AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He scrubbed his hand over the respectable growth of stubble on his cheeks. “Look, I’m sorry. This is all a little too much for first thing in the morning with no coffee and a gunshot wound.”
I glanced down to his middle, which he didn’t seem to be babying all that much. He’d had a few hours for his tissues to knit themselves back together. But the stupid ingrained medical training had me blowing a long breath from my nose as I asked, “Are you in pain?”
He rubbed his hand over the gauze absently. “It’s fine, no big deal.”
“Being shot is no big deal?” Before he could stop me, I was peeling the bandage back from his skin, making him yowl as the adhesive caught tiny dark hairs of the little happy trail down his stomach.
“Ow!” he exclaimed as I attempted to examine him. He batted my hands away.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby. I just want to make sure you’re OK.”
“I’m fine,” he grumbled, pressing the bandage back into place and angling his wounded side away from me. He didn’t want me inspecting his wound, I realized. He didn’t want me to see that it was now fully healed, barely distinct from the rest of his skin. Because he wasn’t sure how much I knew about the whole werewolf thing, and he didn’t want me getting extra clues.
Right. This was my cue to exit, before he could pull me into some other bizarre werewolf bullshit or vice versa. “OK, then, well, if you’re feeling all right, I’ll just toddle along.”
I had just managed to get the door open when he yanked it closed again.
I glared up at him. “This is becoming really annoying.”
“Where are you going?” he asked.
I wanted to keep that information to myself, to be able to walk away from this situation feeling some dignity about the way I’d handled myself. Also, he just wasn’t entitled to know. So all I said was “South.”
He smiled. “Just ‘south’?”
“Southern Alaska,” I added.
“Thank you for clarifying. And what a coincidence. I was heading that way myself.”
I deadpanned, “You don’t say.”
“I do say.” He gave me a sharp nod, as if this was exactly according to some crazy, half-naked military plan he had tucked away somewhere. “So . . . Anne, you’re staying with me.”
My mouth fell open, and I made an indelicate snorting noise. “Why on earth would I do that?”
“Look, you’re pretty, you’re fun-sized, and you’re up here on your own,” he said, ticking my offenses off on his long fingers. “It’s not safe.”
“Really? Not safe? Like I could be minding my own business and then suddenly get pulled into a gunfight and car explosions by a total stranger? I don’t think that will happen more than once. And I definitely don’t need anyone to take care of me.”
He scoffed, that mocking white grin splitting his tanned face. “No, you seem to be fine on your own. Working a shitty job in a grocery store in the middle of nowhere. That’s the sweet life, all right.”
My cheeks flushed hot. “Screw you, pal.”
“It’s Caleb.”
“Screw you, Caleb.” It was a struggle, resisting the urge to kick him in the shins. It really was.
“Do you have a better plan? Or any plan?” he demanded. “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you walk out that door? Hitchhike, right? You’ll be lucky if one or two trucks pass this way, this time of day. And you never know what sort of psycho could be behind the wheel. With me, at least you know what you’re getting into.”
“Yeah, I’m getting a condescending he-man who sniffs me.”
And attempts to bite me while sleep-snuggling.
“Well, you smell nice,” he said, shrugging as if that excused the scratch-and-sniffery. When I didn’t respond to his “charm” with the expected giggling and swooning, he sighed. “Just let me make sure you’re safe, OK? I have to do some driving for work. You might find another town you like, find someplace to stay. Until then, I can keep an eye on you, repay you for saving my life. Do you think you’re going to get a better offer from a random trucker?”
I glared up at him and didn’t answer.
“Besides, who knows what could happen to me with this nearly mortal wound I’ve suffered?” he said, gesturing dramatically to his bandage.
