii would say I’m being overly dramatic, but Ivii would be wrong. I feel like this is the appropriate level of drama given that he’s an alpha, he has a fucked up situationship, and despite everything he still seems completely oblivious to just how much I want him.
I’m his safe space?
I didn’t want to be his safe space, I wanted to be his everything.
After he said that, I’d made an excuse about needing to get some rest and left him sitting on the porch alone. If he gave me the word, I would swallow him whole.
This wasn’t wanting Evans anymore.
This was wanting his everything. My alpha had recognised for a long time what I had failed to. He was my mate, chosen, fated, it didn’t give a fuck. If it wasn’t him, I didn’t want anyone else.
Groaning, I rub my palms into my eye socket.
Fuck.
The water shuts off and a few minutes later my door bursts open, a fresh burst of lime and bergamot invading my space. Wearing only a towel around his waist, he leans against the door frame with a wide easy grin, like a puppy eager for attention.
“Come on man, we’re burning daylight.” He strides in and throws open my curtains while I try not to look at his muscles as he moves. “There are breakfast burritos on offer and jetskis to play with.”
I already regret adding him to the family group chat. Ivii had added Percy yesterday, and they’d been messaging in there about what to have for breakfast, so of course I felt like it was only fair to add Evans.
It had nothing whatsoever to do with the winky face text Percy had sent me last night saying ‘I made it to the family chat…’
Today, he’d already messaged me to see if I was coming swimming at the lake with them. I was going to have to say something, let him down gently.
“Get up!” He yells, grabbing my covers, and I quickly clamp down on them with a glare.
“Dude, do not pull my covers off unless you want to see my cock.”
He blinks, dark eyes going almost hazy for a moment. “You…sleep naked.”
Rolling my eyes, I tug the blanket out of his grip before leaning up on my elbows. “You know this.”
“When you were in my bed you had boxers on.” The top of his ears have turned pink as he glances around my room, clearly unsure where to look. Why was he acting shy when he practically lived in a locker room back at Oakley? What was a little dick between bros?
“I have manners.” I run a hand through my hair, which is probably like a bird's nest as it snags on my fingers. “Now, get the fuck out.”
“I’m messaging mom to tell her we’re on our way.”
My lip curls in disgust. “Don’t call her that.”
“She said I could.” He’s smug as he crosses his arms. The motion makes his arms bulge and his tits look bigger. I mean, I know they’re pecs. But the man would look incredible in a lace bra. I wonder if he’d let me paint him like that too?
No. Nope. Don’t go there.
Besides, I know before I even open my mouth that it would never happen.
Fuck, it’s too early for this.
My logical, best friend brain cannot compete with my horny alpha brain. The one that’s snarling mine mine mine over and over like a chant. I scrub my face again, needing my morning coffee poured straight into my eyeballs.
“Well, I’m saying you can’t.”
His bottom lip sticks out a little and he leans on one hip as I stare up at my ceiling, pointedly ignoring the bulge of his cock. “Percy gets to.”
“Does that make you jealous, Benny?” I tease, raising a brow.
“Fuck off, or I’ll tell mom on you.”
“Ewwww. Stop calling her that. And get out of my room.” I curse my mother and her maternal nature which makes her want to adopt every stray she sees.
Evans continues to crash and bang around my cabin until I eventually crawl out of my pit and drag him down to the lake.
He wants to jog to my parents cabin as part of some sort of post workout cool down, but I am not a morning person, especially not after the night I had.
Instead, I just follow behind as he practically skips to the lake, with a bag containing my sketchbook slung over my shoulder, grumbling the entire way.
We spend the entire day out by the water and I swear Evans is a bigger child than the twins, as I watch him throw them off the dock for the hundredth time and they land in the water with ear-splitting squeals.
There’s a deck area built near the shore with a firepit, and sunloungers. When we’re not here, the groundskeeper my parents hired along with Mrs Marlow keep everything running. It means I don’t have to do anything but relax and chase my muse as I think about my art project and my theme.
Obsession.
Was it original? No. But it was iconic. A tale as old as time and all that jazz.
