He wanted her. So much he had to force the need from his mind with other things. He remembered that body in the convenience store. He hoped like hell that wasn’t Allie’s fate. He’d die before he let it be Michelle’s fate.

“Ready?” he asked, sliding into his seat and fastening his seatbelt.

“Yes. I checked in but there’s nothing new. Kathy, that’s Allie’s mom, she’s got her sister staying with her and the coven is in touch with Owen. No one else has gone missing, though I find it hard to believe they just stopped off in Roseburg, kidnapped a witch like a cup of coffee on a road trip. This seems far more organized than junkies grabbing a fix.”

“Yes. The fact that they’re working together with turned witches and have started targeting Weres points in that direction.” There was silence for a while and he wanted to fill it. Wanted her voice.

“So, since your cop boyfriend moved away, has there been anyone else?”

“I’ve been on nights for the last few months. My turn I guess. It’s hard enough to date when you’re a cop. Your schedule is already sort of wonky as it is, and then once you add night shift, it sort of kills your social life. I work, come home, go to bed, get up, eat, work out, go to work. What about you?”

“I go out here and there, but nothing serious.”

“Wolves mate for life right? I mean, that would have to be weird when it comes to dating.”

“It’s complicated, but yeah. I tend to date only other wolves. It’s hard to explain to humans, hey look, I already know up front this won’t be permanent and I could meet that forever person at any point so hey let’s keep things light.”

“All I know is what I hear about in the news or whatever. And it’s always so sensationalized it’s hard to know what’s true and what isn’t.”

“So ask. I’ll tell you.”

“You got bit you said. Wolves tell the media all the time that they’re safe to be around. Clearly that’s not the case.”

He treaded carefully here. “That’s partially true. I was bitten by a wolf who had really poor control. Most of the time when a human is changed, or when a natural wolf hits maturation, they’re guided through it by older, stronger wolves with a great deal of control. But the guy who bit me hadn’t told anyone he’d been bitten when he’d been on a camping trip. The day he attacked me had been his very first shift. To their credit, when Pacific heard they came to get us both. Being turned at my age is hard. Being nineteen is hard enough, you’re still a teenager, on your way to manhood, all those hormones. It wreaks havoc, and most humans that age who want to be turned are refused until they’re at least twenty-five. After I was bitten, I lived in the Pack House for eight months as I worked on my control and I shifted regularly in the company of other wolves. It’s not a perfect system. Accidents do happen. But we work as hard as we can to ensure they don’t.”

“And you didn’t hate them? I mean you ended up one of their leaders even after they changed you without your consent?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Lots of that going around.”

He snorted. “Life is complicated, I suppose. But what was I going to do? I wasn’t good enough to play professional ball. My grades were okay but nothing spectacular. My parents couldn’t have cared less about where I was going or my plans for the future. I had a dead-end in my past but a freak occurrence opened up many doors for my future. I was strong. And fast. I could control my shift early on. Pack life can be pretty disciplined and regimented. I…took to it. I thrived. Each time I challenged for a position and I won, I earned respect. It was a totally different world, but it feels natural to me.”

“So you advance by fighting?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes. I ended up as Enforcer without a fight. I was second-in-command to the Enforcer who is now the Alpha. I ascended and no one challenged me. I’d earned the respect of the pack.”

“That means a great deal, I imagine.”

“Yes.” It meant everything.

“I’m glad you have a good life.”

“Yeah? Even if I was a dick to you before?”

She snorted. “Even if you were a dick to me before. Why would I wish a horrible life on anyone, much less someone I cared so much about once?”

“Only once?”

“I knew Josh the jock. I don’t really know Josh the Enforcer. But I appreciate the help in finding Allie. That’s a start.”

It was.

They got off the freeway south of the first rest stop and then got back on heading north so he could pull into the northbound one. He caught the scent right away. The mages had a rotting meat stench.

“Their energy is still here, faint, but here.”

“I can scent it. It’s the same as the convenience store.”

“I think there are surveillance cameras here.”

“I know just the person to call for that.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Nina Warden, who at one time in her life happened to be a pretty notorious hacker. He explained the situation, and she told him she’d get right on it and call him back when she had news.

“I could have gotten a warrant, you know,” she muttered when they got back in the car and headed north to the next stop.

“Maybe, sure. Though how you’d have known the SUV stopped here would have been fun to explain, no? Well, Your Honor, I got out and I just sensed they’d been here.”

This was a one-way road, and she was far too late in the journey to turn back. He felt for her, knowing it had to be hard. But she couldn’t count on human help for this. She had support in the Others, and the sooner she accepted it, the better off she’d be.

Her mouth snapped shut, and she looked out the window as they headed north. The scent was the same at the second rest stop too, and by then it was already dark. He was hungry, and the breakfast bars he’d had in the car weren’t enough as they got back to Portland.

He pulled into the parking lot outside one of his favorite barbecue places that also happened to be run by wolves from the pack. A safe space with plenty of variety and heaping helpings.

She looked up at him, weariness all over her. “Why are you stopping?”

“I haven’t eaten in hours and neither have you. I need to get a lot more calories than I used to, and you’re so tired you’re weaving in your seat. Anyway, it’s too dark to do anything else right now. This place is really good, and it’s run by my people so we’re safe.”

He got out, and before he could get to her door, she’d managed to grab her bag and join him. “I was on my way to get your door.”

“Huh.”

He hid a smile as they went inside.

The way they all sort of swallowed him up with pats on the back, hugs and casual touches had been surprising. But she noted the same sort of behavior throughout the small restaurant.

She looked back at the big laminated menu, so hungry it was hard to choose.

“Everything is good. For sides I recommend the baked beans and the macaroni salad. Cornbread comes with the meal too. Oh try the lemonade.”

He was really good looking. She stared at the line of his jaw far too long but couldn’t seem to stop herself. She was too tired to use her filters. That must have been it. She wondered what he smelled like just behind his jaw, beneath his ear. She’d been surprised when he’d hugged her earlier so she hadn’t really gotten much of a sense of how he smelled, though in the car she noted his cologne, and whenever his wolf got very close to the surface, she smelled the forest.

She bet he looked way better naked now. The few times they’d actually done anything back in the day had been rushed but for the night of his senior prom when he’d gotten a hotel room.

She bet he filled out his boxers a lot better. All muscled and tawny. His hair was longer than it had been, he had scruff. Man, she was apparently a sucker for scruff. Who knew? She’d tended toward clean-shaven men in the past but Josh had converted her.