Fenris chuckled beside me, and under his humor, I could feel a bittersweet longing.
“Jenna told me you grow up chasing each other. How many times were you caught as a pup?”
“A few. Like young Tarlen, I was fast and cocky, and the combination sent me tumbling on occasion.”
The cubs paused their tussle as one poked its head up to look at Fenris.
“Speed isn’t everything, Tarlen. Use your head too.”
The pup yipped at us then took off running again, leaving his confused companions scrambling to catch up. It was cute to watch.
“How old is Tarlen?” I asked as we continued on.
“Almost five, I think.”
“And they just run around without supervision?”
Fenris chuckled again.
“They’re supervised. Whether you see them or not, there’s always someone around keeping an eye on things.”
I took the reminder for what it was and kept silent as we wove our way toward the center of the clustered buildings. The smaller, older homes didn’t look much different than Fenris’s cabin in the woods, but as Jenna’s home had proven, exterior appearances could be deceiving.
He stopped in front of one and opened the thick, wooden door. Warmth enveloped me as I entered and looked around the living room. Through a widened opening, I could see a kitchen. The home was more spacious than it appeared from the outside, but just as rustic, with minimal furnishing and a large potbelly stove.
Fenris closed the door behind us.
“Dad?” he called.
When there was no answer, Fenris wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“Looks like we have the place to ourselves.” He led me down a narrow hallway to the bedroom just behind the kitchen.
Unlike the rest of the house, this room was full of things. Shelves lined the walls above the bed and desk and any other open space. Rocks filled one of them, but games, books, and random objects filled the others.
While I took everything in, Fenris collapsed on his bed.
“I’m feeling faint. There’s a girl in my room, and she’s not trying to get under the covers with me. Now I know why the banshees were singing. It really is the end of the world.”
I rolled my eyes at his antics and removed my jacket. He caught it easily when I tossed it on his bed. While he laid it neatly over the back of his desk chair, I moved closer to examine his shelves.
“Poetry?” I asked, eyeing some of the book titles.
“I went through a phase.”
“Horror? Mystery? Romance? Is there anything you don’t read?”
“Newspapers. Human stupidity is typically too depressing for me.”
“My dad’s human.”
“Has he been on the news?”
“I’m not sure I like this version of you. You’re not taking anything seriously today.”
“Are you implying that, at some point, I took something seriously? If so, take that back. It’s insulting. Come here and give me an apology hug.”
He lay back on his bed and opened his arms wide.
“I’m not getting on that bed with you. Since the rock collection was real, show me your prisoner impersonation.”
He cocked his head, and his grin slowly widened.
“I knew you’d come around eventually. Here, let me position you.” He hopped off the bed and turned the desk chair around. I sat where he indicated. He grinned at me like I’d done the funniest thing he’d ever seen.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked as my suspicion climbed.
“Sure.”
“Good.” He plucked a single boot off a nearby shelf. The thing looked old, the tongue hanging open and the lacings missing.
He held it out to me but just out of reach.
“Stretch a little. Grab at the ankle.”
I snatched the boot out of his hand.
“I don’t need a pain in my backside.”
He nearly lost it. Red-faced and looking like he was barely holding in the laugh of a lifetime, he reached for my hand.
“Here. Feel it.” He placed my hand on the side of the leather boot. “What do you think? Soft and smooth, right?”
I humored him with a nod. His weirdness was escalating.
“Good. Keep your hands just like that. Now, let me get into position so I can work some magic.”
He picked up the deck of cards from his desk.
“Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t go in the first time.”
The door to Fenris’s bedroom flew open, scaring the salt out of my cracker. The boot flew through the air as I jumped and put a hand over my heart. Fenris howled with laughter, and Raiden, his father, caught the boot with a scowl.
My gaze shifted between Fenris and his father.
“What’s going on?” I panted. If not for Fenris’s side-splitting laughter, I would have thought there really was a world-ending event happening.
“Hello, Eliana. I’m sorry for startling you. Everything is fine. Fenris, stop wheezing like old Fitzer. You’re not as funny as you think.”
“Funny?” I asked.
Fenris leaned down to playfully lick my nose and winked at me before facing his father.
“Go ahead, Dad. Tell Eliana why you burst in here.”
Raiden met my gaze.
“When Adira proposed allowing Fenris to spend time with you, she assured me that you were nowhere near ready to participate in sexual acts. Does she know you’re holding hands? Kissing?”
The flush that ignited at his first sentence bled away with his last question. I clasped my hands in my lap and tried not to panic.
“Kissing? We’re not kissing.”
“In my world, that lick on the nose Fenris just gave you is a kiss.”
Panic officially bloomed.
“And you used to kiss me like that when I was a pup, Dad. You’re grasping at straws where there are none, given what you heard. Next time, don’t be so nosy.”
“This is the first time you…” Raiden’s gaze darted to me then back to Fenris. “Next time?”
“Don’t start acting like Adira. Not everything needs to be a crisis that needs addressing. As you’ve now seen for yourself, nothing inappropriate is happening here, just like it hasn’t been happening since I hit puberty.”
Fenris nodded toward his door. Raiden’s gaze volleyed between me and Fenris. Then, he left the way he entered. Suddenly.
My mind was still trying to sort through everything that had happened when Fenris lifted a finger to his lips. He tilted his head as if listening to something. It was the same look he’d had just before he’d jumped off the bed to show me his boot trick.
He relaxed and sat on his bed with his cards.
“Okay. We have the house to ourselves again. Now, where were we?”
Angry and hurt, I stood.
“You heard your dad come into the house and purposely worded things so it would sound like we were about to have sex. On top of that, you kissed me in front of him and in front of Jenna and the others this morning without telling me that’s what that was. You purposely hurt Jenna. I agreed to be your girlfriend, Fenris. But I am not a means for you to hurt the people in your life.”
With each word I’d spoken, he’d grown more and more serious. Hurt and worry emanated from him as he straightened from the bed.
“Those kisses weren’t to hurt them. They were for you because you make me happy. Seeing you makes me happy. But I am guilty of purposely misleading my dad into believing we were about to have sex and admit it was a small, harmless bit of revenge for how I’ve been manipulated for so many years. I’m sorry, Eliana. I didn’t mean to hurt you by doing it.”