---

CHAPTER FOUR 
     
QUINN
My leg hurts like a bitch now that I’m back in my right mind. The shifting back and forth did nothing to help it, but sometimes when my adrenaline is high as a wolf, I lose a bit of common sense. But I can’t complain too much since I had a sexy man tote me around.
Rowan’s gone long enough that I start to question if I should go after him when I finally see him leading the horse back. She looks okay from this side, the whites of her eyes are showing as she snorts and looks around like she’s expecting another monster to emerge from the bushes. I can’t hear anything, but it doesn’t mean they won’t be back. When she finally settles, I notice she’s picking her leg up a bit, like it stings.
“Well… this could have gone smoother,” Rowan says as he stops her next to me. “What kind of shifter was that?”
I watch him for a moment as I think about it. “At first I thought it was a bear but… I don’t know any bears that fast and sleek… I don’t know what it was, but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He ground ties Maze before pulling a box out of his saddlebag.
“I swear you have everything but the kitchen sink in there,” I say in awe as Rowan opens up a first aid kit.
“Just necessities,” he says. “I’m afraid of what might happen when it comes back.”
“I should have heard it sooner. I missed it and because of that your horse got hurt and you could have gotten hurt. I’m sorry,” I say. “I promise I’ll stay more focused now.”
He raises an eyebrow. “It sure as hell wasn’t your fault. They told me the convicts would be low to zero threat. That wasn’t fucking zero threat. I don’t know what bullshit they’re spouting, but that was a high fucking threat.”
“And why are you alone?” I ask curiously.
“What?” he asks as he uncaps a small bottle out of the first aid kit.
“Why is no one with you on this trip? No law enforcement, no anything. I would think that’d be extremely stupid to send you out completely alone, so why did they do it?”
“They couldn’t keep up with my horse, and I’m not part of their team so I don’t have any rules,” Rowan says, but I can tell even he is questioning this.
“Yeah, but they clearly knew what they were looking for and they still sent you out alone with no pertinent information. There’s something going on here,” I say, but my mind forgets all that bullshit when he decides to destroy my nerve endings by dumping what has to be acid on my leg. “Holy fuckshit!” I cry.
“You’re a big bad wolf, what’s wrong?”
“This ‘big bad wolf’ is wondering why you’re trying to kill him! What’s in that?”
“It’s just antiseptic. It’s fine,” he says as he comes at me with it again. I’m positive at this point that my leg would prefer to just fall off than have him dump anything else on the laceration.
“Just be glad I’m not doing an emergency stapling, because I can,” he says as he pulls out a staple gun. I swear he looks like he’d love stapling my leg back together!
“You’re insane! Do you prefer torturing people? Is that how you get your kicks? I knew you were too good to be true. I thought you were checking out my ass, and instead, you were thinking about how to wound me!”
“You’re fine,” he says as he sets some gauze over the laceration and starts wrapping it up tightly.
“Just so you know, I generally don’t cry when my Prince Charming touches me. But then… they’re usually not trying to sever my leg.”
“Stop being dramatic.”
“Talon, my bud, my pup pal, this is the thanks I get for saving his ass,” I say as the dog rushes over to get attention from me. “Is your horse going to be alright?” I ask.
“Yes, her knee is cut, but it’s nothing serious. I’ll wrap it up and lead her back.”
“It’s going to be a long walk. There are no shortcuts out of here. I mean, it’s probably two miles until we’ll even reach a people trail and from there another seven miles, which doesn’t sound bad by car but when you’re climbing so much, it’s going to feel like fifty.”
“Yeah, it’ll be a trek, but I don’t want to put more stress on her leg by riding on her back or taking the shorter, more treacherous way back. I can carry you.”
I snort, highly amused by this idea before realizing Rowan’s not joking. “Oh. You’re being serious. How gentlemanly. Gosh, you’re adorable. I’m fine, I’ll shift back.”
“If you shift back I’ll have to rewrap your leg.”
“And you can’t hear my beautiful voice,” I say as I push up and walk over to his horse. I rub her gold-colored neck. “What color do you call this?”
“She’s a buckskin,” he says as Maze nuzzles me.
“She’s cute. How long have you had her?”
“About ten years now.”
