Chapter Four
“Draw eight!”Morlieset her draw-four card on the discard pile and smiled at Lovel.The three had moved from the kitchen to the living room and sat around the coffee table, playing the old game.Morlie used to play this game with her parents and sister when she was younger, and it was always one of her favorites.
When Amira mentioned theUNO,Morlie was excited to play the nostalgic card game.
Amira had first hit her with a draw-four, but Morlie held onto that same card for such a moment and was pleased she could pass on the extra cards pull to another player, leaving her with only two cards.The game had been just what Morlie needed to keep her mind from drifting to Chanin.She wanted to see him and wondered what kept him so long.
Their situation between her and him was too new for her to believe she missed him.However, besides the two women keeping her occupied in his absence, Chanin was the only person she knew in the Lupine territory.Not to mention, he was her mate.
That thought warmed her blood and caused a tightness in her core.She could not help but recall what happened between them in the woods.She held her cards in one hand and pressed the palm of the other to her hot cheek, trying to cool it.The last thing she needed was for her new friends to see her flush and question her.Exhaling, she focused back on the game.
Lovel frowned at the pile and then stared at the four cards she held.“Um...I don’t think so.”She pulled a card out of her hand and set it on top of the card Morlie had just laid down.“Draw twelve, love.”
“Ah!”Amira squealed.“No way.How could you do this to me.”Amira leaned toward Lovel and batted her lashes.“I thought you loved me, mate.”
Smiling, Lovel reached across the table and caressed Amira’s cheek gently.“I do.But I plan to finally beat you at this silly, childish game.”
Amira pouted.“Childish, hm.”She collected her twelve cards from the stack next to the discard pile.“Watch me.I’ll have a comeback.And you’ll have to change the baby’s diapers the first month.”
Morlie scrunched her nose.Before she got sick, she used to volunteer at the daycare plex after her learning day.So many people had babies to get the government stipend, but the extra sum on their account didn’t last long, and most mothers had to return to work within six months of having a child.She recalled just how bad an infant's diaper could stink.She felt sorry for Amira for issuing the challenge because she had planned to win the game before the other human.
“You’re not going to beat me.But I won’t mind doing whatever to tend to our little one’s needs once it gets here.”
“Well, I am sorry to disappoint you both.But I am going to win.Uno!”Morlie set down the wild card.“The color is yellow.”It was the color of the last card in her hand.
Lovel, whose turn was after Morlie’s, mouth dropped open wide.Somehow, Lovel had utterly missed the few cards in Morlie’s hand while trying to beat her human mate.“Damn it.”
Morlie danced in her seat, excited that she was about to take the game.
Then Lovel offered her a wicked smile.She slowly pulled out a card from her hand.When she set it down, they all saw it was a wild card, just like Morlie’s.“The color is red.”
Morlie groaned.The color change would force her to pick a card out of the stack when it came around to her turn again.
“Thank you, beautiful.”Amira cheered and started a dance of her own.“Not so fast there, Morlie.Draw two.”She placed a red draw-two card on the pile.
“I wasn’t trying to help you, but whatever stops Morlie.”
“Hey, don’t you all know the rule that you should let your guests win the first time you invite them over?”Morlie plucked two cards.Disappointment weighed her shoulders when she saw one was a yellow card and the other a blue one.Now, she had three cards in her hand, and none of them were helpful.
“I think you just made that up,” Amira teased.
“Did it work?”Morlie raised her brows.
“Nope.”
“Never,” Lovel added.“We’re wolves.We always fight to win.”She relinquished another card from her hand.
They went around the table again, where Morlie had to pull another useless card, and Lovel’s hand dwindled to two.
