Dire

“No. That’s okay.” I definitely didn’t need more alcohol in my system.

“Are you ready to go back to bed then?” Hunter set aside his empty glass on the coffee table. Wolves with a coffee table. For some reason that seemed funny. I started to laugh. I mean really laugh. I nearly fell off the couch. After all the craziness, I’d lost it completely.

“Are you okay?” Hunter placed his hands on my arm. “Are you ill?”

“No.” I tried to stop laughing long enough to talk. “I’m just. I’m just so. I don’t know.”

“You need sleep.” His hand moved around me as if to pick me up.

“She’s not going anywhere with you. You think she’s just going to let you carry her off?” Gage wasn’t laughing.

“What choice does she have?” Hunter’s hands tightened around me. “Do either of you have any choices?”

His words sunk in. We had no choices. No control. Still, I had to try. “Please, can I sleep alone?”

“No.” He shook his head. “But I promise to respect your decisions on anything else.”

Gage laughed dryly again. “Yes, the gentleman werewolf.”

Chet punched him.

“Ugh,” Gage grunted.

Chet stood over him. “We said not to call us that.”

I shrugged Hunter’s hands off me and walked over to where Gage sat on the floor. At least he’d sat up. “Considering what we have been through, I think you can cut him a break.”

Hunter put a hand on my shoulder. “Come to bed, Mary Anne. Chet and Falcon will take care of him.”

“Take care of him? You mean hurt him? No. I’m not just going to walk upstairs with you.” I’d done that before, and it hadn’t gotten me far.

“What do you suggest? I give him the guestroom?” Hunter stood, pulling me to standing with him.

“Why not?”

“I can’t trust him.”

“In other words you don’t want him near me.”

Before Hunter could answer, Marni jumped in. “I can watch him. I don’t mind.”

Her quick offer bothered me. She claimed to be with Chet, but was she into Gage? I didn’t like the idea of her spending the night in the same room with him.

Chet growled. “I will too.” Evidently he didn’t like the thought either.

“It’s not much of a guestroom if he’s sharing it with two people…I mean Were’s or wolves.” Then a thought occurred to me. “Are you a wolf, Marni?”

She grinned. “Yes. Did you doubt it?”

“I didn’t know. You’re the only girl here.”

“Not the only one anymore.” She grinned even bigger. “Finally a break from all the testosterone.”

“We’re not staying.” Gage and I said at the same time.

Hunter returned to the earlier line of conversation, ignoring our declaration. “He’s not staying in the guestroom; he stays with Chet.”

“Then I’m not sleeping with you.” I crossed my arms. Maybe pretending I had power would actually give me some. I knew it wasn’t likely, but Hunter kept saying he wanted to give me what I wanted.

“Yes, you are.”

“No.”

“I’ve already explained to you that he’s expendable.” Hunter leaned in close. “Completely expendable if he gets in my way.”

I shivered. “Then let him go. He won’t tell.” I didn’t want Gage to leave, but he’d be safe and then Hunter wouldn’t hold Gage over my head. Gage would tell. I had to believe he would. His feelings for me aside, he wouldn’t leave me to rot in this crazy house.

Hunter laughed. “Like that’s happening. We are going back to bed.” Despite my protests, he picked me up again and slung me over his shoulders. Seriously?

“Put her the fuck down!” Gage’s cry rallied me to punch and kick Hunter’s back with all my might.

“I’d tell your friend to follow orders. Sometimes my men don’t know their own strength.” Hunter’s voice had an edge to it that wasn’t there a moment before. He was losing his patience. Mine had been lost hours before.

“Stop this! Stop this! I still don’t know what the hell is going on, but I don’t like it.”

“What don’t you get?” Hunter asked without putting me down.

“Please, put me down.” I couldn’t concentrate with the blood rushing to my head. I was already dizzy, and he was making it much worse.

Surprisingly he listened.

Back on my feet, I tried to stall him. Anything to put off leaving Gage. “So we’re alive? This isn’t a dream?”

“It’s real, but if it was a dream I’d be saying the same thing, wouldn’t I?” Was Hunter trying to mess with me?”

“Yes…”

“Next question.”

“And you are really wolves?” I glanced around Hunter at Gage. I wanted him. I needed him.

Chet sighed. “I am not shifting again to prove it.”

“Please don’t.” Gage was probably hoping to avoid seeing him naked again.

“And we are not allowed to leave?”

“I thought you were a smart girl.” Falcon sneered. I’d noticed him checking me out earlier. I preferred the sneer to the ogling.

“I am… sort of, but that has nothing to do with believing the impossible.” It was the rational part of me that struggled to accept it. There had to be another explanation.

I yawned. Exhaustion and alcohol had caught up with me. I was ready to fall over.

Hunter steadied me before I could actually fall. “We are not going to settle anything tonight and you need rest. You sleep in my bed. Gage can take the guestroom. Everyone else will sleep in shifts.”

“Where will you sleep?” I asked with hesitation. I couldn’t handle getting into bed with him again. Even if I believed he’d stay on his side, I still wasn’t keen on lying down underneath the same sheets with a guy who wasn’t human. Honestly, human or not, I didn’t want to lie down with anyone but Gage.

He watched me like he was trying to figure out what I was thinking. There was no way he could read minds. If he had been able to he would have predicted our attempted escape. He must have just been really perceptive and good at reading facial expressions. “I will sleep on the floor like I offered last night. Based on what you did earlier it’s safer for all of us that way.”

I nodded. What other choice did I have? As he’d emphasized earlier, there was nothing we could do. We were completely at his mercy, and that terrified me. But that didn’t mean I was giving up. “Do you promise Gage will be safe?” I knew his word might not mean anything, but I had to try.