Three Wild Werewolf Tales (7 page)

“Of course not, I’m human for most of the month, I’m not a cannibal.” He took an apple from the fruit bowl and sat down next to Nathan. “Thanks for breakfast, it was great.”

“When I hit you... you were bleeding severely, or it looked severe,” Nathan told him, glancing up at him over his glasses. “But when I got you here...””

“We heal fast,” Alex told him. “You probably did break a few bones, but I’m fine now.”

Nathan didn’t look reassured. “I should’ve known something was going on when you were being so docile. An injured wolf should’’ve been trying to tear my arm off, even with a muzzle on.”

“You had syringes,” Alex said. “And I was stuck as a wolf until the morning. There was nothing I could do.”

There was pity in Nathan’s eyes when he smiled at Alex. “And to add insult to injury, I stuck you in a dog crate.”

“With a squeaky toy,” Alex grumbled. He was still annoyed by that. He had his dignity, as man and wolf. He took a vicious bite from the apple.

“It was still lying in there from the previous dog. Y’know, if you’re still hungry, there’s cereal and –” Nathan was interrupted by his phone, which had been lying on the kitchen table next to the fruit bowl. He glared at the screen, sighed, and answered it. “What?” He stood up with his coffee and walked into the living room.

Alex watched him. It was clearly a private conversation, and he hummed to himself. Sometimes having heightened senses was a pain in the ass. He still picked up enough from the conversation to know that whoever was on the phone was someone Nathan didn’t like at all, as Nathan tried to argue quietly and Alex could smell the anger on him.

The fact that Nathan shouted, “Well, fuck you too, Chris!” after hanging up was also a bit of a giveaway. “Asshole,” he muttered, as he walked back to the table. He prodded at his fried egg. “Completely forgot he was gonna come over.”

“Who?”

Nathan sighed. “Chris. Arrogant, smug asshole of an ex-boyfriend. I’ve been telling him to get his stuff for days.” He stuck his fork in his toast unnecessarily hard. “I told him he could even come by when I was out, I mean, Mrs. Wilson next door would’ve let him in. What with you, I’d completely forgotten he was picking his stuff up this morning.””

“How soon?” Alex asked. Did this mean he was gonna have to go before he could get a shower? Because he had been looking forward to being clean. And spending some more time with a Nathan who wasn’t stabbing his breakfast.

“Fifteen minutes or so,” Nathan said, slumping in his chair. “Don’t worry, I’m not telling you to get out. Not for him, I don’t care what he thinks. Let him assume you’re some one-night-stand or whatever, he’s had plenty since we broke up three weeks ago and...” He paused, then turned to Alex. “Would you mind that?”

“What?” Because Nathan probably wasn’t offering an actual one-night-stand. Alex definitely wouldn’t say no to that, and now that he knew for certain Nathan was into guys, the way Nathan had been looking at him made a lot more sense.

“You know,” Nathan replied, glancing down at his plate. “Pretending that we...”

“Had sex?” Alex asked when Nathan trailed off. He paused, watching Nathan’s cheeks flush. “You want me to do you a favour after you nearly killed me?” He was exaggerating, but it was fun to make Nathan squirm.

“No! I didn’t, did I? Nearly kill you? You said you guys heal fast, you’re fine!” Nathan’s eyes were wide as he looked Alex up and down. “You are, right?”

He grabbed a piece of Nathan’s toast, and ate it leisurely. “It could’ve been a lot worse,” he said, glancing at Nathan. “You and Chris had a bad break-up, then?”

“Bad doesn’t begin to cover it,” Nathan replied. He was still wary of Alex, but relaxed a little. “We moved in together about eight months ago and shit hit the fan. Suddenly, he hated living here, and he accused me of not having time for him, even though he was out every night when I was home. Like me working long hours was a completely surprise to him. Besides, I can’t ignore emergencies, can I?” He sighed. “I was coming back from one last night, bit of a colic problem over at the Johnsons.”

“I’m guessing this isn’t how you wanted to start your weekend,” Alex ventured. He didn’t know a lot about horses, but he knew colic could get pretty bad. “Late night, running over a werewolf, and an ex dropping by.”

