Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Instead of deleting Evan’s number the way George had promised himself he would, he found himself messaging as he ate dinner in his sweat-damp gym clothes. While he’d heard there’d been some trouble with hunters and between packs, he had not expected the formation of the Outcast Pack—which was a bloody stupid name as it drew attention to what they were.
But he was not surprised Kyle Ashford was at the center. He’d met Kyle when he was fresh out of school after running into Con at a bar and fucking him later that night. He’d run a few times with them and had some fun, but it wasn’t what he’d been looking for at eighteen. Now though?
A pack made up of gay wolves and their partners, who weren’t all wolves from the sound of it, sounded like a damn good idea.
Evan hadn’t said a word last night, and he seemed like the kind of man who knew everything that was going on and was already three steps ahead.
He deleted the message he’d typed and stared at the screen as he took a bite of the double meat and cheese souvlaki. If he messaged, Evan might tell him to fuck off, which was fine. But if Evan invited him over, he didn’t have the strength to say no. And he was damn sure they wouldn’t be doing much talking, despite Evan telling him he talked too much.
Last night hadn’t gotten Evan out from beneath his skin. Instead, the lust had worked its way deeper as if it would never be sated.
Evan wasn’t the man he remembered—which was part teenage fantasy and part assumptions about his pack and attitudes—he didn’t know him at all, or what he’d been going through.
And while he didn’t forgive him, he understood.
It was for the best that Evan had forced the friendship to end because if Ryan had really been his friend, he wouldn’t have cared. From what Evan had let slip last night, Ryan had eaten up all the pack bullshit.
He wanted to know what had happened because all Ryan had said to him was that he didn’t want to hang around with a gay wolf, and he didn’t want people thinking they were together—though he hadn’t been so polite about the phrasing. He’d accused George of lying, amongst other things.
He typed up a new message, this time making it clear that he only wanted answers. Evan wasn’t online, but he’d read it later unless he’d blocked George…something he hadn’t considered before.
That would be a shit.
The next person on his list to call was Kyle so he could ask to run with the intention of joining. If Kyle said no because they were full, that left him on his own or running with his family—who would gladly welcome him back and then expect him to stay forever.
He wasn’t sure what his next move was, only that staying in one place for the rest of his life wasn’t it.
And until he sorted out the pack and job situation, he didn’t want to look at houses. He could sort out his lack of car, though. Tomorrow, he’d go car shopping. The one he’d driven in Darwin couldn’t have made the trip south. It had been a piece of junk when he’d bought the van, and four years hadn’t done it any favors. That he’d been able to sell it for a couple of hundred was good going in his books. The new owner had been delighted because there were no rust holes in the floor and roof.
He cleaned up and showered because he didn’t want to sit around in his sweaty workout gear until it dried, and by the time he was done, there was a reply. Water dripped off his hair and onto his shoulders as he read it.
I was expecting you to stay and ask last night instead of running.
George heard the sneer in the text.
Fuck you too. It was a hook-up, not a date, but he read the rest of the message because he wanted to hear it from a wolf, not the official Coven write-up—the good stuff wouldn’t be in the write-up. Wolves liked to keep wolf business to themselves where possible. Sometimes, he wished he was a cat. He didn’t think he could handle losing his arms and legs the way snakes did. And sharks freaked him out. What if they ran into a real shark or something? He shuddered. Not that it mattered, as he couldn’t change what he was any more than he could change the rusty color of his fur.
I’m assuming you want to know about Ryan and the pack situation. I’d come to you, but I had a shit of a day at work and I’m in my pajamas and two glasses of wine in.
There was no sneer in those lines. And if he reread the whole thing, he was imagining the attitude in the first one. Old habits and expectations. The second read-through was jarring for a different reason.
Evan wore pajamas?
George didn’t remember the last time he’d worn anything to bed…maybe on the last school camp he’d been on?
Okay, I’ll be there ASAP. Save me a glass.
Could he sound more desperate? He expected a cutting remark in response and watched the screen, waiting. But got a simple agreement instead.
Will do.
It was only as he dressed that he realized he didn’t know what Evan did for a job. Everything he knew about the man was outdated, incorrect, or an assumption. He needed to change that because it was going to take more than one hook-up to move past this infatuation…
And if he couldn’t move past it?
