Chapter Thirteen #2
He blew out a long breath. “Stressing me out by noon, woman.” He tilted his chin toward a picnic table under a canopy to the side of the gas station. “Want to eat out there?”
“Whoo, a gas station date with a werewolf. My life is so interesting now.”
He snorted and opened his door. “Please tell me you have a blanket in the back.”
“I have a Carhartt jacket,” she said. “That’s even better.”
He was already opening the back of her little hatchback car and rifling through the supplies she always kept back there.
He pulled out her jacket and also a blanket she’d completely forgotten she kept back there. It had probably been hiding back there for a year. Maybe more.
Food bag in his other hand, he shut the back and waited for her to catch up, his elbow offered to her to hold onto as they trekked across the icy pavement.
She bundled up as they got there while he dusted off her seat, and when they were settled, he wrapped his ankles on either side of hers under the table. “I missed this,” he uttered as he pulled food out.
“Missed me?”
“Yeah. And before you go pointing out that I barely know you, I am aware. I’ve been fighting with myself for days reminding myself of that. My wolf doesn’t care.”
“I know about mating bonds,” she said low.
His bright blue eyes flashed to her, and back down to his task, unwrapping the prime rib sandwiches. “And you think that’s what this is?”
“I think you will tell me what this is when the time is right.”
“The time won’t make any sense to you.”
“Because I’m a human?”
“Yes.”
“Lots of humans believe in love at first sight.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a romantic then?”
“Yes, and before you tease me for it, you should know I’m a romantic and proud.”
He huffed a chuckle and pushed one of the sandwiches in front of her and poured half of his jalapeno flavored chips onto the sandwich wrapping for her.
“So, you’re going to want what your dad has with your mother?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“The butt pats and hand holding? The mushy shit?”
She shrugged. “It depends on what the man I’m dating is comfortable with.”
“But if it was up to you?”
“I would have that comfort with a man, yes.”
“Was your first mate affectionate?” he asked curiously.
A few weeks ago, she would’ve been shocked by questions about Chance, but as she sat her waiting for the feeling of longing and sadness to fill her, instead, she felt steady reaching for those memories. She wanted someone to know the good.
“He wasn’t a big hand holder, but he was a hugger.” She tried to remember. “We had to sleep apart a lot because it was long hospital stays, but even before then, he was restless at nights so we slept apart most of the time anyway.”
“I don’t know if I could do that,” Dodger said.
He took a bite and looked off into the trees behind the gas station thoughtfully.
He swallowed. “I know how my animal was the last few days and I never want to feel that again. I think if we do this, even if I tried to stay apart, he would sleepwalk me to you.”
She laughed and agreed. “You know, I’ve never had my own dog before.”
“Stop,” he drawled out. “This isn’t a dog you want. Trust me.”
“I like him.”
“Don’t tell him that, you’ll make him worse.”
She cheesed really big. “Wolf, I like you. You may remain obsessed with me, and sleep at the end of my bed whenever you want and protect me like a guard dog.”
“Eat your food,” Dodger said and returned his attention to his lunch.
She hadn’t missed it though.
He was smiling.
After lunch, Dodger wouldn’t let her do much.
He cleaned up their trash and threw it away, then helped her off the bench and wrapped his big hand around hers as he led her back toward her car.
She liked this. She liked that he was dominant and masculine and protective and a gentleman.
She liked that he could destroy anything or anyone that came at them in a moment, but with her, he was tender.
Her heart tethered to him a little more.
It wasn’t until they were a few yards away from her car that he stopped suddenly and just stood there, frozen. He turned his face and lifted his nose higher into the air as he inhaled.
“What is it?” she asked, looking around at the woods in the direction he was glaring.
He didn’t answer her though. Instead, he pulled her by the hand, unrushed, and settled her into the passenger’s seat of her car.
She could see him so clearly as he stalked toward the picnic table they’d just been at, attention scanning across the forest beyond. He stopped twice, and scented the air, then changed directions, and melted into the trees.
Destiny felt exposed without him here and hit the lock button on her door. Her gun was in her glove compartment, and she pulled it out and set it on her lap, attention on the woods where Dodger had disappeared.
A couple of tense minutes later, he returned, eyes troubled and downcast.
“What happened?” she asked as he adjusted her driver’s seat so he could drive.
He shook his head. “I’m smelling things. My wolf got all ramped up but there was no one out there. He did that at your house this morning too. Made it seem like I was smelling a werewolf, but it was just me.”
She slid her hand to the inside of his bicep. “He probably just needs some time to settle down. The last few days were hard.”
He nodded, and forced a smile, then leaned over and kissed her. As he eased back, he said, “Even so, keep your weapon on you, okay?”
She nodded. “I carry it everywhere it’s legal to.”
He huffed a sigh and turned her car on, then slid his hand over her thigh as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed back toward his worksite.
The drive to his worksite was shorter now as the work crew had cleared a half mile of limbs away from the powerlines. When Dodger pulled onto the shoulder near his work site, he hesitated on getting out.
“Maybe my wolf just needs to be around you more. Maybe that’ll settle him down. Do you still want to see him?” he asked.
“Now?”
Dodger snorted. “No, goofball. We both have to get back to work. I mean later.”
“Hmm. The last time you promised a werewolf date where I would see you Change, you freaked out and blocked me.”
The tension was leaving him, she could tell, and his smile wasn’t forced or tight anymore. “I won’t this time.”
“Okay,” she said. “When?”
“Tonight. It’s the calm before the storm up in Rogue Pack territory. It won’t be peaceful for a while after this week. Now is the best time for you to see my life and decide to go deeper or cut us both loose.”
“You already know I’ll take us deeper,” she told him honestly.
He inhaled a big breath, and then gripped the back of her hair gently, and kissed her goodbye. And when he eased back and pushed open his door, he hesitated and looked at her with such intensity sparking in his expression. “I don’t like being away from you,” he said low.
And then he got out and held the driver’s side door open for her and waited for her to come around. He hugged her from behind right before she got in, and gripped her throat gently, kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear, “It’s a bond.”
Destiny blinked hard and turned in his arms, hugged him tightly. “I had a feeling,” she whispered.
There were a few whistles and cat calls from Dodger’s work crew across the road, and one of them called out, “Get a room!”
A laugh escaped her lungs and Destiny lowered into the driver’s seat and adjusted it.
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” he rumbled.
“Okay,” she said softly as the butterflies pounded their wings through her middle.
He shut her door, and then jogged across the road, threw her a wink over his shoulder, and said something up to the guy in the bucket cutting limbs.
Destiny gripped the steering wheel tighter as she watched him get back to work.
It’s a bond.
She had suspected it but hadn’t expected him to talk to her about it anytime soon. Not after he’d backed off of her so hard.
It’s a bond.
A mating bond.
She knew what this was. It was a no-turning-back bond. It was something neither of them would be able to run from, even if things got tough.
She’d been wrong when he’d disappeared. He did feel the same about her.
Dad was going to lose his mind.
A slow smile stretched her lips. Mom would be happy for her.
Most importantly though, Destiny was happy.
She’d been terrified that falling in love would never be possible for her again, but now she had a werewolf telling her they shared a bond, and she knew about these.
Mating bonds were unbreakable.
A human could fall out of love, but werewolves?
Once their animal chose, they chose for life.
And Dodger had chosen her.