Page 21 of Haunted By the Shadow of Death

Evangeline turned her head to the side. “Kicks is here.”

A second later I heard the front door open.

Kicks walked in the bedroom and looked around. “Hey,” he said. “Nice dresses.” He reached up, feeling the fabric of a particularly sexy black dress.

While he was looking at the clothing, I shot Evangeline a look toward Charlie and then nodded.

“Hey, do you care if I borrow Charlie for a second? I want to show him something,” Evangeline said.

“No, not at all! Take him.”

“Charlie, I’ve got some cupcakes I want you to test out,” she added. Charlie was up and running out the door with her a few minutes later.

I spun on Kicks, who was still looking over the dresses.

I choked on the words, but this had to be done, and tonight. I wasn’t walking into that party without smelling of Kicks.

“Before we go tonight, won’t the pack get weird if they don’t smell our scents on each other?” I got the words out and they left a boulder in my throat.

“There’s plenty of circumstances that can mute it. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

There was no way I was walking into that party without his smell. I didn’t care what he said.

“Yeah, but just to be safe so that the pack feels good about our situation, perhaps we should hug or something?”

He turned, looking speechless for a second. “Are you asking me to mark you?”

“Yes,” I shot out.

“It’s a little more complicated than just hugging,” he said, as if I had no idea what I was asking for. “There are certain chemicals that are released during sexual excitement. Hugging you platonically isn’t going to do the job.”

I didn’t care what he had to do. This was happening. I remembered Louise’s face, the gloating in her eyes, and then worse, the other women trying to make me feel better about Kicks not wanting me and the deficits of being human.

“Well, you’ve said you’re attracted to me. Can’t you just…you know?” I rolled my hand.

“You’re asking me to hump your leg?” he asked.

I didn’t know if he was making a joke or mocking me. The whole thing probably seemed ridiculous to him. Maybe it was.

“I didn’t mean… It was just that…” I shook my head. “Forget it. It was idiotic.”

“It was just what?” he pressed.

“Nothing.”

“You can’t insinuate there was something and then expect me not to want to know.” He crossed the room, getting closer.

“I don’t want to make a big deal of it, but there might’ve been some people inquiring into how we were doing. There seemed to be some question of our…compatibility. Forget it, though. It doesn’t matter what they think.” I moved away from him, taking down some of the dresses Evangeline had hung up around the room.

It didn’t matter. I mean, yes, I was a human, and they were probably saying that was the issue because all humans were like cold fish in bed. At least, that was the way they’d made it sound, but so what? So they thought I was a loser.

“Come here.” He stripped off his shirt as he said it.

“No. Forget it. I didn’t realize what I was asking for.” The whole situation was compounding my embarrassment. “I mean, it’s not that I feel bad or—”

“You don’t have to explain,” he said.

I gave him my back, trying to see if I could make room in the closet for all the new clothes. I’d have dug through manure shit if it made me look otherwise occupied.

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