Chapter 22
The sunlight poured into the room, my eyes blinking open.
My head turned to the side, and Quinn laid next to me.
Not just next to me, curled into a ball, with one arm draped over me.
He breathed deeply with a slight snore and a slow exhale.
I didn’t want to wake him. I looked over at Lucy, who was crawling around on the blanket.
She was hungry and would soon make calling sounds.
I glanced back at Quinn next to me. Even half asleep, he looked unbothered, peaceful in a way I rarely saw when he was awake. I wondered at what point he rolled my way and put his arm around me. I thought about yesterday with the near kiss, and last night with the things he said, what I said.
Mew. Mew.
Shit. I needed to get up before Lucy woke Quinn up.
It hit me, what if Kai was still in the living room?
Oh well, she couldn’t wait for her food.
I slowly moved his arm off of me. He stretched his legs out and rolled over to his other side.
I gently got off the bed, trying not to wake him up.
I walked over, scooped her up into my arms, brought her to my chest, and kissed the top of her head.
I walked out of the room and up the hall.
Kai was still lying on the floor like a starfish, deep into sleep.
None of the bottles got cleaned last night, so I stood at the sink cleaning one, trying to be quiet.
Footsteps behind me made me quickly spin around.
Quinn. Thank the Lord. Kai may have been drunk, but drunken behaviors were sober thoughts escaping.
I turned back around and filled the bottle up with water.
He walked up to the other side of me, grabbed the can of milk replacer, and pulled the lid off.
I looked at him, and he flashed me a gentle smile. I immediately turned my head back to the bottle in my hand.
“Are you feeling up to our run this morning?” he asked.
“Sure, once I get her fed,” I said.
He measured out a scoop of formula and added it to the bottle. I screwed the lid on and shook it up. Lucy drank the milk quickly, as she typically did in the mornings. Most nights, she only woke up once to eat, but sometimes twice.
“I’m surprised you want to run after last night,” I said.
“Ah, I don’t get hangovers,” he said.
“Like ever?” I said.
“Nope,” he said.
“Like how?” I asked.
“Werewolf thing,” he said, giving me a big smile.
“Interesting… well, must be nice,” I said.
“Sometimes, I typically don’t drink that much anyway,” he said.
“I’ll bet Kai will wish that he had that ability,” I said, nodding my head toward him.
“Yeah… he’s an idiot sometimes, but he has always been there for me when I needed him,” he said.
Once Lucy finished her bottle, I put her back into the bedroom.
Even if she did manage to get out of the makeshift bed, there wasn’t anything she could get into in there.
I changed into sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and my shoes.
Quinn went into the bathroom and changed into his running gear. We both went outside.
“Let’s run down the riverbank, check on the eaglets,” I said.
“Catch me if you can,” he said, before taking off into a sprint toward the river.
I took off running, my legs going as fast as they could.
I’d never catch him. He was way faster than I, but sometimes he slowed down and gave me the illusion that I might catch him.
Then he would take off again. He let out a little laugh each time right before I got to him, and he started to run faster.
We made it to the eagle’s nest, and both big eagles weren’t in the nest bowl.
One of them was on the branch right above, staring down.
We both stared up, and then a little head bobbed up and down, and then another.
My heart flooded with joy, and a smile painted across my face.
I looked over at Quinn, and he, too, was smiling.
They were still young and not expecting to leave the nest for another couple of months.
Hearing them and seeing them were two completely different things.
The squawk came overhead, drawing both of our attention to it. The bigger eagle—the mother—flew into the nest and pranced around before she settled in.
“Alright, let’s go downstream,” he said.
I smacked his arm. “You’re it.” Then I bolted down the riverbank.
“We’re not children,” he yelled out, “and I’ll always win.”
“Not if you’re gonna stand there staring at me,” I yelled back.
“Maybe I like to watch you run,” he yelled out.
My cheeks instantly flushed with heat, and it wasn’t from the run. I didn’t say anything but kept running as fast as I could. I could hear him finally running behind me, and he was catching up fast.
“You could let me win,” I said.
I didn’t know exactly how close he was, but I knew he had gained ground on me and was close behind me.
“That wouldn’t be any fun,” he said in my ear.
Shit. He was literally right behind me. Chills ran down my spine. I turned left and ran back to the cabin, which only made him fall back for a couple of seconds.
