The Witching Hour

Chapter 25 - Annoyance

While pizza may have distracted the witches for a night, the events of the evening with Helga would return to the forefront of all of their minds. They could only escape it for so long. The one thing they didn't do was share their word with each other, Ivy in particular.

What had the forest witch meant by betrayal? She gave no indication as to who would be behind the future attack or what it could even be about. This left Ivy even more shaken. It didn't help that she and Hunter were still at odds with one another. This morning she decided to give it another shot.

Hunter stood at the edge of the kitchen counter, fixing himself some toast. As she did most mornings, Ivy snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her lips ghosted against the small spot between his shoulder blades. She gave him a light kiss. At the contact he froze, long enough for her to know to let him go.

"Hmph." He slipped out of her grip and onto a barstool.

Ivy's eyes grew into saucers, and her jaw practically fell off her face. Hunter kept his eyes trained on the food before him. His eyes floated up to meet hers and found Ivy still watching him in shock. The shock quickly morphed into annoyance then anger.

"What the hell, Hunter?" She brought a hand to her hip. Her upper lip twitched as she pursed them over and over again. Each time, the line between her eyebrows deepened as she tired to process the situation.

"Well,I'm not getting any younger here," Ivy barked. Hunter's eyes fluttered up, andIvy caught the end of an eye roll. "It's been nothing but a week of thisbullshit."

"Wow, such sass, Ives." Her eyes narrowed into slits at the nickname. He knew how much she disliked it. "So unlike you," he added for good measure.

"When you escalate it to this level, sass is needed." Ivy gripped the counter to steady herself. She was just glad it wasn't a table or else it could have been flipped by now.

"You mean the lack of bedroom eyes and late nights?" He retorted with a sarcastic wink. Her knuckles went white as she took a deep breath. "Hate to break it to you, but it's been like that for awhile. Long before this last week."

"You're really turning this into something about sex?" Her eyes clouded with confusion, and her voice went high. "You're kidding me."

"If you don't' use your words, how am I supposed to know?" He sipped his tea, the smug look never leaving his face. "You just tried to turn me on. Easy mistake if you ask me."

"I didn't ask you anything of the sort – "

"Au contraire, you did." Hunter pointed his fork and looked down at her. "You said, and I quote, 'what the hell.' That opens things up for interpretation."

"That's what you took from that? You're being so ridiculous." Ivy crossed her arms over her chest. "This is about the incident in the shop and you know it."

"You should have said that from the beginning." Hunter pushed his plate back and mirrored her with his arms over his chest. When he offered nothing else, she threw her hands up in frustration.

"It seems like you're trying to punish me." She tucked stray curls behind her ear. "I told you. Nothing happened."

Hunter tsked and pointed a digit at her. "See, the fact that you have to say that is why something did happen."

Technically, nothing had happened, Ivy reminded herself. Griffin had innocently helped her fix her sweater and caught her when she had almost fallen. Without reading between the lines, or thinking about that night in the bar, nothing had happened.

"Why can you take me at my word?"

"Because you're keeping things from me." Hunter's eyes bore into hers, as they both knew this statement to be true. "Great example, the other weekend when you came home late and were clearly shaken up. I waited for you to say something, but you never brought it up."

The Hunter's Moon.

That night had stressed her out. The Cassie revelation, being attacked then saved, and the gray wolf. Ivy had slipped into bed, thinking Hunter was asleep and wanting to forget the evening had happened.

"More of those have been happening." Hunter leaned forward and rested his hands on the marble. "You're keeping things from me. What happened to when you shared that you could heal people? You went from being honest to hiding things."

Hunter had her there. Ivy wasn't so much hiding things as she was just not talking about them with him. He didn't exactly like the idea of her training but did support her in the quest of honing her skills.

"I just...I know how you feel about all this training." Ivy face-palmed internally. It was clear she was reaching. "I see how you scrunch your nose at the small burns I get from Ella after tough sessions."

"Would you want to see me come home with burns, harmless or not?" Hunter shifted from leg to leg, leaning back. "And I think Ella enjoys being the boss a bit too much."

"That's not fair." Ivy puffed her chest out, moving her hands to her hips. "She and I have our differences, but we both loved Cassie and know she's out there."

Hunter hummed as he weaved around her to put his dish in the sink. Ivy watched him closely, looking for any extra body language. Their breathing provided the only sound in the room.

"We've already fought about Ella and training. Let's not waste our breath." Hunter spun on his heel and stood in the small corner of the kitchen. "I love you. You love me. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide things from me."

"I understand." Ivy's curls bobbed as she nodded. She paused to allow time for the mood to settle before she began her trek to him. A devilish gleam shone in her eyes as a wolfish smile graced her usual delicate features. "So, can we please make up already?"

Hunter stared at her with blank eyes before the proverbial light bulb flashed in his head. In one big swoop, he picked her up and carried his giggling girlfriend to bed.

"Your wish is my command," he said as they flopped onto bed, pulling the sheets around them.

A/N

I know. Quick chapter and quick resolve. A little fluff, but a little fluff is good sometimes :)

teehee

Stay tuned though. More to come!

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Thanks again for al the reads/comments/votes. Means so much. And thanks for your patience. I aim to update on Sundays (or Mondays) but things have been out of whack. We just went back to work and that's fersure thrown me off.

Hope you are all doing well and staying safe!