Well, one lake specifically. A swimming spot about twenty minutes outside town where people went to escape the summer heat. Thessa learned about it from Jade, who mentioned thatRiley and Sloane visited there sometimes when the weather got unbearable.
The weatherhad,indeed, become unbearable. I was dying. The heat was oppressive, suffocating, a constant assault on my senses. My wolf wanted to shed its fur. My human form wanted to shed everything.
“We should go to the lake,” I told Thessa at breakfast.
“Why?”
“Because it’s hot. Swimming is a normal human activity.”
“You hate swimming,” Thessa looked up from her phone, she’d been texting Jade nonstop for days, and raised an eyebrow. “But I knowRileylikes it, and she will be there.”
“I don’t know what you’re implying.”
“You absolutely do.”
“She might be there. Who knows?”
Thessa sighed the sigh of someone who had given up on her brother’s sanity and accepted his descent into madness. “Fine. But I’m inviting Jade. I’m not spending the day watching you pine.”
So we went. Thessa texted Jade, who confirmed they were already at the lake with Sloane and Riley. Fucking perfect.
The drive took twenty minutes in the infernal metal beast. Thessa sang along to human radio, badly, while I white-knuckled the steering wheel and tried not to think about seeing Riley in a swimsuit.
I was not prepared.
When we arrived at the swimming spot, a beautiful stretch of water surrounded by trees, sunlight sparkling on the surface, my brain short-circuited.
Riley was lying on a blanket near the water’s edge. She was wearing what appeared to be underwear, tiny triangles of fabric that covered approximately nothing. Her eyes were closed and her skin glistened with some kind of oil. She was lying on her stomach, the curve of her back exposed, the swell of her ass pushing against the thin bikini bottoms, the fabric riding up just enough to show the crease where thigh met cheek…
“That’s a bikini,” Thessa said, clearly reading the malfunction on my face. “Humans wear them for swimming. It’s normal.”
“That’s not for swimming.” My voice came out strangled, my blood rushing hot through my veins and pooling low in my groin, cock twitching against the seam of my shorts. “That’s for causing cardiac events.”
Sloane was beside Riley, similarly dressed, eyes closed and white little buds peeking out of her ears, but I couldn’t care less about her. My entire universe had narrowed to the expanse of Riley’s bare skin. The dip of her waist where sweat beaded and slid down. The curve of her hip where the bikini bottom sat low, strings tied loose at the sides, tempting a pull.
My wolf was losing its mind.Mine. Ours. Cover her. No one else should see her. No one else should even look in her direction.
“You’re growling,” Thessa hissed, elbowing me.
“I’m not.”
“You are literally growling out loud. Stop it.”
I forced myself to breathe, air coming in sharp pulls through my nose, unclenching my jaw and not storming over there to wrap her in my jacket and drag her into the trees. My hands flexed at my sides, nails digging into palms to ground myself.
Friends. I was her friend for now. I supposed friends saw each other in swimwear, so this was fine. I walked toward where Riley was lying, trying to act normal, thinking of random things to battle the fucking hard-on straining against my zipper. I just needed to not be weird, not let her see how my pulse hammered in my throat.
I positioned myself to block Riley’s sunlight, and her eyes fluttered open. She squinted up at me and it took her a moment to register who was standing there. Her expression shifted from recognition to surprise, then a smile bloomed so beautifully it made my heart stutter, lips parting just enough to show teeth.
“Stalker,” she said in a teasing tone.
“Coincidence,” I countered, forcing my mouth to work.
“Sure.” She sat up, and the movement made her tits shift, nipples pressing against the thin fabric of her bikini top, dark outlines visible through the damp material. My mouth watered at the sight, tongue thick, and I had to look away quickly, staring at the water instead. She definitely noticed, her gaze lingering onmy face, then dropping lower for a split second. “What are you doing here?”
“Swimming. Normal human activity now that it’s very hot outside.”
“Uh-huh.” She glanced at Thessa, who had already made a beeline for Jade and was currently wrapped around her on a nearby blanket. “Your sister seems to have abandoned you.”
