Page 68 of Shrouded in the Dark

The images from yesterday continued to flash through my mind. The rogue wolf shifters eyes haunted me, even while I was awake. He’d been covered in blood when he’d attack us. Did that mean another person was dead? If it hadn’t happened to me, I probably would have been questioning the guys’ sanity. I wondered what happened to the things we’d brought for the picnic. I could replace everything, even my drawing pad, but Grandma’s quilt wasn’t replaceable.

“Did the quilt survive?” I was next to Seth, helping to dry the dishes.

He handed me the skillet to dry. “Yes. I think it’s torn in a few places, but it should be easy to patch. I can help with that. We grabbed everything we saw. Your art supplies are fine,” he gave me a small smile, “besides one pencil. That one didn’t make it.”

I sighed in relief. “Thank you. Again. I don’t know what would have happened if you guys hadn’t come.”

Seth placed his hands on the corner of the sink as he looked over to me. “You were brave. Stupid, but brave. You saved Axel. For that, you have my eternal gratitude, but you risked your life. What if that hadn’t worked?” He leaned his face toward mine.

I shrugged looking at the skillet that was dry. “I had to do something. I couldn’t just run away. I didn’t know about Axel being a shifter. Besides, everything fears fire, right?”

“Becca.” His breath was warm against my cheek. I looked up at him from the corner of my eye. “Let us protect you from now on, okay?”

I nodded placing the skillet on the rack to be put away later. I turned to look up at him. He hadn’t moved and his face was still close to mine.

“Are you going to explain what you all meant about how good I’ll taste?”

Seth’s cheeks flushed slightly and guilt flashed across his face briefly. “Um, well. You know we all like you.”

A thrill shot through me as hope fluttered within my chest. “Uh-huh.”

He rubbed his face with his hands and I laughed when he finally noticed that his hands were still wet and covered in soap duds. He playfully flicked the soap at me as he grabbed the drying towel.

“This really is a conversation we should all have together after the threat is gone. Just know that we all like you, even Axel, and we need to talk about it.”

Axel liked me? The thought of all of them liking me like I liked them made me giddy. For once, I didn’t think of Felicity. She’d played with Axel the whole summer. I knew it broke some kind of friend code, but I liked him, all of them, and I was tired of trying to push myself away from him for her.

“You know I like you, too.” I touched Seth’s chest. “Whatever this is, I feel it.”

Chapter 15

Becca

The day passed quickly. The guys took turns sleeping throughout the day. I worked on my painting.

Cody was lounging on the couch while I painted. He was the one on ‘guard duty’ now after switching out with Jasper. He’d been unnaturally quiet for him. I kept sneaking glances over my shoulder at him.

“Do you want to see it?”

My brush went sideways on the canvas at the sudden question. I cursed silently, but turned to look at him.

“See what?”

His arms were behind his head with his right leg over his left knee. His foot moved to a beat that only he knew of.

“See my wolf. Meet him.” His eyes danced as they met mine.

Excitement raced through me with a little bit of fear. Would he look like the rogue that had attacked us? I shook my head. Even if he did, this was Cody we were talking about.

“Yes! I do! Are you sure it’s alright?” I glanced toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

He grinned as he pulled himself into a sitting position without using his hands. Show off. I wished he’d done that with no shirt on so I could have watched his muscles.

“It’s fine. I’ll move the couch a little, he’s big. As long as we aren’t too loud, the others will stay asleep. They’re all pretty wiped out.”

“You’re not tired?”

A flash of fear moved across his face but it was gone so quick that I had doubts I’d even actually seen it.