Chapter Three #2
“You know what? Never mind!” He hung up, and God, he missed the old days when landlines existed and he could slam the phone against the sling when he hung up on someone. Poking a button and the line going gently dead was unsatisfying.
We should text the human and ask where she lives, the wolf said.
Dodger gritted his teeth and connected a call to Vic.
“Why are you calling me?” Vic greeted him.
“Do you want to help me repair a fence? I will buy you a beer afterward.”
“Skipping Pack dinner tonight?”
“Yep.”
“Well, too bad Liam is changing it to tomorrow night and it’s an order that we all be there. Call me when you’re done repairing the fence and then you can buy me a beer.” Click.
That son-of-a-gun hung up on him. Dodger hated everything.
Liam called him back, and he connected it. “What?” Dodger barked.
“My day is good, how was yours?” Liam asked in a robotic voice.
“I’m not doing this.”
“Look!” Liam said. “Nory said you are clearly going through some type of emotional constipation, and that I should just listen to you, so I’m trying!”
Dodger drove a half mile just imagining driving his truck off a cliff and then blew out a long breath. “I got a girl’s number today.”
“Oh. Is that…is that a bad thing?”
“Yes. Bye.” He hung up. What was wrong with him today?
The two-word combination ‘emotional constipation’ would’ve made him laugh if he wasn’t so pissed off right now.
Eeeeerk. Dodger pulled onto the road they’d worked on earlier and slammed his truck to a stop near the broken fence.
Bright side, there weren’t any animals in this pasture to escape the broken fence.
Not bright side, the fence was ancient and he was going to have to fix multiple panels on either side, because they’d all splintered under the weight of the giant limb he’d chopped off this damn tree behind him.
The limb was gone, because his work crew always had a woodchipper with them, so it only took him an hour to replace and rebuild the fence panels. All the while, his wolf was running commentary on what they should text to Destiny.
If he had an off-switch to being a werewolf, he would’ve gladly used it today.
“Stop!” he yelled as loud and long as he could, and his roar echoed through the trees.
His wolf had never done this before. What did he need? A good fuck?
He stormed to the truck and ripped the passenger’s side door open, grabbed the phone off the floor and opened a new text thread with Destiny.
Honesty was best.
I’m a mess. I’m no good for anyone. I’m in a newly forming Pack. I like to fight. My animal needs bloodshed to feel steady. I will cause problems for fun, and I do not understand peace. I have a hundred red flags, and no green flags. Send.
He muttered a curse and locked his arms against the passenger’s seat, closed his eyes tightly and wished he hadn’t done that. Today was the day for regrets.
Immediately, he could see the dots bouncing in the text thread that said she was typing.
He walked to the back of his truck and pulled the tailgate down, sat on it and pulled the hardhat he’d thrown back there earlier to settle it beside him. His frazzled nerves couldn’t handle it rolling around in the back with every turn he made on the road anymore.
His phone vibrated, and her response came through as three words that changed the ramped-up feelings inside of him immediately.
I’m a widow.
He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. Fuck. He looked up to the clouds again. Snowflakes were floating down now. They were small, but the forecast called for a big storm tonight.
A widow. She’d lost her mate. He couldn’t even imagine the pain.
He swallowed hard and connected a call to her.
“Hello?” she answered, in that bell-tone, pretty, sweet voice of hers.
“How long ago did he die?”
“Why does that matter?” she asked.
“I want to know where you are with it all.”
“I don’t like you demanding answers about something so personal.”
“If it’s something like three months, I have to leave you alone.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s different when you’re mourning. You won’t be yourself. I have no right to pull you off coping.”
“You…you speak of it like you understand.”
“My dad passed. I watched my mother go through it. They were paired for fifteen years. I was ten when it happened, but I still remember her pain.”
“I understand werewolf bonds. I’m so sorry.”
“You can’t understand them. You’re human. Don’t be sorry though. It was a while ago. How long ago was it for you?”
“Ten years.”
He frowned. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-three. And also, this is another rude question, just so you know.”
“Woman, did you not read the ‘all red flags and no green flags’ part of my message?”
“Yeah, but you are wrong. You bought me and my mom a beer today as a nice gesture. Green flag.”
“Look, if you are dipping your toe into the dating pool, you should know one nice gesture doesn’t give a man a free pass for doing whatever he wants.”
“Dating advice from a werewolf?”
