Page 22 of Wolf Lost

“Ash,” Gavin said, his voice back to normal, complete with that warning tone of authority.

“Pretty much never, okay? I mean, you’d have figured it out. Right?” The fact that he kept staring at the hammer told Dez he didn’t need to ask if Ash had thought that was a good plan.

Ash had been ashamed. He hadn’t wanted to talk about it. It wasn’t like extra strength, fast reflexes, or a sense of smell that could locate a person half a mile away. It was about sex, and whatever was different about werewolf society, Ash had been raised with the same embarrassment of his own body as most humans Dez knew.

Sawyer didn’t seem to have the same hesitation, so Dez made a quick decision. He turned to look at Gavin, who met his eye and glanced back at the old, cracked vinyl chairs, which still stood there in piles. Dez nodded, decisively, and headed toward them.

He pulled a stack apart and set four of them in a rough circle, then motioned for everyone to sit.

Ash sat and buried his face in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled through them, barely understandable.

Dez squeezed his shoulder, and for once his damned hand didn’t spasm, thank fuck.

“So,” Gavin started, looking at Sawyer, clearly having come to the same conclusion as Dez, that Ash was going to be useless for the purposes of the conversation. “That’s a thing.”

Sawyer nodded. He didn’t seem horrified, shocked, or ashamed. “Yep. It’s for, well, with female omegas and betas, it’s for insemination. You know, ah”—he made the most obscene gesture Dez had ever seen in his life with one hand and onefist—“locks things together to assure maximum exposure time.”

Ash let out a tiny whimper.

“Like dogs?” Gavin asked. He sounded almost like he thought it was a joke, and yet was strangely intrigued. Like he’d discovered the most disturbing porno ever made and was horrified to find it compelling.

“I guess,” Sawyer agreed. “I don’t know much about dogs.”

Gavin flushed from chest to hairline. “We, ah, that is, my mom bred dogs. Samoyeds. One of those things kids notice and ask about, and my older brother figured it would give me nightmares, so he told me all about it.”

That seemed to confound Sawyer. “Nightmares? Why? I mean, I haven’t—” He finally blushed and looked away from them, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling. “You know, had sex with an alpha. But I’ve never heard anyone complain. Mostly the older omegas gossiped about it all the time, like it was what they all wanted.”

Dez watched him until he glanced down and their gazes caught, like magnets with opposite polarity. There was a light flush on Sawyer’s cheeks, but he didn’t look ashamed. His lips parted, and he absently licked the full lower one, then bit it, unabashedly watching Dez.

“Right, then,” Gavin said, planting his hands on his knees and pushing himself up. “I think we’ve learned what we need to. No sex with people not in the know, ever again.”

Ash finally looked up, brow drawn in worry. “I would have told you. If—if either of you had been thinking about dating a human.”

“I know you would have, Ash,” Gavin agreed easily. Dez didn’t doubt it either, so he nodded along.

Ash would have done a lot to avoid talking about it, as was obvious from his reaction to the subject, but he never would have allowed them to put themselves, and all werewolves, in danger. Not without at least a warning, no matter how much he didn’t want to deal with an embarrassing subject.

Ignoring the fact that they’d been in the middle of working on the case, Ash slunk back into the kitchen to watch the kitchen contractor work. The guy was embarrassed to talk about natural things that happened to his own body, but he had a kitchen fetish.

Dez sighed and got slowly to his feet. “We’re obviously not going to get any work done today. Why don’t we go get ice cream?”

Sawyer hopped to his feet, brilliant smile on his face. “Pie?”

“What’s that got to do with ice cream?”

“This whole state is permanently freezing,” Sawyer told him with a faked shiver. He had permanently appropriated the fleece jacket Dez had loaned him on his first day in Colorado. Though it was almost June, he still wore it regularly. “We can go somewhere you can get ice cream, and I can get something that won’t make it worse.”

Dez grabbed his cane with his right hand and motioned toward the door with his left. “I guess if you want to suck the fun out of everything. After you.”

Sawyer snorted as he passed Dez on his way out. “Mr. Never-Smiles accusingmeof being a killjoy. That’s rich.”

Dez rested his weight on his good leg and reached out to poke Sawyer with his cane. “Don’t you tell me to smile.”

Sawyer hopped out of range, laughed, and raced off toward the truck.

15

Walk the Line

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