Natural Instincts - Jared Cameron

.twenty nine.

The weekend was finally here, and although I already missed Pia and El, I was never lonely anymore. I even had Mintie to keep me company now.

I skipped over to Emily and Sam's place at their invitation for brunch, definitely not passing up an opportunity to eat Emily's food, and bringing Mintie with me to see the pack.

"Well good morning, your majesty!" Embry called as I entered the house.

I glared at him playfully, greeting everyone else. 

"Mintie! Come to daddy, boy." Jared called from the other side of the room.

Paul and Quil silently joked about Jared calling himself daddy. "Um did I just get replaced by our dog!?" I questioned, pretending to be hurt.

"No baby of course not! Come here you," he called, attempting to backtrack his priorities as I was laughing at him but acting mad. He came over and bowled me over with a bear hug, assaulting my face and arms with kisses as he mumbled "I love you I love you I love you" over and over until I finally broke and laughed, accepting his kisses.

The pack laughed at us while Seth busied himself playing on the floor with Mintie.

"So Jules, when are you going back to the nest?" Leah offered as we sat around the table.

I smiled. "Whenever I can. June said my powers grow each time I'm there, because it's technically home." I hesitated. "They also said I could bring you guys one day...if you want." 

I trailed off, nervous at the invitation that they may not have been keen.

"ARE YOU KIDDING YES!" they all screamed, talking over the top of each other about how cool it would be and what they're going to do while they're there.

I laughed hysterically at their yelling. "Baby steps, I should probably go back alone once or twice more. And you guys know you can't swear or anything there, I had to adapt to their language and remind myself I wasn't hanging around you animals!" I warned.

"Pft, please. We are proper gentlemen." Jared claimed, half of the group playing along and the other half laughing at his blatant lie.

"Yeah, righto. I walked in on Paul sitting on Seth and farting on him until he passed out last week. And that's not even mentioning the fact that Embry was on the other side of the room counting your armpit hairs!" I quipped back, laughing fondly at the memory of...whatever that was.

Emily and Leah broke into hysterics, always loving when we called the guys out on their bullshit.

"It was for science!" Paul and Embry shouted at the same time, only making us laugh harder as Sam face palmed questioning his entire life choices.

Once breakfast was done, I was sitting on the couch with my legs on jared, leaning up against Embry for support.

Leah walked passed and I managed to catch her eye. I sent her a message through my mind, SOS, and she got the hint, signalling for me to follow her outside.

"Where are you going?" Jared asked with a sad face as I stood up.

"Girl talk," I responded, leaving him with a kiss on the cheek.

I made my way outside and found Leah waiting for me. "You okay?" she questioned instantly.

"Yeah all good." I answered quickly as we walked to the beach, Leah clearly understanding I was working up the courage to speak yet, so we filled the gaps with small talk.

Eventually we approached the water and both picked up small stones, skipping them along the water together. It was actually the first time I'd hung out with Leah alone, and it was really peaceful.