I felt my lips twitch again as I pulled the pretty blue ribbon off, set it aside, and slid the lid off the box.
Instead of tilting up into a smile, my lips tilted down into a frown as I peeked inside.
Nothing.
Empty.
The box was empty.
I lifted the lid to look under it to make sure whatever it was wasn’t stuck to the bottom of it, but nope. Not there either.
What the hell?
“Well?” Jed bounced on his toes. “What is it?”
With a sigh, I turned the empty box toward him so he’d stop pestering me.
As I moved, it felt like something heavy shifted inside.
“It’s empty.” Jed sounded even more disappointed than I felt. “What the hell? Why would Lanche give you an empty box?”
I frowned at him and shifted the box again, and again, I felt a heavy weight shift.
My brow furrowed. “Uh… what the…?”
“What?”
“I feel something moving in there.”
Jed got that excited puppy look on his face again. “Really? What is it?”
I shot him a look because… really? How the hell should I know? It was fucking invisible. I moved the box a little more vigorously, and thethingmade a lot of noise, hitting the sides of the box. Jed’s eyes grew more excited, and the old-as-dirt vampire bounced on his toes.
“Pick it up, pick it up.”
I sighed in resignation and reached for the inside of the box, but paused just before my hand went in. “Uh, what if it’s something… bad? Or like, something sharp?”
Jed rolled his eyes. “You’re a werewolf, Dain. What could possibly harm you that wouldn’t be fixed in a few minutes with your natural healing abilities?”
I blew out a breath. I supposed he was right, although I didn’t necessarily want to test my healing abilities. What if there was wolfsbane in there or something? I was naturally allergic to the stuff, and it took a hell of a long time to heal from it.
Not to mention the pain.
I wasn’t a fan of pain. I didn’t want to get stabbed or something, even if I’d heal from it quickly. Healing didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a motherfucker.
“Do you want me to do it?” Jed reached for the gift box, and I yanked it away from him, my heart pounding.
It made no sense, but I absolutely didnotwant Jed—or anyone else—touching this… thing, this present.
I didn’t know why, but every instinct inside of me was saying this thing was only for me.
Jed’s eyes widened, and he held his hands up, backing up. “Hey, it’s cool. I’m not gonna touch it, Dain. It’s safe. I promise I won’t go near it again unless you want me to.” He grimaced. “Right. I know you don’t want me to, okay? I’m gonna stay right over here.”
I was confused by his overreaction to me moving the box away for a few seconds until I heard growling.
Growling that was coming from me.
What the actual fuck?
