Moon Kissed (Mirror Lake Wolves - Book One)

CHAPTER THREE

A portion of my favorite piece of the lake happened to be on Alec's uncle's property. Apparently, I'd trespassed numerous times without realizing. This explained how he knew I enjoyed looking at the moon and visiting the lake.

The moral of the story: I needed to pay more attention to my surroundings.

We finished our milkshakes as we walked the property, heading toward the lake. Once we reached it, Alec sat and I followed suit. The night sounds surrounded us, and all the tension I'd been feeling from our lack of conversation disappeared as contentment washed over me. This lake was home.

Alec's knee brushed against mine as he better situated himself beside me. It was intentional, I could tell, but I was okay with it because I wanted to feel him too. I licked my lips and shifted to glance at him. He was staring at me with an intensity in his eyes I found surprising.

"You really love this place, don't you?" he asked.

"Yeah." The word came out as a breathy whisper.

"Everything about you seemed to relax the second we sat down."

He was so observant. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. "Tell me something about you. I feel like you already know so much about me, but I know virtually nothing about you."

It wasn't the entire truth. He hadn't been the only one watching.

I'd picked up on some things about him. I knew he had an older brother who still lived in town. His dad was a carpenter, and his mom worked at the local grocery store as a cashier. I knew his entire family had been born and raised here. He went to church every Sunday. He was a lover of sweet tea and all things barbecue, and as of tonight, I knew he enjoyed four-wheeling.

"There's not much about me you don't already know. I'm pretty much an open book," he said.

"What's your favorite type of music?" I thought I already knew, but sometimes people surprised me.

"Country."

"Well, no surprise there. That's what I would have guessed."

"See, I told you I'm an open book." He chuckled and bumped his knee into mine. "What about you? What kind of music do you like?"

"Guess."

"Okay, um. Well, I doubt you like country. On the other hand, you don't seem like the type to enjoy pop music either. Maybe rock?"

"Yeah, I'm not much of a country fan and I can't stand pop. Rock is okay, as long as it's not the hard-core, head-banging stuff. I prefer rap. There's something about the beats that really get me moving."

"Actually, I don't find that surprising at all. I've always thought of you as tough. Makes sense you'd like thuggish music."

I laughed. I'd never heard rap referred to as thuggish. It had a nice ring to it.

Something moved through the woods a few feet away. I shifted around, glancing through the brush to see what it was. Being this close to the trailer park had me thinking it might be Eli or his brother, Tate. If it were, I was going to flip out on them.

"What's wrong?" Alec asked as though he hadn't heard anything. Maybe he hadn't. Maybe my hearing was slightly better than his.

Maybe I was destined to be Moon Kissed after all.

"Nothing." I shifted back around to face the lake. "Thought I heard something."

"Probably an animal. There are all kinds of them out here, especially at night."

I held my breath, waiting for him to say something about wolves rumored to run through these woods. He didn't. This surprised me because he had to have heard the stories. His family had lived here forever.