We are the Answer {boyxboy} ✔ (Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series, Book I | Rhys)

Chapter 36

A/N: Arrgh! I'm so behind schedule that the other night I had a nightmare about sitting down to write and the words disappeared almost immediately after I wrote them and I started panicking and couldn't think of what to write... But when I woke up, I read your lovely comments and immediately felt better.

THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME! I'll try to make September 6 something special, something that you amazing people deserve! ❤

More info on that in the A/N at the end; for now, enjoy this new chapter!

*****

"Hey."

My mate sounded happy when he answered my call. On any other day, this would've made me happy in turn.

Not today.

Not with what I was about to do.

Sadness washed over me as a wave and I swallowed a hard lump when I thought that this might be the last time I heard him so joyous.

"Hey," I greeted back, failing to keep the emotions out of my voice. I tried harder with my next line:
"What are you doing?"

"Nothing much. Just lying half-naked in bed and thinking about you."

I closed my eyes and let my head drop back over the board of my bed.

It was playful, but it was definitely a flirt.

I wished I could reply in the same fashion; I wish I could act on my desires, even if it was just a kiss today. My throat was tight as if invisible hands had wrapped their strong fingers around it, squeezing with all their might.

For the first time in my life, I wished I wasn't a shifter, that I didn't have to dread that the one I cared for so much might reject me because of what I was.

Would I have met Riley then?

Would I have fallen in love with him?

Surely, I would have; he was everything that made my heart flutter... And the only person who could strike my heart with pain so powerful that I might not survive it.

And he could do it today.

I cleared my throat, trying to prepare myself for what was to come.

"Well, topless anyway." He went on, oblivious of the turmoil in my soul. "What are you doing?"

"I was wondering if we could talk?" My inflection went up and down, trembling like my body.

"What do you want to talk about?" He asked quietly, carefully, at last beginning to realize how agitated I was.

"Us." The word came out as a whisper.

Would we exist after tonight?

"I want us to talk about who the Silver Bullets are."

*****

The ride to Riley's had me pulling the car over to the sidewalk and turning the engine off several times.

I was a mess.

My hands were shaking and sweaty no matter how many times I wiped them, my lips were dry no matter how many times my tongue darted out to moisten them and my breaths were so shallow that my head was starting to spin.

I had to tell him.

I had to tell him tonight.

There had already been too many innocent victims and we had no clue what was going on. If Riley was to become one...