He did not like the way his pulse gave a flutter of excitement at the idea of giving in to the hunger.
George accepted the glass of wine in silence, mostly because Evan had opened the door and not said anything. He looked grim and resigned as if this was the last thing he wanted to talk about. It wasn’t high on George’s list, either, but he didn’t want to go running around Melbourne without knowing the wolf situation. That was an easy way to get into trouble.
There was an uncomfortable space between them. The scent of last night’s lust and anger was embedded in the carpet and the furniture. Evan’s scent was alluring, calling to him, but this wasn’t a hook-up, even though his body was ready for it to turn into one. From the slight rise of Evan’s eyebrow as he handed the glass of wine over, George was sure Evan was aware of exactly how much heat was in his blood.
No, instead of giving into the lust, they were going to pretend to be friends or something. They weren’t enemies, even though, for the longest time, George had been ready to snap at him. Now, he saw Evan as a person. Another wolf with a bag full of issues that humans never needed to worry about. Sometimes, when his human friends complained about their family, he wanted to word them in about what it was like to deal with family and pack and all the politics that came with being a wolf.
It wasn’t Uncle Frank getting drunk and misbehaving or Auntie Sheila’s racist rant. It was which packs they were aligned with and which they were at odds with? Would they get attacked for being in the wrong place and belonging to the wrong pack?
But he never said a word because, like every other shifter, his fur coat was firmly in the closet.
Evan dropped onto the sofa and put his bare feet on the coffee table. A glass of red wine balanced on the arm of the chair. George was willing to bet that was its usual place and Evan never knocked it over.
“You ask the questions, and I’ll answer. That seems like the easiest way to do this.” Evan didn’t open his eyes as he spoke.
George sat in the armchair to the side because it didn’t seem right to sit on the sofa next to him.
“What do you do for work?” That seemed safe. An easy question to answer and build some trust or something near enough.
“Anesthetist. Tricky operation this afternoon went about two hours longer than it should have.”
Wow, that meant Evan was pretty fucking smart. Ryan had never said anything aside from that his brother was at uni.
Evan cracked open his eyes and took a sip of wine. “Interesting place to start?”
“I realized I don’t actually know you.” He studied the wine. What the hell was he doing? Evan didn’t push. He didn’t say anything at all, and George didn’t know if that was better or worse. He didn’t like big silences with other people. If people were talking and doing something, it was easier to read them. He lifted his gaze. “And after hating you for so long and wanting you for so long…” He shook his head and sighed. There was no need to lie about that. “I figured I should give you a chance. If you want it, that is. I appreciate you answering some of my questions because the Coven gave me the very dry official version.”
He knew he was begging for help and that he needed to be a little bit gracious about it, so Evan didn’t tell him to leave. The Evan of five years ago would have, or at least the man George believed him to be would have.
The cool-got-it-together older brother had been an illusion George had fallen hard for.
Evan nodded. “What did you do in Darwin?”
“Laundry, mostly. Housekeeping on a rig. It paid well. I didn’t need any special skills aside from hauling shit around.”
“Why did you leave?”
He was meant to be asking the questions, and yet it was Evan doing the digging. He usually answered that question glibly. “I wanted an adventure.” And that was where he stopped. For most people, it was enough. This time, it wasn’t. “I needed to see if I could live on my own. My family and my pack are great, and I will see them once I’ve sorted out a car, but at the same time, their expectations were smothering.”
“They loved you so much you had to leave?” Evan took a drink, but it didn’t hide his disgust.
George grimaced, knowing he sounded ungrateful. “I don’t know how else to explain it aside from having itchy paws. I wanted to run on different ground. I want to see the world. I don’t know how long I’m going to be back for…only that I don’t want to fall into step and wake up in forty years to find I haven’t left the state.” He took a drink. “I am aware that’s pretty self-indulgent.”
“If you wanted to travel, you didn’t make it very far.”
“I did take several holidays in Asia while I was living up there. And I saved a lot of money. What about you? What have you been up to?”
“I went to uni and got a job.”
“You left your pack?”
