“There’s a fae town on top of Grayhaven?” I asked.
“More like, this is the fae neighborhood,” Declan said, “And it’s the only neighborhood in town where you’ll find people sleeping on the streets.” He grimaced, and his nose scrunched up. “Can you guess why?”
“Because it’s only safe for fae to sleep on the street.”
Nature laughed. “You weren’t thinking of sleeping on the street, were you?” He pointed up to the sky. “The queen is planning a feast for tonight. I’d be indoors before the dancing starts.”
Declan clapped Nature on the shoulder. “Thank you for a good trade.”
“It was fair.” Nature smiled, and for just a second, I could see the sharp points of his teeth before they grew blunt. “Next time, bring me venison, and I’ll really take you beyond the veil.”
We strolled for a few minutes in silence, and then I stopped and turned toward Declan.
He held his hands up in front of him. “Just consider coming to the packhouse. That’s all I’m asking you to do. We have unlimited food. You’ll have your own room for as long as you want to stay. No one will order you to do anything.”
I ran my teeth over my lip. “I’m sorry Declan, but, no. I’m still sleeping in the woods. I appreciate how you, Lucas, and your whole pack are treating me. You’ve let me into your territory, and you’ve helped me and fed me twice. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done. Please don’t think that I’m ungrateful. I wish twenty-four hours could restore my faith in werewolf-kind, but I’m not sure that part of me is ever going to be fixed.”
Declan rubbed the top of his head and rolled his head on his neck. “Fine. We’ll sleep in the woods.”
I winced. Declan had orders to keep tabs on me. I was an invader. Which meant I was putting him in a bad spot. Gritting my teeth, I suggested, “How about you show me where your territory ends, and I could sleep beyond that.”
Declan laughed, long and loud. “It feels so normal to be around you, I completely forgot that you don’t know me at all.” He gestured out toward the woods. “Lead the way. I’ve been coloring in the lines for too long now anyway.”
Chapter Six
I leaned into a tree and unbuttoned my fly, shimmying out of my jeans and folding them up.
“You sure you don’t want to even take a peek at my American flag thong?” Declan called from the other side of the tree, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
Chuckling to myself, I shook my head. It said something about my life that the safest option for me was walking into the forest with a perfect stranger and getting naked. I meant that he was perfect in more than one sense of the word. To say that I was tempted to peek around the tree and see how far his tattoos reached was a massive understatement.
It had been a very long time since I enjoyed a man looking at me with desire in his eyes, and I had been flirting with not one but two gorgeous werewolves today. It would be reckless to get intimate with anyone while I was on the run, though. Added to that, Kane would make it his personal mission to hunt down anyone I took for a lover and rip them limb from limb. And, that was not whatsoever the reason for us getting naked right now.
Shifters had resistance to most magic in animal form. Neither Declan nor I was sure that included fae magic, but turning into a wolf seemed like a better bet than staying human. I stripped off my bra and tucked it in my bag before slipping out of my underwear.
The cool evening breeze made my skin prickle with goosebumps up the length of my naked body as I went to my tiptoes to lift my backpack onto a tree branch. My calves ached as I stretched. The backpack just touched the branch, but I wasn’t quite tall enough to slide it up there. I jumped, trying to push my backpack up. The bag smacked back into my hand, making me hiss in pain.
“Want help?” Declan asked, and his voice was very close.
I jumped and pushed the bag up, but it did no good. The first branch was just beyond my reach, and that was one hundred percent why I was going to accept Declan’s help.
“Please.”
Declan rounded the tree, and my goodness, my whole body felt sensitive just at the sight of his naked chest. His tattoos spanned both of his muscular arms and over his shoulders and chest. He was massive in clothes, but I could swear he was even larger standing there naked. My eyes dipped lower, and a laugh burst out of my lips.
“You’re not the only one who doesn’t joke about American flag thongs.”
I met his laughing eyes. “Yes, but those are briefs.”
They were very snug briefs that left almost nothing to the imagination, but they were definitely not a thong.
He stepped up next to me, tugged my backpack from my hands, and set my bag in the tree. “I could make them into a thong. Just give me a minute.”
“I’m all ready to change now,” I told him.
His mouth made an oh, and his eyes slid down from my face. I felt the weight of his brown gaze as he took in my naked curves. “I’ll just… give you some privacy then…?”
There was a question in his words, and that question was if he should stay here instead. My gaze traveled down to his tight American flag briefs and the bulge outlined within, and liquid heat pooled in my center.
Down
