Page 25 of Awakened and Betrayed
“Two’s enough for me,” I confess, with a shake of my head when he tries to hand off the shot again.
I’m warm and fuzzy from the six ounces I just consumed. There’s no way I’m letting any more of that deliciously potent elixir past my lips. Mave shrugs and steals the shot from him, downing it first and then following it up with the shot in her other hand. She licks her lips appreciatively and wiggles her eyebrows at me.
“Sooo good, right?”
“Like I’m drinking super-sweet Kool-Aid,” I admit, with a giggle that has me instantly judging myself.
Mave laughs at me and throws an arm around my shoulders. “How can you be a lightweight when you’re such a badass? I thought fighting and drinking went hand and hand.”
I shrug my shoulders, which Mave seems to find hilarious. Torrez throws back another shot and smiles at the both of us.
“So, Vin, you ready to run with the big dogs? I mean wolves. Like really big wolves. Huge ones. Bigger than you’ve ever seen.” Mave’s eyes get wider as her hands grow farther apart. “Have you seen how big they are? Sooo big.” She looks at her outstretched hands and starts to crack up. “I’m not talking about that, you dirty birdy. Although the dick size in this packisabove average.” She wags her eyebrows at me but seems to get distracted by the movement of her hands again.
“And you’re cut off,” Torrez tells Mave when she makes a grab for another drink.
He pulls the drink smoothly out of her reach. She huffs her disapproval but doesn’t put up more fight beyond that.
Torrez motions between me and Mave, and leans down toward me. “So, how do you two know each other?”
I open my mouth to answer, but Mave beats me too it.
“Amazing people always find their way to each other. Our bestieship was written in the stars, that’s how,” she declares.
She throws her head back and closes her eyes to the starlit sky, like she can feel fate looking down on her at this exact moment. Slowly she starts to tilt back, and I rush to catch her before she falls off the chair. I get her straightened out as she chuckles and pets my face. I laugh. Apparently, looking for a better explanation than the one he just got, Torrez looks to me for a coherent answer to his question.
I smile at him and point my thumb at Mave. “What she said.”
Mave hugs me and then throws her head back and howls. Answering howls sound off around the party, and something about it comforts me. What would it be like to call out like that and know that there’s always someone there to answer you? I realize that Torrez is watching me as I blink away the thought, and I get the sudden desire to activate my runes and reach out to the guys.
“What?” I ask him, as he continues to look at me with that same intensity he had right after my chat with Pebble. I wipe at my face, wondering if I’ve got something there.
“Are you really going to run with us?” he asks.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just never known a caster that would want to, let alone be invited to,” he admits.
“Well, I’m not really a caster, so that probably still applies.”
As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I want to grab them and shove them back down my throat. Why the fuck did I just say that? Torrez tilts his head, and I can see the questions written all over his face and spilling out of his gaze.
“What do you mean?”
“Uh…I...uh...just meant that I wasn’t raised like one. I don’t think like they do or have the same hang-ups.”
He stares at me for a couple of seconds and then gives me an understanding nod. I don’t miss the slight flare of his nostrils before he looks away at a group who’s yelling and getting rowdy.Shit! Can he smell the half-truth in what I just said? I reign in my panic figuring he’ll smell that, too, if I let it take over. I school my features and look around for a distraction.
I gape for a moment in shock, when I look over and find Mave snuggled up in Pebble’s lap. I’m not too surprised on Pebble’s end, as he’s been checking her out since the tattoo shop, but I didn’t know she was feeling him too. I scan the shifters all around them to see if Mave and Pebble’s closeness bothers anyone, especially after the dick move he tried to pull earlier, but no one seems to be paying them any attention.
A finger glides over the line of runes on my exposed shoulder, and a familiar wave of heat travels through me. I smile.How the hell did they find me here?A shiver rolls through me at the contact, and I turn, fully expecting to see one of my Chosen. I freeze when the finger trailing over my shoulder belongs to Torrez and not one of my guys.
I slap his hand away and push off of the tree stump I’m perched on. He rises at the same time, and I step to get in his face.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
My aggressive stance has unintentionally brought our faces closer together, and I see Torrez’s eyes drop to my lips for a millisecond before they shoot back up to meet my glare. I shove him away from me before he can do anything that will get him stabbed. I push my way through the crowd and into the surrounding tree line. I stomp back towards Mave’s house where my car is parked.
I debate for a quick second if I should tell Pebble that I’m ready to bail, but fuck it. He and Mave looked adorably cozy. Who am I to get in the way of the hot sex they’ll hopefully be having later? Leaves crunch behind me, and I whirl around to find Torrez.
