“Don’t you mean lunch?” The mention of food had his stomach growling again.
“About that.” Daryl waved the piece of paper he’d been holding, then thrust it under Jason’s nose. “I found this shoved under our door.”
Jason took it from him and read aloud. “‘Task number two. As you are no doubt still recovering from your extended full-moon run . . .’” Heat flooded his cheeks as he thought about any of the council knowing what they’d got up to in the woods. “Do you think they saw us?”
“Oh, yeah.” Daryl smirked and gestured to the paper. “Read the rest.”
“‘We thought now would be the perfect opportunity to implement task number two of your beta-bonding exercises, even though you seem to be managing quite well on your own.’” A bubble of laughter burst out, and he glanced up at Daryl. “Shit.”
“Oh, there’s more.”
Jason looked back at the paper. “‘For this task you will be restricted to staying in your room for the next twenty-four hours. Food will be brought to you, but you must remain in the room at all times.
The door will not be locked for safety purposes, but we will know if either of you leave, and the consequences will be the same as for task number one.’” He saw the next line and shook his head.
“‘In light of recent developments, I trust spending a whole day in each other’s company will be no great hardship and you will easily find something to entertain yourselves. The twenty-four hours starts from 8.00am.’”
So they’d got through four and a half already while he’d been asleep.
He looked up from the paper at Daryl. “But I’m starving.”
Daryl shook his head, letting out a huff of laughter. “We can’t leave our room for twenty-four hours, the alpha council know what we got up to during the full-moon run, and your first thought is that you’re hungry?”
“I haven’t eaten since Monday evening. It’s now Wednesday lunchtime. The only thing I can focus on right now is food.” It was only then he noticed what Daryl was wearing and waved a hand at him. “I’ve only just noticed that you’re half naked.” The towel didn’t cover much. “That’s how hungry I am.” Now he had noticed though, it was hard to tear his eyes away, empty stomach or not.
He reached out to run his hand over the taut expanse of Daryl’s back, then hesitated. Sex on the full moon was one thing. They hadn’t talked about it yet. Was he allowed to touch or was it a one-time-only thing? Jason didn’t know what he wanted the answer to be. The overwhelming guilt and sense of disappointment had lessened now he’d had some sleep and the full moon was passed, but it was still there, reminding him that he wanted more out of this than Daryl did. In the spirit of self-preservation, he should tell Daryl it was a one-off, that they couldn’t do it again.
But I don’t want to.
In the end he settled for, “We need to talk about what happened.”
“Do we?” Daryl didn’t sound annoyed, more curious than anything. “I thought we covered all we needed to say.”
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Jason sighed. He couldn’t do this with hunger gnawing at him. “Food first. Then we’ll talk.”
“I’m not sure that’s what Alpha Cornell had in mind when she said we’ll easily entertain ourselves,” Daryl grumbled as he stood and walked over to where the landline was plugged in. He picked it up, dialled a single digit, and then waited.
Rachel’s voice sounded on the other end. “Is he awake?”
“Yep.” Daryl spared him a look. “And he says he’s hungry.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Can you send us up some food since we’re stuck here?”
She laughed, and Daryl rolled his eyes. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll send Nathan up with it in about ten minutes.”
“Thank you.”
The mention of Nathan brought it all rushing back, and Jason jumped out of bed, rushing over to Daryl’s side. “Can I have a word with her?”
“Sure.” Daryl passed the phone over, his gaze running the length of Jason’s body. When he licked his lips, Jason came to the startling realisation he was naked.
“Hey,” he said into the phone, voice strangled.
“Hey yourself. Thought you were never going to wake up.”