“I see a lot of horses when I’m out on a run since there’s a bridle trail near Winsford Village, but I’ve never ridden one,” I say as I scratch her neck while he examines the cut on her leg. It’s not too bad, but it must sting because she picks her leg up a bit before setting it down. “Do you think she’s okay to walk? If not, I can run ahead and see if they can figure something out to get her back.”
Rowan looks over at me with knit eyebrows. “No, she’ll be fine. I’m not having you run out with a much worse leg than my horse has. Like my dad always says, it’s a long way from her heart. I’ll get her plenty of medical attention, but we need to get out of here. I don’t like our chances if that thing comes back with its buddy, and we’re just sitting out here waiting for help to come.”
That thought makes my hackles rise… even though I don’t have hackles as a human. “If it happens again, you run, okay?”
He shakes his head as he looks over at me. “You don’t even know me, why do you want to protect me?”
I think about it because that’s very true, but I’m sure it’s just my wolf knowing that I can protect him so I should. And I’ve been the alpha of my pack for so long, it’s probably in my DNA at this point to protect. “That’s what the alpha does, we protect the pack. I’ll protect you.”
“I’m not your pack.”
True… but I need to keep him safe. “Just shut up and take it,” I announce.
“Okay. Thank you.” He finishes wrapping his horse’s leg before pulling out his radio and trying to call again. There’s no response so I point ahead. “About a mile that way is spotty reception. We’ll hit it on our way.”
“Okay. Let me carry you.”
I snort and shift back into my wolf form because how would I protect him if he was carrying me? He sighs loudly and tightens the bandage on my leg before I walk off, leading the way through the darkening forest. The trees cut out any light that is still trying to shine through. When I reach the first steep incline, I realize that his offer of carrying me doesn’t sound too shabby because climbing straight up on three legs is anything but desirable. When I look back, I notice that he’s slipping and sliding his way up, reminding me how ridiculous the human body is.
His horse helps him up by practically dragging him up it.
“Is it all this steep?” he asks, sounding a little out of breath.
I give him a nod and keep moving, thrilled when we reach the mile mark where he can contact his people with his phone. The bandage is sliding down my leg as I come to a stop and take a seat. I enjoy the break as I listen to him talk, even though it makes me anxious knowing that thing could be following us. Rowan gives them the coordinates of where we’d been attacked and where he thought the shifter had gone before hanging up.
“You good?” he asks as he comes over to me.
I give him a nod, stand up, and trot on. About a mile farther, I slow down as I catch the scent of someone. Talon rushes over to join me, curious about what I’m so interested in, and begins sniffing vigorously. Gritting my teeth, I shift back into my human form and look to Rowan who seems out of breath.
“I consider myself in shape, but these ravines are wicked, and it’s getting dark. I don’t think we’re going to make it back before dark,” Rowan says as he leans against a tree.
“No, we’re not. I picked up the scent of the other escaped convict around here.” I wave. “I don’t know if you want those coordinates, but they could pick up the trail of the other one here. Thankfully, it goes away from us and not in the direction we’re going. Is your crew picking you up somewhere specific?”
“Thank you,” he says as he jots the coordinates down while I rest against a tree. “I… It didn’t sound like it. Scott told me to radio him when I made it to a road where he could send someone to pick me up.”
“Lovely.” My leg is throbbing and the bandage we’ve readjusted multiple times is coated in blood, but we have to get out of here and there’s no way the terrain could support an ATV or anything like it, so we’re going to have to keep moving. I glance over at Maze before getting an idea.
“Can you get my phone for me? I could see if we could get someone to ride a horse partway and carry us the rest of the way out.” He hands me my phone and I call Ari.
Ari immediately answers. “Where the hell are you? I’ve been calling and you didn’t answer. Your brother is getting anxious, and we were all getting worried and about to tear the forest apart. And on top of that, those fucking humans were sniffing around here with you gone.”
“What?” I ask in surprise. “What do you mean? Did they say anything to you?” What the hell would they be doing in my village? They can’t still possibly think we’re hiding those convicts.
“No, Graham told them to move on. They got a bit pissy with him but eventually left.”
Graham, my brother, was probably the best to deal with them, so I’m glad he did before someone started something. “Well, shit. Okay, can you get Helen to bring some horses out for us? I’m fine, but Rowan’s horse got hurt and we’re having to walk. If she could meet us at say, Heaven’s Outlook, we could make it back a bit faster.”
