Page 6 of Reformed Wolf

“I don’t care what you do, but when I stay here, there usually isn’t much sleeping going on.” I waggled my eyebrows at him, and he shook his head, sighing, his mouth pinched. He’d never said a single word in judgment for my fast-and-loose lifestyle, but I could sense the disapproval coming off him in waves. Irritation prickled at me. “What?” I prodded as I pulled the truck into a parking spot and cut the engine. “Just say what you’re thinking.”

He remained silent for a moment, but I was a patient man. Finally, he blurted, “Is this all you do when you come to the city, then? Eat garbage and have sex with random omegas?”

I shrugged, playing casual, like I didn’t give a shit what he thought. “Alphas, omegas, betas, or gammas, whatever. Male or female, I’m not picky. As long as they’re up for a good time.” My wolf huffed out a little snort. Our opinions differed when it came to sex. He was very much a one-mate kind of guy, and until we found our missing half, he was very lukewarm about the whole sexual-release thing.

Jude gave me this look, like he felt sorry for me, before he unbuckled his seatbelt and reached for the door handle. That pity, it stung more than I cared to admit, and it needled at the hollow space inside myself that I was always trying to fill.

“Wait,” I said sharply before I could second-guess the urge, and he paused. My chest tightened painfully. “I wasn’t always like this, you know. It’s just… easier. For now. If I can avoid caring too much about someone, I won’t get hurt again.”

He nodded, the motel’s flashing sign reflecting off his eyes. “Look, I get it. We all have our demons, and if this is your way of coping with yours, then sure, you do what you gotta do. Just don’t expect me to follow suit.”

“Fair enough,” I agreed. We both got out of the truck and made our way toward the office. “Just out of curiosity, what do you do when your demons need taming?” I’d never seen him show even an ounce of interest in any of the eligible omegas in our pack, so I knew it wasn’t a physical release. He just disappeared alone into the woods every now and then, but he always came back.

Jude shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and hunkered down, his breathing shallow, his eyes darting around nervously. “I run, I hunt, I meditate.”

“And does it work?” I asked skeptically.

“Not yet,” he muttered. We stared at each other for a second before we both burst out laughing.

As squirrelly as the motel clerk was, I knew for a fact he was a chipmunk shifter whose nametag read Dale, and while he recognized me well enough, he was far from welcoming. As he tossed me back my credit card and room key, he glared at me. “Keep it down this time, would ya? It’s hard to explain the barking when there’s a no-pet policy in place.”

“And that wasn’t even my wolf,” I said back, blowing him a kiss. He sneered and waved me away.

There was nothing classy about the Capri Motel, and yet it always stirred up a sense of comfort for me. There was familiarity in the neon-orange carpets and stained yellow wallpaper. I’d signed us up for a double room, so there were two twin beds on the right, a dresser with old tube TV on the left. At least it was clean.

“What is that smell?” Jude coughed once, rubbing at his nose.

“What smell?” I sniffed the air. “Oh, pine-scented cleaner,” I said, dropping my bag on the closest bed.

“That… is not what pine smells like,” he commented, throwing the door closed behind him.

With his eyes alert, darting left and right, he stalked across the room and disappeared into the bathroom, where I heard him pull back the shower curtain. He came back just seconds later. His body was taut, every muscle tense and ready for action, his eyes all wolf. I half expected him to get down on his hands and knees to make sure no one was hiding under the beds. He crossed over to the window and peeked out before tugging the drapes closed. Was he expecting a siege?

“Jude, chill out. You’re safe here. Just sit down and eat, would you?”

“I shouldn’t have come.” He shook his head and paced back and forth along the length of the small room. He was making me dizzy.

I pulled open the greasy paper bag and plucked out a few fries, waving them in Jude’s face. “You’re only saying that now because you’re surrounded by humans. But what if I told you there was a place where only shifters were allowed…” I waited for that to sink in.

His feet paused in their stride, and he glanced over his shoulder at me. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. But first, we eat.” I gestured for him to sit down on the other bed across from me, and I tossed him a burger.

Jude unwrapped it and sneered at it doubtfully. There was no way he’d back down from a challenge, though, so he sniffed it cautiously then slowly brought it to his mouth and took a small bite… then a larger bite, and his eyes widened. He actually sighed! A tiny amount of that tension released from his shoulders.

“Good, right?” I asked, digging into my own burger.

“I still don’t think it can be classified as food, but damn, it’s amazing. What do they put in this?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” I mumbled around a full mouth. “Probably best not to ask.”

It didn’t take us long to inhale all the food, and I tried my best not to act smug about how much Jude had enjoyed that. There was no way he’d grown up in a city if he’d never eaten a damn cheeseburger before. How sheltered was he?

We cleaned up, then I unzipped the bag I’d brought. “Here, get dressed,” I said, throwing a shirt at Jude. It was one of mine, since we’d left so fast we hadn’t had time to pack him anything.

Jude held the shirt up to his torso, where it barely spanned half his broad chest, and raised a brow at me.

“Whatever. So what if it’s a little tight. The omegas’ll love it. One look at your buff bod and you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand—if you decide that’s what you want tonight,” I tacked on, remembering I’d promised I wouldn’t push him into anything.

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