“Would you stop digging through my underwear?!”


    Bates withdrew his hand from the box grasping a nude thong.


    “This shit looks like dental floss,” heughed as I snatched it away.


    We were upstairs organizing all of my clothes into boxes; underwear in one, shorts in another, tank tops separated from t-shirts, and so on.


    It had been three days since I’d seen Luca or anyone else for that matter besides Bates and I was going crazy. He was like the younger brother I never had, except he was older than I was and a veryrge, grown man.


    Yet I still felt like punching him in the face half the time.


    “You’re so annoying,” I told him, as he ced one of my bras over his chest like he was trying it on.


    “Are tits like dicks for girls?” He asked me.


    I scowled.


    “What kind of a question is that?”


    “Do girls measure bra sizes the way guys do their dick? Like, if someone has bigger boobs than someone else, does that make her more alpha?” He rified.


    “Maybe in middle school,” I answered.


    He looked down and cupped the bra in his hands.


    “You’ve got porn star titties,” he said, “these things are massive.”


    I grabbed the bra and smacked him over the head with it.


    “I will tell Luca you’re abusing me,” he threatened.


    “And I’ll tell Luca you’re talking about my boobs and we’ll see who he gets mad at.” Bates leveled a re.


    “Touché.”


    He began to look through my Lululemon bag and pull out the items inside.


    “Who in the hell pays this much money for leggings?”


    He asked, staring at the tags.


    “You’re wearing four-hundred dor sneakers,” I pointed out.


    “Paying a lot for tires is not the same thing as paying a lot for a steering wheel cover.”


    “They make your butt look nice,” I said defensively.


    “Oh. makes sense.”


    I rolled my eyes as I began to take the tags off of each item and put them into their respective boxes.


    “You know, you could just move this stuff downstairs to Luca’s room and put them in his closet. It’s going to get wrinkled in cardboard boxes,” Bates pointed out.


    I sighed.


    “Seems kind of pointless while I’m sleeping and showering upstairs.”


    He shrugged.


    “I mean, no one says you have to do that.”


    I looked at him suspiciously.


    “Did Luca put you up to this?”


    “I plead the fifth.”


    I rolled my eyes.Text property ? N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org.


    “But, seriously, are thongs not ufortable?” He asked again.


    “Not as ufortable as I am,” a voice said from the doorway. We looked up from where we sat on the floor to see ine.


    “Any news?” I asked, standing to my feet.


    He shrugged.


    “Maybe.”


    I gave him an unamused look and he smiled.


    “I told Luca I wouldn’t tell you,” he told me.


    “I just came to update Bates.”


    “Ha ha,” Bates said sarcastically, standing up and following ine from the room.


    He patted me on top of the head as he passed me and I jabbed him in the side of the rib cage. Following ine out to the loft, Bates talked with him in a low


    voice for a while before turning around anding back to the bedroom.


    “Johnathan wasn’t the only wolf from your pack that got in the borders,” Bates blurted out.


    “They found another wolf about a mile away.”


    ine looked at Bates incredulously before banging his head against the wall.


    “I wasn’t the one who promised Luca I wouldn’t tell her,” Bates defended.


    “Who was it?” I asked quickly.


    “Is it a man or a woman? Do you know their name?”


    “I don’t know. I forgot to ask for his driver’s license,” ine said sarcastically.


    “So it’s another guy?” I asked.


    He nodded.


    I couldn’t think of who it would be.


    “Could you take me to him?” I asked ine.


    “No.”


    “We’d lose our toes,” Bates said.


    “Plus, I’ve been given strict orders not to let you leave the house. My babysitting privileges would be revoked.”


    “Oh no,” I said dryly.


    “What?” Bates asked.


    “You don’t like hanging out with me?”


    “You have to take me to the Cer,” I said to ine firmly, ignoring Bates.


    “No.” he answered again.


    “I’ll take credit for it,” I offered.


    “We can tell Luca it was my idea.”


    “Credit? You mean me?” ine asked.


    “This isn’t going to go over well.”


    “Please,” I said again.


    “I need to know who it is. I may be able to get answers.”


    “How do you know we don’t already have answers?” ine asked me.


    “Because you’re here and Luca’s not.”


    Bates looked at ine and smiled.


    “Please,” I begged.


    “Absolutely,” Bates said. “-not,” ine finished, ring at him.


    “We can get there in twenty minutes if we take the bug,” Bates said, already turning to leave the room.


    “The bug?” I asked.


    “No,” ine reiterated.


    Bates turned and smiled at me.


    “You’re going to love the bug.”