Page 3 of Wolf Reborn

When his phone rang, he answered it automatically. “Parker.”

“Hey, Parker,” came a wheedling voice on the other end. Brown, one of the newer deputies. He wasn’t going to make it. Before he even asked, Miles knew with sudden prescience what the man wanted.

“Sure, I’ll work your shift tonight.” He pulled out his keys and started the car. He was still in uniform from his last shift. No need to even go home. “I’ll be there in a few.”

2

You Can’t Count On Me

The shop was silent for a long time after Miles left.

Of course Dez wasn’t going to say anything. Eventually, Gavin sighed and said what he had to. “I have to break it off.”

“Goddammit, Gavin!”

That was the last response he’d expected from Dez, of all people. If anyone else among the Kismet pack understood the depth of the darkness in humanity, it was Dez.

It wasn’t lost on him, though, that Dez rarely called him by his actual name. It was strange, since he considered the man his best friend, but Dez still called him “cap,” or occasionally “sir,” but rarely Gavin.

He slumped against the counter and just looked at Dez. They were a pack of alphas—he, Dez, and Ash—but the two of them always put him in charge. He didn’t understand it entirely, and didn’t necessarily agree, but he always tried to rise to the occasion when leadership was necessary.

When it came to Miles, though, he was lost.

He looked at Dez, searching for the answer he couldn’t seem to find himself. “What else can I do? I practically jumped on him because the fucking moon has me so keyed up.”

“Yeah, he looked like he minded a lot. Scandalized, even.” Dez’s deadpan delivery put the point on his sarcasm, but he was ignoring Gavin’s concerns.

“And next time, when I grow fangs? When he wants to know why there’s a pack of wolves in the backyard? How about when I”—he glanced around the empty shop, and lowered his voice anyway—“pop a goddamn knot when we’re having sex? You think he’s still not gonna mind then?”

Dez somehow managed to look concerned and unimpressed at the same time. The unimpressed frown was his specialty, but he couldn’t hide his soft eyes from Gavin. “So tell him.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”

And that was it. Dez couldn’t meet his eye anymore. “I honestly don’t know. We haven’t gotten to know him that well. He seems like a nice guy, but you never invite him over.”

“Because somebody in the house is always fucking calling me alpha, or shifting, or—How could I, Dez? There’s no way to bring him in slow. It’s all or nothing, and the second it becomes all, it’s too late if it turns out I’m wrong about him.” His chest heaved with the effort of breathing, and he felt like a little kid: small, weak, and about to have a panic attack because he’d failed a math test and had to tell his mother.

Not that he had any experience with that.

Failure hadn’t been an option in the Lloyd household.

“Feel better?” Dez asked.

Gavin shook his head, then sighed and nodded. It wasn’t a better situation, but he did feel better, having told someone what the problem was. He couldn’t talk about it to the one person he truly wanted to: Miles.

The man was achingly beautiful, with his high cheekbones, curly raven hair and eyes the color of cherry wood. More importantly, he was smart and kind and funny, and every single thing Gavin had ever wanted in a man.

There was just no way to know how he would react to the fact that Gavin and his family were werewolves. If he knew Miles could handle it, he’d have told him eight months ago, then dragged him to his bedroom and given him every lascivious thing he so clearly wanted. Every lascivious thing Gavin wanted too, so very badly.

He tried not to let himself think about it, but he was pretty sure he was in love with Miles. Unfortunately, unless he learned how to see the future and knew how Miles would handle the werewolf reveal, he couldn’t ever tell him.

So it would be best to break it off, to save them both the pain of a relationship that couldn’t happen.

Only trouble was, every time he’d convinced himself to do it, Miles would walk into the shop with his crooked smile and his shy words and his ridiculous tea order, and Gavin would once again find himself promising to call.

Wanting to call.

Calling.

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