Flutter by Amanda Hocking

waited for Ezra to return.
    Sun filtered around the edges of the curtains, and
that scared the hell out of me. The lycan were even more strict
about their nocturnal habits than we were, so the odds of them
continuing a discussion into the daylight didn’t seem likely. If
Ezra weren’t back soon, he probably wasn’t coming back.
    “He’s still not here.” I peered out the curtain,
letting the warm morning light stream in, burning my overly
sensitive retina, and then shut it. I looked behind me, where Peter
laid immobile, the same way he had all night. “Peter?”
    “I’m aware that he’s not here, Alice.”
    “Don’t you think we should do something?” I glowered
down at him. Lying in bed did not seem like the right answer for
this situation.
    “I’m thinking.” He closed his eyes, as if that could
block out my voice.
    “You’ve been thinking all day! We knew that Ezra
might not come back, and he’s obviously not going-”
    “I have been thinking, Alice!”
    “Well… you should let me in on it!” I crossed my arms
over my chest. “I could help!”
    “You mean like pointing out the obvious and peeking
out the curtain?” He pushed himself up into the sitting position,
letting his legs dangle off the edge of the bed.
    “I don’t know what else to do!” I felt powerless and
on the verge of tears, and I didn’t like it at all. I took a deep
breath, and pushing a strand of hair behind my ears, I decided to
start over. “What did you come up with?”
    “Nothing useful. I just can’t see a way around
anything.” He sighed, then muttered to himself. “I suppose that’s
why he brought you.”
    “What are you talking about?” I stiffened, as if he
claimed something derogatory.
    “Ezra brought you with because he knew how utterly
useless you would be,” Peter explained. “And I’ve been going back
and forth between it all day long, wondering what I would finally
do when it came down to it.”
    “What?” I asked, filled with an aching sense of
uselessness.
    “If I go after Ezra, and I bring you along, you’ll
get killed. If I leave you here, they’ll follow my scent back, and
you’ll get killed. If I try to put you on a plane to get out of
here, you’ll probably do something horrible in bloodlust, and get
yourself killed. There’s nothing I can do except stay here and
baby-sit you!” Peter growled.
    “I don’t…” I started to stumble out some kind of
protest about needing a baby-sitter, but everything he said was
true. After the initial sting of that wore off, I thought of
something even stranger, especially given the way that Peter talked
to me. “What do you even care if I die? So what? Let’s just go out
there and give them hell.”
    “Like you could really give them hell,” he laughed
hollowly. “You’d just slow me down.”
    “Maybe,” I admitted. “What you’re saying … or
thinking… If Ezra isn’t coming back and they’re only going to come
after us… Why don’t you just go? I don’t want to slow down your
fight. But it’s better than the both of us waiting here to
die.”
    His expression changed instantly into something
foreign. It took me a minute to realize that it resembled concern
for me. Even when we had been bonded, he’d never looked at me like
that.
    “That’s an idiotic plan,” he shook his head.
    “That’s pretty much what your plan is,” I said.
    “I’m not gonna just leave you
here.”
    “But you’re saying they’ll kill me no matter what. At
least this way you can get in a few good punches, take out some of
the bastards that-” I stopped myself before I said anything about
Ezra being dead. It was too terrifying to say aloud.
    “You’d be completely unprotected. You wouldn’t even
stand a chance,” he shook his head again, sounding tired of the
conversation, and stood up.
    “So what? You almost killed me once before and now
you’re suddenly my body guard?” I wrinkled my nose at his
hypocrisy.
    “Oh, god dammit!” Peter