Page 53 of Way of the Wolf

“I should have known you’d be the handsy type,” I told him.

Whether he’d known he’d been groping me or not, it wasn’t clear, but he smiled without shame. “You were magnificent.”

“I assume you mean on the hunt since nothing else happened.”

His smile widened.

Alarm flashed through me. Hell, nothinghadhappened, had it?

I remembered falling asleep, still in my lupine form, and dreaming of that case. There hadn’t been any sex, not as a wolf or as a human. I was positive.Almostpositive. The werewolf magic often made memories of what happened while in lupine form fuzzy. Just as, when I was a wolf, memories of my human life could also be harder to grasp and process.

“On the hunt,” Duncan said, taking pity on me and clarifying. “I didn’t realize how sleek and powerful you would be. You’re bigger than your brutish cousins. If you would let yourself change whenever they troubled you…”

“I told you why I don’t.”

“Actually, you were quite vague about that anddidn’ttell me. What happened to you? I saw your beauty and soul as a wolf, the exhilaration you felt being on the hunt. It was just as powerful as what I experience. How could you turn your back on that? On your nature and what you were born to be?”

“It’s none of your business.” I stood, brushing off dirt and fern fronds. Maybe I was odd, but his questions made me bristle more than waking up with his hand on my boob had.

“Okay.” Duncan shrugged easily and stood up, revealing that he’d probably been dreaming of something besides wolf cases while he’d had his arm wrapped around me.

I looked away, not wanting to gawk at him and have him believe I was interested. But he caught my glance and grinned, standing proudly, not trying to hide anything.

“I need to be back at the apartment complex by the time office hours begin.” I hoped he knew how to find the van again.

As a wolf, it would have been a simple matter to follow our scent trail back to it, but my human nose lacked such sensitivity. Though, in the aftermath of the change, the world did seem sharper, the air currents laden with far more odors than I usually noticed.

“Does that mean you don’t want to see if we’re as good together in bed as we were on the hunt?” Duncan had politely been gazing at my face, but at that comment, he glanced lower. Lust and appreciation glinted in his eyes before he looked away, dropping a mask over his interest.

Maybe I should have chastised him for the glance, but I caught myself feeling pleased. With two grown sons, I’d thought I was past the age where men would want to ogle my naked body. Now and then, out in public, I got looks, but Chad’s cheating had left me feeling beaten and broken—and that my attractiveness had long since faded.

“There aren’t any beds out here,” was all I said.

“Those ferns weren’t bad.”

“They were cold, damp, and prickly. Do you know where your van is?”

“Of course.” Duncan pointed toward trees at the start of the gully where we’d found the deer.

“Do you know where yourkeysare?”

He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “We’ll find out.”

We parted long enough to tend to biological needs and drink from the stream. That wasn’t something I would usually do in human form, but wolves didn’t carry hydration packs, and we’d both already quenched our thirst there the night before.

Afterward, I followed Duncan up the gully. The stream gurgled pleasantly beside us, and birds sang as the sky grew brighter. While we walked, I mulled over the case to take my mindoff the rocks and roots scraping the bottoms of my feet. Ambling through the forest was a lot easier with sturdy paw pads than delicate human soles, and I looked forward to dressing.

Duncan glanced back often as we trekked toward the road. Checking to make sure I was keeping up?

Chin up, I ignored the ground poking my feet and kept pace with him. The previous night’s vision had me thinking that looking at the case through lupine eyes might reveal something, but I didn’t know if I could summon the wolf and then remember that some trifling human object had importance to me. Once I was in lupine form, I would forget my to-do list. Instead, I would take off into the closest wilderness to hunt.

“I get why you don’t trust me—nobody ever trusts lone wolves,” Duncan said after one of his glances caught me frowning pensively. “But I’ll give you my number before I go. It seems like your family has turned against you. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’ll listen. I know what it’s like to be lonely. Trust me.”

“I’m fine. I’ve been alone a while. I’m used to it.” Sort of. Even before I’d kicked Chad out, he’d barely been home. The difference now was that my boys were also gone.

“Being used to being alone doesn’t necessarily make it easy.”

“Yeah.” I decided not to argue. He probablydidunderstand better than most. “Thanks for offering,” I made myself add, though I doubted I would take him up on it. “When are you leaving? You haven’t metal-detected all our acres yet.”

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