I slam him into the car with a chokehold around his neck. Now that I look at him closer, the guy looks twitchy to me-small pupils. Sweaty. Like he’s on drugs. Great, just what I need. A tweaked out coy dog.
Growls start up all around me when he turns purple and his eyes bulge.
I release him and land a couple more punches.
“That’s enough.” I recognize the alpha command and take a step back. I’m not crazy enough to know they couldn’t easily take me down. A skinny, bearded man steps into my space. “Who are you?” he demands.
“I’m Titus. And I demand restitution.”
I don’t know if this is gonna get me anywhere. Some packs follow strict codes of conduct, others are more loosely governed.
“Wolf.” The coyote alpha spits. “Haven’t seen you around before.”
“Well, I’m here now. Demanding restitution.”
The alpha considers me for a moment. Then turns to the driver of the car. “This true? You hit a human with your car?”
The guy shrugs. “I hit a VW bus.”
“With a human female inside. She’s injured and the vehicle needs repair. You’re going to fucking pay for it.” I jab a finger in his face and the pack growls around me.
I wait two breaths before I drop my finger. I’m not gonna show submission to a pack of coyotes, even if they could rip me apart.
“The human’s alive?” the alpha asks after a beat.
“Yeah. Broken arm. Lacerations.”
He considers me for a long moment. “She can bring the bus here. We’ll repair it for her.” He jerks a thumb in the direction of one of the falling down buildings. It looks like an old gas station.
Fuck. Is he telling me they’re mechanics? I’m torn between not trusting Sunny’s vehicle with these guys, and wanting justice.
“No chance in hell I’m sending her here. He can come pick it up. And deliver it in perfect condition. And pay the hospital bill.”
“We’ll fix the vehicle. Hospital is your problem.”
I whirl and face the alpha fully, fingers curling into fists. Growls start up again. I’m ready to throw down over the hospital bill, but it occurs to me that you can’t bleed a turnip. These guys don’t look like they’re swimming in dough.
Looks like another shit pie is getting served up.
It also occurs to me that I’m here to do a job for my pack. One I seem to have completely forgotten.
“Picked up and delivered,” I insist.
“Fine.” The alpha waves a hand at me.
I force my fists to unclench and try to relax the scowl from my face. “Permission to speak to you about some unrelated business.”
The alpha’s brows shoot up. “What is it?”
“You know anything about a lab out this way? Or shifter disappearances in these parts?”
The guy snorts. “You’d know more about that shit than I would.” He turns on his heel and walks off.
What does that mean?
“Hold up,” I call out, but the coyotes close ranks behind him, blocking my path.
Fuck.
I snarl directions to the hit-and-run asshole and get back on my bike. As I ride away, I breathe in the smell of hot sage to take the coyote stench out of my nose.
SUNNY
I’M UP, showered, and sitting on the couch reading on my Kindle app when Titus returns.
“I found the guy who hit you.”
A car pulls into the drive and a scrawny guy with a t-shirt stained with blood tumbles out of the passenger side.
“Titus… what did you do to him?”
“I busted his nose,” Titus answers like it was the only logical action he could’ve taken. “And I told him he’d better fucking fix your bus. So he’s here to take it. Toss me the keys.”
My mouth drops open. I’m not sure what I think. Whether Titus is a hero or someone I really should distance myself from. Violence isn’t something I condone.
I do appreciate him arranging to have my VW fixed, though.
I pull out my keys and then hesitate. “What if he steals it?” I mean the guy looks totally sketchy. Definitely a tweaker. That’s probably why he left the scene of the accident. He was under the influence and knew he’d get busted.
“Then I’ll kill him,” Titus says loud enough for the guy standing outside to hear.
A shiver runs down my spine, because I can’t tell how serious he is. Still, I trust him to handle this. I toss the keys.
He catches them in his huge hand and heads outside.
Sexy, capable man. I’m long past experiencing the biological urge to find a worthy provider, but my hormones don’t seem to know that. I swear my ovaries just dropped three fresh eggs.
When Titus returns, he catches sight of the flower arrangement I made with a jar out of the recycling bin out back and the flowers growing around the cottage.
“Who brought those?” he demands.
“I picked them outside.”
“Huh.” He looks at the jar for a long moment, then at me.
I’m expecting him to rant about me leaving the bed, but instead he cocks his head like he can’t understand why I would do such a thing.
“You like flowers?”
I laugh. “Of course. Who doesn’t? I love flowers.”
“Huh,” he says again, like he thinks it’s the weirdest thing. “I guess that’s what artists do, right?”
“What?”
“Bring beauty to our world.”
I laugh, deflecting the compliment. “The beauty was already in our world, I just brought it inside.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He turns the jar around like it’s the most curious thing he’s ever seen.
Maybe it is weird-I don’t know. It’s just what I’ve always done. A surface without a jar of flowers always looks bare to me. “That’s the major downside about living in an Airstream. I don’t get to plant my own cutting garden.” I climb off the sofa. I haven’t taken the pain meds they gave me-I didn’t even want to fill the prescription but Titus insisted.