Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was Saturday when Evan picked George up from the hotel to drive out to Kyle’s. George expected him to be driving some swanky proper doctor’s car. Instead, it was a rather average sedan in a nondescript silver. It was the kind of car that got lost in a shopping center car park far too easily because it looked like every other car and could hide between two four-wheel drives.
“Thank you for this, but you didn’t need to.” It wasn’t as though Evan was going to run while he was up there since he hated being on four feet.
“I haven’t been up there since Christmas Eve. As much as I don’t like shifting, I should take this opportunity to give my other body a run otherwise…” Evan pulled into the busy traffic, the GPS telling him how to get out of the city.
“Otherwise, what?”
Evan glanced at him. “I can only put off shifting for so long, and even then, shifting and staying home doesn’t satisfy the way being outside does.”
He spoke as if he was being asked to run over broken glass or roll around in a pit of rusty nails, not run through the bush miles away from humans.
The shifting heat was already simmering in George’s blood. Although sitting next to Evan, he was pretty sure some of it was lust. “So, is this your other car?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t doctors drive fancy cars?”
Evan laughed so hard George wasn’t sure how he was focusing on the traffic. “I have a fancy debt. I’m still training and have another two years to go before I’m qualified as an anesthetist. It’s why I get some delightful shifts.”
“Oh, I thought you’d be nine to five or something like surgeons.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Do you have any idea how a hospital works?”
“Clearly not.”
“Someone has to be there when the ambulances come in. Someone has to put the people under for their emergency surgery. There are plenty of scheduled surgeries, but if they aren’t urgent, they’re bumped for the actual emergencies.”
“Right…so you aren’t making big bucks, and you aren’t going to be getting a fancy car anytime soon.”
Evan lifted one eyebrow. “Are you trying to find yourself a rich husband, so you don’t need to work?”
George’s eyes widened as he realized that was exactly how it sounded. “No. But why would you do all that study and take on all that debt if you’re not…if you’re not going to make a stack of money? I was probably making as much on the rig washing socks.”
“In a couple of years, when I’m qualified, I’ll be making more. But if you’re bored while you’re between jobs, I have plenty of laundry you can do.”
“Aww, thanks. Am I ever going to live down coming on your pajamas?” Not that it was entirely his fault because Evan had refused to take them off, and he was pretty sure it had been deliberate.
Evan gave him a very wolfish grin.
And in that second, George knew those pajamas hadn’t been washed yet. Evan was enjoying his scent. Lucky bastard. But he couldn’t ask for something. He needed to get Evan into his hotel room.
“But seriously, how is the hunt for a job, a car, and a place to live going?”
“The car I have just about got sorted. I test-drove a couple, and I have one on hold. I told the guy I had to go away for work this weekend.” The lies about being a shifter were so easy to tell they tripped off his lips without thought. “Not that I have anywhere to park it yet, and I don’t want to sign a yearlong rental agreement before I find a job because I don’t want to be crossing the city every day.” And he didn’t want to take a job in what was effectively a no-go area for wolves like him.
Melbourne had gotten a lot more complicated while he was away. But then, he hadn’t grown up in the city center. He’d been in one of the outer suburbs. And if he moved too close to home, he’d have no excuse not to be running with them. He’d spent yesterday marking out his ideal locations, assuming he stayed in the city center, of course. The only thing keeping him there at the moment was Evan.
And he couldn’t base the next year of his life on a ‘convenience’, as they were calling the thing between them.
“Have you thought about applying for orderly work in a hospital?” Evan’s words broke into his housing dilemma thoughts.
“What qualifications do I need for that? Because I have precious little aside from finishing high school.”
“You probably have more than you realize, considering you were on the rig. You have first aid?”
George nodded. “And a whole bunch of other random things, though I’m not sure how useful escaping from a helicopter that’s gone down in the ocean is going to be.”
“That sounds terrifying.”
“The training is done in a pool.” But he was glad he’d never needed to use it.
“That doesn’t make it much better. There’s no escaping from helicopters as an orderly. Most of the time, they’re looking for someone who isn’t afraid of hard work and won’t scare the patients or staff.”
