Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 45

"You're pacing."

"Yeah. What of it?"

"Why don't you turn wolf and go for a run? You're making us dizzy walking circles like that."

Ryker grumbled deep in his throat and stood still, shooting glares at Brett and Charlie. The three of them were out on the porch at the Monroes' house, a plate of demolished pizza slices, BBQ ribs, and various leftovers sitting on the table from lunch. It was the weekend, and he would've much rather be hiking with Jo or showing her around one of the nearby towns, but no. He was stuck here, waiting for his dad to get home from talking to some of the pack elders before they left to meet with Duncan.

Charlie held up his hands. "I'm not dizzy. But Brett has a point."

Ignoring them, Ryker walked to the edge of the porch and grabbed the railing. As nice as it sounded, he couldn't go for a run right now. He couldn't risk his dad coming back, not finding him, and then going off on his own.

Something soft bounced off the back of his head. Ryker turned around and saw a chewed-on pizza crust laying on the wooden planks of the porch. Slowly, he looked up.

Brett was on his phone, while Charlie was leaned back in his chair, looking up at the sky suspiciously. But honestly, it could be either of them. While Brett was the Mature Older Brother, he had a jokester streak. But Charlie could also be trying to distract him through whatever means necessary.

Ryker picked up the pizza crust and broke it in two. Charlie glanced over at him, which earned him one piece of pizza crust right to the forehead. Or it would've hit him in the forehead if Charlie hadn't batted it out of the air.

"Hey, not cool," Charlie said, "That was really fast."

Ryker launched the second half of the pizza crust at Brett. Out of all of them, Brett had some of the fastest reflexes in the pack. While he wasn't the strongest in his wolf form, he was extremely fast. His hand shot up and snatched the pizza crust out of the air without even looking up from his phone.

"Grow up, you two."

"Don't forget to include yourself in that," Charlie muttered, tilting his chair back on its back legs.

Ryker rolled his eyes at his brother--likely he was the one who started it. But he was distracted by his phone buzzing against his leg. Hoping it was Jo, he quickly pulled it out and was rewarded with a picture of her looking way too adorable as she lounged on a chair on her front porch, apparently reading a book and drinking coffee--it'd been sent in response to a text he'd sent a few minutes ago asking what she was up to.

Ryker sat down on the edge of one of the empty deck chairs and quickly replied with a GIF of a cartoon wolf grinning. She responded just as quickly with a GIF of some actor or another rolling their eyes.

"Someone's got it bad."

Ryker glanced up at Charlie, then over at Brett, who was looking amused. Ryker raised an eyebrow.

"You had the stupidest grin on your face, dude."

Brett laughed. "I'm enjoying seeing someone else get teased for once." As the first out of their group to find a mate, he'd probably enjoyed more than his fair share of teasing over how whipped he'd been. But hey, that just came with oldest child territory. Everyone knew that.

"Whatever." Ryker shrugged. He looked at Charlie. "I know you're just jealous, it's okay." Charlie had dated on-and-off through the years to occupy his time, but hadn't found his mate yet. He didn't seem to care, but Ryker sometimes wondered if he did more than he let on.