Page 190 of Fangs
It’s just physical.I tried to remind myself, but my fingers curled around his, anyway.
31
When I woke the next morning, Wolf was already out of bed and building up the fire. My head throbbed with pain as I sat up, a reminder of how drunk I’d gotten yesterday with Mist. Most of Wolf’s crew was still asleep, but I glanced at Lee to see he was awake and looking up at me. My face heated as we locked eyes, the memory of what we’d done last night sizzling in my mind—intensified by the fact I’d broken down in tearsagain.The urge to drop my eyes, shrink back, and push him away felt like it was choking me, but I forced myself to tilt my chin up and hold his gaze. A corner of his mouth lifted, and his eyes shone with approval.
I climbed out of my mattress, stepping carefully over sleeping bodies, squinting through my headache. I shoved my feet in my boots and headed outside to use the outhouse, but Wolf followed me outside.
“How you feelin’?” he asked.
“Headache,” I muttered, rubbing my arms covered in goosebumps. I hadn’t grabbed my coat as I’d planned to run to the outhouse and back, and the morning air was heavy with a chill that coated the ground in frost.
“Here,” Wolf shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to me with an exasperated glare.
“I’m just—” I tried to protest.
“Just take it, Em,” he said, but a smile lurked in the corners of his mouth.
I took it, eyeing him as I shrugged it on. Things felt… different this morning, and I wasn’t sure why. I tried to remember everything I’d said yesterday, and while some of it made me cringe, nothing stood out as particularly meaningful. When I left the outhouse and returned to the clinic, he was still standing on the porch, watching and waiting.
“I don’t think someone’s gonna attack me in the outhouse,” I said, unsure if I was annoyed or amused.
He frowned. “That’s where I’d hide if I were tryin’ to get someone.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Please tell me you wouldn’t be in the hole.”
He huffed a laugh, “I’ve hid in worse places.”
“Gross.”
“Come inside. We’ll get you some medicine for your head.”
“It doesn’t work.”
He stopped and turned back to me, his brow furrowed. “What doesn’t work?”
“Pain relievers.” I grimaced. “They don’t do anything to me. The only thing that works are narcs, but I can’t take those, either.”
“Why?” he asked.
I hoped I concealed the surge of panic as I fumbled slightly. “They make me sick,” I lied, internally wincing. I hadn’t thought before bringing up the narcs. Hopefully, my old excuse would hold.
“Well, that sucks,” Wolf said, surprising me.
“Yeah, it does,” I agreed, relieved.
I followed him inside, my mind drifting back to Menace. What had he said? I’d shut him out? Is that why he could only reach me if I were drugged? Or if I was reaching for Trey?
You have no idea what I’ve done for you.
My stomach did a nauseating flip. What had he done? And how did I shut him out? Was I still doing it? I hated not knowing. I hated how that conversation had thrown me off kilter.
Who the fuck was he? What did he want?
“Ember!”
I jumped and looked up at my brother, who was standing by Sable, looking at me with raised eyebrows.
“What?”
