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Right, we were not going to discuss the fact that he’d nearly phased in front of me. Then again, from what I’d seen of pack behavior, he might not have realized he was doing it. The more time werewolves spent alone, away from their pack, the less aware they were of their “wolf time.” Cooper Graham had been so out of touch with his phasing cycle that he believed it when Eli made it look as if he’d committed the aforementioned series of hiker maulings.
I wouldn’t ask how Caleb was able to find me. It was probably better that I just ignore it in favor of being irritated about the whole shaking-me-like-a-naughty-child thing. Right?
I shoved my hands against Caleb’s seemingly immobile chest until he relinquished his hold on my waist. I huffed. “I left because I could. Because I am an adult, and I control my own decisions. You were making me nervous with all your bullet wounds and plastic handcuffs. I decided I was better off on my own.”
“Oh, yeah.” He glanced down at the unconscious men at our feet. “You have everything under control.”
“I was doing just fine,” I muttered, shifting my shoulder bag and ignoring his quote-unquote compliment. “I am still upright and conscious. So I think that means I win. And frankly, I did it without much help from you. You just distracted them and made scary faces.”
“Scary faces?” he asked, his cheeks paling considerably.
“Yeah, you gave them full-on first-day-of-prison crazy eyes,” I said, my laughter just a bit forced. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they changed color for a second there.”
He gave the world’s most awkward chuckle. “Yeah, that would be weird, huh?”
Really? I’d just given him the perfect opportunity to talk about his other nature, and nothing? Really?
With a disappointed sigh, I gave his shin a little kick, making him smirk at me and ruffle my hair. He grumbled but grudgingly admitted, “I want to rip them limb from limb, but what you did was probably better.” He gestured to the crumpled forms on the ground.
Oddly pleased by his praise, I preened a bit. “Never underestimate the short.”
Caleb snorted. “I think we need to clear out of here before they wake up. I’m amazed the manager hasn’t come out to yell at us for messing up his nice empty parking lot.”
I stared up at him. If he was willing to follow me this far, he wasn’t going to let me just walk away and plot my own course to Anchorage. And he was handy to have around when one was under attack by parking-lot perverts. Still, I had to give him a little grief. “But I’m paid up for two more nights!” I protested, although I will admit there wasn’t much heat in it.
He cast a derisive look at the peeling green motel-room door. “Well, that just goes to show that your judgment has been off in a lot of different areas.”
I gave him my unamused dead-eyed stare. “I’m not above kicking you again.”
“Frankly, I’m thinking about kicking you back. You left me a two-word good-bye note on a lampshade.” He growled, as if he suddenly remembered that he was angry with me. “Two words: ‘I’m sorry.’ What is wrong with you?”
“I don’t know!”
“That’s not an answer!”
“I know that!” I cried, throwing my hands up in the air.
“Why are you yelling at me?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled. I frowned, looking down at Yellow Teeth and Grabby Hands. “Should we stash them in my room?”
He nodded toward Yellow Teeth. “Get his feet.”
“I don’t think so.” I gestured at Caleb’s thick upper arms. “You came after me to ‘protect’ me, you might as well do the heavy lifting.”
“I didn’t come for you, I came for the baton,” he said, scooping it up from where I’d dropped it on the ground. “You’re just an amusing fringe benefit. So,” he asked in a tone far too casual to be sincere, “is there a reason you ran from me?”
He was pretending to be looking down at Yellow Teeth and Grabby Hands, all the while staring sidelong at me. Could he be mulling over my lack of questions about his finding me? Or why I hadn’t mentioned the strange yellow glow-y trick of light over his skin? Maybe the little peculiarities had built up to the point where a “normal” girl couldn’t have ignored them. Had it been a mistake to put that one last barrier between our real lives and what we were trying to show each other? Would I have too much to explain now if I told him I knew about were-creatures?
I opened my mouth to say, My ex-husband’s determined stalking and your connections to my former employers, not to mention your werewolf issues, are freaking me out. But I lost my nerve and suggested, “Generalized anxiety. So how far are we going today?”
“I don’t know,” he said, apparently caught off-guard by my sudden change of topic. He peered around the abandoned parking lot. “Where are we?”
For some reason, that struck me as funny. I started laughing. And I kept laughing, even as Caleb chucked the unconscious guys into my motel room and locked the door, then led me toward the truck. He kept an arm around my waist, as if he was afraid I was going to collapse from shock or crippling hyena laughs. Instead of shrugging off his protective grip, I held on to his arm like a lifeline.
“Come on, Rabbit,” he said, gently lifting me into the truck while I wiped at my eyes.
“I’m sorry. It’s been a long night—day—whatever.” I sighed as he tucked my legs into the cab. I grabbed his arm before he could close the door. “Caleb, thanks.”