“Did you get hurt?”
“I’m fine, but there’s a shifter out here you guys need to be careful of. If you come, move as a pack, and if you hear anything, run.”
Ari is silent for so long I question if I lost him until he says, “You got hurt. Did those humans hurt you? I’ll fry them! I’ll… I’ll… bite them. I swear I’ll do it!”
“I’m sure you would and I’m sure you’d do a magnificent job of it, but just calm down. I’ll deal with it and explain everything that happened when we get back.”
“Got it, got it.”
“Please be careful and stay together.”
“We will. You too,” he says.
I finish with him and have Rowan put the phone in his saddlebag. “They’re going to meet us about a mile ahead. We’ll beat them there, but we can just wait for them.”
“Okay. Sounds good. You still doing alright? Can I carry you?” Rowan asks, clearly concerned about me.
I give him a smile that I hope is reassuring. “I’m fine! I don’t need to be carried.”
“Are you generally this stubborn?” he asks as he looks at me.
“Not ‘generally,’ always. My brother told me I was born stubborn and I’ll die stubborn. I’ll be one of those old crotchety men sitting on the porch with a shotgun in one hand and my beating cane in the other.”
“You sound like my grandfather. Except they hid all his guns after he nearly shot one of his own cows since he thought it was, and I quote, ‘his ex-wife.’”
I grin at him. “And if it was his ex-wife?”
“The shot would have counted,” Rowan says. “He’s who taught me how to shoot, but let’s hope I don’t grow up to be like him. I’d rather not grow up to be like my father either.” His expression grows tight and I can tell he instantly regrets saying it.
“My father was into the whole lone wolf thing, so he wasn’t much of a dad either,” I say, hoping to push him onto a new subject.
“Then we’re both better off without them. What we’d really be better off with right now is a truck because that looks more like a mountain than a hill.”
I look up at the huge uprise and sigh because that most definitely looks more like a mountain than a hill. “Looks like it. You have any siblings?”
“Yeah, I have a brother I haven’t seen in, man… sixteen years? I don’t know. It’s been a while. Now what do you think about dragging me up that mountain?”
I laugh at the idea because I was thinking the same thing about him dragging me.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER FIVE 
     
ROWAN
When we reach the outlook, it’s nearly pitch black, especially with all the tree cover cutting out any light. Thankfully, we had Quinn leading because my flashlight was doing little to brighten up the area, and I think it was just confusing Maze more, so I had to keep it pointed down at my own feet.
“I noticed Scott is real concerned about us,” I say. “I can’t believe he didn’t want to send anyone out to help us get back.”
Quinn looks over at me as he takes the clothes I hand him. “You still don’t find that whole thing strange? Like… him letting you just wander off alone and not coming for you after all of this?”
I shrug, trying not to care. “I like going out alone.”
He pulls on his boxer briefs and eyes his pants before deciding he’ll do without and sitting down on a rock. Why I watched him from the corner of my eye, I don’t know. Especially when he’s a shifter and I want nothing to do with a shifter. Even a quick fuck would be wrong.
“You really don’t think it’s strange?” Quinn questions.
I snap my attention back away from thinking bad thoughts about him, realizing that maybe I have better things to be concerned about because he’s probably right. “I don’t know. They just claimed I would go out alone because I wasn’t a part of the actual team.”
“Suspicious.”
“You’re right, it is,” I say as I sit down next to him. “I guess I let my whole obsession with preferring to do things alone get the best of me.”
It feels nice to sit down. I’d consider myself in shape, but this terrain isn’t something I do often. My morning runs involve jogging through a flat park or down the street with Talon. We don’t have any hills like this where I come from.
He perks up after a while and nods. “I can hear Helen’s horses.”
“Great,” I say since sitting out in this forest with that monster out there makes me reasonably antsy. I know Quinn promised he’d let me know if he heard him again, but he’d barely heard him last time. Maybe he was just saying it to try to make me feel at ease?
When the two horses come out, they don’t have any lights on, telling me that the people with them are able to see just fine without light aiding them beyond what’s coming from the moon.
“Quinn!” the golden-haired young man from the diner says as he hops off one horse and comes running over. I start to question if there’s something between them as he grabs Quinn in his arms and squeezes him before rubbing his face on his.
