Chapter 6
six
JADE
After the shower, we got my stuff out of Wyatt’s truck. I put on one of his t-shirts and borrowed a pair of his boxers, figuring I might need my one pair of clothes to stay clean.
He got fully dressed, hiding his perfect body with a t-shirt and sweats.
I kind of wanted to complain about that, but I knew I needed to give him some space to breathe after instigating things in the bathroom.
As soon as I saw my phone, I found myself in a dilemma.
There were messages in our friend group’s text thread. The first messages in more than a month. Things had really fallen apart on that front since Stella went missing.
Wyatt poured cereal in two bowls while I read the messages.
Emmy
Hey! It’s been way too long. Girls’ night at my place at 8 for everyone who can make it. Drinks on me!
Zoe
I’m bringing snacks!
Maya
I’ll bring the actual snacks
Celery doesn’t count
Zoe
Bitch
Maya
Love you too
Abby
I’m in!
Emmy
Has anyone heard from Stella yet?
That was the last message, from an hour earlier. Abby hadn’t answered, even though she obviously knew that Stella was fine.
She was a total chicken.
“How much of a problem would it cause if I committed Stella to a girls’ night tonight?” I asked Wyatt.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never gone through the climax.”
“Is it possible to function as a normal person instead of just screwing the whole time?”
“Technically, yes. It’s supposed to be painful, though.”
“As painful as thinking one of your best friends is probably dead for multiple months while your other best friends pretend not to know that she’s just trapped inside a wolf?”
Wyatt considered it. “Hard to say.”
“You’re as much of a chicken as Abby is.” I typed out a message.
Me
I found her, she’s recovered
We’re both in.
Ten seconds after the message went through, my phone rang.
Abby’s contact picture was on the screen again.
“Hey,” I said, answering it.
“What are you doing? Stella is in the climax, she can’t go to girls’ night,” Abby protested. “She probably doesn’t even have her phone turned on!”
“Stella has been missing for months, Abby. Everyone except you and Maya have been worried about her. Wyatt said it’s possible to act normal during the climax, so she can survive twenty minutes away from her soulmate.”
“Even if that’s true, what about you?”
“What do you mean, what about me?”
“Your wolf isn’t going to let Wyatt out of your sight, Jade.”
I paused.
Wyatt set an extremely oversized bowl of cereal in front of me. There was no way I could eat that much.
My stomach growled loudly, as if disagreeing with me.
“I forgot about that,” I said.
“Clearly.”
I grimaced. “Well, I can’t back out now. He’ll just have to come.”
“If you show up to girls’ night with a guy, without even mentioning that you have a boyfriend, everyone’s going to think you’re crazy. I know that from personal experience, though mine was slightly less shocking because it was just Nico’s wolf.”
“That actually gives me an idea…” I trailed off, glancing at Wyatt beside me. “What does Nico’s wolf look like? I can’t remember. Anything like yours?”
“Not really,” Wyatt said.
“No,” Abby warned. “I am not pretending Wyatt’s wolf is Nico the wolfdog. That’s verifiably insane! I’d have to actually be on drugs to agree to it.”
“On drugs, or lying to me for multiple months?” I countered.
She paused. “Okay, that’s kind of fair, but no one is going to mistake them for each other. Wyatt’s wolf has copper in his fur, and Nico’s doesn’t.”
“None of our friends have been around either of them enough to know the difference. They’ll just see a gigantic wolf and assume it’s your oversized dog if we don’t tell them otherwise.” I looked at Wyatt and put the call on speaker. “Do you think your wolf would play along?”
“He’s not going to cuddle up with Abby, if that’s what you’re asking,” Wyatt said.
I wrinkled my nose at the mental picture.
A quiet growl rumbled on Abby’s end of the call. Apparently, Nico was even less of a fan of that idea than I was.
“No one is asking that,” Abby put in. “We would just tell them my dog is obsessed with Jade for some reason, and your wolf could spend the girls’ night snuggled up with her.”
“Then he would probably be all for it,” Wyatt agreed.
“I still don’t think you’re going to get Stella to come,” Abby said.
“Oh, we’ll get her. Graham can drive her there and they can fuck as soon as she leaves if that’s what it takes.”
Abby snorted. “I don’t think she’d appreciate you making this plan.”
“I don’t appreciate her disappearing long enough to make me think she was dead. Or not calling me to prove otherwise as soon as she had the chance.”
“Okay, fair. I’m letting you go to their door and tell them, though.”
“Alright.” My stomach growled again.
“You’d better pound a ton of food before the girls’ night. Shifting will make you constantly hungry, and between Zoe and Maya, the only snacks there will be vegetables, potato chips, and gummy worms.”
It growled again, louder. “Noted. See you in a few hours.”
“See ya.”
We hung up, and I dug into the cereal. Wyatt was already eating.
“Are you cool with going to a girls’ night? I probably should’ve asked you before I committed,” I said. “Since your presence is kind of required.”
“Sure. We can stop by your place so you can pack a bag while we’re there.” He paused. “If you’re okay to stay here for the rest of the weekend.”
He stumbled over the words a little.
“My apartment is tiny, so I’m definitely in favor of that. Unless we’re wiped out from the girls’ night and want to stay in town. We can decide afterward.”
