Chapter 24
Fortunately or unfortunately for me, my wolf has a lot of ideas about how I can
take advantage of a night in the woods with Luca. And every single one of them
is incredibly impractical and ridiculous.
Just let down our hair and then he will know and then he will grab us and press
up against a tree and kiss us and kiss us —
I grit my teeth as I make the final cut, finally freeing the long, single piece of birch
bark that I’ve been peeling off the tree for hours. Seriously, it’s slow, painstaking
work.
“What are you even thinking about?” Luca asks from behind me, and I gasp and
jump, dropping the piece of bark to the forest floor.
“Luca!” I growl, glaring at him and bending over to scoop the bark back into my
hands. “You scared me! What are you talking about?”
“I saw you.” he says, leaning back against another tree and grinning at me. “You
were all growly, muttering things to your wolf, shivers running down your spine.
What is going on with you?”
Youuuuu! My wolf supplies internally, howling the answer. We were thinking
about you!
“Why are you being so creepy?” I ask instead of answering, working very hard to
hide my terrible. blush and failing. “Spying on me like that?”
“Well, I was just coming to get you,” he says, standing up when I come near. “I
didn’t realize you were going to put on a show.”
“It wasn’t for you,” I say, my voice low as I step close enough to give him a little
shove with my fingertips against his chest.
Yes it was! My wolf counters, her toes tapping eagerly, but I ignore her.
“Doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it,” Luca murmurs, leaning close and smirking down
at me. I freeze for a second, turning my head and staring up at him.
Because I mean I don’t have a lot of experience with guys —
But I would swear to god that he’s…he’s flirting with me…
Luca stares down at me, holding my gaze, his smile growing incrementally as he
blinks his long lashes slowly over his pretty brown eyes in a way that makes my
breath catch. But I clear my throat, blushing again as I force myself to turn away,
starting to stalk back to where the Lieutenant is waiting.
“Did we get any fish?” I ask over my shoulder, not taking the risk of looking at
him. Because, honestly, if he looks at me like that again…
Sun, TU Mar
Chapter 24
…I’m at severe risk of throwing myself into his arms.
Do it, my
wolf hisses, and this time I mentally smack her on the nose, because there is too
much at risk for her meddling right now. She gives a little yelp and retreats, just a
little.
“We got one!” Luca says, his voice cheerful. “Just one little guy, but it counts,
right? Food is food.”
“I think so,” I say, smiling as I come into the clearing and seeing my other three
teammates sitting around the fire, the tiny fish guted and sizzling on one of the
hot stones nearest to the flames. “Nice job, guys!” I say, grinning around at them
cheerfully.
“Not nice for all of us,” Perry murmurs, holding up a bloody finger.
“Oh.” I say, gathering two round sticks about the same size and coming to sit next
to him. “What happened?”
Perry explains about a slight mishap while attempting to gut the fish with one of
the hooks — I took the machete, after all — and I nod to him, saying I’ll patch him
up in a minute.
“Don’t bother,” Alan mutters, flipping open the first-aid kit. “I know how to do this.”
I half watch, grimacing as he starts to put a bandage onto Perry’s finger before
cleaning it, but luckily Luca stops him so I don’t have to, stepping in making sure
that the finger is properly cleaned before being covered. In the meantime, I split
the sticks about halfway down their centers and fold the long strip of birch bark in
half, and then at the edges, wedging the ends inside the split sticks to make a
sealed little pocket. It looks for all things like a pillowcase made of bark — sealed
on three sides with one open end.
When it’s ready, I take it down to the stream and fill it with water before bringing it
back.
“What the hell are you going to do with that?” Luca asks, genuinely interested.
“Fill it with rocks,” I murmur.
“What?” Graham asks, baffled. But I don’t answer, asking Luca to hold the pocket
steady and using another pair of sticks to lift the round rocks that have been
heating in the embers, dropping them one by one into the pocket full of water.
The boys start to realize what’s happening almost instantly. “There’s no way
that’s actually going to work,” Perry murmurs, leaning forward with interest.
“It will,” I reply, glancing up at the sky, which is starting to grow dark. All of this
took a lot longer than I thought.
I keep rotating the stones, removing cooled ones and replacing them with
burning hot rocks, until the water in the pocket first steams, then simmers, and
finally comes to a rolling boil.
“Amazing.” Luca murmurs, lifting his eyes to mine with a very genuine smile on
his face. “That was amazing, Shrimp.”
Chapter 24
“Is it even drinkable?” Alan asks, leaning forward to peer at it. “It’s all…dirty.”
“It’s just carbon,” I say, giving a little shrug as I study the slightly—cloudy water.
“Like what they use in water filters. It’s not the prettiest water, but it won’t kill you.”
“And I suggest you pack it up,” the Lieutenant says, pushing off the side of the
tree and tossing an empty canteen to us. “It’s all you’ve got for the hike home.
Are you sticking with your plan to hike through the night? Or…”
The five of us look around at each other and Alan nods, scowling at me.
“Yup!” Luca says, answering cheerfully for all of us and smiling at the Lieutenant.
“As much as we’d love to sit around swapping fireside stories… think it’s best for
us to head home.”
“Great,” he says, dry, pulling a map and a compass out of his pack and tossing it
our way. your fire before you go. Try not to die.”
“Bank
And then he turns without another word and heads for the van, getting in and
driving off before the rest of us can say a word.
“Wow,” Perry says, his eyebrows high. “Abrupt.”
“Whatever,” Alan growls, standing up.
“Let’s go.”
“Why are you so mad,” Luca says, passing the canteen to me and getting to his
feet. I slowly fill the canteen, watching them. “We passed — now all we have to do
is get home.”
“Because your flashy little shrimp did all the hard stuff and took all the credit,”
Alan growls, leaning into Luca’s face. “The rest of us barely had a chance —”
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« ” :
Oh whatever,” Luca snaps, leaning
down and grabbing the map and the
“ :
compass. “You want your fair share?
] 5 ”
Lead us home.” He smacks both
. . 3 ’ 1
objects against Alan’s chest, shoving
him a little as I screw the cap on the
canteen. The content is on
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“No one even gets individual credit for that,” Alan retorts.
“Trust me,” Luca says as I stand. “We’ll all make damn sure the Captain knows
who got us home. All right?”
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Alan mutters something, turning
away as I head to the stream to fill
the little birch pocket with water to
. “
douse the fire. “Does he even know
”
how to use a compass?” I ask,
bending down to dip my little
container into the stream. The
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“Better than me,” Luca says, shrugging as I stand and turn to him. I laugh a little
as we head back to the fire and I pour the water over it, kicking dirt on top as
well.
“Seriously, Luca,” I sigh, looking up at him when it’s all finished. “You should learn
some of this stuff it’s survival basics
“Well,” he says, grinning down at me, standing closer than he really needs to.
“Maybe you can teach
Sun, Mar
Chapter 24
me.”
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My lips turn up at him a little as I
smile, forgetting to reply as I stare up
into his gorgeous face. God,
5 yl 2
seriously, it’s so unfair that a boy has
lips as lush as that with a perfect
Cr RE 5
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the top-
“Are you guys coming!?” Alan barks back at us, making us jump.
“Yup!” Luca says, his voice oddly tight, and he doesn’t look at me again as we
start down the road, letting the other three take the lead.