He leaned back and smirked. “Is that so?”
“It’s just what I’ve heard,” I said casually, avoiding his eyes.
“Well, for practice’s sake,” he sang as his fingers touching the lace of my underwear. “Let’s see how many you can, you know, finish,” he teased me. My eyes went wide, and my legs clamped shut. “Oh, no, open up, sweetheart.” I shook my head rapidly. “Don’t make me spank you.”
“Rush!” I yelled, covering my mouth with my hands.
He smiled, enjoying my discomfort. “Come on, Sloane, the moment I met you, I knew you were going to be trouble. So, tell me, have you been a bad girl?" He smirked, biting his lip.
“Stop that,” I scolded, glaring at him as he continued to laugh at me.
“I’m just trying to abide by my girl’s wishes.” He smiled impishly.
I blushed and grabbed a pillow, forcing it over my face. “Okay, continue,” I yelled through the pillow.
Rush grabbed the pillow and threw it off the bed. “How am I supposed to know if I’m doing a good job if I can’t see those pretty eyes and those gorgeous lips?”
“I think you’ll manage.”
“No more talking,” he told me, finger hovering over my lips. His hand stayed hovering in the air in a warning that he wouldn’t hesitate to cover my mouth if I didn’t listen.
“Yes, sir.”
Promises
I stumbled out of the room, slipping my belt back into place. Rush exited after me, snickering as he tucked his shirt back into his pants. I turned and motioned for him to be quiet, but my own giggles made it difficult.
I nearly ran into someone as I turned back around.
“My father gets shot in the head, and you two are off having sex?” Kenna asked, tears covering most of her cheeks and neck.
I let go of Rush’s hand, and I could feel my eyes go wide.
“Kenna,” I said in a whisper.
“What, you’re not even going to try and deny it?” she said bitterly.
“Kenna,” I pleaded.
“No, it’s good to know what kind of friend you are. And don’t think I forgot that you used me and my brother to get a ride into town and that you took my car to meet with that little human girl,” she sneered.
“Kenna, let me explain.”
“Don’t talk to me,” she warned. “Ever.”
“Please,” I reached for her arm. Before I could touch her, she twisted my arm and pushed my back up the wall closest to us. She leaned close to me, her small frame not nearly covering enough of me to keep me there with force. I didn’t want to move her, though.
“You’d do good to keep the hell away from me, Sloane.” Her eyes were dark. “You are not my friend.”
“It’d serve you to step away from your Luna,” Rush growled behind her. Her rough grip loosened around my wrist, and she pushed off my body, propelling herself down the hallway. “Sweetheart,” he soothed.
“She’s right.”
“She’s upset,” Rush reached for me.
“That may be true, but it doesn’t mean she’s wrong. I’m not being a good friend to her.” I leaned against the wall.
“Well, she’ll need a friend now,” he whispered.
I nodded and let him put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me downstairs.
The next days passed slowly, agonizingly bland and unchanging. Rush, Beckett, Hollis, Casey, and I cramped into Rush’s office; I sat on the couch against the wall, trying to catch bits of the screaming conversations they were having.
Hollis glanced over at me and smiled thoughtfully. He stepped away from the three angry men and sat next to me. “How are you holding up?” he asked. I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at my hands, fiddling in my lap. “I heard you kicked my mate out of the packhouse.”
I coughed on my saliva and breathed in quickly.
“I’m surprised you didn’t have to drag her out,” he said, chuckling.
“You aren’t mad?” The surprise was difficult to hide from my voice.
“No,” he sang. “This house is now yours and my son’s amd you should be able to walk around here with your head held high.”
“Sloane!” Rush yelled across the small space. I smiled apologetically to Hollis and walked to Rush. His arm grabbed my wrist and pulled me down on his lap. I yelped and pushed on his legs to put myself in an upright position. “Please tell these morons that I’m right.”
“About what?” I asked, trying not to get distracted at the way Rush’s fingers traced a pattern on my thigh.
“He thinks that we should put an electric fence around our borders to keep the humans out,” Beckett moaned.
I turned my head slightly, face to face with Rush. “You know humans have ladders, right?” He grimaced and squeezed my thigh. Casey snickered, and I shot a look at him and Beckett. “Oh, so what did you visionaries come up with?”
Their faces fell flat, and they avoided my gaze.
“We have to do something,” Rush declared. “You said it yourself, the humans don’t know what boundaries are to us.”
“Dig a hole,” I told him. He smiled and laughed softly and turned his head to his father. “No, I’m serious.” They looked at me skeptically. “If the hunters insist on treating us like animals, why shouldn’t we do the same to them? If you set secret traps, they won’t know where they are or what to do to evade them. Only those who cross the border are going to be injured, and we will mark the boundary.”
“That’s not actually a bad idea.” Casey’s eyebrows raised.
“What kind of traps would be set, though?”
“Do you know effective a big hole in the ground is?” I laughed and tried to stand up from Rush’s lap, but his arms wound around me. “I mean, there are so many simple things we can do. What are those big net
