Page 523 of Hate Mates

Harlanhmphsas we keep walking the length of the home before he stops and pulls me back with him. He crouches downand peeks around the corner, then turns to me and places a finger to his lips.

I strain to hear whatever the hell it is that got him to hush me up, when I finally hear it.Jessop. Fuck.

“We’re gonna get in so much trouble if she catches us,” I hiss as I tug on his arm. Harlan looks down at my hand, his mouth twitching slightly and his jaw squaring. Taking a deep breath, he nods as he turns his attention back around the corner.

“No shit.”

I swallow down a sigh as I glance around the property. I don’t know how else to get out of the trouble we’ll be in other than to go back inside, but that’s not where I want to be right now. Every time one of the kids gets adopted, it feels more and more like those of us left are being strangled just a little tighter by loneliness.

Unless.

“Hey, are you fast?” I ask him quietly.

“Huh?”

“Are you fast? Can you run?”

Harlan glances down at me again inquisitively, and I nod toward the tree line. I know that there’s a road not too far off, and I haven’t been in town in ages.

A grin slowly starts to spread across his lips. He peeks around the corner again, reaches blindly for one of my hands, then stands up slowly when I place it in his. He’s trembling all of a sudden, and if he’s too much of a chicken to go, he can just say so, and I’ll make a run for it myself.

“She’s got her back to us,” he whispers, his fingers suddenly linking through mine. I look down at our interlocked hands and then back up at him. It makes me feel a little funny to have anyone hold my hand, much less like this.

“You sure you can make it? Your legsarereally short, after all,” he teases as he backs away from the corner and glances down at me.

“I’m faster thanyou,” I retort, giving him a poke in the middle of his chest with a finger.

“Guess we’re about to find out. One sec.”

Harlan looks up at the sky before he peeks around the corner again and then takes a deep breath. He begins a countdown on his other hand, and as I silently count along, I get myself ready to leave him in the dust.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Harlan takes off like a shot toward the tree line.

I’m easily able to keep up and may have even been able to pass him if he hadn’t been holding my hand.

And that’s when I let go.

No way in hell am I gonna let the boy who hates me most of all show me up or think he’s gonna win this race.

Pumping my arms and legs as hard as I can, I disappear into the trees with Harlan trailing close behind.

“I think we’re lost,”Harlan says after half an hour of fussing around through the woods.

“I could have sworn there was a road close by,” I state dejectedly.

“I could almost swear that you’re wrong,” he replies dryly.

I glare up at him, and he smirks.

“Relax, little wolf. We’ll find our way through this.”

Little wolf?

“I looked up what your last name meant,” he continues with a shrug. “I was bored one day and didn’t feel like rubbing another one out.”

“Rubbing what out?” I ask him curiously.

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