Feral Born (Viciously Yours #1)

Chapter Twenty: Going Back To Town

Pulling my laces tight, I stood up from the couch and called out to Ryan, "Let's go, the bus is waiting."

Crashing sounds came from behind the door moments before Ryan came strolling out of the room. It had been two weeks since he had moved in and one week since our date and I still wasn't used to how long it took him to get ready. He took at least double the time it took me and when I asked him about it, he just gestured to himself saying 'This takes work, Buttercup'. After that, I stopped bothering to figure it out and settled on the fact that I'd be spending the rest of my life rushing him.

Walking through the living room, I went out onto the porch to wait for him there in the hopes that he'd speed up. Thankfully, it wasn't long until Ryan came walking through the front door. Giving him my back, I double checked the door making sure it was locked as he jumped down the porch steps. When I finished, he was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs with an expectant look that I promptly ignored in favor of walking to the path. Ryan moved quickly to walk beside me and I thought the reason for giving me that look was over. But I was proven wrong when a hand holding a bundle of cloth was thrusted in front of me.

"Just wear it."

I brushed his hand aside, "I don't get cold."

"Yes, I know that but the humans will notice."

Side eyeing him, I said, "So you aren't over what happened then, since you're still torturing me? I already gave you a rabbit in apology for laughing when you screamed during the movie last week."

"I-You-I-It was-I won't even dignify that with a response." Brown eyes looked away for a second before shooting right back to me, "He cut the man in half with a chainsaw, Kaiya! Excuse me for jumping and I didn't scream."

"You-" Catching the squint in his eye that told me I'd get the silent treatment if I didn't lie, I quickly changed my sentence, "You barely even flinched." I had absolutely no wish to experience his silent treatment again.

He smiled smugly, "Thank you but this isn't about that. They might be very into their own lives but the humans will notice if a woman is walking around in the middle of an Alaskan winter in a tank top."

Kicking a piece of bark out of the path with the toe of my boot, it was my turn to scoff, "You just want to scent mark me."

He shoved the sweater at me again, "Maybe, maybe not. But that doesn't change the fact that you'll draw unnecessary attention, Buttercup."

Flashing him a quick smile, I snatched the hoodie from him, "I'm not putting it on until I have to."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ryan give a smug smile at my response. He thought he'd won this little argument but really I just gave into him because I really didn't want him giving me the silent treatment. Which normally would've been fine except that Ryan's version of the silent treatment meant he slammed things around while unblinkingly staring me down. Watching someone slam their sandwich back down every time they took a bite and then stared unblinking back at you while they chewed was very uncomfortable.

I let him bask in his smugness for a while as we left the path and walked along the side of the pack house. Fine snow puffed into the air with every step we took covering our black shoes with a thin white coating. And as we rounded the corner of the house the bus came into view but instead of the rickety old one, a modern one sat in its place. Steel gray in color with a bright white stripe wrapping around the middle of the bus and solid black windows that hid everyone inside.

The double doors whooshed open at our approach causing the once muted sounds of the gremlins inside to come rumbling out at an obnoxious volume. Ryan stood to the side and motioned with his arm for me to enter first. Climbing up the metal steps, I stopped beside the driver in confusion. I thought Ryan was going to be driving us into town like the last time and I turned to ask him just that.