Chapter 16

"Alexis! Alexis."

I groaned and snuggled closer to my pillow, "Five more minutes, dad."

"I'm not your dad, Alexis. Wake up! We have a witch to meet."

My eyes snapped open, and I blinked several times as my eyes adjusted to the dark. Then, I felt something move beneath me and it took me a few seconds to realize that I was practically on top of Hudson.

I also became aware of the fact that his hands were resting on my ass.

"Can you move your hands?" I whispered, glancing at the rest of the group. They were all slowly waking up.

"That depends. Are you going to move?"

I opened my mouth to respond when something hard started poking my thigh. Realization hit me, and Hudson must have noticed my panicked look because he just smirked like this was normal for him.

"Why is your dick saluting me? I-I–we didn't even do anything."

He raised an eyebrow, "Are you uncomfortable, Alexis?"

I scrambled to get off of him which pretty much answered his question. He snorted and sat up, whipping the bearskin blanket off of him.

The tent in his jeans was huge, but he didn't seem to care. He was busy sniffing the air.

"There's a herd of deer nearby," he muttered and whipped his shirt off, "When the rest of the group is awake, tell them I went to go chase the meat down. I'm not sure if we'll get a chance to hunt today. Do you want a deer or something?"

I blinked, "Uh no. I'll eat the leftover cooked meat from last night, but thanks anyway."

He nodded and disappeared into the woods with his pants on. I decided to take this time and rinse my mouth out with some mouthwash since I didn't bring my toothbrush. I quickly grabbed the little bottle of Listerine and my water bottle and followed a few of the pack warriors to the stream.

When I came back, the pack warriors were finished cleaning up and were staring at one another in confusion.

"Something wrong, guys?" I asked, stuffing my things into my backpack.

"Luna, where's Alpha Hudson?" Devin asked.

"Oh, he went to go beat his meat up."

I was busy trying to stuff my backpack so I didn't even realize what I had mumbled in reply. When no one replied, I glanced up and saw them staring at me, horrified.

I frowned slightly. Why were they staring at me like that? Was hunting in the morning bad or something?

"You guys can join him," I said slowly.

Their horrified faces morphed into ones of shock.

"I don't think we're comfortable doing that, Luna."

My eyes narrowed, "You guys are uncomfortable with hunting? Didn't all of you just go hunting last night?"

"He went hunting?" Devin asked, looking awfully relieved.

I gave him a confused look, "Yeah?"

He nodded and ran in the same direction Hudson went with the rest of the pack warriors behind him. I huffed and shook my head. Hudson had some weird pack members.

While I was folding my blanket, Boston and Matthew came out of the woods, talking in hushed voices and pointing at the map. When they noticed me, Boston smiled and Matthew nodded at me.

"Good morning, Alexis. Where is everyone?"

"Morning Boston, they went hunting."

They nodded in understanding and I chuckled quietly, "Your pack members need to get out more often."

"What makes you say that?" Matthew asked curiously.

"I told them that Hudson went to go beat his meat up and they gave me weird looks."

Suddenly, Boston burst into laughter and Matthew just stared at me weirdly, "You told our pack warriors that Hudson was beating his meat."

Why was he staring at me like that? What was wrong with everyone?

I nodded slowly and Matthew rubbed a hand down his face, "Maybe you should get out more. You basically told them that Hudson was jerking off."

My eyes widened and I choked on air, "How did–what? I didn't mean that. I thought they would understand what I meant. Who even refers to a dick as meat anyway?"

"A lot of people," Matthew said slowly.

I face-palmed and felt myself blushing in embarrassment.

Great, his pack members must think I was an idiot or something.

"Alexis, you're–you're so cute." Boston choked out through his laughter.

Matthew shook his head, "Innocent is more like it."

I covered my red face and tried not to kick a tree or something. How could I be so naive?

"What is so funny, Boston?"

Oh Moon Goddess, please save me from this humiliation.

Boston started laughing even harder when he saw Hudson, and even Matthew's lips twitched. Hudson gave Boston a deathly glare, which made him calm down slightly.

"Now, someone tell me what's so funny," Hudson demanded looking between his Beta and Gamma.

Matthew shook his head, "You don't want to know."

Hudson looked at me and raised an eyebrow, "I'm guessing you did something stupid from the look on your face. What did you do?"

"Nothing!" I said quickly, clearing my throat, "Nothing at all. Now let's eat. I'm starving."

He narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly, putting his bloody meat on the ground.

I had a feeling he would interrogate me later.

***

Three hours later, after we had eaten and cleaned up our mess, we were getting closer to the witch's place. According to Boston, we would be able to see her cottage in a few miles.

I was walking next to Hudson, who was still holding my hand after we had to climb over some rocks earlier. I had tried pulling away, but he had just tightened his grip on my hand and avoided my eyes.

How weird.

"Here we are," Hudson muttered. I looked up and saw a small cottage with flowers planted in front of it. It reminded me of my grandmother's house.

"Is she old?" I asked quietly so no one else would overhear.

Hudson shook his head, "She's....kind of young? I would say late-thirties."

I pursed my lips and nodded, "Interesting."

Hudson stopped walking and turned to the pack warriors, "All of you will wait here. Beta Matthew and Gamma Boston will be the only ones to accompany us inside. If there is an emergency, notify one of us immediately."

There was a chorus of "Yes, Alpha," and Hudson tugged my hand gently, pulling me towards the stairs.

"You can let go of my hand now, Hudson. We're here," I said, trying to shake my hand out of his grip.

He shook his head, "Believe me, you don't want to. This woman is insane. You'll see."

I stopped struggling and gave him a curious look, "What?"

He gestured for me to stop talking and knocked on the door loudly. There was a soft patter of footsteps and a petite woman, who looked to be about forty, opened the door. She saw Hudson's face and smiled broadly, "Well, isn't it Alpha Hudson? What brings you here?"

Hudson stiffened, "We have some questions, Patsy."

Her face became serious, "I see. Well, I hope I have the answers for you."

She let us in and shut the door behind us gently. When she turned back around, her eyes immediately landed on me and a broad smile formed on her face.

I wasn't sure if I should feel welcomed or creeped out.

She looked between Hudson and I a few times before closing her eyes, as if she was having a vision of some sort. When she opened them back up, her gaze landed on my stomach.

"You two will have very strong pups. Very strong pups indeed."

I froze and glanced at Hudson from the corner of my eye. He had a somewhat surprised look on his face at her random statement, but the surprise disappeared a second later.

"Patsy, we didn't come back here to discuss our pups. We came here to ask about the griffins."

She raised an eyebrow and gestured to the couch, "Have a seat then."

The four of us sat down warily and she rummaged through one of the boxes in the corner, "I can smell the golden heart in one of you. Which one of you has it?"

"That would be me," I said cautiously. Hudson's grip tightened on my hand, and I saw his jaw ticking from the corner of my eye.

Patsy looked up from the box slowly and studied me, "Interesting. Very interesting."

When she turned back around, I exchanged a look with the three of them. We were all thinking the same thing.

Something was off here.