“Yep. Make better decisions than giving your number to a monster next time, won’t you?”
“I find you interesting.”
“That’ll wear off. Trust me. Give it twenty-four hours.”
She giggled. “Are you still at the hardware store?”
Dodger chewed his lip and aimed his phone at the newly fixed fence, and snapped a pic, then sent it to her. “About to head home,” he told her.
“Nice work. Geez, you’re fast.”
“Fast at fence building, slow in the bedroom.”
She gasped sharply. “Inappropriate.”
He gave a private smile. “Red flag.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “Kinda sounds like a green flag to me though.”
Gah, she was fun to talk to.
“I liked your little green crossing guard vest,” he said, hopping off the tailgate to take a picture of the green work vest that sat on the back seat of his truck. He sent it to her. “We match.”
“Blue collar boy, huh?” she asked.
“What did your last mate do for work?”
Another sharp inhalation, and she clammed up on him.
“You can’t claim it’s too soon to talk about him,” Dodger said. “It’s been a decade.”
“It still feels fresh to me,” she said softly.
He narrowed his eyes and closed the back door, then leaned his shoulder against his truck and stared at the repaired fence. “Have you dated since he passed?”
“No.”
Truth rang out in her tone. Holy hell, she was a unicorn.
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want to.”
“You were only twenty-three when it happened.”
“So?”
“So, you were young.”
“And I had my whole life ahead of me, with him.”
“You stopped living?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I just learned to like my life without falling in love. It was easier.”
“Were you scared?” he asked.
“I think I should go now.” Her voice sounded strange. Thicker, and more somber.
She had treated the loss of her husband like a mate bond. Humans didn’t do that, did they? She was interesting. “I haven’t dated in over a year. Never dated a human. I wouldn’t even know what to do with one.”
“I think you just take them out and do the same stuff you do with female werewolves.”
“Okay. I’ll take you to the woods, and you can Change into your wolf, and our animals can bond while we hunt together, and eat our kill.
I’ll let you eat first and watch your back while you do.
I’ll piss all over our territory, and every time you squat, I’ll piss over that too because my animal is possessive.
I’ll want other male werewolves to know you belong to me.
And then we can Change back and fuck in the woods because you won’t be cold while I’m railing you in the snow.
Werewolves don’t get cold like humans. When we fuck, it will be hard and rough, but I don’t have to worry about hurting you, because you will have superhuman strength.
We can make a den and get territorial together, and when fights break out in my Pack, I won’t have to protect you, because you’ll be able to defend yourself.
When a rival Pack picks a war with us, you’ll be able to kill them and not give murder another thought, because that’s a human emotion and we police our people differently.
We will have two pups and when they turn five or six years old, you’ll watch their bodies break with their first Change, and you’ll know on instinct how to grow them into strong, independent werewolves.
Your feelings won’t be hurt when they lose control of their wolves sometimes and come after you.
If you get bit by your own pups, you’ll heal almost instantly.
We will Change together hundreds of times, because that is the single most bonding thing for us—”
“Okay, I get it. You can stop. We’re different.”
“What do humans do for dates?” he asked.
“We go to the movies, and travel together, and eat meals together.”
“I’m becoming territory-bound. Traveling will be harder for me the longer I stay with my Pack. Human movies bore me. That leaves eating meals together. Would you be satisfied with a life like that?”
She sighed. “Is this how you chase me off then?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. You win. No harm, no foul. We don’t know each other so we can both back away now.”
“Are you still going to Copper’s tomorrow?”
“Why?”
“Because I need you to say no. And I need you to never, ever tell me where you live.”
The long pause between them held weight. “Why?” she murmured again softly.
“Because my wolf is too interested in you for your own good. If I know you won’t be at Copper’s tomorrow, I won’t go.”
“And if I say I’m going?”
“Then I won’t be able to stay away.”
“Why not?”
He clenched his jaw and made his way to his tailgate, grabbed his hard hat and closed it. “Because I don’t have a lot of control right now.”
“Your wolf sees me?”
Why had she put it like that? That’s how werewolves talked, not humans. He didn’t answer. He couldn’t. He needed to hold the distance between them.
“I’ll be at Copper’s at eight o’clock tomorrow, Dodger. I’ll see you there.” Click.
Shhhit.
Dodger looked at the screen of his phone as it faded to black. This pretty little human wasn’t going to be so easy to chase off.
Huh.
Interesting.