While this is not rare as shifter behavior goes, I generally associate it between two people who love each other, and it annoys me for some reason. Why would it annoy me? What a strange thought.
“Hey, Ari. I’m fine,” Quinn assures him.
“Half of the pack guided us here. So we’ll make sure you’re safe getting back.”
“Thank you,” Quinn says as he fluffs the younger man’s golden hair with his hand. “And thank you, Helen, for your help.” He turns to a middle-aged woman who is riding the other horse. She gives him a curt nod.
“Of course,” she says as she gets off her horse. “Quinn, you can have this one. The human can have that one.” She doesn’t seem overly fond of the word “human,” but she does walk up to me and hand me the reins of one of the horses.
“I don’t want to put you out. I can walk. I just wanted someone to get Quinn home so he doesn’t hurt his leg any further,” I say as I hesitate in taking the reins.
“I will run,” she says, eyes narrowing at me like I’m suddenly the most suspicious person in this area.
“Thank you,” I say before going over to Quinn to see if I can help him on the horse, but Ari is already doing so. “Are you good?”
Quinn smiles at me as Ari pats his leg. “Fine. I’ll have you lead the way because I have no clue what I’m doing with this horse. I’m planning on just sitting here and looking handsome and majestic and praying the horse doesn’t kill me.” He pats the sorrel horse’s neck. “Don’t kill me and I’ll bring you like fifty apples.”
The horse seems bored, which is probably why Helen gave it to Quinn who clearly has little experience with the animals. I tie Maze off to the horse I’m to ride and when I turn back, there’s a dog and an adorable ocelot leading the way. Well, that explains what Ari is. I’d been curious with the uniqueness of his hair. And the dog must be Helen.
The ride back is uneventful, even though I can hear rustles in the woods. Quinn assures me it’s his pack and not to worry, but every noise makes me jump. When we reach Helen’s horse trailer, there’s no one there from Scott’s team to even care that we made it back even though I’d sent the location to him while we’d been riding back.
“I’ll keep your horse for the night and get the vet to meet us there,” Helen says. “So you can come with me.” She still sounds rather sharp with me, and I wonder if she can tell I’m not the fondest of shifters. It’s not that I dislike them, I’d just rather be dealing with humans, but I can’t make Maze suffer because of my prejudices.
“Yeah, of course. Thank you. Quinn, can I help you?” I ask.
“Nope. I’m all good. Go on with Helen.”
Ari seems determined that he is more than capable of doting over Quinn, so I thank him and part ways even though I find myself irritated that Ari would care for him. Which is strange as hell. I don’t even know either of them.
I shake my head and brush the odd thought away. I would like to go to my own trailer, but there’s nothing in there that I can’t live without until tomorrow. I call Scott to tell him what’s going on, and he says to send him the address and he’ll have someone pick me up when the vet’s done with my horse.
Helen doesn’t say a single word to me the entire drive, making the ride rather awkward until she pulls into her barn driveway. It’s a nice barn tucked back off the road of Winsford Village. It’s too dark to see much, but it looks like pastures line the driveway.
“I… want to thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.”
She gives me a curt nod. “Yeah. If Quinn trusts you, I’ll try to as well.”
I want to say something, but I’m not sure what. I don’t blame her for not trusting me. I’m not sure I even trust myself because for thirty-three years of my life, I’ve been told to never trust shifters, never interact with shifters, yet here I am. I think I got a bit more understanding as I grew older since there were times I was forced to work with or trust a shifter and far too often they ended up being more trustworthy than the humans.
“Thanks,” I say as I question whether Quinn is the only reason I’m accepted here. He doesn’t seem to get too defensive, though, almost like he’s more willing to be forgiving than the others.
By the time we have all three horses out of the trailer, the vet is rolling in. He appears to be human, but some shifters are hard to tell. He checks Maze over and staples her leg. Then Helen beds a stall for Maze and settles her in as I realize that this means I can’t stray far from the shifter village.
Scott agreed to send someone to come get me, but when I step out of the barn, I see Quinn getting out of a car instead.
“All set?” Quinn asks as he seemingly waits for me.
“You’re done already?” I ask.
