“He screamed like a girl. Scared the hell out of me. I spun around and here was this grown man screaming at me, his gun pointed at my head.” Micah grinned. “It took some serious talking to get him to put the gun down. Eventually, he got over his shock and we cut a deal. He would keep my secret and in exchange, I would help him find anyone lost in the woods, and stay well away from town. I’ve found about a dozen people in the last few decades. Lost hikers, kids who’ve run away from home, cattle rustlers.” His grin turned into a bone-melting smile as he looked into my eyes and I had to blink several times to refocus.“And you.”
“How long have you actually lived around here?” I was still processing the fact Tony knew all about Micah. It was hard to grasp, after believing I’d imagined him for the last five years, that someone else knew he existed.
“I’ve been visiting this area for nearly fifty years. I like the woods around here and there are no other Lycans that I’ve happened across. I like the seclusion. I’m normally not much of a people person. But I didn’t live here until a few years ago.”
I might have imagined the ‘until you’ that hung in the air. I tried not to read too much into his words even if they warmed me to the very tips of my toes. I had other questions but I’d leave them for when we were alone. I turned to Tony, pinning him with my stare.
“Why didn’t you tell me that I was saved by a werewolf, when I thought I was going crazy after the accident? Does Sue know? I can’t believe she wouldn’t have told me if she knew.”
Tony had the good grace to look guilty, shrugging and mumbling about giving his word, and a man only being measured by the strength of his word. “Besides, he saved you. I owed him your life and my gratitude, and keeping my mouth shut seemed like a small price to pay for that.” His eyes begged me for my forgiveness.
Damn him for pulling out the emotional big guns.
Sue’s voice piped up from the dining room, informing us that dinner was ready and Tony was saved from any more guilt-tripping. I struggled through dinner, making pleasant conversation with Sue, until I was desperate to escape.
They’d put up with my ‘quirkiness’ for long enough that when I said we’d skip dessert, they didn’t put up too much fuss, though Sue looked at me and waggled her eyebrows, like dessert was waiting at home and it came in the form of a huge ass man.
I held my questions the whole way home, but the silence in the car was a comfortable one, even given my peevishness at him for keeping his acquaintance with Tony a secret.
As soon as we entered the house, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. I had been dying to do it all day, and my desire for him had almost quashed my anger. Almost. I bit his lip hard and he let out a yelp.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Tony?” I demanded.
He growled at me but I could sense his happiness. He scooped me up and carried me through the house to the bedroom.
“You don’t need to know everything, Little Red. But I guess there is no point hiding it now. I didn’t tell you because the less it’s discussed, the better. People forget that the world has ears in every corner, especially in small towns. Besides, I figured if Tony wanted you to know about his involvement in my existence, he would have told you.”
I nuzzled into his chest, and let him carry me to bed. “Little Red?”
He dropped me down onto my comforter. “Uh huh, and I’m the big bad wolf.” He grinned, and his teeth flashed in the bedside light.
I groaned. That was cheesy as hell. “Are you going to eat me?”
He crawled between my knees, gripping my shorts and peeling them down my thighs. “Uh huh, and I promise you, you’re going to enjoy every second.”
Cheesy he might be, but he was not wrong.
Much later, my body lying spooned in his, I approached the topic that made my chest feel too full. I snuggled closer to him so I could feel every groove of his body.
“It’s almost the full moon.” My voice was small, and it kind of hurt to even whisper the suggestion. Micah tightened his arm around my waist, stiffening.
“I was talking this over with Tony and we both agreed. With the bounty hunters in the area, I shouldn’t delay leaving until the full moon. It’s too dangerous for the town and especially too dangerous for you, so I have to go. I was going to tell you earlier tonight but I got… distracted. I’ll leave tomorrow night, but I promise you Layla, it's not forever. I will come back for you.”
It felt like someone had dropped a hot coal in the pit of my stomach, and I felt instantly sick.
“I’m glad you and Tony had a good discussion about what’s best for me, but don’t I get a say in my own wellbeing?”
“I didn’t save you five years ago to cause your death now. You cannot be with me on the full moon, bounty hunters or no bounty hunters. In my Lycan form, I’m a potential danger to you. My urges are different, my sense of right and wrong is skewed and I might decide you look tenderer than an elk and turn on you.”
He was trying to scare me but I wasn’t so easily deterred. “If your Lycan, or you, or whatever, wanted to eat me, I was a lot more tender and infinitely less bitter five years ago.” Micah didn’t even crack a smile, and I sighed. “You’re right, of course, they could track you here and I wouldn’t be safe.”
His eyes narrowed in suspicion, but I just waved a hand dismissively. “No, no, I really do agree, from what you’ve told me, these bounty hunters are ruthless mercenaries who will stop at nothing to get you. I mean, even if you’re gone, they may torture me for information. I mean, that’s if the rewards are as big as you say they are and they are as dismissive of human life as you suggest.”
Check and mate.
Micah looked pained and there were waves of annoyance flowing through the spot he occupied constantly in my mind. But buried underneath all that annoyance at being manoeuvred into a corner, was a genuine feeling of fear. That fear took the shine off my victory.
“I'll have to take you to Eden with me. You better go and pack. We leave in the morning.”
7
We’d driven for hours. Despite Micah’s grand declaration that we’d ride at dawn, we didn’t leave until just before midday. I’d arranged someone to look after most of the animals, and the neighbors had taken in Monster the Horse and the dairy cows.
We’d stopped a couple of times, grabbed some lunch in Minneapolis and then stretched our legs again in Madison. Apparently good sex and a little life upheaval was exhausting though, because I slept from Madison to Boston.
I woke to Micah scooping me out of the passenger seat. “We’re here.”
I snuggled into his chest and closed my eyes again, unwilling to wake up just yet.
He sighed and kissed the top of my head. “Fine, I’ll carry you up the stairs but then you have to go in on your own steam or they’ll think I’ve lost my mind and brought home a snack.”
I laughed as he heaved me up the stairs of an average looking apartment building. There was no elevator, but he strolled up five flights of steps like my added weight meant nothing. He wasn’t even out of breath. I’m pretty sure I was more exhausted just watching him.