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“I’m also surprised you are human,” Lucia said.
“Oh, we aren’t dating. I just met him.”
“Then why do you smell like him?” Lucia asked.
Hallie’s eyes went wide. She didn’t know how to explain that one away because they had definitely just boned in his motel room before they drove here, and she had the video of it sitting in her phone. “Sooo you have very good senses of smell,” she said with a nervous laugh.
“No offense, but Gunner is rough. And you’re…” Jenna let the words die off.
“Fragile? Agree, but I have a Taser.”
Lucia snorted.
“Yeah, ask her how long it took her to use the damn Taser on me after she met me,” Gunner said across the fire.
Hallie pursed her lips against a smile.
“You tased Gunner?” Cadence asked, then laughed so loud it echoed through the clearing.
Jenna and Lucia were throwing out questions over each other, big grins on their faces. “How long did you know him?”
“Four minutes?” she asked him across the fire.
“Maybe three,” Gunner said, a smile tugging at his lips.
“In my defense, I was trying to keep him from killing someone. There were cameras around.”
“In my defense, she tased me directly after I got shot,” Gunner pointed out.
Hallie nearly spit out the beer she was drinking. With a gulp, and trying to contain her laugh, she said, “Okay, that sounds way worse than it was. The gunshot wasn’t even near a vital organ.”
“It broke my bone,” Gunner muttered, lifting the sleeve of his T-shirt.
Landon leaned in and looked at it. “And it healed badly. Did you even clean it?”
“I went grizzly afterward. I didn’t clean shit. I was trying to stop myself from going back to the gas station.”
“I got the cashier to delete the camera footage,” Hallie bragged. “I might have tased him, but I had his back.”
Lucia asked Kru, “What are you doing?”
Kru was messing around on his phone. “Ordering us all Tasers.”
The good-natured laughter that filled in the gaps of the conversations that followed settled something inside of Hallie. Seeing them all relax around Gunner was special. Seeing him relax felt even bigger.
She didn’t know all of his story, or the story of his people. Not all of it, and not by a long shot, but she did feel a shift here tonight. She liked the girls. They were easygoing, and all very different. Jenna was quiet, but funny with one-liners. Cadence was the most outgoing, and she and her mate…mate? That’s what they were called, right? She and Kru were very cute with how they talked to and orbited around each other. She might have been Gunner’s first love, but there was nothing like that there anymore. Hallie could feel it. Lucia was the quietest, but she sat right beside Hallie all night, making sure she was drawn into any conversations, making sure she was included. She seemed very sensitive to other people, and Hallie appreciated it. She could also roast the boys like no other. That part was hilarious.
All four of those men were dominant. She didn’t know their animals, other than Gunner’s bear, but she suspected they were all predator shifters. They were very funny, but she had no doubt they could turn scary quick.
Badasses. She liked them very much.
Her favorite part of the night though…her very favorite part…was the number of times she caught Gunner watching her. Eventually, the boys had sat back down at the firepit. Gunner had asked Lucia to scoot over a chair so he could sit by Hallie, and it made her feel special and seen and cared for. She liked that he sought closeness.
“It’s pretty cool,” Kru said, and then took a swig of his beer, eyes on Gunner.
“What is?” Cadence asked.
“Seeing Gunner not cussing us up and down.”
