Sorry I kinda speed through the rest of the day but I felt like it was taking too long, lol. Thanks for all the comments, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 64

I didn't blame Emma for flipping me the bird but was that really necessary? I mean I never flipped Emily off, sure I almost keyed her car a couple times but the main thing was I didn't. It wasn't my fault, so in response to her naughty finger gesture I smiled slightly and gave her a wink.

Her jaw dropped and I quickly looked away hiding a bigger smile. Kaase and Jen had seemed to drop the conversation to watch a "buzzed" Jeff take a turn at skeet shooting. I turned to watch too and felt somewhat leery as he raised his riffle in the air. "Pull," A disk shot in the air and he shot it down with surprising accuracy. He did the same with the other two.

"Wow beat by a drunk, how embarrassing is that, Kaase?" I laughed.

"Hey now," He frowned.

"I'm only kidding, babe." I took his hand up in mine smiling sweetly.

He raised one eye bow, "You've never called me babe before."

I only shrugged, but I could almost feel the holes that Emma was burning into my back. I'm so mean.

"Hun," Jen spoke up, looking at Kaase's cousin Dale. "do you want me to start the brats?"

Dale glanced at the time on his cell, "Yeah, do you need help?"

Jen looked at me, "Do you wanna help me?"

"Sure," I replied without really knowing what I was signing up for. I slowly got up from Kaase's lap and followed her across the field to the house.

The inside of the house was cozy and smelled strongly of cedar and faintly of cigarettes. It was decorated like one of those houses you see in magazines what with matching furniture and everything. It definitely did not look like a bachelor pad. "Wow," I muttered.

"Thanks," Jen smiled, moving briskly to the kitchen. "It took me forever to fix this place up and get rid of the cig stench. I've finally trained him to smoke outside." She laughed. I guess only my wolf nose could smell the cigarettes.

"I didn't know you two were living together." I said, gazing at the paintings on the walls.

"Yeah, I used to live like two hours away so when we got engaged I moved in to be closer."

"I don't remember seeing you at the party," She opened the sliding door to the kitchen and I followed after her.

"To tell you the truth," She paused in the doorway to turn and smile at me. "his family drives me crazy." I laughed. "I'm sure you understand," she continued. "All the woman in his family have that crazy Dutch only tree house thing going on."

"Yeah I understand completely." Once the door was wide enough two hounds bayed and jumped through the opening.

"Pete, Sam!" Jen yelled clapping her hands. The dogs ignored her and ran towards me like overly boisterous young puppies. I fought the urge to growl and flip them on their backs so they'd respect me. One jumped up on me and I had enough. Without growling I stiffened my posture and grabbed the loose skin on his neck and flung him off of me. My whole body posture said 'alpha' and the dogs cowered and whimpered slightly.

"Sorry." I apologized to Jen.

She shook her head. "No I'm sorry, that was amazing. Where'd you learn to control dogs like that?"

I shrugged, "It's just kinda natural." If only she knew.

"Wow, I should hire you to train these idiots. But, of course, Dale thinks they're perfect." She shrugged, rolling her eyes. She continued into the kitchen and pulled a big pot out from under counter. She opened the fridge and pulled a six pack of beer.

"Here, pour these in the pan." She stuck her head back in the fridge, rummaging around.

I detached one curiously. "May I ask why?"

She stood up abruptly. "For the bratwursts…" She looked at me like I was growing fur, I wasn't right? I quickly glanced at my skin, nope still human. "You've never heard of beer brats?" I frowned and shook my head, "Wow, have you been living in a cave eatin' raw deer all your life?"

That sounded somewhat like a racist comment but I dismissed it. "Sorry never heard of it before."

"Well you're in for a treat," she grinned. So I spent the next half hour preparing the sauce to soak the brats in. We left them to soak and went back out to the field and watched the boys mess around, occasionally taking our turns. Becky joined in our little conversations but Emma stayed her distance. Around noon we took a break to cook the brats and eat lunch. They actually tasted pretty good. Kaase was as shocked as Jen that I had never had beer brats before.

