Page 37 of Bred By the Wolfman

Instead, he gave me an emotional tool, something I can actually use.

Thank you. That... is really helpful.

I’m glad. Anytime.

I bite my lip, trying to hold myself back from asking him to go out for coffee again. No, if I do that... I have to end it with Robbie, first.

I really appreciate you messaging me. I hope you have a good night.

That’s safe enough. He replies right away.

You, too.

I heart his message, then lie back down on the couch, clutching my phone to my chest.

RUSS

I have been worried about her, seeing how late she keeps her lights on. That’s why I messaged her, knowing she was awake.

Actually, I worry about her endlessly now, more and more every day. It haunts me when I’m asleep, thinking about where she is and what might happen to her while I’m not there to watch over her. It makes the long hours at work agonizing, imagining what dangers she might face out there in the world.

Of course I wish I wasn’t like this. I wish that my kind had marriage bonds the way humans do, instead of this deep, consuming, instinct-level connection that makes me want to rip her boyfriend into tiny shreds, then drag her off to a cave where I can keep her and my cub safe forever.

I’m ragged from so little sleep because I spend most of my off-hours watching over Dee. Her belly gets visibly bigger, and it just makes me hunger for her even more. That’s my young growing in there, and I want nothing more than to be there and help her through it.

Sometimes I come very close to revealing myself, but at this point, that would absolutely ruin any chances I might have with her. It’s much too late to tell her that I’m “Bill,” and I’ve been lying to her this whole time.

That I’m the one who fucked her full of cub until she screamed, and now I want them both in my life, forever.

It’s late one night, my night off from work, when I see shadows shift inside Dee’s apartment. She stands up, rouses Boomer, and leads him away from the sliding glass to the front door. Then she exits the building and comes down the stairs with him clipped to a leash, wearing her pajamas.

She’s going on a walk in the middle of the night?

I’m crouched in the bushes that take up most of the yard across the street from her house. Often I’m on the roof, but tonight I was unusually tired and didn’t want to make the climb. I might fall and wake the occupants, and then it would be a whole thing.

“I do what I want, Robbie,” I barely hear her mutter. I wonder if it’s fizzling out between them. Maybe then I could make a move as Russ.

Luckily, instead of heading towards me, Dee takes an immediate left and goes down the street. Good. Boomer, much to my delight and my misfortune, has very keen senses. He can see when I move, even from across the street in the darkness. As a wolfman I have good night vision, but his is impeccable.

I keep a good two blocks behind them as Dee and Boomer navigate toward the park. I’m concerned that she thinks it’s a good idea to go for a stroll in such an open and secluded area in the dead of night, where anyone could lay their hands on her.

I wonder if she does this when I’m not around. That sends a shiver up my spine.

I wait until Dee’s descended into the darkness of the trees before I cross the last street. It will be harder to see her in here without alerting her to my presence—or Boomer. But I need to stay close and keep her within sight.

Eventually she stops, and sits down at a bench near the open, grassy area. She sighs and leans her head back, and Boomer drops his chin on her knee.

I’m glad she has him when I’m not here.

It doesn’t seem like she’s going to move anytime soon, so I go a little closer, just to get a good look at her in the moonlight.

Dee is beautiful. She’s beautiful, and funny, and feels so deeply. I think that loving her could truly be wonderful if I got the chance.

I want to get even nearer, but that would be risky, so I come to a stop here and crouch down. But my foot has landed on a twig, and when I apply my weight to it, it snaps in half.

Boomer leaps up to his feet and barks wildly. Dee squeaks as his leash goes taut and he lunges in my direction.

“Boomer!” she cries out. “What is it?”

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