He glances down at his leg. “Yeah, I even had time to get my car. We don’t really have a motel in town but Donna has a little cabin she used to use as a bed and breakfast that she said I can let you stay at.” Quinn leans on the top of the car as he speaks to me.
“Scott’s coming to get me.”
He looks around, like he might have missed Scott’s car on his way in. “Oh. Now?”
“Yeah, I told him when I’d be done and he said he’d have someone be here by now.”
“I know you seem to have a bit of an… aversion to being surrounded by shifters, but I assure you, none of us are going to hurt you or do any of that stuff. I only bite people who want to be bitten. There’s a whole kink surrounding it. The ‘mate mark.’”
I grin at him because he makes it sound like he’s been a part of this kinky world. “I’m not… worried about that. I was just raised in a household that was very strict about human/shifter relations.”
“Well, will it help if I tell you Donna’s a human? She just happens to live here. If that’s still not good enough, I can drive you to a motel since Scott seems to have forgotten about you.”
“Let me try calling him.”
I step back, but with his exceptional hearing, I’m not even sure why.
“This is Scott.”
“You said you had someone coming to pick me up?”
“Ah, right. No one wants to go into a shifter village alone in the middle of the night. Can you walk outside the village? We’ll pick you up there.” So he won’t go into the village alone but he wants me to walk outside it with two escaped convicts in the area?
“Never mind,” I say before hanging up and heading over to the car where the wolf waits.
Quinn almost seems smug as I climb into the car with him and he starts driving.
      
The sound of sirens jars me from my sleep. It was four in the morning by the time I’d actually lain down to sleep in a small cabin in the middle of the village. It was tucked back behind a shop that was too dark to see inside of last night when Quinn had handed me over to a nice older woman who was in fact human.
She apologized profusely about the “musty” smell but everything smelled and looked spotless. It’s clear she cleaned the place often, even when no one was staying there. Once she was positive I would be happy, she headed off for her house which wasn’t more than a hundred feet away.
But now, the sirens tear through my sleep, making Talon jump up and start howling, like he has to add to the morning racket. “Talon, that’s enough.” He glances over at me then continues to sing his song far earlier than I wanted to wake up.
While Talon relentlessly howls, I pull on my jeans from last night and finish dressing in the bathroom before stepping outside with Talon by my side.
I see Donna standing on her porch with a jacket pulled tightly over her chest as I question what’s going on. Instead of waiting to see, I head out to the main street where there are three police cars as well as multiple unmarked vehicles. And of course, right there is fucking Scott.
Quinn stands in the middle of the street, like he’s prepared to have a faceoff with all of them. His body language is completely different than it was yesterday. He’s no longer the smiling, jovial man I met and I start to understand how such an average-sized man can claim alpha.
“Tell me what proof you have that we are hiding criminals in our village,” Quinn growls. His pack is flocking to him, and I realize that if he gave the word, they would give their all to protect him.
I head toward Quinn when one of the shifters growls at me. “Fucking human.”
More eyes turn on me and I start to question what the hell I’m doing. When I stop with Quinn on my right and Scott on my left, I feel like I’m stuck in some shifter/human battle that I know nothing about yet am entering myself in the middle of. The real question is what side should I be on. Obviously, the human side, but there’s this strange part of me that sees Quinn fighting against Scott and understands why. It seems like everything is filled with injustices.
Hoping to help settle everything, I give Scott a nod. “Scott, Quinn was with me yesterday and was hurt while he helped me search for your missing people. One of the convicts literally hurt him while he was helping us.”
“Maybe he’s not keeping both of them or maybe he’s lying and trying to gain your trust so he can use you,” Scott says, looking smug like he has deduced Quinn’s evil plan of world domination.
Quinn turns to me. “He had me help you yesterday because he wanted the alpha out of the way so his men could scout the village,” he explains, and by the tense way he says it, it’s clear he’s pissed. He shifts his attention to Scott. “I don’t know what you want, but you won’t find anything here.”
“If you have nothing to worry about then just back down.” Scott gives a little shrug like this is the best idea he’s ever heard of.
Quinn seems to grow in size, but it’s all in how he stands with his body as he takes a single step forward. Scott involuntarily steps back as a smirk grows on Quinn’s face. “We have done nothing illegal.”
“I have a warrant and we are allowed to search the village,” Scott says quickly.
