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)
Only then did Duncan’s nose move to the spot where Henri had rubbed his cheek. He sniffed it. He didn’t get a mohawk when he did it, which I thought was a good thing.
Maybe Henri wasn’t going to bend the rules for us, but he wasn’t going to work against us either, it seemed. I needed to take that for the win it was. And maybe he could help me with getting to know some of the men here. Because I was going to need to work on that too: finding a mate.
Unless he was an option? I’d ponder that later. We had to get through the next three months first.
For the time being, we needed to focus on settling in.
Getting people to like us.
Not scare anyone along the way.
And hopefully get Henri firmly on our side at some point.
But for Duncan, I would do anything, and now I had to prove it.
Chapter
Seven
“You both look like… how do I say this? S-h-i-t. You both look like s-h-i-t,” I pretty much giggled in front of Sienna and Matti the next morning.
There were few things better than being right.
And even fewer than when you could be smug about it.
Duncan had already been awake for close to an hour by the time we’d left our room to find out why his second and third favorite people weren’t texting us back. By that point, I’d been awake for almost two hours. I’d woken up feeling off, groggy and flustered, like there was something I should’ve remembered that had happened in the middle of the night, but I had no idea why.
I hadn’t dreamt. I went years between dreams. So long, I forgot their details but not the way they’d all made me feel, or what the voice that talked to me in them each time sounded like. It made no sense, and the problem was that no one I’d ever spoken to about it had ever really believed me when I said I didn’t dream to begin with. They all thought I just couldn’t remember them.
That wasn’t the case.
Whatever had happened overnight, I’d woken up earlier than normal, unable to shake off the imaginary spiderwebs that left me feeling off. Once I gave up trying to go back to sleep, I tried making a plan for all the small things I needed to figure out sooner rather than later while Duncan chainsawed it up beside me. Then I’d showered again, even though I’d done it last night after we’d come back inside. I used the unscented soap I always washed with, so used to limiting my scents around sensitive noses for most of my life.
Then we’d gone to pee, and finally went looking for these two, only to find them on their death bed.
Sienna groaned from her spot beneath the covers, next to Matti who had his arm thrown over his eyes as he made the same sound. “We both had loose stomachs. You didn’t?” she moaned.
“No, but I told you not to buy those hot dogs at the gas station, didn’t I? And didn’t you tell me, ‘We never get sick, Nina. I’ve got an iron stomach,’” I reminded her with a tone that got me two middle fingers. I laughed and leaned against the doorframe. “You guys are gas station noobs. You never eat the hot dogs or get the nachos,” I reminded them of the exact words I’d used at the time.
“Shut up, Nina,” Matti muttered, lifting his arm just enough to give me a peek of a dull eye. “I feel like my ass gave birth to two ten-pound babies.”
I snickered, and even Sienna snorted before moaning. “Don’t,” she got out in between her own pained sound effects.
“Yeah, Matti, don’t make her laugh. She doesn’t need to shart in someone else’s bed. I’m trying to make a good impression here.”
He groaned at the same time as she grabbed a throw pillow from the floor and tried to chuck it at me. It hit the floor between the bed and bedroom door. They really were sick to be that weak.
“Want me to bring you anything?” I asked them, deciding to be nice.
Their responses came in the form of more groans, which I took as a “no.” From the glasses of water next to their nightstands, I knew they weren’t going to get dehydrated. I should probably bring them some salt from my camper to replenish their electrolytes.
I’m turning into a mom, I realized right then.
I peeked down at the calm puppy sitting next to my right foot and smiled. His tail was wagging, the flame on it small and dark blue. He’d rolled over once in the middle of the night, he’d slept so good.
“All right, we’re going to figure out breakfast. Henri said to be down there at….”
They weren’t listening. Or maybe they couldn’t hear me over their groans.