Chapter 24

Chapter 24

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, glaring 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 just coming to get you,” he says, standing up when I come 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 long lashes

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…

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Chapter 24

…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 I come 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 flames. “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 and coming to sit next to him. “What

happened?”

Perry explains 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,” Alan 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, glancing 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 replacing them with burning hot rocks, until the

water in the pocket first steams, then simmers, and finally comes to a rolling boil.

“Amazing.” Luca murmurs, lifting his eyes to mine with a very genuine smile on his face. “That was

amazing, Shrimp.”

Chapter 24

“Is it even drinkable?” Alan 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 plan to hike

through the night? Or…”

The five of us look around at each other and Alan 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 a compass 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,” Alan 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 flashy little shrimp did all the hard stuff and took all the credit,” Alan 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 the compass. “You want your fair

share? Lead us home.” He smacks both objects against Alan’s chest, shoving him a little as I screw the

cap on the canteen.

“No one even gets individual credit for that,” Alan retorts.

“Trust me,” Luca says as I stand. “We’ll all make damn sure the Captain knows who got us home. All

right?”

Alan 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 a compass?” I ask, bending down to dip my little

container into the stream.

“Better than me,” Luca says, shrugging as I stand and turn to him. I laugh 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

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Chapter 24

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 guys coming!?” Alan 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.