Laying lazily under a parasol, I stare out at the water and draw for a while. The shapes start to form, and before I know it, I’ve spent almost three hours sketching my housemate as a big-titted mermaid. Was I losing my mind?
After another dip to cool off my increasingly perverted thoughts, I lay back and try to clear my mind. My eyes are mostly closed when a shadow falls over me.
“I think we should probably talk.” A smooth voice says and I crack open my eyes to see Percy standing next to my sun lounger.
He looks pink and beautifully flushed after a day in the sun as he takes a seat beside me, claiming the lounger Evans had draped his towel on.
He’s wearing an oversized pair of sunglasses, nautical striped swim shorts and a pale blue shirt, which is completely open.
“We had a lot of fun in Oakley and if you wanted to continue having fun in the future, I would be very open to that.” Leaning back, he crosses one leg over the other and sucks the straw of his cocktail.
Damn Ivii and my mother for being all giggly and suggestive at lunch when they announced ‘Sex on the lake’ was the drink of the afternoon.
“I think I understand why you aren’t open to anything more.
And I think it’s because of a certain someone who happens to be 6 foot five looks like he could bench press a horse. ”
I snort, leaning up on my elbows. “Evans is just my friend. Besides, he’s an alpha.”
“Like that changes anything.” Percy laughs, and there’s this perfect tinkling noise. Omegas, by their very nature, have the power to draw you in. It’s like being enticing is woven into their DNA. “The heart wants what the heart wants. One day society will catch up, and it won’t be so taboo.”
The world was so messed up. Who decided that your worth was based on your secondary gender?
“Well, he doesn’t feel that way.” I give Percy a droll look. My rut was approaching, and I tended to get a little snappier, more sarcastic as it neared.
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Sometimes people don’t realise what’s right in front of their face,” he whispers as he leans in, closing the space between us so that we’re almost nose to nose. “...until we think we might lose it.”
I gasp as something wet and cold grabs onto my ankle and pushes my body, shifting me into an almost sitting position while also spinning me away from Percy.
“What are we whispering about?” Evans asks as he continues to shove me over so that he can drop down on my lounger, shaking us both as he sat down with all his weight.
His wet body presses against mine, the chill from his skin clashing with the heat of my sunkissed warmth as he shakes his head, splashing us all with stray droplets of lakewater.
“I was just trying to convince Hunter to take me into town for dinner tomorrow.” Percy toys with his straw again, pushing it between his plump lips. “I feel like there are some things he could show me.” Tucking a curl behind his ear, he sighs sensually. Dramatically.
I swallow back a chuckle. Just how many of those cocktails had he had? He was such a brat.
“Yeah that sounds cool. So what time are we thinking?” Evans asks, using my towel to dry himself off as Ivii joins us.
“Well…” Percy has a wicked twinkle in his eyes as he watches me over the rim of his sunglasses, flashing me a flirty smile.
I decide the tour with Percy doesn’t sound bad, and in fact, I could probably do with a little space from the chaos of my family and the intensity of being around Evans.
“I was thinking, I might just take Percy if that’s alright, bro.”
“Huh?” Evans pauses drying his hair and looks between us, gaze pingponging from me to Percy to Ivii, who’s watching gleefully, and then back again.
“Just the two of us…” I place emphasis on ‘two’, giving him a pointed look and a little nudge.
“Like…like a date?” He says slowly, like the words feel uncomfortable in his mouth.
“Kinda,” I shrug. Percy knew it wasn’t really a date, and I didn’t want to label it either. Because if I had to, it was more like ‘a casual dinner with a hook-up to avoid wanting to fuck your alpha bestie’.
“Oh yeah. Yeah. Cool. I mean, I can just chill at the cabin with mom and your sister. Or I can give Bell a call. Or see if Blake wants to catch up or something.” Evans swallows, clutching the towel tightening in his fists as he glances away. “I can do that while you go out. With Percy.”
For a second something flashes across his face. I can't quite place it but it makes my alpha anxious. Mine. I push it aside. He isn’t mine, not now, not ever.
Nudging him with my shoulder, I chuckle softly. “You’re rambling, dude.”