The guys must notice what’s going on over here, because Derrick comes up on her other side in his human form. He gently reaches out his hand and places it on her forearm, making its progress come to a halt. “Precious, that water is really dirty and could make you sick. Let’s drink some of the water Marcus has for you instead, okay?”
She huffs out an exasperated sigh and strides off in the direction we had been walking, while licking the hand that has a few drops of water still clinging to her skin. I hear her mumbling, “How can he still be this clueless? And it’s spread to his friends too.” Her tone makes it unclear if she actually meant to keep her words to herself, or wanted me to hear what she said.
I raise an eyebrow at Derrick while pointing my thumb toward her.“What the fuck was up with that?”He glances at me with the same puzzled expression, I’m sure is on my own face.
“I don’t know, man, but I’m pretty sure your dickish demeanor didn’t win you any points with her,”he jokes. Yeah, I had already come to that conclusion myself. I swear there’s no winning with her.
I shift back to wolf form and take up the lead again. I can’t help but run her words over and over in my head. What did she mean by still? It came across like she thinks she knows me, which is impossible. I’m positive I would never be able to forget her. And what am I clueless about? She was like a woman on a mission wanting to drink the dirty water, and now I’m worried she has some kind of delusion about it. We need to keep a close eye on her.
Keeping an eye on her is exactly what I do over our travels for the next several hours. She hasn’t tried it again, just shoots me dirty glares every so often. Those looks make it seem like it’ll be impossible for me to get in her good graces. Every time she touches the other guys’ coats, it makes me feel more and more jealous.
I want the sensation of her fingers running through my coat of fur, to enjoy the scratch of her nails on the back of my ears. To bask in her soothing touch brushing over me. I’ve been thinking about it so much, I just know I’m going to be dreaming about it all night. We’re almost to the area where I want us to camp tonight... maybe I’ll come up with a way to get her to soften up to me.
Movement in the corner of my eye catches my attention. A monarch butterfly is fluttering above us, and it’s caught the attention of my mate as well. She smiles up at the butterfly and holds up her hand with her pointer finger slightly out like she thinks the butterfly will land on it. “Hello, gorgeous!” Is she talking to the butterfly?
I almost fall over when the butterfly flaps its wings to bring it over to her finger and lands gently, fluttering its wings open and shut several times like it’s showing off for her. “Would you be so kind as to deliver a message for me?” No doubt about it this time, she’s talking to the butterfly as if it can understand her.
As if it’s responding to her words, the butterfly flaps its wings a few more times and she brings it up to her lips and whispers so quietly, I can’t make out any of the words she says. When she’s done talking, she brings her hand out away from her body, giving the butterfly room to fly away from her. Before it does though, it stretches up on its legs and bends forward as if it’s bowing to her. How strange...
The butterfly takes off, and instead of the lazy drifting flight it was performing when we first saw it, it now takes off in a straight line, like it’s on a mission, zipping through the air faster than I’ve ever seen a butterfly move. Who knew they could fly so fast? I bring my gaze back to our girl and see she’s tracking the butterfly’s progress.
As soon as it’s out of sight, she seems to realize we’re all watching her. She ducks her head and tries to hide behind her hair, but I still catch a glimpse of the blush she gets at being the center of attention. As much as she amuses me, I find she keeps getting stranger as the day goes by. I wonder what she said to the butterfly when we couldn’t hear her.
“Did anyone catch the message she whispered? I wasn’t able to hear a single word of it. Not that it matters, butterflies sending a message.”I project a chuckle along with my words to the guys. They all answer back that none of them were able to hear what she said either.
Why weren’t we able to hear her? Our hearing is exceptional and a whisper isn’t enough to keep us from listening to someone talking, especially when we’re standing this close. It’s almost as if she knew we’d be able to hear, and blocked us somehow. My head is spinning with all the details not adding up about her.
I shake off my thoughts, trying to get my mind back on the task of getting us to our camping location for the night. We don’t have much farther to go and still need to get things ready for the night once we get there. I should send the guys off to hunt for our dinner so we aren’t relying on just our provisions for the night.