Quinn gives one slow nod. “Fine. But you will treat everything and everyone with respect. I will ask everyone to leave their doors unlocked and I will have my second-in-command follow you to make sure your men don’t steal anything like the thieves they are.”
Scott nods, even though he doesn’t seem too thrilled about the idea. “Fine. I want all of you animals lined up, we’re checking IDs on all of them to make sure none are illegal.”
Quinn growls at him before turning to a man who is a few inches taller than him and quite a bit broader but bears a strong resemblance to him. Quinn says something to him then turns to his pack. “Come along. Unlock your doors and meet back here with your ID cards.”
“This is bullshit,” a larger man with dark brown hair growls, but the moment Quinn even looks at him, he bows his head and turns around without another word.
I look at Scott who seems wildly pleased with himself. “Are you not at all concerned about the monster that attacked us in the woods? We have a shifter here who tracked them down, and instead of worrying about that, you burn the bridge of having him ever help you again? What the hell is wrong with you?” I ask. I get not liking shifters, I grew up in a family that hated them, but why throw away the only lead they have?
Scott’s eyes narrow on me. “You have no say in this.”
“This is ridiculous,” I say as I throw my hands up in the air and head over to where Quinn is still directing people.
He already looks exasperated as he deals with the man I assume is his brother. “Graham, please don’t get in a fight with them. They’re going to destroy shit, they’re going to be stupid, but just let them. You watch to make sure they’re not up to something else, okay?” Quinn asks.
This is clearly Quinn’s brother who nods. “I know. I’ll handle it, I promise,” he says before patting his shorter brother’s shoulder. “The quicker we let them get through it, the quicker this is over with.”
Graham nods and hurries off, leaving just Quinn and me. “I’m sorry,” I say, and I really mean it. I hate that he helped keep me safe yesterday and now he’s dealing with all of this shit.
He looks up at me and gives me a smile. “For what? Did you bring him here? If you did, we’re gonna have a long and hard talk. And it’s not going to be fun.”
“Trust me, I didn’t. When I found out I was working with him, I was less than pleased. I’d only met him once before but he leaves a… lasting impression.”
Since I don’t have much say one way or the other, I’m left stepping back and watching as I see firsthand how horribly shifters are treated. They line them up and bark orders at them, asking them personal information they would never be allowed to ask humans. And then the shifters are left to sit back as the men tear apart their homes looking for the convict they’re positive is being hidden. I’m so annoyed at Scott that I avoid him to the point that he ends up leaving without me.
“How do you deal with it?” I ask as Quinn walks over to me.
“Deal with being this ridiculously amazing? It’s a burden to bear,” he says with a somewhat forced smile.
“You know what I mean,” I say as he sits down on the bench next to me.
“I know that people like Scott are going to do what they want, and people like us better do it or there’ll be hell to pay. And we don’t want to fuck with that, you know? It’s best to just step back, let him do what he wants, and hope he moves on. They’re almost done and should be working on the ‘moving on’ part before long… at least I hope.”
I was raised to hate shifters, so why do I feel this injustice the way I do? When I was in the military, we showed no mercy to those different than us. But here… for some reason, I feel like I want to trust Quinn, trust everything he says or does, but why? “I’ll be back for my horse, but I’m going to have to see if anyone can help drive me to my truck.”
“If you can wait until they’re done, I’ll take you,” Quinn says.
“I’m sure you have shit here to deal with.”
“I need to run into town anyway. Wait for me,” he says before heading off to deal with the rest. And I find that I do want to wait for him.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER SIX 
     
QUINN
When we pull up to Rowan’s truck, it’s immediately clear something’s wrong. His passenger window has been busted and his trailer door hangs open.
“What the fuck?” he asks as he jumps out and rushes over to see what’s going on as Talon rushes after him. I shut off my car and get out where I find him half in the truck, digging for something. “Fuck. Fuck. They took my bag.”
I step up to the vehicle and breathe in the scent around it, but I can’t place anything. It probably happened sometime yesterday and the smell has become diluted as the day progressed. The area is a heavy tourist attraction with a lot of campers and hikers passing through, but it’s not too often there are crimes like this one.
“Is it the person who attacked us? Can you smell it?” he asks.
I shake my head as I walk around the vehicle. “I can’t pinpoint anything specific. Did they take anything important?”
