Page 54 of Runaway Wolf
“I know. Women flock to me, but I’m single because my twin refuses to mate up. I can’t leave him hanging, so instead I break female hearts everywhere.”
“Male too.” Joaquin noogied Amos’s head.
The next town produced Misty, who had the prettiest Christmas lights strung. Red and green, alternated with a twinkling white. She had gas station jewelry for Cait, and a small bag stuffed full of condoms.
“For later.” She winked, and plopped her ass into Joaquin’s lap, then stretched her legs across Alex’s lap.
“You’re gaining weight,” Joaquin joked as she smacked him.
And now they were so close to home.
Noah and Penny sat together at the creepy old gas station near where they lived. Old Mack sat on another chair with them, right there on the concrete porch, tipping his tequila and not even bothering with a flask. He looked pleased as punch with his gas station Christmas lights. They’d even strung them along the windows.
When Noah and Penny got into the car, they pulled two heavy, wrapped-up coolers into the back, and after they’d elbowed everyone to get into the last row of seats with Amos,who complained about having to sit next to the lovebirds, Penny passed up her last gift.
A tiny bottle of tequila to remember Mack by. It was half empty.
As they pulled up to his house, the new lighting lit up the gloomy winter skies. The crew had done a magnificent job in his absence… kind of. Lights hung everywhere, and maybe by now they were all tired of hanging lights because his looked like a twelve-year-old might have done it, but they still sparkled and shined and spread fuckin’ holiday cheer.
He and Cait got out first, while the others flopped out one by one. Alex tossed Misty out, right into the snow, where she lay back and slowly spread her arms and legs to make a snow angel.
“Like squishing a bunch of clowns into a tiny Volkswagen, right?” he said, as Noah and Amos both struggled to burst out of the car door together, angrily bumping shoulders.
“You don’t take trips together too often?” she asked him, and there it was. The smile was back in her voice.
“Nope.”
“We take two vehicles from now on,” Joaquin grumbled. “Maybe three.”
“Well, I can’t drive,” Caitlin joked. “I’m car-less.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We all know you own our alpha’s balls.”
“Gross,” Misty chided her brother. “Don’t refer to Isaac’s balls.”
“I like your balls,” Caitlin whispered to him. He grinned huge, then picked her up in his arms, pressing her body to his ashe carried her inside over the threshold, the way he should have done the first time.
“Grab the food!” he yelled out over his shoulder to all the idiots.
“I know it’s not traditional Christmas fare,” he said to Caitlin in a lower voice. “Or even the actual day, but we can repeat this in a week. We picked up BBQ at Rudy’s, that little gas station near Colorado Springs.”
“We couldn’t use that as one of your little creepfest stations because we probably would have camped out all day inhaling the heavenly smells in that place,” Amos called out from behind them.
Someone’s stomach grumbled.
While they were gone, someone had put up the tree. And while it wasn’t exactly retail-store pretty, it had a certain charm in its lopsided branches and unbalanced ornaments. There was an ungodly amount of plastic wolf figurines tied by red string around the necks, hanging like macabre little pets.
“Um, that’s supposed to be a reminder of your first holiday as a wolf,” Penny said, eyeing the tree. “It sounded better in theory.”
“Or maybe because these idiots hung them by the necks.” Misty smacked the back of the heads of the twins nearest to her, who both yelped.
“It wasn’t us,” Amos grumbled. “It was Joaquin. Your Italian lover.”
“I’m not Italian,” Joaquin said.
“He’s not my lover!” Misty growled at the same time.
But the smell of the rich barbecue as Noah cut through the taped lid had everyone stop squabbling and reach for plates.
