Page 17 of Shifter Situations

Sloane

Wednesday, June 3rd

Early Morning

I dragged myself down the stairs to the kitchen for coffee. Once the liquid gold was brewing, I stomped to the pantry in search of chocolate. Anything chocolate. I needed caffeine and happiness to get through the next few days.

And probably a few orgasms.

More than a few.

As I wandered around, slamming mugs and broken chocolate bars on the counter, York walked up behind me. He placed his hand over mine, stopping me from lifting my mug again.

“Sweetheart, stop. I can feel your agitation eating away at you.”

I cut my eyes at him, but his voice soothed the dread gnawing at the pit of my stomach. Staring at the ceiling, I breathed deep to calm my twisted emotions.

Godsdamnit, it was a great fucking time to feel that shit.

He sighed. “I know you don’t like visiting the pack, but not everyone can go without sleep. It’s four in the morning. Give them two more hours.”

“I hate being around the pack,” I admitted, leaning my head back until it hit his chest. “I love my dad, but… gods. I’m just ready to get this trip over with.”

“We have a six-hour car ride,” he offered. “We can make it eight or nine if we stop.”

“I don’t want to ride, York. We’re going through the Void. I dread being around so many shifters, but I want to know what’s going on sooner rather than later.”

“It’s going to be troublesome when we get there, isn’t it?”

I nodded my head. “Hasn’t it always been?”

It was a rhetorical question meant for myself. Being back on the pack property was the equivalent of eating donkey balls. Tough, salty, and I couldn’t stab them with a fork.

York left me to my sulking after a quick peck on my cheek. I put in real effort to be quiet as I moved aimlessly around the lower level of the house.

I didn’t have anything to do. My pink duffle bag was packed and sitting on the kitchen table. The hounds were doing one last patrol, and Pete was stretched out in the yard as he napped.

Thinking about leaving the hellhounds made me uncomfortable. If we were going to be dealing with anything drug-related, then I wanted them with us.

Pete was smart, resilient, and came with his own advantages, but I hadn’t seen him truly fight. The things that Lawrence had told me in Paradise circled around my mind until I was sure I needed to bring the pedmar as well.

By the time I had double-checked all the things that didn’t matter and decided to make Pete a pretty, black butterfly to match the boys, I was agitated once more.

The guys had filed into the kitchen one-by-one, making coffees and snagging breakfast before we left. Novak leaned against the island, drinking from a dark glass bottle as he grinned at me.

I squinted my eyes at him, then glanced down to make sure I was dressed. Not that that mattered either, but the last thing I needed today was for Franklin to walk in and see me naked again.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Just trying to figure out how you know so much about donkey balls,” Novak quipped without missing a beat, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back.

Stone nodded at him. “Salty, and you can’t stab them? Sounds shitty. But who are we talking about in particular?”

“All of them. Being in the middle of such a large pack is tough,” Briggs commented. “You think she fights a lot now? We’ll both be dodging shifters the whole time we’re there so we can avoid challenges. They’ll still come, but I’d rather have ten fights than twenty.”

“The fighting is the only thing that makes it fun,” I muttered as I mentally called out to my hounds.

As soon as they entered the kitchen from their room, I turned them into the red, blue, and yellow butterflies I was beginning to adore. They were such innocent creatures, but with one thought, they’d transform into massive, hellish nightmares.