“You were?” My heart skipped at the thought, and I couldn’t stop a slight growl from creeping into my voice. “You were just going to leave me? Were you even going to tell me or was I just going to find you gone?”
Startled at the heat in my response, Jules shook his head and then shrugged, tightening his grip on my hand. “No. Well, I don’t know. I probably would have left a note, but since I didn’t leave, does it really matter?”
The air around us thickened to a stifling level and my vision began to blur.
“You haven’t leftyet,” I corrected, pulling away and shoving my hands into my pockets. “but apparently I didn’t realize it was on the table. Thanks for letting me know about the papers. I need to go update the rest of the group.”
Julian
Shocked, I stared in silence at Chuck’s broad back as he stormed away from me. Granted, I expected him to be annoyed and maybe even angry with me when I told him that I’d put the papers under Kade’s door, but he’d barely blinked an eye at that. It was the offhand statement about me going home that set him off andthatI hadn’t expected.
When he disappeared from sight around the corner, I turned back into the small library. Fang and Connery were standing together, their heads close as if caught in a private conversation, so I announced myself by clearing my throat and had to stifle a laugh when they jumped apart like kids with their hands in a cookie jar.
“Chuck went back to his office,” I explained unnecessarily. “I’m going to head out for a walk.” When Connery bit down on his lip, I held back a sigh. Of course, he’d be uncomfortable being alone. “Did you want to come with?”
Connery’s face tightened and his back stiffened almost unnaturally straight but before I figured out what to say, Fang stepped close to his side, one hand landing on his lower back.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Fang said firmly. “As long as he’s in our custody, Connery needs to have someone watching over him.”
I was keyed up to argue -after all, I already knew that regardless of whether or not he was a Hunter, Chuck didn’t see the young man as a prisoner- but I stopped myself when all of the tension left Connery’s body at the werewolf’s words.
Strange.
“Okay,” I agreed after an uncomfortable pause. “I can go for a walk later, after I’ve had a chance to talk to Chuck about the situation.”
Fang’s brow furrowed slightly and he shook his head. “You don’t need to change your plans,” he assured me. “I’m already scheduled on guard duty, so I’ll watch over him.”
Instead of Connery tensing up again, he exhaled heavily, his shoulders dropping into their normal position. Still, I thought it best to doublecheck that I was reading his body language correctly. “You’re okay if I leave you with him?”
Connery nodded quickly, a shy smile flirting over his lips before disappearing. “I am.”
“In that case, I think I’ll take my walk after all.”
I mulled over the interaction on my way back to Chuck’s room. It seemed obnoxiously evident that the young soldier and the werewolf were attracted to one another, but that didn’t answer a lot of questions. For example, did Connery know about Fang’s non-human side? As someone from an anti-shifter activist cult, it seemed more than a little odd that he would be so comfortable with notjusta shifter, but a freaking werewolf shifter. I mean, I was a shifter myself and I was still afraid of the werewolves.
Deciding that I had more than enough crap of my own to worry about without creating an imagined romance between others, I decided to put off my walk in favor of lying down. After all, it was still freaking raining, the day was a complete shitshow to that point, and I wanted a nap.
~*~
The creak of the hinge on the bathroom door startled me awake. I yawned and stretched, blinking against the light coming from the half-open bathroom door into the dark bedroom. My sleep-fogged brain forgot that Chuck was unhappy with me and I smiled when he came out in nothing but a towel around his waist, his dark hair sticking up all directions from the brisk toweling he’d given it.
“Mm, you look good,” I murmured, stifling another yawn. “Come nap with me?”
Chuck started, his eyes hardening. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” he said stiffly, taking a big step back into the bathroom. The door closed, the lock clicking audibly into place.
Crap.
My brain chose that moment to helpfully remind me of the way he’d all but run from me earlier in the day. And when you combined that with him hiding from me in the bathroom, it didn’t look like he’d gotten around to forgiving me.
Sitting up, I grabbed for the clothes I’d tossed on the floor when I crawled into the bed earlier and pulled them on, taking a spot sitting on the edge of the bed once I was fully dressed. I wasn’t sure what I needed to say, but I clearly needed to apologize to Chuck for hurting him. Assuming I could get him to come out of the bathroom and spend five minutes talking with me.
When the door finally opened again, Chuck’s towel had been replaced with the dirty clothes that he’d been wearing earlier and he headed straight for the door to the hallway, only stopping to unlace his shoes when they stubbornly refused to let him force his feet in without the additional step.
“Can we talk?” My voice sounded timid to me, but I’m not exactly used to anyone being so desperate to escape my company.
“I’m sorry but now’s not good,” Chuck’s voice was polite and professional, completely void of any of the warmth I was used to hearing in it. “There is a situation down in the woods that I need to assist with.”
With his second shoe in place, Chuck opened the door, speaking to it even though the words were obviously meant for me. “I don’t know that I’ll be back tonight. If you wish, you can visit the intake office and Nan can tell you what time I have available on my schedule.”
