Page 48 of Way of the Wolf

“I’m glad you’ve got it all figured out,” I said stiffly and looked out the window. I clamped my mouth shut, sublimating the urge to explain further, todefendmyself. I hadn’t wanted to share any of my past with him, and I didn’t know how that had happened.

“It’s more that I’ve learned to accept that which is unchangeable in my wise old age.” Duncan snorted softly, his focus on the freeway. We’d left the city, and the lights of the suburbs were growing sparser, with the forested mountains looming ahead of us. “If I had it all figured out, maybe I would have a family instead of being a lone wolf.”

“Did you have a pack back in the Old World?”

“No.”

“Did you challenge an alpha and get driven out?”

That was how it usually happened, at least that I’d observed. And most lone wolves didn’t end up living long. They often tried to integrate fully into human civilization, much as I had, but ended up feeling the call, changing, and going on hunts alone. Sometimes, that worked out. Sometimes, it didn’t… And when they woke, gored by antlers, there was no one to care for them, to bring them to a wise wolf for healing, and they passed alone in the forest.

“I never got that opportunity.” His tone turned dry. “Had I challenged an alpha, I might have won. You’ve seen my exquisite physique.” He flexed a biceps, though it would have been his physique as a wolf that would have mattered in a pack fight.

“It was all right.”

Duncanhadbeen a big wolf—and magnificent. Alone, he would have kicked Augustus’s ass. I had little doubt.

“All right?” He sniffed. “Really, my lady.”

“I was too distracted by the lushness of your silvering pelt to notice your overall fitness.”

Duncan squinted suspiciously over at me. “At leastsomethingof mine captured your attention.”

“I’m a fan of lushness.” I smiled. This was safer to talk about than the past.

“Should we ever succumb to our immense physical attraction to each other and end up rutting with abandon in the forest, Iwon’t be offended if I wake in your arms with you stroking my pelt.”

“Assuming therewasphysical attraction, I usually rut in my bedroom as a human.”

“Usually. There must have been a time when you were a horny wolf. The teenage years are particularly libido-fueled, as I remember.”

Not answering the question, I said, “If I lived in a van, I’d probably prefer the woods too.”

“My vandoeshave a bed.”

“If it’s as cramped as this passenger seat—” I lifted one of my legs, my knee getting stiff from my foot being propped on boxes, “—I can’t imagine you’ve lured many women into it.”

“You might be surprised. If I sought to lureyou,I suspect I could accomplish that mission by tossing a couple of squares of chocolate onto the bed back there.”

“You’d better make it a whole bar.” I looked into the dark back of the van, though the shadows hid the bed. “Maybe aboxof bars.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. The kind with bacon bits, right?”

“Honey-bourbon bacon bits.” I pointed at a sign alongside the freeway. “Take the next exit. We can hunt back there.”

“Together? Or separately?” He hadn’t forgotten the comment that started the conversation.

I sighed. “Let’s… see how it goes, I guess. How many miles to the gallon does your van get?”

Duncan blinked at the change in topic.

I delved into my purse while calculating the length of the journey. “About twenty? Fifteen?”

“Yeah, it’s not a lot. Especially when the van is driven off road, into parks, and used as a battering ram to send enemies flying.” Duncan sounded more pleased than upset about that.

“I had no idea it had such a finicky engine and that such activitieswould affect its average MPG.” I opened my GAS envelope, pulled out six dollars, and laid the bills on the dashboard for him.

“Is that a tip for services you expect me to render later?”

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