“We’re spending the whole weekend here.” He grins.
I hesitate a moment, trying not to sound ungrateful for their efforts. “You guys remember that I don’t have the wolfish body heat that you three do, right?”
Rory just laughs and my door opens as Kaleb stands on the other side waiting for me to get out.
“You don’t need to have your own wolfish body heat,” he says. “You have us.”
The guys grab the backpacks and blankets, and Kaleb tosses me one of his super-thick hoodies as we start walking between the trees and into the woods. It’s cold, but there’s no wind and I’m surprisingly warm in Kaleb’s hoodie. After a short walk, we get to the mouth of a cave and the guys start to head inside. I follow them, but Kaleb grabs my hand before I can go in.
“Not yet,” he says with a grin. He tosses his backpack into the mouth of the cave and Marlowe catches it. “You and I are going to take a walk.”
“Okay,” I say, a bit bewildered as we leave the other two behind.
“What’s in all the backpacks?” I ask as Kaleb and I walk alongside a thin, rushing stream that weaves through the trees like a miniature river.
“A surprise.”
I roll my eyes.
Kaleb holds my hand as we jump over the little stream and walk along the other side.
“Did you mean what you said when you and I were inside the tree?” he asks after a moment.
“Which part?” I tease.
“I’m being serious,” Kaleb says. I look over at his face and see that he actually is. He’s wearing a pensive expression usually reserved for Rory, or even Marlowe. “About feeling left out.”
“Yeah,” I answer. “I completely meant every bit of it.”
“Have you thought about what it would actually mean though? About how much your life would change?”
I guess I really hadn’t. Ever since I started getting so close to the guys, I hadn’t really given thought to anything aside from being with them. Nothing else seemed to matter as much to me.
Vivian saw that right away.
Just the thought of her makes me pull the hoodie tighter around me.
“It’s not as easy and cool as you might think it is,” Kaleb continues before I’ve finished thinking about how to answer him. “There’s a lot to being a shifter that isn’t glamorous.”
“Like pooping in the woods?” I tease again. It feels like there was a heaviness around the moment, so I try to toss in some levity.
There’s nothing light about his response.
“Like killing things.”
I stop in my tracks as a horrible thought crosses my mind.
“Kaleb, have you ever killed anyone? A person, I mean?”
“No,” he says, and I’m immediately relieved. “But I know of many shifters who have. Most of them are accidents, or so they claim, but a few were undeniably intentional.”
My mind wanders to the other two. I doubt any of the boys have killed a human, but I’m guessing that in all of his many years, Romulus probably has.
I’m not really sure what to say, but the way Kaleb’s looking at me … I struggle on anyway.
“I’d like to think that everyone has a choice in the kind of person they become, shifter or human or otherwise. I don’t think we just can’t help who we are. I think we create who we are. And if you’re trying to scare me out of wanting to be like you guys, it’s not working.”
Kaleb laughs. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I’m pretty sure you’re not scared of anything.”