Page 11 of Wolf's Whisper

"So who is this lovely lady?" she smiled as she stared directly into my eyes again. I felt myself heat up as she looked daringly at me, one eyebrow sexily raised. Remind me again how I managed to find two freakishly handsome people in the middle of nowhere?

"Hi, I’m Akira," I hastily introduced myself to the woman who was apparently Aspen's sister.

The palm of her hand was warm against my wrist as she greeted me the old way. "Ashleigh, but Ash is fine, instead of using Lee-Lee like this moron over here. "

"Ashleigh," I greeted her, forcing my voice to sound casual, like I hadn't just met my mate. I saw her raise an eyebrow at her full name so I quickly added: "I don't like pet names."

"Akira," she replied as she held my gaze, her thumb tickling the inside of my wrist. I quickly pulled my hand away and awkwardly dusted myself off. "You said more of you’re coming?"

Aspen nodded. "Yeah, our friend Danielle and her three lovers should arrive any..."

"Helloooo, my darlings!" a cheery voice trumpeted through the night.

"...Second now," Aspen muttered under his breath, as four more figures appeared from the night.

I softly groaned. Great, more people. Did this forest produce them?

Appearing from the shadows, I saw a redhead followed by three more guys. Greattttt. If I wanted to be surrounded by more people, I would've brought people from home.

"This, this is Danny. She is a friend." Aspen introduced the girl who was by all means, way too cheery.

I extended my arm for a handshake but found myself in a full on hug. "Hiii, it is so nice to meet you. I’m Danielle, but you should call me Danny."

"Danielle, I don't really like usi..."

"Danny! I won't take no for an answer!" she sang, my head already hurting from all her happiness. How could one person be this happy?

"Oh, how rude of me! Boys, introduce yourself!" she chirped as she slapped her own forehead. She pointed towards the first male from the right and he stepped forward.

He gave me a steady handshake and I felt my hand disappear into his palm. He was massive.

"Regan," he curtly nodded, his voice incredibly low and calming. He had the same vibe as an oak tree and somehow, it didn't spook me as much as a guy as tall as a mountain should.

"My lover," Danielle, no, Danny, chirped in. I didn't like pet names, but I decided that I'd rather not have her tell me again. She was just too cheery, what if it rubbed off on me?

The second guy didn't make any attempts to come closer. Instead he just awkwardly waved at me as he nervously ran his hand through his hair. "H-Hi, hey, my name is JP and it is so lovely to meet you. D-D-Did you know that your brain is 80% water? N-N-Not specifically your brain, I mean, everyone's b-brain. I wasn't implying that your brain had more water than anyone else, n-no-not at all, I just meant that..."

"JP rambles when he is nervous." Danny interrupted him, as she gently rubbed his shoulder. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and patted his forehead dry as she told him to relax. The slender boy apparently named, JP let out a long sigh and pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"But between you and me? He is an incredible lover." Danny whispered loudly. Loud enough that everyone could hear, so not at all between her and me. So two lovers, huh?

Before I could ask more questions about her romantic situation, I was suddenly slapped on my back by the third guy in what I assumed was supposed to be a friendly introduction. To be honest, it felt more like someone trying to slap my heart out of my body.

"Oh, and that is Darren," the redhead happily said, unaware that I was wondering if I had an internal bleeding.

"Her lover as well," the shaggy, dark-haired guy grinned as I saw a twinkle of amusement flicker in his eyes.

So three lovers. No wonder she was this happy.

"Yeah, yeah, boys, meet Akira, Akira, these are the boys. Can we skip the chitchat and poke up this fire? I’m freezing!" Ashleigh suddenly chimed in as she waved away Danny's pleasantries and pulled out some logs from Regan's backpack.

This guy just walked around with firewood in his pack?

"I’m starving." Darren declared as he dropped his satchel down by the fire and somehow conjured a rack of dried meat. My mouth started to water from the dry smell alone.

As I had shared my rations with Aspen when he was still in his wolf form, I had run out of food much quicker as anticipated and I couldn't help but hope that they would share with me.

Darren started tearing up the meat and distributed it to his comrades who hungrily wolfed it down.

---