Page 58 of The Thief

Damn, how her touch set him on fire. Mercy’s skin was buttery soft, her lips as sweet as berries. He was a man of thirty-five and had never encountered a woman so attentive to his needs. Her hands exploring and appreciating his body, her nails biting into his shoulders, her tongue in his mouth, her scent in his nose—he was feeling a twitch just thinking about it.

Nope. Now isn’t the time.

He grinned at the memory of her faint little snore.

“Something funny?” Montana asked. “We’re in deep shit, and you’re grinning like we just won the lottery.”

They drove past Juniper Road, where the Breed shops were located. The horse likely hadn’t jumped the gate, but if she had, they could check back there later since someone would have caught her.

Montana looked in the back seat. “Did anyone notice if she was branded?”

“I sure hope not,” Robyn said. “That’s a cruel way to prove ownership.”

Montana rubbed the brand on his left hand and gave Bear a skeptical look. Some of the locals around here might play finders keepers, and Montana didn’t have proof the horse belonged to them.

Virgil’s head poked between the seats. “He could put a microchip in her like they do at the dog pound. Ask me how I know about microchips.”

No one did.

“Well, I’ll tell you anyway,” he continued. “Animal Services once trapped my wolf and mistook him for a dog. They inserted a needle with a microchip between my shoulder blades.”

“How did you get out of there?” Robyn asked.

Virgil scooted back. “I had to wait until someone adopted me. Do you know how picky humans are about their fur babies? Either my wolf was jumping around too much, I was too big, or I wasn’t a puppy. Most people passed right by my cage and didn’t bother stopping.”

“You remember?” she asked in surprise.

“I remember all my shifts. It’s a curse,” he said, feigning displeasure. “Thank the fates a little old lady adopted me. If not, I would have been forced to shift when they tried to euthanize me. Gayle took me home and had a nice fluffy bed all set up, so I hung out with her for a few weeks until my wolf couldn’t take eating dog food anymore. But she gave me cookies. Lots and lots of them because I was a good boy.”

Robyn sputtered with laughter. “What happened with the microchip?”

“A Relic had to extract it. It hurt like the dickens when I shifted back and it was still in there.” Virgil gazed out the window. “I don’t miss the city. Out here, a man has peace. Not as much chaos, not as much death. No dogcatchers. Just a horse taking off in the middle of a thunder-fucking-storm.”

It fell quiet until Robyn asked, “What did the lady name you?”

Virgil sighed. “Snowball.”

Montana flattened his hand on the dash. “Slow down. What is that?”

Bear hit the brakes when he spotted two large animals moving around in the heavy rain. “Do you wanna check it out?”

Robyn stretched her neck between the seats. “Oh my God, is that Luna with Kevin?”

Bear cursed under his breath. “You mean the guy who runs around naked?”

This didn’t bode well for them—not at all.

Virgil cackled in the back seat. “Love is love.”

Robyn gripped Montana’s shoulder. “You don’t think they…?”

Virgil snorted. “We might have little Kevins trotting around soon. Wait until Tak finds out his favorite girl was gallivanting with the local handyman.”

Sitting back, Robyn declared, “This is so much worse than I thought. So much worse.”

Montana twisted around in his seat to look at them. “Tak doesn’t need to know everything that happens while he’s gone. Besides, we can’t impregnate regular animals.”

“Every thought revolts,” Robyn muttered. “Do our animals know the difference?”

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