Page 82 of Vicious Luna
It’s a risky move to leave behind a message in the scrambled code, but I’m hoping it pays off- because once he realizes their systems are down, I know exactly who my father will turn to for help.
After me, Tim Gibson was our next best IT guy, but he was taken out in the full moon massacre. Matty’s the only other soldier with any IT acumen, and I bragged to my dad about the kid’s skills after he made improvements to our surveillance program. It’s a safe bet that he’ll ask Matty to help fix what I’ve broken, which is why I left him an encrypted message hidden in the code of the very surveillance program he recently updated.
Now I just have to hope his hesitation to take a shot at me out in the forest yesterday actually meant something. If he’s willing to work with us, it could change the tide of this entire conflict.
“So that’s it, then?” Avery asks, swinging her gaze between Lo and me.
I nod, reaching forward to snap the lid of the laptop closed. “Now we wait,” I sigh, rolling my neck on my shoulders to work out the tension that’s built up from hunching over.
“We’ll give it forty-eight hours,” Lo says, reaching a hand over the back of the couch and wiggling her fingers in a ‘gimme’ gesture. “If we don’t hear from Cam’s guy by then, we’ll move forward with our counter-attack as planned.”
I lift the computer from my lap, passing it back to her. “And with their surveillance down, they won't see you coming,” I add.
Lo nods, slipping the laptop into the messenger bag at her hip and adjusting the strap on her shoulder. “Alright, I’d better get going,” she sighs, pivoting toward Avery. “I promised Javi we could have a lunch date, he thinks I work too much. I’ll come by again tomorrow morning and we can check to see if he responded.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Avery chirps, walking her friend to the door. “Give that handsome man of yours a kiss for me, huh?”
Lo whips her head sideways to pin Avery with a glare. “You wanna get your ass beat?” she asks, cocking a brow.
My beastie runs her tongue along her upper teeth, grinning like a cat. “I’d like to see you try, Lolo.”
Lo huffs out an annoyed breath, rolling her eyes as she swats Avery away and reaches for the door handle. “Cam, feel free to kidnap her again,” she calls out to me as she pulls it open, sticking her tongue out at Avery and making a face before stepping outside.
Guess we’ve moved on from the kidnapping thing enough to joke about it now?
“Love you too, Lo!” Avery calls after her, laughing as she throws up a hand to give her a teasing wave.
I shake my head, chuckling to myself as I watch Avery push the door closed behind her friend and pivot in my direction. She still has that mischievous glint in her eye as she wanders back toward me, and my dick stirs at the prospect of what could be on her devious mind.
“So, I heard River gave you some wolf training yesterday,” she comments, coming around to my side of the sofa and stopping in front of me, stepping between my spread knees.
I fold my arms behind my head and lean back against the cushions, narrowing my eyes as I look up at her. “Yeah, that a problem?”
“No,” she replies sweetly, bending forward and planting her palms on my thighs to put us at eye level with one another. My pulse immediately kicks up a notch, the beast inside me perking up. “But why learn from her when you can learn from someone more...experienced?”
I lean in closer, arching a skeptical brow. “You offering?”
Our faces are inches apart, but as much as I want her to, she doesn’t close the distance between our lips. Instead, hers curve into a grin as she pushes off from my thighs, straightening and flipping her long hair over a shoulder. “I mean, it’s only fair. Since you saved our asses and all.” She tosses me a saucy wink as she steps backwards, crooking a finger. “Let’s go, big man.”
Well shit, even if it’s not the suggestion I initially hoped for, I’m not about to turn down an offer like that. River tried her best, but the lessons yesterday went nowhere. She was bored within ten minutes and asked me to school her on hand-to-hand combat instead. Since I’m a shifter, I need to learn more about actuallyshifting, and there's nobody I’d rather take lessons from than my beastie.
Her blonde hair fans out behind her as she spins on a heel, strutting toward the back doors of the packhouse. I ease off the couch to follow while shamelessly staring at her ass the whole way. The shorts she’s wearing are practically painted on, and I have to actively force myself to look away and get my head in the game as we step outside and start across the lawn.
Rather than hanging out close to the packhouse like River and I did yesterday, Avery continues toward the back of the property, bound for the mouth of a trail at the treeline. As we start down it, I quickly realize that coming out here barefoot was a bad idea. The twigs and rocks littering the forest floor cut into the soles of my feet with every step. She’s not wearingshoes, either, but the rough terrain doesn't seem to bother her one bit.
“Where are we going?” I ask, fighting back a wince of discomfort as a rock pokes into the arch of my foot.
“Wolves like being out in nature,” she quips, her steps never faltering as she continues down the path. “If you’re having trouble calling your wolf forward, then maybe it’ll help to change up the setting and make him more comfortable.”
“Makes sense,” I grit out, eyes trained down on the trail in front of me to watch where I step. “How much further?”
“Don’t tell me you’re getting winded already,” Avery teases, glancing back at me over her shoulder.
“Nah, but if I knew we were going on a hike, I would’ve at least put on shoes,” I grumble.
She snorts a laugh. “That’s such a human thing to say.”
“So now you’re trying to tell me shifters are against shoes?”