Claws // Colby Brock

💫 51 💫

☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎☯︎

Between the two of us, I'd most definitely talked the most the past few days. But I didn't mind that, because I'd been the one to refuse relentlessly in the beginning to even give the clan my name, let alone explain any of my life stories to them. Not even Anna knew some of the things I'd told Colby about over the course of three long, informative nights.

I was sure everything I learned about Colby in return would change things. Now I had an idea of how to surprise him, how to make him laugh, how to be the person who could identify everything he was feeling based on a single glance at his face. It really started to feel like a genuine relationship, which only served to make me panic more about something that had been lingering in the back of my head lately.

On more than one occasion, three very important words had been edging close to the tip of my tongue. I didn't fully understand why I felt the need to say anything like that, but when I had moments like these, where I was simply lying on his chest in the dim light the TV provided, and I heard him laugh or looked up and received a gentle smile, that urge was just becoming stronger. I was beginning to lose myself in the deep dark pit of emotions that I hadn't even glanced at for years... and yet slowly, I was getting closer to the edge until I would eventually fall until someone caught me or I hit the bottom.

Amelia flew back to the island to collect us exactly as I was always told she would: without us contacting her in any way. The Goddess had done it for us, and she made polite conversation as we loaded our things into the plane.

Flying back home was more comforting, since I knew where we were going. We'd had to time it perfectly so we arrived during the night to avoid smoking my boyfriend alive. The whole time, it seemed like we never lost some kind of contact, mainly linking our fingers together and sitting in comfortable silence. By the time I was behind the wheel of my car listening to its soft pur, I was tired and all I wanted to do was go to bed the second we got back.

"Do you think we'll have any surprises?" I asked, pessimism dripping from every word. Colby smiled in my peripheral as if he knew what I was thinking, and shrugged. "I really don't feel like dealing with any of them tonight."

"They won't be too bad," he muttered, though he didn't sound sure himself.

I sighed heavily. "As long as I can go to bed within ten minutes of arriving, I don't care what's going on." My eyes widened. "And Neoma. I want to see her, too. They better have taken care of her."

"I doubt they'd starve your cat, Ames," Colby murmured softly, raising the hand is left on his thigh up to his lips to kiss my knuckles. I ignored the intense tingles that traveled through my veins and made one of the last turns leading to the house.

A few minutes later, I was pulling onto the drive next to an abundance of cars that never got used, and Colby was slipping out from beneath my grip. Before I had a chance to call him rude for leaving me behind, he was opening my door for me and my mouth slammed shut.

Okay, this was new.

I began to thank him, only for his head to shake. He nodded toward the house, so I forced my hearing further than the average human's and realised they were all out back. Chances were, they wouldn't assume a random car was us. We could catch them off guard.

Wordless, Colby picked me up and the world disappeared. I blinked to find us in the corner of the backyard a short distance from the others, who were seemingly training. And laughing — a lot. A suspicious amount.

"Come on, you're better than that!" Tara teased as Jake was choke-slammed into concrete. Her eyes were bright with excitement for her One's demise.

"I don't think he is, actually," Mike added. "I mean, that was way too easy. You're, like, twice Sam's weight, Jake."