Page 6 of Wolf Reborn

“Look,” he told the burglar, “They’re not attacking. I don’t think they’re going to. So you turn around, slowly, and put your hands against the wall.”

The man scoffed and glared at him. “You fucking kidding me, pig?”

Pig? Really? Miles rolled his eyes. “If you’d prefer, I could leave you here with them. Hell, I’m not even on duty. I don’t need to be here.”

One of the wolves, a giant black one, turned and walked over to Miles. He wasn’t going to lie, if the wolf had acted any way other than bored, he might have pissed himself at the sight. Instead, the thing came right up to him and shoved its nose into his belly, pushing him back a few inches.

If ever there was wolf-ese for “go away, human,” that was probably it.

He looked up at the burglar, whose mouth was hanging open in shock. “Are you fucking friends with these monsters?”

One of the other wolves, a big golden-blond one, growled and took a menacing step toward him, and he shut up.

Miles was still scared out of his fucking mind, but he steeled himself and pulled his handcuffs off his belt. The giant black wolf huffed and turned away from him. It headed for the burglar, apparently no longer interested in Miles. The way it walked was unusual, like one of its back legs wouldn’t bear weight.

Miles didn’t know wolves could survive like that, but something about it made him happy. The black wolf was terrifying, of course, so any injury didn’t make it less dangerous, but it was nice to know wolves took care of their own.

He shook himself out of his distraction and held up the cuffs. “Your call, buddy. A ride downtown, or you stay here with the Second Chance, um, dogs.”

One of the wolves barked, and Miles could have sworn it was a laugh.

This time, the burglar turned to face the wall and put his hands in the air.

Miles eyed the wolves for a second before once again drawing himself up and marching forward, using the efficient motions he’d been taught at the academy to move the man’s arms behind his back and snap the cuffs on. He pretended he wasn’t terrified, but he was sure wolves could smell fear, and it was probably wafting off him like the worst BO ever.

Not one of the wolves moved toward him. None of them moved at all.

He turned himself and the burglar around, and marched the man back toward the house, holding his confidence around him as though it were a shield that could protect him from long sharp teeth. And rabies. Did wolves carry rabies?

The wolves stayed behind. As soon as they were clear of them, the man tried to break away and run for it, and as a result, he ended up tripping and falling right into the cop who was supposed to be there, Deputy Tim Tomlinson, who was being accompanied up the hill by Gavin.

Deputy Tomlinson raised an eyebrow at Miles, who shrugged. “I was in the neighborhood.” Tomlinson didn’t look like he believed that, but what else could Miles say? “I was worried about the guy who isn’t even my boyfriend”? No, best to look overzealous, not desperately amorous.

“There’s a pack of fucking wolves out there, and he tried to feed me to them,” the guy yelled, a smidge hysterical, and it was his turn to get Tomlinson’s dubious eyebrow.

“Is it meth, or something more serious?” the deputy asked the man, who started sputtering about not being on drugs. Tomlinson looked up at Miles. “You see a pack of wolves out there? Sick them on our friend the thief?”

Miles didn’t look at Gavin. He met Tomlinson’s eye and twisted his lips in a way that conveyed disgust. “My money’s on coke.”

And that was that. Tomlinson traded out his cuffs for Miles’s, the thief was branded a liar, and suddenly, Miles was one.

He had lied to his own department for a man who probably didn’t like Miles half as much as Miles liked him. They weren’t kidding about slippery slopes, and already, Miles was trying to imagine how he’d write up the report with as few lies as possible.

He offered to head downtown, and Tomlinson waved him off. “Do the report in the morning. You’ve worked sixteen hours today, and it’s time for you to get some sleep.”

Tomlinson and his partner drove off with the burglar in the back of their car, leaving Miles standing alone in the drive with Gavin, for whom he had just lied.

For the first time in their acquaintance, Miles found that he would literally prefer to be anywhere other than Gavin’s company. Back with the wolves, maybe, since he didn’t need to have a fraught conversation with them. Unsurprisingly, there was no sign of wolves to be had.

4

Dead of Night

Fuck his life.

No, seriously, fuck his entire life and everything about it.

If there had ever been a chance Miles would accept the werewolf reveal, it had just gone out the window. Probably been backed over a few times for good measure by the ridiculousness that was a goddamn burglar trying to break into the house.

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