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FOUR
“I need you to call Reed.”Tea said, holding her phone out in front of me.
My eyes dipped to the device. It was a few years old and had definitely seen better days, but Tea was kind of a cheapskate when it came to things like that. I knew she worked her ass off just to afford to eat, and I felt for her…
But only a little.
We’d both been raised in similar situations: with single moms struggling to pay the bills. But where her mom struggled because she was a teacher and they didn’t make shit, my mom had struggled because she’d been sick for years.
She managed to work enough to keep her job, even in the worst of times, and her job provided good enough insurance to pay most of her medical bills. And when she passed away a few weeks before my high school graduation, I’d inherited the home she had paid off before I was even born.
Even after paying off the rest of the medical bills, the house’s sale had provided me more than enough to get through college. I was careful with the money, but not so careful that I didn’t upgrade my phone every two or three years.
“I’m not calling him.” I told her, my eyes lifting back to her. “If you give me that phone, I’m going to call the cops.”
I probably should’ve just taken the phone and called the cops, but given the way the werewolf video had been brushed off by the police department already, I was pretty sure the government was in on the whole werewolf secret.
She sighed. “Thanks for the warning, I guess.”
Flipping the phone in her hand, she hit a few buttons before lifting it to her ear. She took a few steps back, leaning up against the kitchen cabinets, and waited a minute before speaking.
My arms folded over my chest.
“Hey, Reed, it’s Tea,” she said, and then paused. Her face wrinkled. “Teagan Foch? Ebony’s old roommate? We’ve talked in-person at least twenty times.”
Another pause.
She sounded annoyed when she spoke again. “Whatever; Ebony’s phone broke so she asked me to call and let you know that you guys are over. She met someone hotter, and nicer, and cleaner, and…” she glanced over at me, and then Ford, and her lips curved up wickedly. “And he’s got a bigger dick. So don’t bother calling again, even when her phone’s fixed.”
I snorted, and Tea hung up with a victorious smirk on her face. “Really?” I asked dryly.
“I’m a werewolf. We’ve all seen each other naked at one point or another, so I can verify the statement.” She shrugged. “And that guy’s a real douchebag, anyway. I don’t know why you’ve been sleeping with him for so long.”
A ferocious growl escaped Ford, and I jumped away from him with a small, weird noise. He shoved his side up against mine, brushing up against me.
“You’re being an asshole, Ford,” Tea stated.
My eyebrows shot upward, and she glanced at me.
“They understand what you’re saying; the wolves do. I told you, they’re smarter than you think. Watch.” She crossed the room and crouched down in front of Ford, so their eyes were level. “You’re scaring Ebony. If you want her to like you, you’ve got to be nicer. She didn’t know about you when she started hanging out with Reed, and now things are over between them, so you don’t need to worry about him. Be nice.”
She ended the lecture with a poke to his nose.
He snapped his teeth at her half-heartedly, and she shot him a grin before looking up at me with the same expression, and then standing up straight again. “The guys act meaner than they are. They’re all lonely, and I’m the first chick they’ve ever really spent time with. So they’ll act tough and mean, but really, they’re just big sweethearts.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, that monster’s a sweetheart.”
Tea looked contemplative for a second, then held out her hand. “Here. Give me one of your rings.”
I wore my mom’s engagement ring around my right-hand ring finger, and another one of her old rings on my pointer finger. Her wedding band was on my left thumb. My mom had loved her rings, and they were one of the only objects that I’d inherited that I’d been able to bring with me when I went to college.
Instead of handing one over, I eyed Teagan.
“I’m not going to lose it. I just want to show you something.” She wiggled her hand.
For some stupid, unknown reason, I sighed and tugged the ring off my pointer finger.
Of the three, I was the least-attached to that one.
