Page 68 of Dead Wolf Rising (Bad Moon Academy 3)

“Hey, what are you doing here?”I ask as I stretch on my bed. My leg brushes against Everett’s side, and he grabs it and holds it hostage.

“I thought you might want to go for a run.”

Hell no. Not before sna—

“I brought some snacks for Joan,” he says with a knowing smile. He lets go of my ankle and holds up a plate.

Said wolf stops talking mid-sentence and chuffs. She can pretend to be upset all she wants. We both know she’s elated he brought her a gift. I sit up and scarf down the sandwich and chips, gulp down the water he brought, and let out a happy sigh.

“You know for being the brawn of the group, you’re pretty smart.”

He scoffs. “Please. I’m smarter than Brayden and Draco.”

“Not Carter or Adler?”

“Carter? Of course not. Adler? It’s yet to be determined if he’s smarter than me.”

“You’re ridiculously competitive,” I say with affection. I set the plate on the side table and reach my arms over my head, groaning. “Man, I was so tired.”

“Guess saving lives does that to a person,” he muses.

“And taking them.”

His smile falls and his brown eyes cloud with concern.

Moons, talk about being awkward.

Debbie Downer, more like it.

Shut up.

Joan blows a raspberry at me in my head.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. You mentioned a run? Let’s go.” Whatever leftover magic lingers in my body makes my stomach feel funny, but I shake it off. I took a lot of power to bring Bea back, I probably need to give it some time and the sensation will pass.

He catches my hand as I start to stand. “I don’t mind talking about it, if you need to.”

“No. I’m okay. It was a bad joke.” I hold his gaze until he relents.

“We haven’t raced in a while. I was thinking about going to the waterfall.”

I smirk. “Last one there has to swim naked.” Then I bolt out of the room, ripping the door open and sprinting down the hall and stairs.

He curses behind me, which only makes me laugh, and then he races after me. Shifting as soon as we get outside, my clothes get shredded in the process, totally defeating the purpose of the race, but I don’t mind a little skinny dipping with Everett.

A small voice in my head tells me I can’t sex my way out of grieving, but that voice is dumb. There’s nothing a little TLC can’t fix, and I have no doubt Everett’s down.

We are only a few seconds ahead of him, but it’s all we need to make him work for it. We race through the trees, dodging bushes, ducking under branches, and making sure he never gets the chance to pull to the front. That is until the very last second. We skid to a stop, and he yips in surprise, catapulting over us to avoid colliding and landing in the water with a big splash.

Shifting, I fall on my bare ass on the dirt and giggle. He comes up glaring, having shifted underwater. His clothes are nowhere in sight, and I can’t complain becausedamn. Water cascades down his body, touching every divot on his abdomen and dripping from his legs.

“You think that’s funny?” His voice is husky and filled with filthy promises of retribution. If male sirens were a thing, he’d totally be one.

“Kind of, yeah.” I lean back on my elbows, ignoring the dirt and grass, and watch every muscled inch of him prowl toward me. His quads flex. His cock hardens, growing almost unfathomably long and thick, and his abs flex with each step.

“I love when you look at me like that.” He squats in front of me, eyes tracing over every curve of my body. “You know what else I love?”

“What?” I ask, poking his knee with my toe.

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