Page 33 of Red

My feet drag across the floor, and I slump onto the couch. I should go back to bed, but on the other hand, that’s where the nightmares seem to be. Tucking my arms under my head on the armrest, I watch Nikki move around the kitchen.

Hudry shuffles out of the bunk room with the hood of an oversized hoodie pulled up, and drops into the spot beside me.

“You okay?” he whispers.

I force a little smile at the young wolf. “Just tired.”

He nods solemnly. “I’m glad Stark let me sleep in today.”

“You going to eat?” Nikki asks.

“Yes, please,” Hudry answers, pushing himself up. She stares at me, waiting for an answer.

“Maybe later. Want to go for a run?”

“Not like this.” She motions at her human form.

I can’t even argue with her. Who wants to run this way if they didn’t have to?

“I’d run with you.” Hudry perks up on his way to the kitchen.

“Thanks, but I’d rather not get you in trouble.”

Morning changes to afternoon, Hudry leaves, and after counting every single tree out the window, I open the book I grabbed blindly off the shelf in my room. The cover features a wolf bite, and in dark lettering, A Bonded Mate. How appropriate. We learn about bonding in high school—or for me, in homeschool. I splay the edges and get to page one, but soon find myself wondering why Nikki and Stark haven’t got it over with yet. For most people, once they find their mate, it isn’t unusual to have a ceremony in weeks. It’s not like human marriage. Mates are bonded for life, and you don’t get another.

Once the supposed-to-be-indescribable feeling between the two of you starts, there’s no fighting it. Some explain it as happening in an instant, but for others, one mate senses it before the other. Your soul clings to the other’s without warning, and once you acknowledge it, there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for each other. It becomes a drug. Well, that’s what the books say.

Nikki shuffles around the house. I keep to the couch, still dressed in what I slept in, or more so laid around in. She eyes me sometimes when she walks past but keeps to herself. I have no idea what she’s getting things organized for, but she enters the bunk room a few times.

My hands warm, and the heat crawls up my arms into my chest. Twelve hours until the full moon. I can’t run and hide with Nikki keeping watch. She might be a bit insufferable at times, but she isn’t dumb. She can also turn into a wolf and find me pretty damn fast. I lucked out last time.

I grab a few snacks and drinks to hold me over.

“Hey, I got a brutal headache so I’m just going to go lay down,” I call to Nikki in the bunk room. I have no idea what she’s doing in there.

“Feel better,” she says through the crack in the door.

I shuffle past and drop my snacks on the dresser. Then I lock the door and slide the chair over to wedge underneath it. I open all the windows in the room and bathroom. A wind whips across my skin, chilling the room.

A door slams in the house.

I need to see her. Stark’s thoughts roll through my mind.

She didn’t leave . . . all day. I want to yell into his mind.

The chill in the room helps, and I draw the coldness in before closing all the bedroom windows again, pulling the latches tight and drawing the curtains, including the one with a mismatched tone—a replacement Stark found. I push back the rug that comes under the bed out of the way. In the bathroom, I hang a towel over the small frosted window.

Magic flames in anticipation, but I shut it down. This isn’t going to be like a regular full moon.

I hear sounds out in the yard, and voices—a lot of them.

I dig my nails into my palms. Of course Stark doesn’t stop the socializing for a full moon.

The voices outside the windows drift and come back into the house. Some are recognizable, but the odd one I can’t place.

I tune them out and lay back on the bed. This might be the worst thing Pratt has ever done to me. I close my eyes and focus on keeping control.

Two knocks on the door and my eyes flip to it. The handle shifts but doesn’t turn, and then a bang happens on the other side.