Page 20 of The Hunger
The sound of raised voices reached me as I stood in the closet, and I paused to listen. It didn’t sound like Adira. The tones were deep. Curious, I moved to my room and stopped, trying to figure out what I was hearing. The sounds were coming from outside.
I drew closer to my closed window and spotted Fenris leaning against a tree. Beside him, Conall stood as naked as the day he was born, arms crossed and an angry expression on his face.
Carefully and quietly, I unlatched the window and opened it enough to make out what they were saying.
“It’s time to go. You’re needed at home.”
“Let me guess, some girl who I’ve been around my whole life is waiting for me, sure she’s going to make something special happen even though it hasn’t happened in the thousand other times I’ve scented her.”
Conall tilted his head, studying Fenris with visual confusion.
“You’re not acting like yourself.”
“Or maybe, for the first time in years, I am.”
“I doubt that. Go home, Fenris. There’s nothing for you here.”
Fenris turned his head and across the distance, our gazes briefly locked. We were too far apart for me to feel what he felt, but the look in his eyes was filled with anger and need.
My chest ached, and I struggled with an impossible urge to set my hand on the glass or to do something to let him know that I understood his torment. That I cared. But I knew how foolish any action would be on my part. It would only prolong his suffering.
So I held myself still and did nothing.
Any other creature might have taken my apparent indifference as rejection. Not Fenris, though. There was no slump in his shoulders. Instead, his jaw clenched, and a determined glint entered his gaze.
His form shimmered, and a moment later, he wore his fur. He took off at a sprint with his phone in his mouth, leaving Conall behind to deal with the remnants of his clothes.
The older wolf shook his head as he gathered up the pieces.
“Wasteful.”
I retreated to the closet before he noticed me and waited a few minutes before returning to close my window. Any trace that Fenris had been there was gone. But I knew his departure wasn’t for good. He was too stubborn to give up.
As if thinking of him called to him in some way, my phone buzzed with a new message.
Fenris: I get it. You feel angry and betrayed. That’s the last thing I meant for you to feel, but there’s still so much more you need to know. We need to talk.
Me: No. I’m using today’s stop pushing me card for this. Go home like Conall said before you make this worse on yourself.
My phone rang in my hand, Fenris’s name appearing on the screen. That he was trying to speak to me indicated his level of desperation. He needed help. And it wasn’t something I could offer him on my own.
Dismissing the call and the one that came immediately after that, I sent a new text.
Me: Can you meet me at the Quills? Don’t tell anyone where you’re going, please.
Jenna: I’ll be there in thirty.
Fenris continued to try to call me. I silenced my phone and tossed it aside.
I paced my room, my agitated thoughts racing in circles while I waited for Jenna. I still didn’t understand how Fenris and I had gotten into this mess. The very fact that I’d unwittingly fed from him in my sleep proved that I wasn’t as in control as I wanted to believe. Was Adira right then to keep my mark from me? Would I be doomed to living in this hell forever?
A soft knock on my door interrupted my thoughts.
“Come in.”
Mrs. Quill opened the door and hesitated at the sight of me.
“Jenna’s here. I wasn’t sure if I should send her up. And I wasn’t sure if that was something I should ask over the intercom.”
