Kaleb looks down at me, his eyes now creasing in the corners with his smile. “Felix doesn’t have a whole lot of people that he can interact with so that alone is a strong incentive, but mostly, it seems like you could use the help.”
Well, that seems simple enough.
We make it to the others just in time to catch the tail end of Donovan sharing the story of our morning Pre Cal class. Felix is laughing, and there’s an amused smirk on Connor’s face.
Donovan is sprawled out, leaning back on one arm, while he holds an apple with the other. Connor sits cross-legged with his back against the tree trunk, and Felix is sitting with his arms around his knees between the two of them. To the casual bystander, it looks like Donovan is talking to Connor alone.Clever.
“Ah, it’s the lady of the hour,” Felix beams. “Sounds like you had a hell of a morning, pretty girl.”
I glare playfully back. “You could’ve warned me, by the way.”
With a cheeky grin, he replies, “I did say I had no interest sitting through Harris’ class.”
“Yeah, there are a lot more obvious reasons to not want to sit through a math class than the teacher is king of the asshats,” I grumble. That comment earns a snicker out of Connor that I’m oddly proud of. “You’re lucky I can’t elbow you, like I just did to Nolan.”
“It’s true,” Nolan laments dramatically, releasing me so that he can rub at his side. “Our Callie has quite sharp elbows.”
I roll my eyes and plop down on the grass next to Donovan. Nolan sits next to me, surprisingly unperturbed about potential grass stains on his clearly ridiculously expensive jeans-- the ones that never see a washing machine. Kaleb finishes the circle by sitting on the other side of Connor.
Connor, Donovan, and Kaleb all seem to have the typical brown bag lunch like me, whereas Nolan pulls out some fancy concoction of brightly colored foods stuffed into pita bread. Felix wanders over to take a look.
“Oh man, what did Alicia make today?” Felix rubs his hands together excitedly.
Nolan grins up at him and pulls one of the pita breads out. He investigates it intently, taking in all the details, before smelling it.
“Hmmm. Looks like lemon seasoned chicken with spiced avocados, cucumber, tomatoes, and radishes.” He tilts the sandwich to show Felix. “It smells like it’s got some kick to it.”
“Like pepper or something else?” Felix asks, tipping his head to ponder.
At first, I’m completely lost on what they’re doing, until I remember what Felix said jokingly to me last night.Remember, you’re eating for two now.Taking in Nolan describing the sensations of his lunch to Felix, a deep tenderness blooms inside of me. This easy friendship and consideration for Felix is such a foreign display to me that I have to look away. Munching slowly on my PB&J, I attempt to push these powerful and competing feelings away-- sweet joy over their goodness and an echoing longing for someone to care for me similarly. A small spark of hope fights through the ice inside me to whisper that maybe I can.
Nolan takes another sniff. “Nope, definitely more than pepper.”
Connor tilts his head, smells the air, then smiles-- no more than a slight tug at the corner of his full lips. “Tabasco sauce.”
“You can smell that all the way from over there?” I gasp, looking up at him with shock.
He shrugs, a subtle shift of his expansive shoulders. “Wolf shifter.”
I frown at him with a raised brow when he doesn’t further elaborate. With a turn of my empty hand, I ask, “And that means what?”
“I turn into a wolf,” he replies with aduhexpression.
I roll my eyes.Of course. That clears it right up.I don’t know what I expected.
Kaleb leans his head up toward the sky like he’s looking for patience before meeting my gaze. “Connor is a wolf shifter, also known as a werewolf.” Connor snorts with derision. Kaleb gives him a look, then continues pointedly, “Though most prefer to be referred to as a shifter. Connor can turn into a wolf, though the size alone of that form identifies him as other, since he is more than double the size of the average Gray Wolf. More importantly, he also has a lot of the advantages of a wolf in his human form like increased eyesight, hearing and smell, among other things, and this allows him to pick up scents from a greater distance.”
“Thank you, Kaleb.” I peer suspiciously at Connor. “What else do you smell out of Nolan’s lunch?”
His amber eyes show a hint of light, amusement playing against the dark shadows. He sniffs the air again. “Orange juice, salt, and coriander.” The amusement gives way to a hint of smugness.
Yeah, you just wait, wolf boy.I look soundly impressed, then ask, “Wow. You got all of that from sniffing the air from four feet away, but you had to bury your nose in my hair to figure out what I was?”
Connor blinks at me, startled and clearly at a loss for how to respond.
Kaleb puts a fist to his mouth and silently shakes with hilarity.
Donovan cries, “Damn,” at the same time Felix shouts, “Shots fired!” before they both dissolve into a fit of laughter.
