The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
(Bk 2) Chapter 26

"Oh, no."

The garden shack was a quaint little thing.

Emphasis on the little.

Not so much on the quaint.

In fact, it was so small that if I stretched my arms out, I would be able to touch the walls on all the sides.

Yes.

It was very small.

So much so that:

"Gnomes could call this their home." Mister W deadpans, looking around with an unreadable expression on his face.

And half of the space that we did have was taken up by gardening supplies.

We were nearly chest to chest, our bodies shivering from our damp clothes. I was chilled to the bone, too wet to do anything but shake helplessly.

"Maybe we should head back?" Right as I said this, a thunder c r a c ke d so loud that it shook the entire wooden shack, rattling us both.

Outside, the rain pelted down hard and relentless, showing no signs of letting up any time soon. It battered over the rickety roof of our shelter, rocking the thing like it would blow away with the wind at any moment. Even if we tried to go back to the mansion, we wouldn't be able to tell left from right.

"We can't do anything but wait for the storm to break."

Mister W tells me, eyes on the small broken window near him. The flimsy thing was fighting for its life with how hard the rain fell. "But that might take some time."

The shack wobbled and shook from the strong winds outside, only proving him right.

All I could think about at that moment was my guard- my poor overthinking guard who must be looking for me and could not replace me.

What would he even do?

Would he call my Alpha to report me missing?

Have there been any lost attendees before?

Are we the first?

How would that even work?

If the Alpha knows, then O would know and the Goddess only knows what he will do.

"Are you sure we can't brave it?" I asked, already knowing the answer. "The rain isn't that hard."

I was lying.

It was.

Mister W seemed to have snapped out of his sadness long enough to chuckle at me. "I go, where you go, but I'm not sure I can hold on when you're blown away to the next country."

"Is that how easily you'll let me go? A simple wind?" I teased back, my teeth chattering. "I thought you liked me more than that."

"You wound me, Miss X, of course I'll let go when it's nature that calls you..." He trailed off as another gust of wind threatened to take our roof away.

I pinched his stomach but there was nothing to squeeze between my fingers but taut muscle. "Now that's just not fair."

He doesn't try to pinch me back, but he does lift an eyebrow.

"Don't even say a word." I said with my tongue out, hugging myself as I tried to put space between us, but all over there were hoses, bags of fertilizer and several sharp tools lying around. He zips his mouth with his fingers, a lazy smile still in place.

The shivering got worse with the small gaps between the wooden structures letting in some of the fierce wind. To try and keep my body heat, I make a home for myself between a plow and a watering can. With nowhere else to go, Mister W follows suit, sitting right across from me. He bumped against five hundred things to do so but he managed it, our legs pressed against each other, my knees between his. Mister W seemed to have snapped out of his sadness long enough to chuckle at me. "I go, where you go, but I'm not sure I can hold on when you're blown away to the next country."

"Is that how easily you'll let me go? A simple wind?" I teased back, my teeth chattering. "I thought you liked me more than that."

"You wound me, Miss X, of course I'll let go when it's nature that calls you..." He trailed off as another gust of wind threatened to take our roof away.

I pinched his stomach but there was nothing to squeeze between my fingers but taut muscle.

"Now that's just not

fair."

He doesn't try to pinch me back, but he does lift an eyebrow.

"Don't even say a word." I said with my tongue out, hugging myself as I tried to put space between us, but all over there were hoses, bags of fertilizer and several sharp tools lying around. He zips his mouth with his fingers, a lazy smile still in place.

The shivering got worse with the small gaps between the wooden structures letting in some of the fierce wind. To try and keep my body heat, I make a home for myself between a plow and a watering can.

With nowhere else to go, Mister W follows suit, sitting right across from me. He bumped against five hundred things to do so but he managed it, our legs pressed against each other, my knees between his. My arms pimpled with goosebumps as another gust of wind went through the tiny shack, creaking the wood and banging the gardening tools against each other.

"I'm sorry," He says softly, eyes staring at me.

I hugged myself tight, my chin on my knee as I looked at him from under my eyelashes. "Sorry for what?"

"For earlier. For dragging you here." He looked around, his eyes on the roof and how it was the only thing keeping us safe from the rain.

I shook my head, doing my best to lock my jaw so my teeth didn't rattle uncontrollably. "How can I get mad at you for something you're going through?"

And because we were one and the same.

How could I be mad at him when I was going through the same thing?

In love with someone else and trying to escape the feeling.

"I meant what I said," It was dark but with each lightning that struck, I got to see a little bit of him each time.

