Page 85 of All Packed Up

“Before I tell you this, I want you to know that I no longer associate with anyone from my past. Except Griffith, and occasionally an old friend that got all packed up recently, but—”

“What are you talking about?” Wendy asked. She shoved a branch out of the way and glanced up at him.

“I used to bet on underground fighters,” he blurted and paused. A leaf crunched under his boot, and it might as well have been an explosion for how loud it seemed in the sudden silence.

“You did?” Wendy asked. “How recently?”

“I put it all behind me a little over two years ago.”

“Why?”

Nic winced and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Let me go back first. Uhm…” He tried to collect his thoughts, organize them into a timeline that would make sense as he told Wendy the truth.

They continued their walk toward another break in the trees. Nic saw a flash of red and hurried his steps.

“I met Griffith at the fights.”

At Wendy’s alert expression, he was quick to correct himself. “Not in the ring, I wasn’t a fighter. But Griffith was. And he…”

Had been beautiful. The dingy, harsh lights had somehow glistened off his skin, and the hard expression on his face had been a mask. And right away, Nic had been drawn to him. Had wanted to know the burly alpha beneath the mask.

And between the sheets.

“We aren’t bad people. It was just easy money, and Griffith was a really good fighter. He wasn’t perfect, by any means, but he was nineteen. No fighter is.”

Wendy hummed. “Good thing you had a gym for him to practice in, right? Or did you not own it yet?”

“I was in the process of being handed ownership. It was my dad’s, and I got it when he passed away.”

Though he hadn’t been too happy about passing it to a beta, he hadn’t had any other children, no other choices except Nic. The last resort.

“What line did you use?” Wendy asked, but then paused. “Look! We made it!”

Wendy pushed her way through the last string of trees and—paused.

It was just an empty field. “Where’d all the cars go?” he asked aloud.

Grif really had cleaned this place up—good for him.

“It’s still pretty. I bet the stars look amazing at night,” Wendy gushed.

She ran out into the field and spun in a circle, long hair flowing behind her. In the afternoon sun it was like she… sparkled.

Realistically, it was probably just dew or frost on the grass, but either way it was… magical seemed like the right word.

Nic crossed his arms and leaned against the tree trunk to his right and just watched.

Wendy laughed and spun before collapsing into the grass.

“Wendy, no!” Nic groaned. “You’re gonna get wet!”

“Yeah, I am,” she called back at him. “Now get over here and prove it.”

Nic shook his head, chuckling as he approached her. “The grass is wet. Now your jeans are wet and you’re gonna get cold.”

Waggling her eyebrows at him, she reached up to him and made grabby hands. “Not if you warm me up.”

Nic clasped her hands into his, but instead of following her to the wet grass, he pulled with all his might.