Chapter 24

Seth smiles. “That’s a really great idea. Just, I, ah, might chase you a bit? Wolves kind of like to chase anything smaller than us, say, like a coyote.”

Holden smirks. “You can chase me. What happens when you catch me?”

Holden’s smile is so flirty and carefree in ways it wasn’t while Dawn was sicker, and it makes Seth ache in ways that have nothing to do with needing to run. Holden brings out a very different need in him, and it takes all his humaninstincts to stay in his chair and not climb over the table to get to Holden.

“What happens depends on you: submit, fight…”

“Fuck?” Holden interrupts.

Seth swallows hard and takes a drink of his ice-cold water. “That’s a possibility, if you want it to be. Not going to bullshit you. Everything in me right now, man and wolf, wants you.”

He manages to get his heated words out just before their food arrives, filling the space between them with the scent of spices.

“Eat fast,” Holden orders, and he looks as tense as Seth feels. They eat their food, which is delicious, and manage to make small talk, but by the time the bill comes, they both all but throw down money and run out.

Seth has a place he goes to run, and he drives them there. Parking his car, they make their way to a clearing in the trees, and Seth almost swallows his tongue when Holden throws down his jacket and pulls off his t-shirt, revealing more tattooed skin and pierced nipples.

“Hurry up, or I’ll get a head start on this chase.” Holden grins, taking his shoes off. Seth gets with the program, stripping off his clothes and hiding them under a bush. Then he lets the wolf take over, two legs turning into four, and his senses coming even more alive.

When his eyes adjust, he sees that he’s alone. He can still smell Holden, his coyote form somewhere in the trees, and Seth starts running, using his nose to track, enjoying the feel of new and different muscles stretching and moving.

Seth can smell the woods, trees, grass, moss, small animals like rabbits. Usually he’d follow those trails, explore more, but he’s only focused on one prey, and that’s Holden. The coyote doesn’t make things easy for him. Holden is fast and sneaky and leads Seth on a dance before he maybe gets bored and launches his own attack.

Holden lands on his back, but he’s clearly not trying to sink his teeth or claws in as he slides off easily and without pain when Seth shakes him off. Seth quickly pins Holden’s wiggling coyote form beneath him.

He puts his teeth to Holden’s throat but doesn’t even prick the skin with them. It’s enough to have Holden go still, stop fighting, and submit.

Seth is panting, looking at one pair of light silver eyes when they shift, and he’s left with a naked human form beneath him. It’s a bold move and one showing Holden trusts him, because with Seth still a wolf, he could seriously hurt a human Holden, if he chose to. Holden wouldn’t be able to put up the fight he would in coyote form.

Feeling playful, Seth licks Holden’s throat to make him squirm and turns back to a sputtering Holden complaining about dog drool. His complaints seem to die in his throat when Seth stretches out his own naked body on top of Holden’s.

“You caught me,” Holden says, sliding a hand over Seth’s back, slight pressure in his palm encouraging him to stay close.

“As much as I like your earlier idea, I’ve just realized I don’t have lube in my wallet, so uh, I guess it’s enjoy each other in other ways,” Seth says, not really annoyed, too interested in breathing in the scent of a sweaty Holden against his neck.

“Other things could be fun, too, but I do happen to have a packet of lube in my wallet if we go back to it,” Holden says in a slightly breathless voice.

“Do you want that?” Seth asks.

Holden hooks his leg over Seth’s and rubs in a manner more befitting a cat than a coyote, and it makes Seth growl as if he were still a wolf.

“Let’s go back to the clearing,” Holden says in answer.

Seth stands up and offers a hand to Holden, who takes it, and then they all but run back to the clearing. Holden gets out the packet of lube and puts it on the grass before asking if he can touch Seth. When he says yes, Holden all but tackles him to the ground and kisses him everywhere, his mouth, face, neck, over the tattoo on his chest and down to his hip. Holden looks up at him with big, gray, questioning eyes.