“Alex, damn it!” I slammed the door closed. “Did he take all the food?” My berries were gone. Not a pinecone in sight. There was nothing in the damn fridge but ketchup and a glass jar of pickles.
I opened the freezer. I knew I had stored some frozen berries in there a while back.
Nothing but meat.
And a frozen pouch of blood.
I swallowed.
The room fell silent.
I slammed the fridge shut, opened it, and slammed it shut again, throwing an unbelievable tantrum that I couldn’t control even if I’d wanted.
“Looks like you need to go to the store,” Cassius said calmly. “Take Serenity.”
I held my laugh in.
It wasn’t funny.
He wanted me to take a vampire that I wanted to devour alone, in a car, to a store that had every single piece of meat my wolf would kill to buy, to eat, right in the damn aisle.
“I love grocery shopping!” Serenity jumped out of her chair.
I gave Cassis a middle finger and then did it again just for good measure.
“When my parents were alive—” She stopped talking and looked down at the ground.
Hell.
I was screwed.
Her heart raced.
And then her jumbled thoughts pumped out. “Not enough for them to stay.”
My heart cracked in my chest as the words tumbled out of my mouth. “I’ll take the Jeep.”
“You can make a list while he drives.” Genesis winked at me.
Stop being helpful.
Genesis was one of my best friends. But she also had a gold medal in manipulating me into doing things I didn’t want to do, like during Christmas when Ethan wouldn’t watch Hallmark, an
d she’d said she’d comb my fur if I sat next to her.
I was loath to admit the times I’d choked up watching those damn movies.
Within minutes, I was driving Alex’s new shiny white Jeep Wrangler through the downtown traffic in search of Whole Foods while Serenity sat stock-still next to me.
I’d been forced to put on a shirt and nice jeans with a pair of flip-flops that I reserved for outings. But when I’d come downstairs, Genesis had sent me back up to shower the dirt from my hands and face.
I was a wolf. Wolves were meant to be dirty.
The argument hadn’t stood.
So, I’d pulled my hair back into a rubber band, put on the too-tight white t-shirt that made my chest itch, and managed to get in jeans that I assumed would split in two if I bent over one too many times.
The minute Serenity had seen me, her heart raced a rhythm that made my blood soar.