There had been many times in Henry’s life when he had found himself in sticky situations where a calm head and nerves of steel were required. Between hellhound politics – i.e. hellhounds attacking anyone they thought may have even slightly wronged them, whether they had actually done anything or not – and working as a bouncer, he had seen more than his fair share of dangerous situations.
He’d always prided himself on his ability to remain composed no matter what was going on, and make the correct choice betweenfightandflight. Usuallyfight, but even then, it never usually came to that – even the drunkest of nightclub patrons tended to back down from him before things had to get ugly, and take his suggestion that they remove themselves to somewhere else.
The third option –freeze– had never even occurred to him as a possibility. It had just never even entered his head.
But he was making up for lost time now. Oh boy, was he. Because he was completely, one hundred percent frozen, one leg through the leg-hole of his underpants and the other hoveringuncertainly above the ground, balancing precariously while his hands gripped the waistband like his life depended on it.
Which, he thought, it kind of did. Humiliating himself in front of his mate like this was pretty much life-ending, as far as he was concerned. He reallywouldhave to go up to spend time by himself in the mountains, except this time he wouldn’t come back. Ever.
You’re such a drama queen, his hellhound snarled, but Henry could tell that its heart wasn’t in it. The hellhound wasembarrassed, and it obviously wasn’t used to the feeling, even though Henry thought that it probably should have been.
He dragged his eyes up to where Luna stood in the doorway, her eyes wide as dinner plates, her mouth forming a perfect ‘O’. The faintest hint of pink tinged her cheeks, growing more prominent even as he looked at her.
I am going to die alone.
His leg – the sole thing keeping him upright – began to wobble. He really needed to put his other foot down on the ground, rather than just swaying around in this ridiculous pose, eyes locked with those of his mate.
The wobbling became more pronounced.
Yep, definitely dying alone.
The whole debacle probably only took a couple of seconds at most, but it felt like an entire lifetime, eons coming and going, his whole life flashing before his eyes… before, inevitably, he toppled to the floor face-first, one foot still caught in his underwear.
Vaguely, he was aware of Fillmore sniffing at his head and yipping excitedly.
At least someone is glad to see me.
It was a long, long moment before his brain finally sprang into action –where were you when I needed you, you traitor?!– and he scrambled to a sitting position, only getting slightlymore tangled before he managed to sort himself out and finally,finallyget his underwear on properly.
He jumped to his feet and grabbed his jeans before he could stop to think about anything else, yanking them on with more force than was probably strictly necessary, keeping his eyes very much averted from Luna’s general direction.
Should I just shift back into hellhound form and phase right back through the wall again? Maybe she could write the whole thing off as a stress-induced hallucination. I’ve already disappeared on her once today, after all – what’s one more time for the road?
He knew as he thought it that he was being ridiculous. It was no way to treat anyone, especially his mate.
He’d just never been in this kind of situation before! Even being caught naked was something he’d never had to worry about in hellhound society. It had never even occurred to him that it might be something he might find embarrassing. But apparently being caught naked in front of a human – in front of hismate, in his mate’sB&B room, after he had unceremoniously disappeared from the room not three hours before – had opened up a side of him that he never even knew existed.
Probably the bigger part of the problem was that more than the nudity, he knew he’d looked completely foolish. Maybe if he’d just acted confidently, it wouldn’t have been an issue.
Then again, maybe standing confidently in her room while stark naked would’ve just made things worse. He thought that was quite possible. At least this way, he hopefully hadn’t come across astoothreatening.
That was the one silver lining, Henry supposed – in this situation,ridiculouswas definitely a lot better thanthreatening.
It really wasn’t something he was used to, however, since most people tended to find him threatening, whether he wanted them to or not.
“Here!”
Luna’s breathless voice broke him out of his reverie, and he looked around in time to see his shirt being tossed onto the floor near his feet, Luna having thrown it in his direction while keeping her eyes covered with her other hand. “I thought you had left, so I… took it with me. In case I ran into you. At the festival.” She coughed. “Clearly, I was mistaken. Uh… sorry?”
Her neck was flushing adorably, her hand still clamped over her eyes. It was pretty cute, but he felt bad that he was the cause of all this confusion. He really did need to deal with this situation better than he had been doing so far.
“Uh, thanks,” he managed, bending down to grab his shirt and slipping it over his head. Hedidfeel better, being more or less fully clothed. “You can look now. I mean, if you want to. No obligation.” He winced. In his head, his hellhound rolled its eyes.
Luna dropped her hand and turned in his direction, though her eyes darted back and forth, skipping between Henry and various parts of the room. Whereas before her gaze had been locked with his, now she seemed to be able to look anywherebutat his face. Not that he could blame her.
The silence stretched out, becoming truly awkward. He knew that he should thank her for the shirt, apologize, and leave, but she really did deserve an explanation. And the idea of leaving his mate forever without at least making an attempt at smoothing things over just didn’t sit right with him.
“I’m sorry. This must be… uh, kind of a surprise,” he finally managed to force himself to say, firmly pushing down the side of himself that just wanted to run off into the woods forever. “I really didn’t mean to shock you. I just…”
