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, ring 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 justing to get you,” he says, standing up when Ie 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 longshes
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
…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 Ie 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 mes. “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 anding to sit next to him. “What
happened?”
Perry exins 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,” n 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, ncing 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 recing them with burning hot rocks, until the
water in the pocket first steams, then simmers, and finallyes to a rolling boil.
“Amazing.” Luca murmurs, lifting his eyes to mine with a very genuine smile on his face. “That was
amazing, Shrimp.”
“Is it even drinkable?” n 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 n to hike
through the night? Or…”
The five of us look around at each other and n 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…I think it’s best for us to head home.”
“Great,” he says, dry, pulling a map and apass 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,” n 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 shy little shrimp did all the hard stuff and took all the credit,” n growls, leaning into
Luca’s face. “The rest of us barely had a chance –”
“Oh whatever,” Luca snaps, leaning down and grabbing the map and thepass. “You want your fair
share? Lead us home.” He smacks both objects against n’s chest, shoving him a little as I screw the
cap on the canteen.
“No one even gets individual credit for that,” n retorts.
“Trust me,” Luca says as I stand. “We’ll all make damn sure the Captain knows who got us home. All
right?”
n 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 apass?” I ask, bending down to dip my little
container into the stream.Content bel0ngs to N?vel(D)r/a/ma.Org.
“Better than me,” Luca says, shrugging as I stand and turn to him. Iugh 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
me.”
My lips turn up at him a little as I smile, forgetting to reply as I stare up into his gorgeous face. God,
seriously, it’s so unfair that a boy has lips as lush as that with a perfect cupid’s bow cresting
the top-
“Are you guysing!?” n 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.