"We know alcohol and processed meats cause cancer," I said.
"Yeah, but I'll take my chances with a piece of pepperoni over breathing too much car exhaust or drinking tainted water any day." He tugged the pizza boxes from my arms.
"Why does it feel like we're fighting again?" I asked. I enjoyed our verbal sparring, but I kept losing ground in the decent human department. Maybe I was as privileged as he said I was, but I wanted to use my status for good, not evil. That had to count for something.
"Not fighting." Gunnar sighed and sank into the seat I'd buckled him into earlier. "We're having a discussion." He arranged the boxes on the empty seat next to him and crossed his arms like he was daring me to disagree.
"Still feels like I'm losing."
He grinned. "You're still talking to me, and I'm still talking to you. I'd say we're both winning."
I couldn't argue with that. While he opened the top box and dug in, I hurried back to the front of the plane for the shopping bags. I tucked them in the bedroom cupboards before returning to my seat as the engines roared to life.
"We can try our new clothes once we're in the air."
"Only if you eat your half of the cancer-causing pizza before liftoff."
I choked on my first bite, and he laughed. He was going to fit in so well with the few people I called my friends. I almost choked again.
"You're a pain in the ass, but I like you," I said when I could speak again. "I think this makes us friends."
He laughed. "We've been friends since we turned into wolves at the same time."
"No," I argued. "We've known we were mates that long, true, but Ilikeyou."
"Wow, only you could say something nice and make it sound like a bad thing." He took another bite of pizza and sauce covered his bottom lip. His tongue darted out to capture it, and the urge to kiss him intensified.
I'd never been big on kissing before. Shied away from it, even. Why was he so different? Yes, we were mates, but I'd expected the pull to be stronger when we were in wolf form. Now, it intensified the longer I was close to him in human form, too.
It didn't get any easier when we finally landed in Geneva after a quick stop at a small airstrip in Ireland to refuel. My dad expected us to stop at the big airports,such as LAX and Heathrow. Unfortunately, Geneva was a major airport, but it was closest to our destination.
I sent Loftus on to Shanghai without us and ordered them to return to Hawaii after some much needed sleep. They merely cocked a brow at me and rolled their eyes. "Whatever boss."
The worst part about the airport was having to share space with so many other people, when I wanted Gunnar all to myself. These big emotions felt surreal. I'd never felt this way about anyone.
I couldn't explain how I felt, either. I wanted him, but it was more than that. I wanted to protect him, to bite and claim him, to share my every thought with him.
I needed to shift."Soon,"I told my wolf.
Gunnar seemed equally restless as he twisted his shoulders in his seat and took out his phone to check the time every five minutes. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"Vevey," I fibbed. We would get off the train at Vevey, but the car I'd hired while we were still in the air would take us to my remote private resort.
"Is that still in Switzerland?"
I nodded.
"I've never been to Europe," he said. "I don't even have a passport."
"Yeah, I kinda took care of that." I handed him the document folder I'd found in one of the shopping bags.
He stared at it so long, I worried he was about to go into another angry tirade. Instead, he glanced up with a look of slight confusion. "You did this for me?"
"Yes."
"But … I don't even know where to find the guy listed as my dad. And I moved around so much."
I nodded. "It wasn't easy, but my team back in LA put everything together. This isn't the permanent document, but the Swiss visa is more important for now."
