We walked quietly up to the kitchen island still packed with food.
“Speaking of the full moon,” I said as I cut her a piece of pie. “I’m off tonight. Did you want to spend it together?”
I held my breath as I waited for her answer. Which was ridiculous. We’d spent tons of time together in the past month. This shouldn’t be any different, but it was. Maybe because I was regretting my decision to be friends. Maybe because I was sick of keeping my distance from her. Maybe because I was ready to ask her to reconsider me as something more.
“You mean you want me to beat your butt to the river again?”
My head fell back with a loud laugh. “I don’t think that’s how it happened last time.”
“Then there must be something wrong with your memory because all you saw was my backside as I beat you to the river.”
“Ah, maybe that’s the problem. I must have been distracted by the view.”
She rolled her eyes and bumped me with her hip. “I was talking about when I was a wolf, not a human.”
“Were you?” I leaned back so I could check out her tight little ass. “Sorry, the view must have distracted me again.”
Her face turned the prettiest shade of pink as she rolled her eyes and backhanded my chest. “You’re absurd.” She spun around fast and her fork slid off her plate, clattering on the tiled floor. “Dang it,” she muttered as she bent over to pick it up.
Yeah. It was safe to say I was distracted by the view.
“Go on back to the table. I’m gonna drop this off at the sink and get a new one.”
I gave her a nod and turned to leave, but moments later, another voice stopped me in my tracks.
“I thought you weren’t interested in the Carter boys.”
I peeked over my shoulder and found Aubrey facing Callie down with her hands on her hips.
Callie shook her head and dropped the fork in the sink. “I’m not. We’re friends.”
“That’s not what it looked like to me.”
“I don’t care what it looked like to you.”
“Don’t forget I called dibs. They’re hot, even if they are half-human.”
I turned around the rest of the way just in time to see Callie nodding her head and my stomach fell like a hundred-pound lead ball. I spun back around as my guts churned.
It had been so easy to forget the differences between us when I was with Callie. She’d never made it seem like she cared I wasn’t all wolf, but clearly, I’d been fooling myself. It was time I accepted that no one would look past where I came from to see who I really was. I’d always be the half-breed. The partial wolf. The human. It was stupid to think things could ever be different for me.
Chapter 22
Callie
“You know, Aubrey, I used to feel bad for you. I used to think ‘maybe she fills her bed with so many men because there’s something missing in her life’ but now I know you’re just vain and superficial. You sleep around because you like the attention as long as it’s focused on you. Now you’ve made it clear that you’re also prejudiced, and that’s not something I can overlook.”
She rolled her eyes so hard all I could see were the whites. “Come on. Don’t tell me the sister of the alpha doesn’t care there are half-breeds in our pack.”
My eyes narrowed as my hands began to tremble and I took a calculated step forward. “No. I don’t care that their mom is human. And it’s disgusting that you do. Guess you’ll have to be easy somewhere else with someone else.”
“Oh, I didn’t say it would stop me. It’s just good to know they’re not all wolf before I get them in bed. That way my standards aren’t too high.”
“Wyatt wouldn’t sleep with you even if you begged.”
Aubrey smirked and propped her hip against the counter. “And you think he’d sleep with you? Mousey Callie? The woman who’d rather read a book than comb her hair? Not likely.”
“I–we–no. We’re just friends.”
Aubrey snorted, the stupid smile still on her face. “Of course you are.”
My blood pressure rose as the trembling in my hands worsened. I needed to walk away, or I was going to lose my temper completely. “Whatever, Aubrey. Believe what you want but keep your backwards ideas away from my friends.”
“It’s not my ideas that’ll be touching them, so don’t worry.”
A low growl escaped my throat before I could stop it. With every ounce of restraint I had, I turned around and stomped away from her.
Her ignorance, her presumptuousness, her… bull crap was one thing, and honestly, not too surprising. A lot of wolves felt the way she did, although most were less vocal about it. I just never expected that kind of talk in our pack.
As I walked back to our table, a little whisper of doubt popped into my head, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t shake it.
Was Aubrey right?
Was the reason Wyatt and I were just friends because he found me mousey too?
I shook my head, but the thoughts wouldn’t leave. Maybe this was why he didn’t want to be in a relationship with me. Maybe this was what was holding him back.
But that was ridiculous.
He’d been the one that kissed me first and I hadn’t done anything different that day. I was always the same Callie. Wild hair, baggy flannel and a pair of jeans. I didn’t care if that wasn’t enough for Aubrey because I wasn’t looking to impress her.
But could I really say the same
