She offered him a smile and wave, then grabbed Winter’s arm as she passed. “What’s happening?”
Winter grinned big, her smoky gray eyes sparking with excitement. “Tonight is the first trailer park party. Dustin planned it.”
“False,” Dustin called loud enough for her to hear. “I planned a trailer park party for me and Emma so I could maybe get my dick stroked, but then these assholes begged to tag along. Cock blockers, every one of them.”
It was chilly out, so Emma shoved her hands into her pockets and jogged over to him. He turned and caught her up in a back cracking hug like they hadn’t just parted ways forty-five minutes ago. He eased his lips near her ear. “Plus I know you like hanging out with these losers, so maybe I invited them a little. Remember the bat signal.”
Emma giggled and kissed him hard, bit his bottom lip at the end, hugged his neck as tight as she could and slid back down to the ground. “You’re my favorite werewolf.”
“Not a compliment. I’m the only werewolf you don’t hate.”
“Still counts.” Emma shrugged coyly and scrambled into the back seat of Logan’s truck.
Dustin slid in beside her, scooting her with his hip.
“Whoa, Dustin’s not bitching about shotgun?” Logan asked, his dark brows knitted into a frown as he climbed into his truck. “Are you sick? I mean besides in the head.”
“I feel fine, fuck you very much.” Dustin lifted his arm over Emma’s head and pulled her close. “Sex puts me in a good mood, like a normal person.”
“Dustin,” Emma reprimanded him.
“What? You don’t screw and tell, and that’s classy of you. I’m not classy.”
Ever the optimist of the crew, Winter said helpfully, “At least he isn’t ashamed and hiding it. That would suck if he had intimacy with you and then pretended he didn’t.”
“See?” Dustin said, giving Winter a high five. “Really, I’m being a gentleman.”
“Werewolves aren’t gentlemen,” Logan muttered. “No more high fives.” His voice was way too snarly.
Beast yanked the passenger door open. “Finally.” When he climbed up on the seat, he rocked the entire truck with his massive size.
Winter held onto the oh-shit-bar dramatically, and Emma thrashed around like she was caught in an earthquake. Logan and Dustin looked amused. Beast, however, did not. He poked the radio dial until blaring opera music blasted through the speakers, flipped them all off, then pulled his baseball cap over his face like he was going to sleep.
Emma loved him. She loved all of them. Beast with his mood-swings but protective nature, Logan with his quiet observations, dark past, and sweet demeanor with Winter. She loved that Winter was so bright and positive about everything. She could spin any bad day into a good one, and she was becoming a really good friend. And Dustin…well, she liked him best for a million reasons.
He was watching her with a wicked smile. You want my dick, he mouthed.
Stop it, she mouthed back.
I like your boobs.
Emma slowed her words and formed them carefully so he could catch them all. Well, I like your hair and your tattoos.
I like your eyes. The smile was dipping from his face, and he was getting more serious as Logan eased the truck onto the main road. And your lips. I like those a lot. And this game because I get to watch those lips.
I like that you didn’t snore last night when you stayed over.
I liked that you snored like a freight train.
I did not!
How would you know? He tapped his ear and arched his eyebrow.
Oh, my gosh, do I really? That was news to her.
No.
He laughed when she shoved his arm.
Mean, she accused.
When Dustin pulled her hand to his lips in a flash, his smile disappeared completely. But I’m trying to be better.
“What are y’all doing?” Logan asked suspiciously.
Jerking his chin in Logan’s direction, Dustin mouthed, Psycho-baby.
Emma giggled and shook her head. She wasn’t going to get into a name war with the king of name-calling.
Winter stared at them with narrowed eyes. “I think you two are grosser than me and Logan.”
“That’s bullcrap,” Dustin said. “My room is close to yours, Winter Donovan. You and Logan are loud. And super-gross. And you always have to be touching, and you always look at each other with those dumb googly eyes—”
“I’m never pairing up,” Beast muttered from under his baseball cap. “You’re all disgusting.”
Emma frowned. Dustin said he’d been the head of a pride for a long time. He would have been paired up with lots of lionesses…right?
But when she looked up at Dustin to ask him, he looked just as confused as her and shrugged.
When Logan pulled onto the dirt road that led to the fledgling trailer park, Emma unbuckled and eased forward between the seats. She thought Beast would growl at her, but he gave her a grimace that was almost a smile instead. And when Emma rested her cheek on his muscular shoulder and made a happy sound, Beast didn’t even shove her head away this time.
There was a brand new wooden sign over the entrance. Blackwing Mobile Park had been carved into it neatly, and in smaller letters just underneath, it read Home of the D-Team.
Emma laughed. It was perfect.
“Kane got the Novak Raven to make it,” Logan said. “He’s good at woodwork.”
“Logan said wood,” Dustin muttered as he pulled his cell from his back pocket.