Page 49 of Feral Werewolves

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” said Paladin.

I heard her voice, soft, asking questions. Whatever. I didn’t stop to listen to them. I went into the bathroom, turned on the hot water, and got into the shower.

Only a few minutes later, there was a soft knock on the bathroom door.

“I’m in here,” I said, although if the guys wanted to take a piss while I was showering, they didn’t usually knock, so I knew it was her.

She opened the door. I should have fucking locked it. “Hey, Kestrel, I just wanted to say that I want to pull my weight around here. If I’m going to live here, I’ll help. I guess it’s probably a lot of work, a farm.”

I snorted into the shower streaming over my head.

“What is it?” she said. “I know it’s not that you don’t want me out here. I know you want me.”

“Oh, you do, huh?” I muttered.

“Yes,” she said. “You know I want you, too.”

I yanked the shower curtain aside to look at her. “Someone has to keep their head on straight. You can’tbehere, Clementine. It’s bad news for everyone.” I yanked the shower curtain closed again. “Now, get the fuck out of the bathroom.”

clementine

WHEN KESTREL GOTout of the shower, I decided I’d go after him again, but this time with cookies. Paladin and I had spent the afternoon making them.

I wasn’t really great at making cookies or anything, but my grandmother had taught me to make cookies when I was a little girl. She died when I was twelve, but before that, she was there for me when Angela was the absolute worst. She was a mother-figure when I needed one. So, anyway, I knew enough about cookies to determine that we had the proper ingredients to make them—butter, flour, sugar, mostly. I would have liked some baking soda or baking powder, but they came out mostly fine without that.

The trick to cookies was that you didn’t bake them until they were done. You took them out of the oven when they still seemed gooey and raw in the middle, and then, you let them cool, after which they became perfectly chewy and delightful.

Of course, not going to lie, we’d had to check Paladin’s phone for a recipe to make sure we got the oven temperature and timing right.

Still, I was pretty proud of the cookies. I hadn’t made cookies on my own ever, once. And it had been since I was a kid that I’d make them with my grandmother. I would have been feeling pretty triumphant if it weren’t for what Kestrel was saying.

Kestrel took a cookie. He was in his bedroom, a towelwrapped around his waist, his chest bare. He looked good. “What, this is your idea of winning me over? Sweet baked goods?”

I shrugged. “We made cookies for everyone to eat.”

He bit into the cookie, chewed, swallowed, gave me a little smile. “Good cookie.”

“Thanks,” I said.

He shifted on his feet, and that was when I realized he had a hard-on underneath that towel of his.

I giggled. “You aroused because I can bake or just because I’m close?”

He laughed. “I mean, the baking doesn’t hurt.”

I giggled harder. I stepped closer, reaching down to stroke him through his towel. “Maybe if I present my arguments while I’m touching you?”

“No,” he said, regretful, gentle, extricating my hand from his erection. “No, sweetheart, it’s not that way. I’m the fucking leader here, so I have to make the hard decisions.” He nudged me out of the room.

I stood on the other side of the door and tried to talk to him, tried to explain the things I’d explained to Lazarus, that we had to make the best of it out here, and that there were certain things that were going to be difficult, but that we’d just have to work around them.

He didn’t say anything, however.

He ignored me.

Eventually, annoyed, I left and went back to the kitchen.

Paladin was cleaning up from our cookie making adventure, and I felt bad for sticking him with the clean-up, but he said it was no big deal, that he didn’t mind. We cleaned the kitchen together, and then we ended up kissing more.

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