My jaw fell open as I watched her slowly make her way out of the kitchen. “I said the same exact shit!”
“Watch your mouth,” she called over her shoulder.
I snapped my jaw shut and shook my head as I filled up the teakettle and wiped down the counter. “Unbelievable,” I muttered.
Wes laughed loudly and punched me in the arm. “It’s because it came from your ugly face. When I say it, it’s coming from a much more visually pleasing source and she doesn’t mind as much.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
“I said watch your mouth!” my mother called from the back of the house.
I lowered my voice, my head drooping with it. “How the hell did she hear that?”
Wes shrugged, a stupid smile still on his stupid face. “Mom magic, man.”
I rolled my eyes as I hung up the dishrag and turned to my twin. “So, you’re staying near the house tonight?”
“Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on the place.” I turned to leave when his voice stopped me. “How much longer we gonna do this?”
I sighed and faced my brother. “Are you a hundred percent comfortable with everyone in the pack?”
“I don’t even think I’ve met everyone in the pack yet.”
“Then, there’s your answer.” I spun around to leave when his voice stopped me again.
“I did have the pleasure of talking to one of our packmates in particular tonight.”
I frowned at the wall ahead of me, wondering where he was going with this. “Okay…” I said slowly.
“They were asking about you, actually.”
My heart rate picked up and I swallowed. “Oh yeah?” I was still turned away from him, knowing if he saw my face, I’d give away how desperate I was to hear him say it was one packmate in particular. “Who was it?”
“One of the alpha’s sisters. I think her name is Kaylee or something.”
I closed my eyes and worked to slow my pounding heart before it gave me away. If it hadn’t already. “Callie,” I forced past my stiff lips.
“Huh?”
I took a deep breath and turned to face my brother, knowing that avoiding his eyes was doing more harm than good at this point. “Her name is Callie.”
“That’s right. She’s the weird one.”
A sudden burst of anger shot through my chest, taking me by surprise. “She’s not weird.”
Wes narrowed his eyes. “Isn’t she the one who’s always got her nose stuck in a book?”
I folded my arms across my chest and leaned against the counter beside me. “Just because she knows how to read and you don’t doesn’t make her weird.”
My brother tipped his head back and laughed loudly, breaking the tense spell between us. I wiped my damp forehead with my sleeve while he wasn’t looking and hoped I could make it out of this conversation unscathed.
“Anyway,” he said, and I bit back a groan knowing we weren’t done with this talk yet. “She said last time she saw you, you had to run off and she was worried.”
My heart took off at a gallop again and there was not a damn thing I could do about it.
Callie was worried about me.
Callie was asking about me.
Callie was thinking about me.
“Wy?”
I glanced up at the questioning look my brother was giving me. “Yeah?”
He narrowed his eyes and it was almost as if I could feel them piercing my paper-thin façade. “What was she talking about? When were you with the alpha’s sister?”
Thankfully, that was an easy question to answer. “I took her downtown for him once. Remember? I borrowed your truck.”
The suspicion in his eyes faded the smallest bit. “That’s right. But what did she mean you had to run off?”
Another easy one. “That was the day you brought Mom to Doc Monroe’s because she had that fever. I was just getting home with Callie when you called, and she must have seen I was upset.”
There. Simple enough, right? Something any packmate would do for another packmate. No reason for my brother to push this any further, right?
“So, there’s nothing going on there?”
Unfortunately, this one I could answer completely honestly. “No. There’s absolutely nothing going on there.” I swallowed the dry lump in my throat and added, “Why would there be?”
Wes was quiet for a long moment before shrugging. “Just a feeling I had. Guess I was wrong.”
I bit my tongue as my mouth flooded with questions.
Where was this feeling of his coming from?
Was it an impression he got from Callie or from me?
Was there more to his encounter with her that he wasn’t telling me?
And most importantly:
When had I become a thirteen-year-old girl?
I shook my head to rid myself of the adolescent nonsense and looked around the kitchen instead. It seemed like I’d done all I could do for her before the sun set and I just hoped it’d be enough. And a change of subject was desperately in order.
“I think I’m going to head to the lodge.”
My brother slapped my back and walked with me through the house. “Yeah, you better get outta here. You remember the last time you shifted in the house? Mom almost had an aneurism she was so mad.”
I shook my head with a chuckle. “Yeah, I remember. Took out the whole wall of bookshelves.”
“That wasn’t funny.” We both turned to find our mom standing behind us with a hand on her hip. The smiles fell from our faces as our heads dipped.
“We weren’t laughing,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes at us. “It took me months to get your father to build those shelves and you took them out in seconds.”
My head dipped lower. “I know, Ma. I’m sorry. I misjudged the sunset.”
“And what about the time you shifted and uprooted a whole row of my rose bushes?”