Nathan smiled wanly. “They say bad luck comes in threes, right? So things have got to be looking up for me now.”

Alex could think of a few ways to make Nathan’s bad luck turn around.

“So, you’re okay with pretending to be a one-night-stand or not?” Nathan asked, finishing his coffee.

From what he had heard, Chris the Ex certainly sounded like he could use a lesson in humility. And it wouldn’t be a hardship to pretend to have slept with a cute guy like Nathan. “Sure, no problem.”

Nathan glanced at him. “Really? None?”

Alex shrugged and sipped his coffee. “None,” he said, smiling slowly at Nathan.

“Oh, okay. Great.” Nathan sounded surprised Alex had agreed so easily now. “Well, you won’t need to do much. You sitting here half-naked early in the morning is probably enough to make him jump to conclusions.”

“All right,” Alex said, leaning closer, “so I’m guessing you want to rub his face in it.” This was the perfect excuse to get close with Nathan, and annoying a rival appealed to his wolf side.

Nathan shifted in his seat, not meeting Alex’ eyes. “It’d make a nice change,” he muttered. “I’m pretty sure half his Facebook updates are massive lies, but still, y’know? It’s a dick move.”

He shouldn’t want to help the guy who locked him in a dog crate last night, but Nathan had apologised and made him breakfast. And, well, not a lot of people would go through the trouble of taking care of him like Nathan had. Besides, Alex had a soft spot for pleading brown eyes. “So how far do you want to push this?” he asked. “Am I supposed to stay close? Touch you a lot? Kiss you right in front of him?”

“Uhm,” Nathan said, cheeks a brighter red now. “Sure. I mean, you know, whatever feels natural? But don’t overdo it,” he added.

Alex smirked as he finished his coffee. There was a slight hint of arousal to Nathan’s scent now. Good. “Trust me, I won’t do anything I wouldn’t want to anyway. And one more thing, can I use your phone to make a quick call? I should let someone know I’m all right.” It was almost an hour after sunrise, and he still wasn’t at the designated meeting point. His phone, his clothes, everything was in one of the cabins usually reserved for hikers and tourists. The others had to be worried by now.

“Oh, of course.” Nathan slid his phone over. “I’ll be upstairs, making sure I’ve really packed up all of Chris’ things.”

Alex nodded and dialled Richard’s number. It wasn’t long before the older man picked up.

“Where the hell are you?” Richard said, while Nathan left the room and headed upstairs.

“Had a bit of an, er, accident,” he explained quickly. “Got hit by a car, but I’m fine now.”

Richard grunted. “So why aren’t you here?”

Alex sighed. Time to bite the bullet. “The guy who hit me was the vet. He took me home to examine me.”

Richard was quiet for a moment, then burst out laughing. “And he kept you overnight, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Alex muttered. “And now he knows about werewolves.”

“Alex...” Richard’s amusement faded.

“Hey, you transformed in front of that hiker last night,” Alex immediately told him. “You can’t get angry with me about that.”

Richard grunted again. “We’re gonna have to tell the others,” he said. “I’ll tell ‘em you’re fine, but we’ll wait with telling them about being found out until you get here.”

No doubt Richard didn’t want to be only one to have the rest of the pack angry for allowing non-werewolves to find out about their existence. Alex didn’t blame him. “Sure, I don’t know when exactly I’m gonna be there, might be this afternoon.” It all depended on how things were gonna go with Nathan.

“Just get your run-over ass here as soon as possible, okay? And stay out of trouble.” With those last words of wisdom, Richard hung up.

Alex put the phone on the table, and figured he should have some time for the shower Nathan had promised him he could have.

~*~

Alex let out a happy sigh as he showered, and checked his thigh to make sure the wound had healed properly. There wasn’t even a scar. It felt good to wash the smell of dog and vet office off his body along with everything else. He wouldn’t have gone for lemon-scented shower gel himself, but it was better than nothing.

He heard a car drive up to the house, and a few minutes later he heard some shouting. Nathan and Chris were clearly still be pissed off with each other. Still, it was none of his business, and he wasn’t here to be a relationship therapist, he was here to pretend to be Nathan’s one-night-stand. Alex felt sure that if he played his cards right, it wouldn’t be a pretence for long.

