Page 11 of Fixer
Wade didn’t move.He just lifted his lip and growled, a deep, werewolf warning.The dog gave one more leap and stopped, head and tail going down.Wade growled again.With a yelp, the dog whirled and scrambled toward its owner, knocking the man onto his ass in its flight inside.
The man’s tumble gave Wade a second to sprint for the back fence, gather himself, and leap over.I crouched lower and didn’t move.
The man hauled himself to his feet and turned, staring up and down the alley.“Shit,” he muttered.“Shit, shit, I didn’t think the weed was that strong.”He turned to peer behind him.“Luger, get your dumb dog ass out here!Luger!”He hurried inside, letting the door shut behind him.
That was my opportunity to scuttle along the wall and take the turn out onto the sidewalk.I didn’t see Wade, but no doubt he’d make his own way home.I began trudging along like a man coming home from a long day.Nothing to see here, folks.When I reached Wade’s building, I decided I’d had enough of babying creaky fire escapes, so I went in the front, picked the lobby lock, and let myself inside.After making sure the door re-latched, I climbed the nice, solid, quiet indoor stairs to Wade’s apartment and listened at the door, my ear against the wood.
There, I waited, half my attention on the apartment and half making sure the hallway stayed empty.After five minutes, I heard the click of thick nails and the pad of feet on the hardwood floor inside.I tapped on the door.Loud snuffing along the gap at my feet was followed by a little grumble.Heavy paws trotted away.
If anyone came out into the hall, I’d seem less suspicious standing at the door than crouched with my ear against it, so I straightened.I couldn’t hear Wade shifting, but after another pause, the door eased open enough to let me inside.Wade glared at me as I passed him, then shut the door and turned to me, wearing only his boxers.
My tongue glued to the roof of my mouth and my pulse spiked in a way I’d never experienced before.Yes, Wade was attractive, fit, with muscles that spoke of athleticism, and those bright blue eyes and curly hair, but in the years since I’d left my pack, I’d been with men more objectively handsome.Still, something about Wade hit me with a red-hot punch of desire.
No doubt my scent rose with that awareness.I saw Wade’s nostrils flare and he flicked a quick look down my body.I stared back, noting a hint of a similar response in those boxers, but all he said was, “How did you get in?”
I patted my pocket, making the lock picks click.“Building needs a better door.”
“Hah.Not likely to happen with this landlord.”He rocked his weight from foot to foot, still intent on me.“When did you leave the pack?Youdidleave permanently, right?”A sudden tension froze him.
“Yes, of course.I wouldn’t lead them to you, let alone to Shawn.”Mentioning Shawn made my overeager dick settle down in the echo of those bad years.“I left two years after you did.”
“Twoyears?You stuck with them that long?”
“Yes!Because going any sooner would’ve been a huge red flag.I couldn’t let them suspect I had any reason beyond general distaste to feel wrong about killing Shawn.They agreed his death was sad, regrettable, but his being gay shook the rest of the pack as much as my action to silence him.Some of them fuckingthankedme for protecting the pack.”I swallowed down the remembered bitterness of that unwanted praise.
“Bastards,” Wade muttered.
“Our top wolves, especially our enforcer, were watching pack reactions closely afterward, keeping an eye out for anyone too soft or too sympathetic.So I stuck around and was Alpha’s good wolf and solved the pack’s problems for two more years, all the while knowing I’d be the one sent off that cliff for real, if they had any idea who I was.”Growing up, I’d always thought— hoped— that Alpha might not be as rabid on the topic of queer wolves as other Alphas were said to be.That he might have some compassion.Some tolerance.Shawn’s fate took away that hope.“I did it for your safety and Shawn’s.”
“Sorry.”He frowned.“What do you mean, mine?”
I waved him off with a headshake.If he was ignoring the fact that I could scent arousal from him too, and that his dick had briefly stirred under the thin cotton of his boxers, I wouldn’t rub his face in it.Yet.Don’t think about rubbing his face in anything.“I waited till I had to do another bad job that I could use as an excuse for losing my nerve, and I took it.”
“Another death?”He paled.
“Oh, no, I didn’t have to kill anyone.Harris got careless shifting, failed to draw his blinds, and a teenager out looking for his lost cat got an eyeful.The kid blabbed to his parents who mentioned it to Harris in a roundabout way, fishing for answers.”
“What happened?What did you do?”
I’d snuck into the boy’s room the next night, hid drugs in his backpack, and dropped a high dose of LSD in his snoring mouth.He’d woken disoriented and tripping hard.His parents stopped believing him, and that bad trip didn’t do him any favors.He ended up kicked out and living with an uncle.“I made him into a liar.”I shrugged as if it was all in a day’s work.Which, for a pack Fixer, it was.“Alpha beat the shit out of Harris, and planned for him to move as soon as it wouldn’t seem suspicious.I got permission to leave the pack and go lone.”Which validated Second’s opinion that I’d always been too soft for my father’s job.I wondered who was doing that work now.I was torn, but I had to wish him well.Because ultimately, the safety of all werewolves in a totally human-dominated world was worth hurting a few individuals.I just disagreed about which ones.
“Where do you live now?”
“Chicago.North metro.”I’d thought my choice of the Midwest was logic, a central location.Now, when I looked at Wade and felt that undeniable tug, down in my core, I had to wonder… Mating among us wolves didn’t usually work that way.Our wives were chosen by logic, by ordinary emotions, and bonded by deliberate effort, not fate.And yet, here I’d ended up, less than an hour from Wade, for the past four years.
To lighten the mood, I grinned.“I work as a private detective.I’m very successful, I’ll have you know.”
“I believe it.”Wade turned away abruptly and retreated into his room.When I followed, he was pulling on unfashionably narrow-legged jeans and a T-shirt.He got out a backpack, stuffed underwear and a couple of changes of clothes into the main compartment.“I need to tell Mrs.French that I’ll be away for a few days.She’ll let the others know.”
“Will she be awake at this hour?We could wait till morning to leave.”I could sleep on your floor, or your couch.Or your bed.
“I don’t want to wait.I’ll slip a note under her door.”He brushed past me, heading to the bathroom.The bump of his shoulder along mine had to be deliberate.It made all the hairs on my arms stand on end.
I want this man.Except Wade hadn’t said a word yet about being gay, let alone seeming interested in me after hating my guts for so long.Patience.I was good at that.“All my stuff’s in my car, if that’s okay for the drive.We can take yours if you’d rather.Or you can follow me separately.”I wanted that drive time sitting side by side, hour after hour of breathing each other’s scent and regaining ease, but I’d understand if he didn’t.
“Your car.Mine’s even more ancient and unreliable.”He stuffed some toiletries into his bag and zipped it shut.The kitchen was his next stop.He slipped the photos of Shawn and the washcloth into a pocket in the front of his pack, then filled a paper bag with road food— apples and bread and cheese.
“You should eat properly first,” I told him.“Two shifts.You need calories.”