Breathtaking as usual. His features are even better in the dark stormy night. "You are the person that I want. That is the truth. You are the person that I want to leave with at the end of the week."

But I wasn't alone in that.

There was someone else.

I was afraid to ask.

I was afraid to know.

But I had to know more.

I have never trusted and relied on my emotions before the Games and right now it was the most confusing thing ever.

Some part of my heart wanted Mister W, that much I am sure of, but it was scared of him as well- scared of him because of how easily 0 and I just fell apart. I had trusted my heart with O and he just threw it back at me. Would W be the same?

My throat tightened, my voice small and showing him just how confused I was by all of this. "Why? Why me? There's

obviously someone else and I don't want to be involved if that's the case. I won't be your second choice."

His face drops, the sadness back on those breath taking eyes of his. "Because you're the one that made me want to be here when all I wanted was run away. Because you don't care about who I am, like all the others do. You smiled at me and I forgot about everyone else. You held me and, for a moment, I forgot. I forgot it all."

Another shiver raked through my body, but I do not know if it was from the cold or because of his words that seemed to resonate through me.

He leans over the small space between us and touches my hand, the mere action taking my breath away. But he draws back in surprise before cupping my hand in his and blowing into my fingers. "You're so cold."

"I'm okay." I pulled at my dress that was sopping wet. "I's just the wet clothes that we always seem to get when we're together."

His eyes darkened as if seeing me for the first time. "That is the reoccurring theme for us."

I didn't say anything, concentrating on keeping warm.

W moves, standing up from his spot and making all the tools around us clamor about. With one hand on the wall, he removes his boots, a puddle of water coming out of them before placing them on top of a pile of tools. His clothes followed next, his buttoned up shirt coming off with a shrug and then his pants where he loosened the belt.

"What are you doing?" I squeaked, trying to look elsewhere.

It was suddenly very hot.

Very hot indeed.

He was a big man, not quite as big as my guard, but he was thick in arms and broad in the shoulders, the same shoulders that carried me like I weighed nothing.

As perfect as his face was, his body was the same.

All muscle and all cuts.

And he stood over me with only his boxers and though it was eye level with me, I did not dare look.

"The storm isn't going to stop anytime soon and I don't plan on catching a cold." He says, moving around some more, shoving tools and other things to the side until the spot beside me is clear.

"We're werewolves. We don't get sick." I argued, but it was half hearted as another wave of shivers went up and down my body.

He sits down beside me, wedged tightly by the wall as our sides pressed up against each other. "You want to test that like your suggestion on braving it?"

The heat of his body was like a furnace and when he wrapped an arm around me - pressing me close to him, I found myself snuggling closer to him. He didn't smell like anything because of the bracelet, but if I let myself imagine, I can almost smell the musky scent on him.

It sent another wave of heat down my body.

To distract myself from this, I thought about the activities that we had this afternoon which we were missing, how we were missing and I tried hard not to panic as I thought of my guard looking for me or how O would react when he replaces out I was not in the mansion.

There was a dinner tonight as well and when I looked out the window, I knew that we wouldn't make it there on time.

"Don't worry," W tells me, sensing my distress. "I'll explain everything to them when we get out of here. You won't be in any trouble. I promise you."

But he doesn't know what 0 can be like.

Still, his words gave me some level of comfort and when he pressed his face into the side of mine, taking the deepest of breaths, it was hard to resist the sigh that left my lips. We quietly stared at each other, a strange feeling passing over me like a warm breeze in this terrible storm. The only noises that could be heard over the gust of wind was our breathing, coming heavier out of me as I looked up into Mister W's light eyes. There was a glint of something dangerous in his gaze, something I hopelessly wanted to uncover. It took everything in me not to say or do anything that I was not prepared for and with each passing second, he sparked this dizzying sensation in me, weakening my will. He reaches for the hand that I had on my lap and wraps his fingers around mine. With his penetrating eyes still on me, he brought my knuckles to his lips, pressing a tender and warm kiss. The contact of his mouth with my skin ignites a fire somewhere in my chest. He doesn't pull away quickly, letting his lips stay for much longer than a chaste kiss would, but when he finally does, I feel myself missing the touch almost instantly.

W held me tight to him, so tightly as if scared to let me go, and I held on as well, lost in the feelings that jumbled in my chest.

The warning of my guard is louder than ever.

A ringing in my brain that wouldn't stop.

But I think of Miss A and her smile when she told me about how, in the Games, I had to trust my heart and the emotions that came with it.

And so far, he was the only attendee apart from 0 that could make my heart beat this way.

My eyes felt heavy as the sounds of rain and the warmth from W's body lulled me to sleep