Hunter's Alpha (gxg) ✓

31. Cornered

I don't know what this makes us.

What do I call her? My girlfriend?

I don't have to worry about it. Because the next thing I know, she is carrying me back towards the bedroom.

And from there, she makes me moan her name loud enough that I swear the entire corridor can hear.

Loud enough that I wouldn't be surprised if all of the Underground knew what we were doing.

And once it's done, once my legs are trembling and I can't stand, can't breathe, all I can do is lay there next to her. Looking at her face. Tracing the angles of her sharp features.

"You're so beautiful," she whispers to me, almost reverent.

Unwillingly, I blush.

I'm falling for you.

The thought comes unbidden, and it is frightening.

I told her we would be all in, and I still don't regret it. Which terrifies me. Because I have no idea what that means. What she thinks.

Her murky-brown eyes are indiscoverable.

For the first time, I realize I haven't dreamed of the blue-eyed girl. Ever since the battle, when I saw Hunter in the chaos, and thought, She's right there. She's here.

I almost miss her.

"Tell me about when you used to live in Louisiana," I say.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything," I whisper.

"On my eighth birthday, there was a drive-by," she starts. "It was really bad. I was having a party, and all of a sudden, there are these gang leaders speeding past our house. Bullets are raining down. Even one of my neighbours got shot, a little boy. I felt awful afterwards, so guilty."

"That's . . . not a soothing story."

She chuckles. "Just wait. So at the end of the night, I feel awful. All of the girls at my party are crying, and their parents come and pick them up, and I know this will be the last time any of them come over." Her eyes close briefly. "But then . . . you know what? Out of all those parents, the mom of the little boy is the only to come over. She says, It'll be alright. And I cried. Later, when my best friend crawled in through my window━it was kind of a common thing━we ate my entire birthday cake ourselves and built a fort. It was my first time staying awake the whole night. That's my happy memory."

I sigh at the happiness in that. Even if something awful happened, the night still ended on a good note.

Curiously, I ask, "Your best friend. What was her name?"

Hunter hesitates, searching my face.

"It's not important," she finally says.

"Is it the same girl in that photograph?"

Sadly, Hunter says, "Yes."

"What happened to her?"

Hunter's eyes close. "I don't want to talk about it."