He laughed a little and kissed her as she held him against the wall. “I guess we’ll have to. Though by next Fulness, we should be on the road somewhere. We’ll have to find a place somewhere that’s well-grounded and won’t short out half the country.” They’d caused a number of electrical disturbances with their times together over the last few months, which had, of course, just added to their legend.
Candra giggled and pressed herself into his body to distract him as she slid down again, but then she came up with the bucket of water and dumped it on his head with a loud laugh that made every light in the house flash for just an instant.
He flinched, and the lights in the room flickered and one bulb exploded at his surprise, but he was still laughing as he shorted out the rest of the house. “Okay, I thought we agreed we were gonna play fair now!”
She couldn’t exactly hide very well, even in darkness, because she glowed, but that didn’t stop her from touching him scandalously before she ran out of the bathroom.
He ran after her quickly, but he shifted as he did so since he ran faster that way, and he was clean now, so he wouldn’t mess up the house. Anyone else being chased by a wolf through their own home might’ve been afraid, but her laughter pinpointed her even if he hadn’t been able to see her in the dark.
He got to the hallway where she’d gone to hide and crouched down, ready to pounce, his dark eyes almost lost in the pure black fur of his face.
She shifted as well so that she could run quickly, since he always found her in the end. We need a bigger house. I don’t like losing. She tried to sneak into a different corner without him noticing.
Bigger house would just mean you have farther to run. Wouldn’t do you any good. He jumped up onto a table near where she was hiding and kicked it off to the side to land within paw’s length of her, growling playfully. I’ll always find you.
Candra barked in surprise and she tried to jump over him so that she could get away. Yeah, but you still have to catch me!
He didn’t quite grab her as she sailed over him, and he set off to chase her through the rest of the house, but he stopped just as she did, when there was a knock at the door. Instantly the playful mood in the house shifted a hundred and eighty degrees, and Orlando shifted to human form as he looked at the door.
She didn’t shift since she wanted to keep playing once he’d sent away whoever was there to see them. It couldn’t be something that important, not when everyone else was celebrating. Candra just found a new place to hide as she waited, but this time she was tucked away so not even her glow could be seen.
He grabbed a wrap from his room and went up to their front door, electrifying it a little before he opened it as a warning to whoever was outside, but then he opened the top portion of it just barely. “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Orlando.” Nick’s voice answered. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“No, don’t worry, you are.” Orlando opened the door the rest of the way for him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed afterwards. “Anything I can do for you?”
“I won’t take much of your time, but the party is dying down in there.” He nodded toward the fence and didn’t step the rest of the way into the house. “I wanted to ask if the two of you would be comfortable taking a walk tonight. Let everyone see you.”
“I don’t sign autographs, Nick.”
“And I’m not handing you a pen, Orlando.” He shot back with a barely-patient tone to his voice.
“Everybody saw us earlier at Court.”
“Everybody saw you at a distance, yes. But it would help raise everyone’s confidence if they saw the two of you a little more often, now that we’ve confirmed to the other Alphas that you’re not just a bluff we’ve been keeping up for months.”
Once Candra heard it was Nick’s voice, she let out a sigh and came out of her hiding place, only to shift and to grab a blanket that she wrapped around herself. She approached slowly and stood behind Orlando to more or less hide herself behind him. “We want the opportunity to be alone before we throw ourselves into this mess too, you know.” She said with a sigh, but she didn’t sound angry. She sounded a little defeated, since she figured that Orlando would agree eventually.
Nick was all Alpha, and it was strange for Orlando to see him as he was being at the moment. Candra had known him almost entirely that way, but Orlando could see the difference in Nick’s eyes as she actually gave him attitude. She had never lived under an Alpha, and she’d been living with Orlando for the last four months. It was inevitable that she would pick up on at least some of his undying snark. “You’ve changed quite a bit since we met a few months ago, Candra.” Nick wasn’t smiling or condemning, though, he was just stating a fact.
“I know. I think it’s a good thing.” She grinned and reached out to place her hand in the middle of Orlando’s back, scratching his skin lightly as they stood there.
“I agree.” Nick said quietly and looked back at Orlando.
Orlando sighed and reached behind himself to take Candra’s hand. “We’ll be out later on when it suits us. We won’t be leaving for a few days anyway. We’ll
