Page 30 of Wolf Reborn

15

Closing Time

Miles woke to knocking on the door, and his first instinct was annoyance. He’d wanted to stay with Gavin, here in this tiny world where only their relationship existed without outside influences. He’d dreamed they were snowed in forever, forced to simply buy the house and learn to live on microwaved soup and watery tea.

Yes, logically, he knew the soup would run out. The tea wasn’t likely to, since it was mediocre, but the soup would be a problem, and not just because it was basically cans of shockingly flavorless salt. Not to mention the water and electricity and a dozen other things, but it had been a dream, and none of that had mattered.

Only he and Gavin had mattered, and it had been nice.

Speaking of Gavin, he was stretching and rubbing his face. Miles recognized the precise moment Gavin realized what was going on, or at least remembered where he was, because every muscle in his body tensed.

His head popped up and he stared at Miles. “That’s—”

“You two better have goddamned pants on,” came the mutter from outside the front door. It seemed to Miles that was new. Could he have heard that yesterday, a mutter that quiet from the wrong side of a door?

He scowled in the direction of the door. “That depends on your definition of pants.”

“I’m American. I have the normal American definition of pants.” Dez huffed and shuffled his feet. “Now open the damn door. It’s cold out here.”

Gavin slid out of their makeshift bed and headed to the door, opening it long enough to let Dez in and then glance outside as he closed it.

Miles sat up, letting the blanket pool around his hips instead of expose the fact that he’d been full of it: he wasn’t wearing pants by anyone’s definition, and he didn’t particularly want to be. “I take it the snow wasn’t that bad?”

Dez gave a nervous glance at Gavin, scratching his nose and not looking anyone in the eye.

“Or the snow was exactly as bad as I think, and you ignored my message,” Gavin said, voice flat and brow wrinkled.

Dez’s head snapped up. “I did not. What message?”

That made Gavin pause. He glanced at Miles quickly, then back at Dez.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Cap, he heard me at the front door. It’s obvious you bit him. What was it, hypothermia?” He turned and looked Miles over, then gave a sharp incline of his head. “And welcome to the pack.”

Just like that.

Welcome to the pack.

Miles could have walked on a cloud, his heart was so light. No doubt, no sneer, no list of questions about his intentions, just welcome. It had been perfunctory, sure, but it was Dez. His picture should go in the dictionary definition of the word perfunctory.

“Car crash,” Miles answered for Gavin when he was quiet.

That seemed to concern Dez. “But you’re okay. I mean, nothing broken? Nothing we should be trying to—”

“No, Dez,” Gavin interrupted, voice low and sad. “Nothing like that. I don’t know what was wrong with him, but the bite seems to have fixed it.”

They both looked at Miles as though considering rushing him to the hospital anyway. They were worried about him.

Because he was pack.

He hugged the blanket to his chest and grinned at them. He probably looked like a goofball, but what did it matter?

“So how did you find us?” Miles asked, just to change the subject.

“I’ve been plowing every drive on this side of the mountain since dawn,” Dez answered. He waved at the door. “We put a plow on the truck a while back, since it seemed the sensible thing to do. I used to drive one as a teenager in Nebraska, so it wasn’t hard to get used to again. Worked out pretty damn well.”

It certainly had. Well, except for the fact that now Miles didn’t get to be alone with Gavin. He supposed his fond fantasy of days of uninhibited sex wasn’t ever going to happen, but Dez could have given him one freaking day.

“You guys want to head home now?” Dez glanced at the fire, then the pile of clothes on the floor. He turned to Miles, eyes narrowed. “You liar. Your underwear are sitting right there.”

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