George frowned as he considered working in a hospital. He should consider doing some kind of qualification, but he didn’t know what, only that he wanted to travel. Was that a job he could take travelling? “Are there vacancies at the place you work?”
“There are always vacancies for orderlies and nurses. Not everyone can handle it, and they burn out, some getting injured because it’s a lot of manual work. Most people don’t realize that.”
Was that a jab that he lacked any qualifications and could only lift heavy things? “I can’t decide if you’re insulting me or being helpful?”
“Why would I be insulting you? You left school, got yourself a job, and travelled. On your own. Even though you’re a wolf. I haven’t left the bloody city because I’m too scared of crossing pack lines. I dream of going somewhere else.”
“If you pack up your life, you’ve got no choice but to go somewhere else,” George said with a smile.
“I admire your bravery and not just for travelling on your own. I could not imagine anything worse than working on a rig.”
“The rig was fine, the shark shifters in the water and the crocs that ruled Darwin…they both made my tail tuck. Furry shifters never shifted alone, and we always did it well away from water.” There were some things he wasn’t going to miss about Darwin, though he was already missing the heat and the laid- back attitude. He was pretty sure Melbourne had been overcast and raining on and off since he’d landed. “So where would you travel to?”
“I don’t know. Western Australia? I figured once I’m qualified, it will be easier for me to get a job elsewhere. You said you were planning to take off again. Where are you going?”
George shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I thought I’d wait and see where this year takes me.”
Maybe it would take him all the way to Perth. There were lots of fly-in fly-out jobs on mine sites in the west. The weather would also be better. He gave Evan a smile. “Have you even checked with the Coven to see what the wolf situation is over west?”
“No…I guess I didn’t want to be told it was worse than over here and to avoid it.”
“There’s always Queensland…though I understand there are quite a few crocs and sharks up that way, too.” It wasn’t high on his list of places to go.
Evan grimaced. “I might give that one a miss.”
“Europe? I’ve heard that a lot of the wolves over there are quite progressive.”
Evan gave him that look again. The one with the lifted eyebrow as though he wasn’t sure George knew what he was talking about.
“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at good places to travel as a wolf. And I have no idea why the European wolves are further ahead of the Aussie packs, maybe because we’re so isolated or something. The US is a bit of a patchwork blanket, and it depends on where you’re travelling, so it requires a lot of research and approval, even if you’re only passing through, depending on the pack.”
“In human form too?”
“Yeah…not all packs grant the freedom of passage in human form. And they don’t take too kindly to notched wolves either.” Evan was bloody lucky his pack hadn’t taken the notch out of one of his ears to mark him as an outcast, though that was probably because he avoided them more than anything else.
Evan shook his head. “That sounds like far too much drama for me.”
“But if you live to avoid it, then you never end up living.”
Evan’s expression shuttered, and George knew he’d hit a nerve.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to?—”
“You don’t understand what it’s like for those of us who don’t have a choice but to avoid the drama. So watch what you say around the others. They’ve been notched or kicked out. Kyle kept the name to prove a point, to remind the traditional packs of what they did to their brothers and their sons. Some of us have fought a long internal battle to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and admit we are gay.” His knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel. “You talk of living as though it’s an adventure, but it’s not a rush of excitement I feel when I think about travelling, even though it’s something I want to do. It’s dread and apprehension. And another bloody reason I hate being a wolf.”
“I’m sorry, and I wish it wasn’t like this.” He stared at his hands. “But if you ever want to go away, even if for a week, tell me, and I will do the research and find a place so that you can enjoy it without any wolf drama.”
Evan’s grip on the steering wheel eased. “I don’t expect you to do that for me. I need to grow up and do it myself.”
“I’m happy to show you how. It’s probably the one thing I am good at. Besides, I never said you were going on this holiday that I’m researching by yourself. I’m going with you to make sure you enjoy it.”
Evan gave him a small smile. “Of course you’re coming with me. I’m not brave enough to go on my own.”
George grinned. “There’s not that much difference between bravery and foolishness.”
Sometimes, he didn’t know which side of the line he was standing on.
“I think there is. With bravery, you know what you’re getting into. A fool has no idea.”
And when it came to Evan, George had no idea what he was doing or what he was getting into. Only that he didn’t want to let go.