There was a slight hesitation before Evan answered as if he wasn’t used to telling the story. “I waited for Ryan to finish school, then I told my parents that I was going to live in a share house with some other medical students. I ran with my family maybe twice more after that, but by then, I had stopped pretending that I wasn’t gay, and I didn’t want to go back to hiding. I haven’t officially left. I just don’t run with them.”
“Do you run with the Outcast Pack?”
Evan twisted the stem of his wine glass. “Nominally. I don’t like shifting.” He huffed out of breath and shook his head. “When I was seventeen, I tried to explain that I didn’t like shifting. My parents told me I’d become used to it, and it wasn’t as though I could stop being a shifter. After that, they watched me a lot more closely until they were satisfied that I had embraced my wolf nature. Even then, I was aware I didn’t fit in.”
George frowned. “But you like bites?”
“Oh, I have no trouble being wolfy in human form. I don’t like the running around on four feet thing. And I can tell from your expression you think I’m a freak.”
“No, I’m trying to imagine what it must be like to hate shifting when your body demands it. That must be horrendous.”
“I’ve learnt to stretch out the time between shifts.”
“You said you shift after hook-ups.”
“You’re assuming I hook-up often.” Evan watched him as he took a sip.
“True… So, how long do you go between shifts?” If it had been more than three weeks, George’s skin got prickly, as if the fur were pushing through.
“About eight weeks at the moment. The more I indulge that side in this form, the easier it is to put off. You don’t want to learn about my shifting habits; you want to know about the pack.”
“I do because I think I’d like to run with them while I’m here, but if that’s going to be awkward for you because of…” He wasn’t sure if them being in the same pack might be awkward because of the past and Ryan or because of last night. Or maybe he was the one feeling awkward. He hadn’t dealt with wolf politics in so long that he felt out of practice, which meant he was going to stumble and make a mess if he wasn’t careful.
“It doesn’t bother me. I don’t go up there to run most of the time. But I go for events like weddings and Christmas Eve and such.”
“So, you run on neutral ground in the city?” Did he have some favorite places?
“No, I stay home. Unless I really need to get out, and then there are a couple of parks and a beach, but the parks are a bit hit-and-miss because of the asshole packs. There’s one Mitchell uses, but he goes on a lead with his witch to be safe.”
“That’s one of the fated mates pairs?” He’d been told there were a few in the pack, something many packs frowned upon, even his family pack.
“Yes. It’s fairly unconventional. I can put you in contact with Kyle, give you a recommendation as it’s invitation only, and then you can ask him about running.”
“I met Kyle before I left.”
Even lifted one hand and made some air quotes. “Met.”
George shook his head and laughed. “I met Con. He introduced me to Kyle, and I ran on his property a couple of times before I left.”
“Con is still there. Him hooking up with Zach was the start of the trouble, though I have no doubt it would’ve exploded anyway, and it was just an excuse. Zach walked away from his pack after coming out. His father wanted revenge, and there was a turf dispute that ended up before the Coven Board. Needless to say, we won the right to run on Kyle’s property, plus we got the adjoining national park on the proviso that non-wolf shifters can also use it. Which isn’t a problem because we have a leopard and a snake in the pack, anyway.”
George smiled. “You’re referring to them as your pack, even though you said you rarely run with them.”
“They are my pack, and I sometimes catch up with them in the city as well. Con works at the same hospital as a paramedic. Brandon works in the city, as does Drew. The Coven guys get together a bit more frequently.”
“The Coven guys?”
“We have a few agents and an investigator in the pack.”
George took a second to digest that. There were Coven agents in the pack. “So no one wants to fuck with the Outcast Pack?”
“Correct. However, there are a few areas of the city that you may want to avoid, even in human form, because the packs who have the territory rights to that land are being dicks about it. But they’re also being smart, so they aren’t doing anything that would draw police or Coven attention.”
“Great, so there’s an unofficial no-go zone?”
“Give me your phone number, and I’ll share the map. It’s not an official map, just one that we put together. And I’ll give you Kyle’s number in case it’s changed.”
“Thanks.” George unlocked his phone and pulled up his contacts so Evan could put his number in. Then he sent him a text, so Evan had his number. The screen dimmed as he contemplated his next move. If he didn’t ask now, he never would, and he wanted to pull the splinter out. “Can I ask about Ryan and what actually happened?”