“How tiny?”
“Toaster size.” I lifted my hands, forming a small box. “Stella and I spent hours hiking every day because I would go stir crazy in there. I guess she probably liked the forest so much because of the wolf thing.”
The corner of his lips curved upward, just the tiniest bit. “Wolves do tend to like the forest.”
“Understandably.”
My cereal bowl was empty a few minutes later, but my stomach was still growling.
I eyed the bowl suspiciously. “Was that as full as it looked?”
“Yes.”
Damn.
It growled louder.
“Becoming a werewolf changes your body significantly. You’ll need a lot more food for the first year or so to power the changes,” Wyatt said.
“Interesting. Do you know what the exact changes are? And how the affect the metabolism?”
“I don’t. I already texted my contact in that research group, though. Maybe one of them would know.”
My mood brightened. “Here’s hoping.”
Wyatt made a noise of agreement.
Silence fell between us.
I reluctantly refilled my cereal bowl. “We’re going to need some groceries.”
“Yeah.”
“How much work do you need to get done today?” I checked.
“None. Finn updated the garage in town about my mate hunt, so I’ve got as much time off as I need.”
“That’s nice.”
Wyatt nodded.
I let out a long breath. “I feel like this is awkward.”
He grimaced. “It is.”
“Do you have any ideas how to fix it?”
“Not really.”
It was on me, then.
That was fine. I could handle it.
I polished off another bowl of cereal before standing and waving Wyatt into the living room with me.
He followed, slightly reluctant.
I ignored his reluctance.
I gestured for him to sit on the couch, then sat on the ottoman in front of it myself. “We’re going back to high school, alright?”
Wyatt lifted an eyebrow. “Okay.”
I leaned back, pressing my palms to the table.
“We’re playing a classic, timeless game of truth or dare.
Nothing is off the table. If you don’t like the truth question, you can request a dare.
If you don’t like the dare, you can answer a question instead.
Dares can only require one action, and truths can only require one answer.
Your goal is to get me to chicken out and walk away.
That’s how you win. If you give up first, I win. ”
His other eyebrow lifted too. “You want me to make you uncomfortable?”
“That’s the point, yeah.”
Wyatt didn’t look convinced.
I’d get him there.
“What does the winner get?” he asked.
I was tempted to make the reward something sexual, but I was pretty sure I needed to ease him into it. Sudden or large changes didn’t seem like something Wyatt enjoyed.
“Based on our gourmet late lunch of cereal, I’m going to assume you don’t love cooking. Neither do I. So, I propose that the loser is in charge of the next three meals. Deal?” I held out a hand.
Wyatt shook it.
“I’ll start,” I said. “Truth or dare.”
He considered it. I honestly had no idea what he was going to choose. He had shared information about his past pretty freely, but that didn’t mean he was the most open of books.
He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the physical stuff, but he probably didn’t realize how hard I was going to hit him when it came to dares.
He studied me, and I met his gaze head on.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
I had a feeling he was thinking back to the way I’d said he was probably terrified of sex. The expression he was wearing was almost identical to the one he’d had on when that conversation went down.
“Dare,” he said.
I was totally right.
“Take your shirt off,” I said. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure why he’d put one on when he got dressed.
His eyebrows lifted.
Guess he hadn’t seen stripping coming. What else did he think I was going to dare him to do? Jump in the lake? It was springtime, so the water was freezing. Not to mention, I was aiming for sexy to ease the awkwardness between us. Nothing about cold water was sexy.
Wyatt grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and tugged it over his head.
I looked at his abs shamelessly.
How was he even real?
“You’re up,” I said.
“Truth or dare?”
“Truth.” I wasn’t about to risk the lake thing.
“How many guys have you been with?”
Oof.
Right for the kill.
Considering he was a virgin, this seemed like a loaded question that did not work in my favor.
“Are you sure you want to know?” I checked.
“Yes.” He looked sure.
“Eight. Or nine. Depends on who you ask.”
His forehead creased. “How is that possible?”
“One question per truth.” I held up a finger. “Truth or dare?”
“Dare,” he grumbled.
“Pants off.” I gestured to his jeans.
“They have a button. And a zipper. One action per dare, Hoover.”
My lips curved. “Now you’re getting it. Button.”
He leaned back on the couch and slowly undid the button.
I tried not to drool. Mostly succeeded, too.
“Truth or dare,” he said.
If I picked a dare, he was absolutely going to make it hellish so I’d refuse. Then, he could get the other half of my last answer.
“Truth.”
“Explain the or from your last answer.”
“That’s technically an order, not a question, but I’ll let it slide.
One of my boyfriends was an identical twin.
Same haircut and everything. There’s a disagreement on whether or not they ever swapped places in the three months we were dating.
So I may or may not have slept with both of them. It was a whole thing. Truth or dare?”
“You can’t leave the story like that,” Wyatt protested.
I lifted a shoulder. “I can, and will.”
“You’re vicious.”
“Proudly,” I agreed. “Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Zipper.”
He unzipped.
His erection strained against the boxers he had on beneath the pants, and I ignored the way my body warmed in response.
This game was a fantastic idea.