Page 28 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

I took the turn too fast and nearly collided with the mountain of a man posted in the center of the hallway. I thought Conall was tall, but this guy had to be close to seven feet. His red hair cascaded to about the middle of his back, and even with the top half pulled into a bun, it was thick enough for two additional braids that nicely framed his bearded face. A helix bar threaded through the top of his ear and large black gauges stretched out the lobes.

Hot damn. The whole emo rock star Viking thing really worked for him. If I hadn’t already set my poor misguided sights on Conall, I wouldn’t put up much resistance to this guy doing some plundering.

“Sorry,” I said, shifting my weight to my other leg so I could step around him.

But the man blocked my way again.

“Conall,” I yelled after him, a curl of genuine fear unfurling within me. “Wait up. Can you call off your guard?”

He glanced over his shoulder, seemingly surprised to find me in the hallway. “I have a meeting to get to.”

“I can sit through a meeting. I’m happy to help however I can, even if it’s just holding your hand.” I couldn’t help it. I was a healer. A hand-holder. A make-it-righter.

Conall’s large shoulders slumped, his deflated posture so at odds with the guy I’d initially met that my heart panged. “I appreciate that, but you’ve already helped enough. Not to mention I can’t let you attend a meeting involving werewolf matters.”

The pang sharpened. Was that his way of telling me to mind my own business again? “Sasquatch, take Dr. Ryan home for me.”

“I don’t need an escort.”

Finally, Conall fully turned around. Three long strides was all it took for him to cross the space. “Listen, the whole back-and-forth thing we do? I’m a fan of all the sexual tension that builds until you realize my way is better?—”

“I don’t remember a single case where that’s happened,” I said, but he continued on as if I hadn’t interrupted.

“Unfortunately, I have too much on my plate right now to argue with you.” The damn werewolf cupped my cheek and swiped a tingly trail across the top, scrambling the case I’d planned to make. “As I mentioned the other night, I don’t say ‘please.’ If that makes me a pigheaded ass, so be it.”

I winced and dared a quick peek at the stoic gentleman watching over our interaction, wondering how much waving or hollering it’d take to get a reaction, and then decided I’d rather take my chances with Conall. “Elias mentioned that, did he?”

Conall nodded.

“Would it honestly be so hard for you to say ‘please?’” I asked and got another nod.

“It’s not who I am, and I don’t bend or break for anyone. My pride simply won’t allow it.

“I don’t compromise much, either.” The conviction behind his words rang through my chest, wiggling loose so many emotions I struggled to sort one from the other. “But I will ask you one more time to go with Sasquatch before I turn the request into an order.”

A snarky comment about how that hardly counted as a question sprang to the tip of my tongue, but I read the room and judged it to be the wrong time to push this. Ditto when it came to asking if a mother had really named her son Sasquatch, or if it was a nickname.

Conall wound his fingers through my hair. “I need to know you’re safe so I can focus on all the other shit I have to do tonight. It looks like we need to enlist your services while I sort out who’s attacking my pack, hunt them down, and make them pay. Which means I have to go convince a room full ofwerewolves who don’t trust outsiders that it’s the right move. And then, when several of them inevitably cause a fuss about it, tell them too damn bad because it’s happening.”

“They don’t trust me?” Not sure why that stung. Most of them hadn’t even met me.

“It’s not personal. They don’t trust anyone. Now, before I go throw myself to the wolves”—Conall cracked a smile at his own joke, only with the stress weighing him down, it didn’t contain its usual wattage—“I suppose I’d better make sure you’re up to the task. I know you’ve been super slammed at the clinic...”

I pursed my lips, warning the smart-ass he was treading on thin ice.

“What?” All false innocence and the way he traced my jawline with his fingertips proved just how dirty he played. My skin hummed and begged for more, and my body leaned toward his as if it couldn’t help itself. “You’ve had two emergency surgeries since you’ve arrived in town— I’d know.”

“Well, you do require the attention of about five fractious animals—fractious means they require sedation, or they’ll bite the hell out of you. Or in your case, break chains and punch a hole through the wall.” I lifted his hand and studied his bloodied knuckles. “I can clean and wrap these for you.”

“No need. They’ll be fine in a matter of minutes, and minor scrapes are the least of my worries.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stick around? You helped me from freaking out on the Ferris wheel earlier, and I feel like the least I could do is...” Out of my peripheral, I confirmed the giant redheaded dude hadn’t given us so much as an inch of extra space. “Help relieve you of some of that tension you’re carrying around.”

Conall groaned and lowered his forehead to mine. “You’re not making this easy.” “I’d claim I’m not easy, but...” Flirting was hard enough without an audience.

“Oh, you made me work plenty hard before?—”

I slapped a hand over his mouth, the same way I’d done in that rickety bucket, and his Viking bodyguard shifted toward us—no, make that towardme. At his terrifying glower, I squeaked and wound my arms around Conall’s waist.

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