I send the other guys off to do just that and slow my pace to walk next to my mate. She glances around for the guys, and when she doesn’t see them, she crosses her arms over her chest. The sting of rejection at her movement hits me like a snap of a whip, but what did I really expect? Not like she would’ve started petting my head and loving on me if I was the only option.
Not for the first time, I cross paths with a heart-shaped rock. This one has a jagged crack down its middle, but some of the others I’ve seen have been clearly broken apart. One thing remains constant though, they’ve all been broken hearts. Each time I see one, my chest becomes tight, and I can’t help but believe it’s a message directed specifically toward me. I glance at my mate, once again wondering if she could be the cause. Or maybe I’m just imagining things. Her face is stoic, her jaw set in determination, and she keeps her eyes forward, not sparing me a glance.
She finally relaxes her stance and drops her arms, just before we reach the camping spot I picked out. I’m tempted to keep going as I feel the tips of her fingers accidentally brush my ear, but if I do that, we won’t be in a nice clearing where we’ve camped before and have a firepit set up already.I wonder if she’ll notice me walking in a big circle.
I let out a huff of breath. I shouldn’t try to push things, it clearly isn’t working all that great for Alex up to this point. I know the only reason she dropped her guard with him earlier today was because he was too distracted with his assignment to act like he usually does around her.
We reach the clearing, and in order for me to speak with her, I once again shift back to my human form. She instantly gives me her back to avoid peering at me while I’m naked. I catch her mumbled words again, this time it’s almost like she’s just used to saying her comments out loud to herself. “Never used to have a clothing issue.”
What’s with her comments sounding like she knows me? “What’s that you said, Darlin’?” She gasps at me calling her out, and turns around with anger flashing in her eyes.
“I said, you never used to have a clothing issue when you shifted, Marcellus. Is this some new trend you guys enjoy? Getting naked to shift like pop culture says shifters do, or rip your clothes? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Grow up!” Holy shit! When did she get a backbone? She’s barely made a squeak since waking up, and now she shoots off like she’s been waiting to rip me a new one.
I’m almost at a loss for words, being so shocked she said so much. The daggers in her eyes loosen my tongue though. “You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to, but we actually do have to take our clothes off or they’ll shred. Don’t act like you know us.” Her words instantly put me on the defensive. So much for trying to smooth things over from earlier.
Wait... did she call me Marcellus? I haven’t been called by my full name in centuries. One of the guys must have told her. “I knew you didn’t know much about magic but I swear it’s like you’ve become more incompetent.” Her words carry a bite to each one of them. She might be my mate, but I’m starting to think she’s a bit crazy, and not the good kind.
I just walk away from her, unwilling to continue down this road leading toward nothing beneficial. I need to set up camp anyway.
The rest of our evening goes by rather quickly. By the time the guys get back to the camp, I have the tent and bedding set up for our girl, and the fire crackling away. They get right to work prepping the rabbits they found, getting them ready for me to cook. Usually, we would just eat anything we hunt raw in our wolf form, but we all know we want to come off as more civilized around our girl. And of course, cooking falls on my shoulders. Anything they cook turns out tasting like an old shoe.
A day of travel has us all famished, we polish off our dinner quickly, and with nothing else to do, we decide to sit around the fire. Derrick and Klaus sit next to her on the other side of the flames from me. I can’t seem to take my gaze off of her. She’s leaning back on her hands and is staring into the fire, deep in thought.
I spot Alex going into the forest, and a moment later, he slinks back in wolf form, nuzzling himself between her and Derrick. I don’t think she pays much attention to him, but she does sit up and places her hand on his head. Damn Alex and his needy ways. I may be judging him, but I also have an urge to follow his lead in this one.
Once the thought has been planted, I can’t hold myself back from shifting and trying to snuggle up to her side. Yep, that’s what I need to do right this second. I walk into the woods and take my clothes off as I walk around to position myself behind her. Once my clothes are put away, I shift. I typically don’t shift this many times in a day, and I’m starting to get drained.
Is this a bad idea? She already rejected me once today, and it sent a pain right into my chest. I bet the pain of a second instance will be even worse. I’m still mulling over my decision when a slight wind blows at me from behind, like it’s urging me along.
