28

28
ALICIA
I’ve been running in the general direction of the river, zig-zagging back and forth a bit to prolong the journey, for about twenty minutes when I hear the sound of footsteps falling in with mine.
I recognize this immediately. It isn’t a predator or a prey animal, because neither one would run in step with me like this. And I don’t have to turn my head or sniff the air to know that my companion is no wild wolf.
This is another shifter choosing to run with me.
Immediately, my heart rate accelerates. Running again for the first time in years is one thing, but running with someone is something else. I haven’t gotten a look at my companion, so I have no idea who this is. It could be anyone. It could be company I wouldn’t mind, or it could be someone I really don’t want to see.
It could be Lonnie.
Brandon warned me. So did Kayla. They both let me know that Lonnie might be coming after me. I just assumed he would come looking for me at Dad’s house when he did. But if he’s been watching me after I saw him at the
boneyard, if he’s caught me alone out in the woods, he might have the upper hand on me. I could be in serious trouble.
I need to know, I realize. I can’t keep running with whoever it is and take a chance.
I curve around to the right, changing my line of sight. The wolf running beside me adjusts direction too, but not before I get a look at his thick black coat, shot through with bits of gray that I don’t remember seeing there before. And I see the triangle marking where his fur is lighter between his eyes, and the place on his arm where his fur never came back in right after he was
scarred in a bad barfight. That’s when I know.
It’s Brandon.
I don’t know what he’s doing out here. I don’t know how he knew where I would be. I can only imagine that Kayla must have told him, and that she’s arranged this somehow. Now that I think about it, of course that’s what she did. My meddling sister, who always thinks she knows better than I do about what I need and what I should be doing. My caring, loving sister who would do anything in the world if she thought it would make me happy.
She’s arranged this day for me and Brandon.
I should be angry. I should turn around and run straight home. She pitched me a day out to myself. That was what I was planning on. It wasn’t supposed to be a date.
But now here we are.
And I realize I don’t want to leave.
We’re approaching the river now, and I slow down and let him take the lead. I’m not sure where things are going. Are we going to stay in our wolf bodies?
He answers the question by shifting in front of me, and even though I’ve
seen him naked plenty of times now, there’s something different about this. It’s more primal even than sex, watching him emerge from his wolf form.
Suddenly, I want to be human too. I’m feeling wildly attracted to him, and I want to put my hands all over his body.
I exhale slowly and let my human side rise to the surface. It feels a little like pulling the bed sheets over my head, at least at first-all my senses become a little bit duller than they were a moment ago, and I feel like I need to shake my head to clear it.
On the other hand, my thoughts are extremely clear. “Kayla sent you,” I say.
He doesn’t bother to deny it. “Do you mind?” he asks. “Would you go if I did?”
“I’d ask you why first. I feel like you’re keeping your distance.”
“You feel like I’m keeping my distance after I let you meet Emmy? That’s about as personal as I know how to get.”
“I don’t think you would have let me meet her if you weren’t planning on leaving,” he says. “I think you took a gamble that it wouldn’t matter because you’d be gone soon enough anyway.”
Well, maybe that was part of my thought process. “What do you want me to say?” I ask. “Whenever you’re around, I feel like there’s something you’re waiting to hear. It’s like you think I’m going to change my mind about sticking around.”
“I’m still holding out hope that you will,” he says evenly.
“Well, let go of it,” I say fiercely. “Do us both a favor. You’re not going to win this one, Brandon. This place isn’t my home. This isn’t my life.”
“So you do want me to leave you alone.”
“Are those my only choices? I thought you and I were going to be friends.
Can’t we be that-just friends who like each other and spend time together and occasionally have sex?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know if I can do that.” “You do it with other women.”
“I’m not involved with any other women.”
“Okay, maybe not right now. But you have done it with other women.
What’s different about me?”
Brandon rakes a hand through his hair. “To tell you the truth, I wish I knew the answer to that. But I don’t.”
I close my eyes. “I don’t want to argue with you.”
“Neither do I,” he says. “That’s not why I came out here today. Kayla told me you’d be here, and I thought we could spend the day together. Have a good time. Not fight.”
“Be friends, in other words.”
“If friends is what you’re offering-” “It is.”
“Then yes,” he says. “Friends.”
He steps closer to me and rests his hands on my shoulders. “Whatever we are to each other, I care about you,” he says. “This can be enough for me.”
I lean in and rest my head on his chest, very much wishing that I had more to give him.