After turning off the shower and using a towel to dry himself, he grabbed the sweatpants. They had to be Chris’, that explained the bigger size. Hell, Nathan probably hoped that Chris would get annoyed by seeing another guy wear his clothes. The drama was the one thing he didn’t miss about relationships.

With some luck, Alex’ presence would be enough to get the message across that Chris was here to pick up his stuff and get out. Alex planned on getting the hell out himself if the arguing lasted too long. He had his breakfast and his shower, after all, and with some luck he’d be able to make it to the cabin without attracting too much attention. The streets were usually quiet around here on a Saturday morning.

~*~

He opened the door to the living room quietly, wanting to survey the scene for a moment. Chris was taller than Nathan by a good couple of inches, and broader too. Nathan was backed up against the kitchen counter, but gave back as good as he got from the other man, who was clearly trying to intimidate him.

“I have to drive all the way up here just to get my stuff, Nate, three hours of my day wasted on you. Seriously, how much effort is it to drive by my new place?”

Nathan narrowed his eyes. “Seriously, you know my work is crazy and I rarely have to be in your new neighbourhood. You work part-time, you have plenty of time to swing by and pick up your crap!” He huffed. “I mean, you had plenty of time to cheat on me for two months.”

Nathan hadn’t mentioned Chris being a cheater, and Alex let out a quiet growl. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was disloyalty, especially now. Wolves looked out for their pack mates, and Nathan had taken care of him last night.

“At least he had time for me,” Chris sneered. “And yeah, your fucking job always had to come first, didn’t it? You always felt you were better than me. Well, I hope you’re fucking happy in this middle of nowhere town, can’t be long before the hicks get you.”

He had had enough. “You must be Chris,” Alex said, stepping into the room calmly. He smiled at them both, then casually walked over to the counter to stand next to Nathan. “Nathan’s told me about you.”

Chris huffed as he sized Alex up. “Did he?”

Alex kept smiling in a friendly manner, fighting the urge to bare his teeth and growl. Let Chris draw his own conclusions. “Got an earful just then too.”

Nathan hung his head. “Sorry you had to hear that, I didn’t mean to –”

“That’s all right.” Alex cut him off, and slipped one arm around Nathan, pulling him closer. “I know how passionate you can get.” He ran his hand up and down Nathan’s side over his t-shirt, then left it on Nathan’s hip.

Chris’ bright blue eyes darted from Alex to Nathan and back. “Who the fuck even are you?”

“I’m Alex.” He held out his other hand, but Chris didn’t shake it.

“What are you doing here?” Chris demanded, glaring up at him.

Alex forced himself to remain calm, even as the wolf inside wanted to tackle Chris to the ground and show him who was in charge here. “Isn’t it obvious?” he asked, then slid his hand up under Nathan’s shirt. The move resulted in a quiet gasp from Nathan, and Alex’ smile grew.

Chris snorted derisively, then looked at Nathan. “Didn’t take you too long to move on, did it? Or were you fucking him while we were still together?”

“For fuck’s sake, Chris, not everyone’s a cheating asshole like you.” Nathan leaned into Alex now. “I only met Alex last night, and he spent the night here. It’s none of your business.”

Alex’ mouth twitched with held back amusement. “And a wonderful night it was too,” he added, stroking Nathan’s smooth skin with his fingers. He must’ve hit a sensitive spot, because Nathan shifted a little and the scent of his arousal became stronger. Alex kept stroking the same spot in slow circles, happy with how this was going so far. “Wasn’t it, Nathan?”

“Great,” Nathan said, looking slightly flustered as Alex lowered his head to nuzzle Nathan’s hair.

Chris quietly glared at them, and Alex happily kept up the façade until Chris stomped off, muttering to himself.

“Is he gone?” Alex asked, his nose still buried in Nathan’s hair. It smelled nice, with the faint scent of other animals that no shampoo could ever fully remove.

“Yeah, he went upstairs.” Nathan smiled up at him, then sniggered. “I know, I’m supposed to be an adult and handle breaking up like a grown-up, but that was fun. I’ll go after him, tell him where his things are.”