“Where are you going, my little doe?” he said.
“That doesn’t even bother me anymore,” I replied.
“Yet, your little heart beating faster says otherwise,” he said.
“Maybe, because I’m running from you,” I said.
“Except it got just a little faster,” he said.
“Then let’s watch Bambi tonight,” I said.
“Deal,” he said.
Then he tapped my shoulder. “You’re it.” Then he ran past me and onto the porch. We didn’t run as far as we usually did, but I ran faster overall this time. I took in some deep breaths to steady my breathing.
We walked into the house, and Kai wasn’t on the floor anymore, but his car was still outside.
Quinn and I both looked at each other, our brows furrowing.
Then we looked around. The bathroom door was open.
Our bedroom door was ajar. Except it was closed when we left.
He must have clocked it at the same time as me, both of us walking that way.
Kai was standing in the room, holding Lucy in his arms, looking out the window. As soon as we both entered he spun around to face us.
“What are you doing in here?” Quinn asked.
“I heard the kitten… I thought y’all were only friends,” Kai said.
“Honestly, it’s not really your business,” Quinn said.
“We are,” I said.
“Just friends, in a house with only one bed and no couch… interesting,” Kai said. He gently laid Lucy back into her make-shift bed.
“Look, my guy, at the end of the day, you’re far from my type,” I told Kai.
“So, you don’t like black guys?” he shot out.
“Kai—”
“What? That has nothing to do with it,” I said, cutting Quinn off.
“Well, if you’re not into Quinn, nor me, then what?”
“I’m not into you because you give me a weird vibe, and you tried to force yourself on me,” I said.
“Wait, what?” Kai said.
“Yeah… last night… Ya tried to kiss me… a little forcefully, might I add,” I said.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered.
“I think it’s time for you to head on out,” Quinn said. “We have quite a bit to do today.”
He nodded and headed out of the room. Quinn followed him, and I walked over to Lucy. I knelt and scooped her into my arms. I checked her all over. Then I sat and started letting her move all about on the floor. Quinn came back into the room and stood in the doorway watching me play with her.
“Did you want to practice sparring this morning?” he asked.
“You really aren’t tired?” I asked.
“Honestly, I feel the most rested I have in over a month—”
“Because you slept on a bed…” I finished.
“Yeah…” he said, dropping his eyes to the floor.
Instant guilt settled into my stomach.
“So… sparring or no?” he asked, after a minute of silence.
“Umm… yeah, sure,” I said.
“Alright, I’ll set the mat up. We can go outside since it’s nice today,” he said.
He headed out of the room, and I sat there playing with Lucy for a few minutes longer and then put her back onto the blanket.
She only played for short periods before she napped again.
She had another two hours or so before she needed to eat.
I headed out of the house. He stood on the mat bouncing around, shirt and shoes lying on the ground beside the mat.
I dropped my eyes to the ground. I made every effort not to look, not to think about how wonderfully good-lookin’ he was.
I couldn’t have these thoughts, but every time I tried to will them away, they pressed in the back of my mind harder.
I was struggling with reasons to hate him.
Since being in the bayou, he’d been nothing but nice to me.
Hell, even when I was captive, he took care of me, in a roundabout way.
I—we—needed to focus on getting back home.
We both had obligations that needed to be our priorities.
That’s what I told myself, and yet some part of me wanted him.
I stood next to the mat, pulling off my shoes and stepping onto the mat. I started jumping around, warming my calves up. He threw fake punches at me. I countered and moved out of the way.
“I know I asked for this, but what’s the point when I’ll never be able to beat someone… like you?” I asked.
“Because there are many others out there that are not werewolves that are shitty people,” he said.
“How are you going to take down Ravik?” I asked.
He stopped moving, his arms dropped to his side, and he stared at me. “I haven’t quite worked it out in my head.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Listen, don’t worry about it. You’ll be safe. Let’s focus. I’m gonna come behind you and grab your wrist. You're gonna try and get away,” he said.
He stepped behind me, grabbing my wrists. I pulled my arms away from his arms, jerking and pulling, but he gripped tighter.
“Stop for a moment,” he said. I did. “Now rotate your inner wrists toward my thumb, then pull through my grip. Not away from it. Pulling away only makes them grip harder. First, I want you to try to pull your hand through my grip, without rotating your wrist. Then rotate and pull.”