Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Henri Blackrock was covering me in his scent, and I just stood there.
After maybe the longest minute or two of my life because I was trying so hard not to react, he looked down and nodded. “Good,” he grumbled.
Good?
His nostrils flared just a little. “You smell like mine now.”
Not choking right then might have been the hardest thing I’d ever done, because I knew what he meant, and at the same time, some part of me couldn’t help but take it the way it sounded.
“Spencer’s less likely to get aggravated if you smell like me. He’ll know if he messes with you, he messes with me.” He said it so nonchalantly, dismissing the moment like he did this kind of thing all the time. “Let’s go be nice, Cricket.”
Oh, sure. I was fine. Like nothing had happened.
I settled for a single nod and followed after him—pretending not to be in a state of shock—the side of the hill getting steeper with every step. I guess a part of me had expected to find a cave nestled in a rock formation, but what we came up to was a small but tall log cabin with solar panels on one side and a satellite dish on the other.
My mouth dropped open as wide as it had wanted to when Henri had started rubbing all over me. “What in the magical hell…?” I whispered.
The chuckle at my side got me. Henri was semi-smiling again. “He has a refrigerator.”
I couldn’t believe it. “He has TV?” I recognized the name of the company on the dish.
“Basic service. He doesn’t want to pay extra for more channels,” Henri explained. “It’s what comes standard with being a member of the community. We get a corporate deal.”
Before I could wonder about what kind of shows a sasquatch might want to watch in his cabin in the middle of nowhere, a big door opened and a booming voice called, “You’re on my land.”
The man beside me sighed. “Your land is in the northwest. This is my land, and you’re allowed to live on it. Any member of the community can venture out here whenever they want. You agreed in blood, and you aren’t old enough to start having memory issues unless you have a medical condition you need to see someone about.”
The level of confidence it took to talk back to an eight-foot-tall being….
The sasquatch stepped out of the house and into the clearing in front. Even with all the hair on his body, it was obvious he was irritated. “What do you want? I haven’t ‘wandered’ close again. I’ve kept my distance,” Spencer argued.
“Someone wants to speak to you.”
“The abomination?” the sasquatch huffed, those dark eyes landing on me.
I—oooh. Ooh. This was going to be harder than I thought. The urge to say something I’d regret once I stopped being mad lingered in my mouth, but the part of me that was trying to be nice reminded me to rise above.
But I still had to grit my teeth as I said, “That’s a really mean thing to call me when I came here to apologize, Spencer.” I was going to treat him like a person, even though he couldn’t do the same for me. Yet.
“You’re here to what?” the sasquatch barked like he hadn’t heard me correctly.
I looked at him. “I’m here to say I’m sorry for what I said before. You hurt my feelings, so then I retaliated, and it’s been bothering me since it happened.”
Those dark, beady eyes moved back and forth between Henri and me, like he wasn’t sure we weren’t pulling his leg or something. It made me feel more guilty. It also made me more resigned to saying and doing what I needed to.
I tried again. “You have a lot of beautiful colors in your hair. Look at mine. There isn’t a single highlight in it—”
“It is plain,” Spencer agreed, way too easily.
I blinked. “Sure, plain—”
“It isn’t even chestnut colored. That is a nice shade,” the sasquatch threw in.
I nodded slowly and bit the inside of my cheek.
The compliments kept coming though. “Dark auburn, I would say.” He shrugged. “Meh.”
“Meh?” I echoed, not sure I was hearing him correctly. Was this giant legend with dry hair making fun of me? I didn’t have split ends. It was healthy, dang it.
A hand landed on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze, and I made the mistake of looking at Henri. He had a smug expression on his face. He wasn’t even trying to be discreet about it either.
I was glad someone thought this was funny. “I appreciate you sharing your opinion,” I lied in a flat voice, dang well knowing he could tell I didn’t mean it.
“You’re welcome, demon.”
Demon?
All right, I was done.
“It is shiny. You do have that going for you,” Spencer added just as I was about to grab Henri’s wrist and pull him in the direction we’d come.