Page 323 of His Hungry Wolf
“I’m dying in here!”
“You can take it off whenever you want, ya know? I think you’ve done your duty,” Cage told him.
“No, I can do it. I just need some water.”
“Quin, why didn’t you tell me that. Okay, I’m gonna get this one some water. What do you think? Pop the cork and pour it in?” Cage said with a smirk.
“It’s not funny!” Quin exclaimed.
We all silently laughed. We had made eye holes but we had covered it with a fabric that made it hard to see through. I didn’t think he would catch us.
“You know I can see you laughing, right? It’s not funny!”
“That’s right everyone,” Cage said pretending he wasn’t laughing too. “It’s not funny. Quin is doing something very nice for everyone. We should all thank him for it.”
“Quin, you’re doing a great job,” Miss Roman said.
“Bang-up job,” Nero told him.
“You are wearing that moonshine jug!” I said enthusiastically.
“Whatever. Cage, lead me away from here.”
“You got it gorgeous,” Cage said looking back at us with a smile. “Nero, let the wolves know that we’re meeting beyond those trees in thirty minutes.”
Nero hesitated before he replied.
“Sure.”
Remembering what Dr. Tom had said about Cage’s alpha power, I wondered if Nero had agreed willingly or if he didn’t have a choice. In either case, it was interesting following Nero around as he did it. I would never have guessed which of the attendees were the wolf shifters.
Typically they were the younger, fitter people, but not entirely. The guy Nero said he worked for was mostly belly. And there were a number of them with more grey than dark hair.
“I guess you’re gonna join them?” I asked as people headed for the trees.
“I guess,” he said looking tired.
“It’ll be good. You should have fun. That’s what this is supposed to be, right?”
“I don’t know what this is supposed to be. I think Cage wants this to be a bonding experience or something.”
“Then you should bond. It’ll be good for you.”
Nero gave me a look that made me second guess my suggestion.
“At least it’s gonna give your mother and me a chance to talk,” I said reminding him that that was the plan.
“I don’t think it’ll be more than an hour,” he said resigning to going.
“We’ll be here,” I told him wondering if he was going to kiss me goodbye.
He stared into my eyes seeming to consider it, but left without doing it. Maybe we weren’t there yet. I’m sure that was my fault. But my heart ached that he hadn’t even tried.
Once he was far enough that I knew he wasn’t going to look back at me, I turned to his mother.
“So, what should we do?”
For the next hour we walked around spending time at each of the booths. For her it seemed like a reintroduction to old friends. Everyone mentioned how good she looked and she credited having Cage back.