HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 81

Chapter Eighty One

"Horst--"

"Nope."

"But--"

"Echo, stop."

"But Horst, I--"

"Nope! Nope! Nope!" I snapped, slashing my hand through the air for emphasis as his mouth finally snapped shut. "Just let me think for a bit!"

He sighed, eyes following my movements like red metronomes swishing back and forth--but I hardly noticed because I was too busy wearing a path into the living room carpet with my nervous, agitated, unsightly pacing. Then again, I had every right to be freaking out, because the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that I was in trouble.

Raphael had stressed, repeatedly, that he wanted me to be careful and he'd also made it undeniably clear that he didn't like the thought of us fooling around. Forget dating, he hadn't wanted us so much as looking at each other funny. How the hell was I supposed to handle the fallout?

Sure, I'd been grumpy in response to his initial overbearing attitude, but all of his protests kinda still made sense even now and part of me knew he was right to some extent--we'd rushed into this very quickly, so quickly that it didn't even feel real to me yet half of the time. I nibbled on my lip, taking a moment to smooth my one nice button-up t-shirt. I was wearing black slacks and no shoes, but because I hated dressing preppy I'd left the top three buttons open to widely show off my collarbone and upper chest.

"Horst," Echo tried again, but I just stopped and looked at him, full of dread. He seemed blank and puzzled, and I realized with just one look at his dark red eyes that he'd regressed back to his emotionless state again. "You must calm yourself and breathe properly. You are behaving very, very erratically and illogically right now."

I let out a bark of hysterical laughter.

"Yeah, right! Do you not realize how big of a deal this is?" I demanded, pressing my sweaty palms against the sides of my pants, itching to dig my claws into the fabric and scratch at my furry thighs. "Raphael technically has more authority in the pack than my dad!"

"What?" Echo asked, looking about as oblivious as a potato... a very pretty potato, of course, but still, why the fuck couldn't this be easy for once? He cocked his head, undeterred. "I'm afraid I do not understand."

"Obviously," I flippantly agreed, nodding at him exaggeratedly. "That's why I'm telling you, this is serious."

"No, I meant I do not understand what you meant," he blankly reiterated. "You have just said that Raphael holds more authority than your father. I do not understand this, as he is the leading alpha of your entire pack. How can Raphael have more authority than he?"

I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared at him for a second because it hit me that he might not actually know anything about werewolf pack dynamics or how the units living scattered across the world functioned in their own small groups.

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose in frustration, and once I'd calmed myself a bit, I gave him a quick glance up and down, studying the nice khaki shorts and light blue polo he was wearing with those awkward knee-high white socks. Long black hair spilled over his shoulders and pooled on his lap as well as the couch in glossy strands, framing his femininely androgynous Chinese features.

His thick brows furrowed when he noticed the scrutiny he was under.

"Do you wish for me to undress?" he questioned, and I snapped out of my head, giving him a blank 'WTF' look for a few seconds. "You are staring at me quite intensely. Is this a sign that you are aroused and wish to procreate?"