If only I could be as certain about the rest of it.
After breakfast, Evan persuaded me to go for a walk. I was a little apprehensive about being out and about in the clan lands, but either everyone was asleep, or the snow was keeping them indoors.
Our breath hung in the air as our footsteps crunched over the white blanket. “God, I love snow. It makes everything so fresh. Clean.”
Evan smiled wryly, lifting his head to the sky as new flakes begun to fall. “Same. I wouldn’t mind it being a bitwarmer though. I’m not sure if my little toes are gone or just numb.”
I tugged my beanie down over my ears. Sodding thing kept slipping upwards. “At least you run warmer than me. And you can, you know, go furry, if you get too cold.”
His laugh was like a bark. “Go furry?”
I shrugged, lowering my head to hide my grin. “Well, you’re not furry now, so I think it works. It’s the main difference, after all.”
He looped an arm around my shoulders, tucking me against him with a chuckle. “God, I lo?—”
We both froze at the same time.
He hadn’t been about to…No. He couldn’t have…
For a second, there was no sound. Not even our breaths.
I think we were both holding them, too afraid of what was going to come next.
Fear shone in Evan’s eyes as his throat bobbed. “Fuck. Reid, I?—”
That was another sentence I was destined not to hear the end of. This time, he didn’t cut himself off.
A snowball did it for him.
He gaped at me, snow dripping from his face comically. “Um, what the fuck?”
A voice that sounded suspiciously like Logan’s roared from the direction of the clan house. “Attack!”
Evan had me over his shoulder before I could blink and charged for the tree line. Snowballs of various shapes and sizes cascaded against his back before he flung us both behind the trunk of an oak.
I peered around to see it wasn’t just Logan. Calan, Finlay, and Chester all stood on the porch of the clan house, rapidly forming more snowballs. “We’re outnumbered.”
“Not for long,” Evan muttered, tapping away on hisphone before pushing it back into his pocket. “How are you with balls?”
I grinned, already bending for a handful of snow. “You should know the answer to that already.”
Evan winked as he crouched to join me. “You’ll have to give me a refresher.”
“Later,” I vowed. “Right now, we’ve got a battle to win.”
“A battle, you say?” A deep voice rumbled from between the trees before two massive shifters appeared.
The dark haired one I recognised from the other night, when the Clarksons had attacked. It wasn’t him who’d spoken, but the redhead.
My gaze darted between them, the pieces sliding into place. “Hamish and Brodie?”
“Aye,” Evan said, waving a hand in my direction. “Reid, meet my friends. Hamish is the chatty one. Brodie is the silent, straight type.”
I laughed at the scowl they both gave Evan. Brodie seemed to take personal offence. “Why the fuck does my sexual orientation come into it?”
Evan shrugged, still making snowballs. “You’re the one who keeps reminding us you’re straight. Figured it was worth a mention.”
Brodie huffed, but my attention was on Hamish as I slowly rose to my feet. “You’re the one who was protecting me the other night.”