“Thankfully, I had my wallet on me, but my truck keys were in that bag. I didn’t want to lose them out in the woods, and I can unlock the doors with my phone. Shit.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll get Sheriff Hill down here to help out,” I say. I give him a call as I watch Rowan scout his trailer. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching him. There’s something about him that holds my attention despite it having not been captured in years. But this is somehow different.
I grin as I lean into the trailer while he looks around. “Any other damages?”
“No. Just my bag. Assholes. Now I don’t have any clothes either. And I’ll have to find someone to fix the truck window and make me a new key. Dammit. What a mess.”
“Well… closest locksmith is probably fifty miles from here, give or take,” I say as I pull out my phone. “And they closed over an hour ago.”
“You’re kidding. It’s around one in the afternoon.”
“People around here have to get everything done early so they can eat by five or they expire. That means everything closes early. But on Sundays everything closes by noon or doesn’t even open. Gosh, get with the times, you silly man,” I say.
“Umm… is this what actually happens here?”
“A hundred percent. I mean, if you need a key sooner, I was taught how to ram a screwdriver into the ignition to get the vehicle to run, and I wouldn’t mind doing that for you as long as you promise to pay me back for the screwdriver.”
He grins at me. “You are currently of no help. Like less help than Scott is being which is saying something.”
I cringe. “Oh no. Don’t say that. That hurts me right here,” I say as I pat my chest.
“It gives you heartburn?”
“A little bit.”
Rowan reaches into his trailer and squeezes something that makes a shrill noise, which snaps my attention to him—as well as Talon’s. “Will a dog toy make you feel better?”
I stare the traitorous man right in the eyes.
“Squeak, squeak?” he says before tossing the toy at me. I snatch it out of the air while still staring at him.
“You dare treat me like a dog?” I ask as I give it a little squeak.
“You like it, don’t you?” he asks. “The sound of a little innocent animal being murdered.”
I squeak it again. I do kind of like the sound. “Cute. Funny. Hilarious.” That’s when something catches my attention. A fluffy black cat minding his business. “What I do like is cats. I love cats! Look at that cat!”
It’s absolutely adorable but the moment I step toward it, it gives me a look, hisses as its tail poofs out, and then it’s gone.
“But they all hate my very guts.”
“Wow, that’s devastating,” Rowan says as he closes up his trailer and steps out. “That thing does not like you.”
“None of them do. I think they sense my wolf side and they all run from me. All I’ve ever wanted is to be a crazy cat man. I want to be coated in cats.”
“It’s… no wonder why they run from you. If someone came running toward me telling me they wanted to wear me, I’d run too.”
I grin at him. “Not funny. Do you need anything while in town?”
“I guess some clothes.”
“The stores are closed. It’s after closing.” Obviously, his memory is poor since I feel like we’d just gone over this.
“All of them?”
“Well, yeah. Oh, wait! There’s an adult store that stays open until four. You want me to stop there? They might have a harness or something to wear. Edible underwear, maybe? I think I saw a nurse outfit the last time I was in there.”
“Which century are you guys living in?” He seems mystified by all of this which just amuses me.
“Why? Is wearing a nurse outfit with a paddle and a ball gag eighteenth century?”
Rowan sighs as he heads toward my car, like he’d rather not reply. I get in and grin at him as I back out.
“I’ll lend you some of my clothes, if you’d like.”
“I’m not sure they’d fit.”
“I’ll make them fit,” I say as I start driving.
“Your leg still alright? I kind of forgot your leg got hurt and here I am dragging you around.”
Shifters tend to heal a little faster than humans so while it isn’t gone, the pain isn’t bad enough to keep me from walking. “Oh yeah, I’m fine. It’s a bit tight when I stand up, but beyond that, it’s perfect.”
“Do you always have to be the tough guy being alpha?” Rowan asks.
I glance over at him as I turn out on the main road. “Nah, that’s not something I learned as alpha.”
“Then how’d you learn it because there’s no way your leg is ‘perfect.’”
“On the streets with my brother. But that’s a boring story. Let me tell you about the time I nearly petted a cat. It was a dark and stormy day, lightning flashing in the sky, and there was this small cat out in the rain. I felt so bad for it, I knew I could warm it right up and I was already envisioning myself sitting with it, feeding it canned food that smelled like tuna and all the catnip toys it’d ever desire. And it looked me in the eyes, looked right into my soul, and leapt off the bridge into the river to get away from me.”
