Page 388 of Hell Hath No Fury
HEAT
HANNAH MCBRIDE
CHAPTER ONE
“Don’t touch that!” I snapped, and then instantly winced when Larkin shot me a wide-eyed look. She froze in place where she’d been unpacking a box of throw pillows.
I’d just bitten off my best friend’s head overthrow pillows.
Way to go, Skye. You sound like an absolute bitch.
“I’m so sorry.” I clapped a hand over my mouth and shook my head as our other best friend and my de facto sister-in-law, Katy, stepped into the room.
“What the hell, Skye?” She wrinkled her nose at me as her girlfriend, Maren, followed her into the living room where Larkin and I had been unpacking boxes for the last few hours.
I rubbed my forehead. “I have no idea where that came from.” I lifted my hands innocently and stepped back, feeling embarrassed and annoyed at the same time. What the hell was going on with me?
After a crazy couple of years, Remy and I were finally moving into our new house. It was my freakingdreamhome, and one we’d been pushing off moving into as he stepped into the role of Alpha of the Blackwater pack over the last couple of years, transitioning for his father to lead the newly re-established North American Alpha Council for shifters.
Yeah, this week was kinda stressful because moving from the small cabin in the woods we’d lived in for the last two years as we’d worked with the packs and balanced that with college courses wasn’t easy at freaking all.
Case in point? Remy and his beta, Rhodes, were currently having a last minute meeting with two southern packs whowere bitching—again—over boundary lines. There was a river dividing them, but now they wanted to designate at which part of the naturally flowing body of water their packs’ lands started and ended.
It was stupid and frustrating, and I felt my mate’s annoyance through the bond we shared even as he played the diplomat.
Thank God one of us was level headed because it sure as hell wasn’t me.
“Skye?” Katy tapped her toe against the hardwood floor, and I felt my irritation spike again. Why the hell hadn’t she taken her shoes off when she stepped intomyhouse?
I was about to open my mouth and demand she kick off the offensive sneakers when her mother, Mallory, walked into the room. She took one look at all of us before asking, “What’s wrong?”
“Skye’s embracing her inner diva,” Katy replied with a giggle. She meant it as a joke, and Iknewthat. And yet…
“Or maybe you’re just a bitch,” I muttered, running a hand through my dark hair and glaring at her.
Yeah, that caused a full stop from everyone.
Katy’s jaw swung open. “I was teasing, Skye.”
“Are you okay?” Larkin pressed, moving closer to me.
I instantly stepped away, putting distance between us as my wolf rippled under my skin, pissed and… I didn’t know. Everything was a little hazy.
Dammit, maybe I was getting sick. Not that shifters got sick often, but it was always possible.
“Oh, dear,” Mallory murmured, setting down the box she’d carried in. “Skye, honey, can you look at me?”
It took some effort, but I met her gaze. I loved Mallory to pieces, I did. She was Remy and Katy’s mom, and had basically becomemysecond mom. But right now? I wasn’t in the mood for a lecture.
“How do you feel?” she asked softly, her tone gentle and soothing.
I rolled my shoulders in a shrug. “Tired? But we’ve been moving stuff for the last few hours, and I guess I need a snack or something.”
Maren offered a small smile. “Want me to grab you a protein bar?”
The idea of Maren, sweet, timid Maren, touching a damn thing inmyhouse made me want to go off.
Which made zero fucking sense.
