"Larry, hi!" She waves as we walk over. He's behind the bar shoveling ice into ice buckets.
"Oh, hey, Sunny." He gives me a wary glance.
Good. He definitely should know she's been claimed.
"Hey, we have a question for you."
It's surprising how grateful I am she said we not I.
"Remember that government building you ran across in the Carson Forest?"
He lights up, like this is a story he loves to tell. "The alien research site? Definitely. What about it?" He looks from Sunny to me with new interest.
"We'd like to ride out there on the bike and take a look around."
He shakes his head with authority. "No way you'll get in. I'm telling you, there are guard towers and guys with machine guns at the top. It's crazy secure." He looks like he wants to launch into his whole story, so I cut him short.
"Directions, man?"
"I don't think you want to go out there. It's the kind of place people don't come back from."
"You might be right about that," I say. "But yeah, we definitely want to go out. Can you give us directions?"
He leans forward on his forearms and launches into an avid description of how to get there. I can't stand when people give too much information in directions-it muddies the picture and makes it harder to remember the salient points. This guy's doing that. He describes every turn with great detail.
I grab the pen and order ticket book from his front pocket and plop them on the counter between us. "Draw a map," I command, using the timber of alpha command.
Lo and behold, it works. He shuts up and draws the map, like I ask. "You guys be careful. Hey-stop in here when you're back so I know you're safe. That way if they capture you, you can tell them that someone knows where you are and is going to go public if you don't get back." He looks immensely satisfied with himself and this solution, so I nod.
"Yeah, sure thing. Thanks." I wave the paper with the map.
"Bye, Larry," Sunny calls out cheerfully, and I'm not even a tiny bit jealous. There's no way that guy could be attractive to her.
Still, I slide an arm around her waist as we walk out, showing my claim on her.
Outside, at the bike, I catch Sunny's chin. "I don't think you should go."
"Fuck that. I'm in this, too. My daughter and her father were harmed by these guys. I require justice." She folds her arms across her chest and sticks her chin out. "Besides, we're just a couple of lovebirds out for a drive, right?" She says brightly. "I'm your best cover."
She has a point. But I hate the idea of bringing her close to danger. I'll just scout it out. If it's what this guy describes, we will leave and I will call home to Wolf Ridge for backup.
I plop the helmet on her head and swing a leg over the bike. "Climb on, baby. Let's see what we can find."
SUNNY
LARRY'S MAP was shit and it takes us nearly an hour and a half of backtracking to find the unmarked road he described, but eventually we do. Titus hides the Harley behind a boulder and we hike in on foot. He holds my hand and swings our arms together like we're on a picnic or date of some kind.
The hike is about a half mile in and then the road just seems to stop.
There's nothing here.
Titus turns around in a circle. "Wrong road?"
The hairs stand up on the back of my neck. "No," I murmur. "I sense evil here."
He raises his brows.
I'm used to people thinking I'm nuts when I say things like that, so I just shrug, but he scans the trees more closely. "From which direction?"
The pleasure of being believed does something fluttery to my chest. I close my eyes to feel the energy. It blasts me from straight ahead. I open my eyes and point. Definitely that way.
Titus moves in that direction without comment. We walk into the woods, no path to follow, nothing. It doesn't make sense that a lab would be out here beyond the road. The kind of lab Larry described would require a large parking area with many cars. Not a dead end dirt road and a hike into a pathless forest.
I start to doubt my intuition. "Maybe I'm wrong. This doesn't make sense."
Titus shakes his head. "I don't think you're wrong." He turns to face me and starts stripping off his clothes.
"Oh! Okay." I wasn't really feeling the romance at this precise moment, but with Titus, I'm always down. His passion sets my body on fire. I start to pull off my own shirt and he freezes.
"What are you doing?" He's fully naked now, his muscled body like a work of art.
"Um…" I cock my head. "What are you doing?"
He throws back his head and lets out a booming laugh that makes all the birds in the trees scatter. "Oh, baby. I would love to nail you up against this tree right now, but I was going to shift and sniff around. I can smell better when I'm in wolf form."
Oh.
My face grows warm. "Right. Totally. Got it."
Titus saunters toward me, his dick at full salute. "Why'd you have to go and show me these?" He cups one of my small breasts and rubs his thumb over the nipple.
I squirm, already wet for him. "Titus, don't. Go!" I point toward the direction of the evil.
He chuckles again. "Rain check?" He brushes his lips across mine.
I groan. "Definitely."
"Stay here. Do not move." In a blur of motion, he changes to wolf form, his four paws huge in the dirt.
I watch in awe as he trots off, nose to the ground, following the scents. Beautiful creature. I'm struck for a moment with honor that he showed me his wolf. That he trusts me with his secret. That I get to be a part of this strange and private society he and my daughter inhabit. It's a privilege, for sure.