Afterwards the weather had warmed up a whole lot so they decided to bring out the four wheelers. "Please tell me you've been muddin' before." Kaase asked over the roar of the engine as I crawled on behind me.

I laughed, "No I haven't."

"Well you're in for some fun." He grinned and shot the ATV forward. Each of the guys and Becky had their own four wheelers and we raced each other across the field and deep into the woods on a wide trail. The speed was exhilarating for the rest of them but for me it seemed somewhat slow and dull, I could run faster than these as a human. I acted like I was having fun anyways.

Once we were deep into the woods everyone pulled to a stop. Emma and Jen crawled off the backs and Kaase turned to speak to me, "Now you can either stay on or you can get off and watch first."

"I'll watch first." I laughed, jumping off the back. Jeff let out a shout and someone yelled "Yeehaw," as they gunned the four wheelers forward. There was an open patch ahead and they spun around it, slinging mud at each other.

Jen laughed out loud and Emma stifled a giggle, "We probably seem like total hicks don't we?" Jen punched my arm lightly.

I laughed but didn't say anything. We all took turns slinging mud until the sun went down. It actually was more fun than it looked. My first turn Emma spun her tires in front of me spraying me with mud and in turn I cut her off and splashed her with a puddle of melted snow. Over the roar of the engines I could hear Jen and Kaase laughing hysterically.

The sun went down and we all were thoroughly wet and muddy but didn't care. We raced back again, dim head lights filling the woods with a yellow glow.

Dale parked his ATV in the pole barn and started to spray kerosene on some wood in a fire pit. The girls, minus Becky, sat on the logs and waited while the others loaded the ATVs back on their trucks.

When Kaase returned he sat down on a log and wrapped an arm around me. "Did you have fun?" He asked softly.

I nodded, "I haven't had that much fun in a while." It was almost as fun as shredding leeches. I'd have to tell Kaase my joke later where mundane ears couldn't hear.

Dale grabbed a propane torch and lit the soaked wood on fire, it burst into a bright glow of heat and flames. The light flickered in Kaase's soft blue eyes. "I'm glad." He smiled and leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I moved an arm around his neck and kissed him softly back. I only pulled back at the sound of approaching footsteps.

In one swift movement I turned and stood, Emma was taking long strides at me with clenched fists. She had a look of pure hatred in her eyes and I knew she meant to break my jaw. I had two choices then, either duck and save her hand or let her crush her knuckles on my face of steel. If I let her crush her hand it might cause suspicion but then again I wouldn't get the satisfaction of hearing her bones cracked as she gets what she deserved for punching me. Kaase stood up but he was too slow, Emma took a final step, pulled her hand back and shot it forward. In that last moment I decided to have the reflexes of a human and not move. Her contact with my check felt like a soft kiss but I heard the deafening crack as her knuckles shattered.

Pain shot across her face and she gasped, pulling her hand against her chest. "Emma!" Jarred gasped and everyone stood.

"What the hell?" She growled at me.

"Emma, are you ok?" Jared asked once he reached her. He pulled her hand away from her chest tenderly to look at it.

"No, dumbass, my hands broken." She growled and snatched her hand away again, pain bolting across her face.

"Let me take you to the hospital." He put an arm around her and led her off into the darkness.

I plopped back down holding my breath so I wouldn't let out a laugh. Serves her right for trying to hit me. Kaase sat back down, "That wasn't very nice." He whispered in my ear.

"She shouldn't have it me." I muttered back. I heard the scuffling as Emma retreated to her truck. Jen and the others stared at me in amazement over the fire. I should probably act like I was hurt. I rolled my jaw a bit and rubbed it, laughing. "She's weak." They all laughed and the atmosphere seemed to relax. No one was upset she was gone. I felt a pang of sorrow for her, she was just like me. But just like me, if the roles were switched, I'm sure she'd be doing the same. I concluded I should ease up on her but I can still have a little fun. I snuggled in closer to Kaase warming him faster than the fire could. He put an arm around me and I sighed, Kaase made life heaven on earth.