“Well played, Sanderson,” I gasp out as my body stops convulsing.
“You were an easy opponent.”
“I won’t be next time.”
She flips me an amused smile. “Bold of you to assume there will be a next time.”
“Bold of you to assume there won’t.”
With that, she stands up and looks back at me. “Get it together, Aster. If I have to deal with you again, you won’t be able to walk out of this forest.”
I laugh darkly to myself as she saunters off, hips swinging.
“But now I just want to play with you more.”
Bonnie
Ilay on my sleeping bag, fully dressed and ready to leap up and deal with whatever catastrophe happens next. I am still steaming over my encounter with Rory this afternoon. That self-absorbed, arrogant ass of an alpha seriously thought I’d fall for his ruse. I’m even more annoyed that punching him in the dick got his masochistic ass off.
It was so hot.
I roll to my other side and stare at the fire. The tents are up, everyone is asleep. Dinner was an easy meal of bannock and chili. Full bellies, warm fire, the stars are out, shining like an invitation to step away from it all, and I’m in my favourite place in the whole world.
I feel the familiar calm seep into my bones. The promise of aching muscles, a world that offers up a thousand and one secrets and leaves me breathless.
Who needs alphas when I have this?
I don’t know what time it is when I become aware of furtive movements. At first, I think it’s just someone going to the toilet, but no one turns on the torch.
I lay there, straining my ears, listening to the sounds of someone creeping out of camp. Should I confront them? I check my watch. They are gone for ten minutes, and then they come back and sneak into the tent. I have no idea which of the three tents they go into.
Why did they get up and go wandering around?
The night offers no answers; instead, the sky starts to lighten. I get up and get water boiling for coffee. I pull out a handful of protein bars and pack up my bag.
It takes forever for them to rise, but they do it without me having to wake them. In silence, they pack up the tents, grunting and moving with stiff legs and occasional moans.
My breath leaves fog in the air.
“Did everyone sleep all right?”
Rojer grunts as he sits down heavily on his pack. “Like a baby.”
Quincy frowns. “It was a bit cold, and I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to sleeping on the ground.”
Nathan ignores my question and chews on his protein bar.
“I think I got bitten by a spider,” Kendall Roe says, inspecting his arm. He’s tall and thin with a weak chin and dark eyes. His hair is already greasy, and I wonder what he put in it to get it like that so quickly.
What alarms me is the level of hysteria in his voice. It’s never good when you have someone on these trips who panics.
And yet, I find myself turning slightly and looking at Rory, yesterday’s intense moment in the woods replaying in my mind. He’s laying on the ground, propped up by his elbow, ankles crossed, but when he sees me looking, he tilts his head back with this smugness I want to smack off him.
“I have some bug bite spray,” I say instead of answering his unvoiced challenge.
“Will that stop the poison?”
Rory chokes on a laugh.