A laugh escapes Rowan before he can cover it up. “Oh my god, it literally chose death over you!”
“It lived! I watched it swim out but yes! Basically!”
“Maybe you could find a cat shifter.”
“I tried it with Ari. He told me he was pricey and would only pretend to be my pet if I paid him. But maybe I could find someone who likes to pretend to be a pet.”
His eyebrows knit as he looks at me in concern. “Um… that’s not what I was… does that shit happen?”
“Of course. If you paid me a hundred dollars, I’d go to your next family get-together and piss on your father’s tires and jump on the table to eat off Aunt Belinda’s plate. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. God, my father’s face if you did that. He’d probably murder you and me, but I think I would enjoy my final moments on this earth.”
“What about you? You took quite the fall,” I say.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little sore, but good for the most part. My horse didn’t really pin me against anything hard. Anyway, thanks again for driving me around.”
“Yeah, of course. I don’t mind. It’s… kind of nice getting away for a moment because the pack is pissed. I’m pissed. We’re all pissed.” And who knows what will happen because of it.
“I don’t blame you guys.”
Hopefully, today is the end of it and everything can go back to normal and Scott and his crew can stay out of our lives. “Now, a few days a week, we eat as a pack. So come join us for dinner tonight. And if anyone tries harassing you, let me know.”
“Or pull out Talon’s squeaker?” Rowan asks.
I raise an eyebrow. “No. Not funny.” That’s when a strange scent rushes toward me. Since it appears to be coming from Rowan, I lean into him, which instantly makes him lean away.
“What are you doing?” he asks, a bit tense.
I don’t know why the bite to his voice bothers me. One second, he seems okay with shifters, yet the moment I get too close, he acts just like the others. Maybe he’s forcing himself to be near me. But I just swallow down my annoyance and try not to let it bother me.
“Sorry,” he says, telling me he’s picked up on my irritation.
I glance over at him. “Nope, I shouldn’t have gotten in your personal space. It’s my fault.”
“I was raised… to hate shifters. Sometimes, it’s a hard thing to get past.”
Slowly, I nod because I get it. I grew up in a world of people who hated them as well. Only recently have things become a bit easier for shifters, and maybe that’s just because I’ve tucked my pack away in a village in the middle of nowhere where it seems like life is normal for us. The only outside humans we get are tourists who come for the things we sell or to eat our food. They keep our village running, but they also are the good ones, the ones who like shifters and want to be around us.
“I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” Rowan says.
“The only thing you’ve done that’s offended me is squeak that dog toy at me,” I say, causing him to squeak it again.
“What dog toy?”
“Don’t do it to me while I’m driving, I might drive off the road,” I joke.
“You’ll just be going along and suddenly, ‘SQUIRREL!’”
I start laughing even though it’s absolutely ridiculous and he’s an asshole. “You’re not funny.”
His huge smile makes it hard for me to go back to being serious. “You say while laughing,” he reminds me.
“I am a majestic wolf, not a… dog.”
“Don’t let Helen hear you say that. She looks terrifying,” Rowan says.
Why is talking to him so easy? “She is. When I was younger, my brother and I met her once and we were positive she was the witch from Hansel and Gretel. She invited us over to eat with her one time and my brother cried the whole way there because he was positive she was planning on eating him.”
“I’m assuming your brother is also a wolf? And he’s over six feet tall.”
I’m always so amused by the memory and I love to share it with my poor brother, especially around his friends. “He was a huge wuss. I was definitely in the ‘big brother’ role.”
Rowan smiles at me. “It’s good that he had a brother to take care of him.”
“And I’m thankful I had him with me. I would have been lost without him and he without me,” I say.
“How did you meet up with Helen again, then? You made it sound like you two were alone quite a while.”
“After we had the pack settled here, she joined us about seven years ago.”
“You and Graham accomplished a lot together, didn’t you?”
“We did.”
We went through so much together while growing up that I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to be without him. Maybe I wouldn’t have turned out the way I did. I’m almost positive I wouldn’t have. If I didn’t have Graham with me, I’m sure I would have just given up.