Revolting

Michael helped her rip open the package and poured out a portion of the colorful candies into the palm of her hand. He watched her flickering expressions as she pushed the chocolates around with one finger. "Boy, I wish I knew what was going on inside that head of yours," Michael said quietly He was sure the candy had triggered some kind of memory for her, activated something deep within her. As he watched he noticed she was sorting the candies by color in her hand. That definitely wasn't an animal behavior.

Finally she picked up one green orb, and popped it in her mouth. As she chewed, a small smile played around her lips.

A smile! Michael felt like jumping up and doing a victory dance, but he was afraid that any sudden movements would break the spell. Even the others had stopped what they were doing, and were watching, transfixed, as the small woman picked one candy at a time, until she had eaten all of the bright colored chocolates, and only the brown ones remained. A very satisfied look crossed her face, and then she turned, and offered the remaining brown candies to Michael. "What? You don't like the brown ones?" He asked.

She made an insistent gesture with her hand, and he finally opened his palm and accepted the candies. Her golden brown eyes were twinkling as she rolled the remainder of the candy into his hand. He wasn't overly fond of sweets, but to make his mate happy, he opened his mouth and tossed them in. Her small smile spread into a genuine grin, just for a second. He smiled back at her, "They are good, right?"

She only tipped her head at him, as though she were a small and curious bird trying to understand his gibberish.

"Well," Michael said, pushing to his feet, "We better keep moving. I'll feel a lot better with more distance between us and that town."

Hannah also stood, and took a few steps limping steps. Her leg was still tender. She gave Michael a pouty look. "Well princess," he crouched down and offered his back to her. "Think we can do this without tying you on?"

She grunted, but she shuffled closer and climbed onto his back of her own free will. Since she was willingly supporting her own weight, she felt a lot lighter than she had the day before. "Alright, lets go," he glanced up at the sky. "We should be able to reach the lake by nightfall."

The others fell into line behind him. There was some grumbling about the extra luggage, since someone had to carry Michael's pack and his share of the supplies. Lonnie was still slinking around and keeping his distance from Michael. He knew he had failed in his duty to protect the Alpha's mate, and he was a little afraid that Michael would carry out his threat of castration if he drew too much attention to himself.

If they could have hiked in a straight line, they could have reached the lake in half a day, but they went out of their way to avoid roads and human populations, detouring through the woods whenever possible, and skirting around open fields. Hannah clung to his back like a baby monkey. She made no attempts to choke him with her bare hands, so he counted that as positive progress. He stopped every now and then to rest, and let her slide down off from his back. She would stretch her body gingerly and poke at her injured leg. Michael would take a moment to loosen up his back and his arms, before he crouched down again. Without a sound a or a word, she would crawl back on. In a weird way he kind of missed her growling and sass.

This time she didn't try to rub herself all over him while he was carrying her. It was probably a good thing, because he felt his self-control was already dangling by one very frayed thread. But on the other hand, it had been kind of exciting to know that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. The problem was, he couldn't tell if it was Hannah who wanted him, or just her animal instinct responding to the mating bond between them. He wanted Hannah fully conscious and willing. He'd never had to coerce a lover in his life, and he wasn't going to start now.

It was nearly dusk when they started getting glimpses of the water through the breaks in the trees. The population was growing denser, and it was getting harder and harder to stay hidden. "Stay alert," he called back to his gang. "Stay close to cover, and act like a hiker." At least with Hannah riding his back willingly it no longer looked like they were abducting her. They wound their way through the increasingly suburban terrain. At one point Sarah branched off from the others. She returned fifteen minutes later with a paper sack in her arms.

"What's that?" Michael asked, eyeing the bag.

"Grocery delivery," she answered smugly.

"Seriously Sarah?" He shook his head at her, but he also had to admire her. This is what a rogue did to survive. He used to think that rogues were the scum of the earth, that they had no morals and no conscience. Until he became one, and he started to understand, first hand, rogues do what they have to do to survive, trapped between two worlds, the human, and the wolf, but belonging to neither.

As they drew closer to the lake, residential houses changed to more expensive vacation homes, many of which were still vacant this early in the spring season. Frankie scouted out along the shore and came back shortly. "I found an empty house," he said in hushed voice. "Looks safe. All locked up, but no security."

They followed Frank back along the shore, heading northward. They ducked around several occupied homes before they got to the empty lake house. It was surrounded by pines and fairly secluded from the neighbors. An old dock jutted out into the lake. The seven sat down on the rocky shore line. Hannah looked out over the water, watching the golden-orange sunset with a soft, dreamy expression.

She looked like a goddess at that moment, the sun reflecting off from her red-gold hair, her skin flushed in the golden light, even the scars along the side of her face seemed somehow perfect in the dying light. He reached out to stroke her hair, and for once, she didn't flinch away. He decided to try his luck, and leaned in for a kiss. When his lips were just a fraction of an inch from hers, she snapped out of her reverie. Her golden eyes snapped to his, and an angry frown marred her angelic face. Before he could quite grasp the change in her mood, her hand swung and cracked him sharply across the cheek.

"Ouch," he grumbled, and cupped his stinging cheek. She glared at him, but confusion and memory flickered across her features.

She'd done that before. She looked down at her hand in surprise, as though it had somehow acted without her consent. She looked back at him with a furrowed brow.

Michael chuckled and dropped his hand. "The very first day you met me, you slapped me. Do you remember?"

The silence stretched between them as they stared at each-other. It was broken when Frankie pulled a watermelon out of the sack that Sarah had swiped. "Who wants watermelon?"