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Now he had no choice.
Maddox didn't have a vehicle of his own, not since the crash. He would have to borrow Colt’s truck. And then, for the first time in three years, he'd have to climb behind the wheel again with the nightmare of his Angie's last screams still haunting him.
But he would do it.
For Evangeline, he would do anything.
7
Colton lived in a Bumptown about an hour’s drive out from the Cage—or, in Maddox's current shape, close to a two-hour run.
Bumptowns were what you got when too many Paras settled close together. They were neither planned nor officially sanctioned; they just sort of happened. First a vampire would move in, then maybe a shifter family or a banshee, and boom! There went the neighborhood. Humans fled and Paras took the area over.
Just like Paras referred to human-only neighborhoods as Ant Farms, Paras found sanctuary in aptly named Bumptowns. Because that was where things went ‘bump in the night’. Fucking humans.
Ah, well. At least it was better than Ant Farm.
The ruling government—the powers that be that supposedly controlled the entire population, both humans and paranormals—liked to think that there was a seamless blend of both factions in society so they turned a blind eye when Bumptowns sprang up. The closest they got to acknowledging them was by making sure each settlement had a delegate on-site to sign off on bonding licenses; after a while, they were the only places where you could find one. So, even if you were like Maddox, who chose to live in a cul de sac with both human and paranormal neighbors, you visited a Bumptown eventually. Because his brother insisted on living in one, Maddox actually visited Colt’s Bumptown pretty regularly—at least, before his time in the Cage, he had.
Maddox had always felt uncomfortable heading into the strictly Para-only settlements. It was no secret that he was the more human-friendly wolf in his family, and it was no surprise when his mate turned out to be human herself. To him, the image of Bumptowns conjured up some idyllic scene of the different paranormal races living in peace together. What bullshit. Get too many predators living in close quarters and it was like a powder keg ready to explode. He would never expose his Evangeline to that.
Colton, on the other paw, seemed perfectly at ease living in the Bumptown. Though everyone who lived there was some sort of paranormal, even the residents chose to segregate themselves based on their kind. In Colt’s settlement, the Dayborn vampires lived on Sunset Boulevard; the Nightwalkers hid out in the dark corner they called Little Transylvania. The ghosts haunted along Cemetery Row.
And the shifters? They built their houses on the edge of a 5,000 acre plot of federally protected woods, perfect for a shifter who wanted to burst out of their skin and just run free for a while without worrying about a backside full of buckshot. Due to the mix of predator and prey shifters who seemed to co-exist somewhat peacefully, that corner of the Bumptown was referred to as the Zoo. Maddox almost bust a blood vessel laughing the first time he found out.
Even now, even with all of the thoughts and worries warring in his head, he had to smirk to himself as he loped easily through the protected trees. The Zoo. Well, it made sense. What were shifters anyway if not their animal?
It had been three years since he last ran this trail. Not much had changed while he was in the Cage. Maddox caught a whiff here or there of several new predatory shifters on a tree or a bush, but he could tell that Colt was still the top Alpha in this Bumptown.
Maddox stopped only once to add his own marking. There was an old oak tree that he liked to visit whenever he made this run. Colt thought of these woods as part of his extended territory so he didn’t overdo it. Just a little piss to show the rest of the Zoo that big brother was back before he ran through the trees and followed his nose to Colt’s backyard.
When he was in his skin, Maddox recognized the back of Colt’s house by sight rather than relying on the power of scent. The wide wraparound porch, the weathered shingles that gave the single-story house a rustic feel, the piles of wood and stacks of lumber that Colt hoarded in case inspiration struck. In his fur, he followed his wolf’s nose. And his brother marked his immediate territory with a fervor that had even Maddox's wolf thinking twice before breaching the border.
Deciding it might be better to approach Colt’s den on two legs instead of four, Maddox spit out the bundle he was carrying securely between his teeth before crouching low in the dirt and preparing himself for the shift.
He'd heard his dad explain to an Ant once what shifting felt like. The human thought shifting must be painful, but Terrence described it more like a sting. Like a rubber band snap, he had said, where the anticipation of the shift was worse than any other part of it. That's why most shifters went full shift without thinking about it. It was partial shifts, or when a shifter was trying to hold the change back, that the sensation grew annoying. That, he explained, was more like an itch you couldn't scratch.
When Maddox was done, he stretched, arching his back and exhaling roughly as he chafed against the feel of his human skin. His wolf whimpered that his time out wasn't anywhere near long enough. After three years without a shift, his beast wanted to run for days reveling in the grass underfoot and the feel of the wind threading through his grey and white fur.
Later, he told his wolf. Evangeline first.
Mate first, his wolf agreed. There was only a hint of grumbling before the other part of himself curled up to wait. Without the mating bond for his instincts to follow, his beast k
new that this was a job for the man’s brain.
As soon as he was sure his wolf was calm—it would be pointless to dress right away if his wolf would burst through again, turning his clothes into tattered rags—he reached for the bag at his feet.
When he was out on a run, Maddox didn't usually bother carrying around a spare change of clothes like a pack mule. Shifters were too used to nudity to be bothered by mostly human concerns like modesty so long as there weren’t any pesky Ants around waiting to cry out about indecent exposure. He couldn't tell you how many times he burst naked into Colton’s house, only to remember later when he felt a breeze on his cock that he was sitting bare-assed naked on one of his brother’s chairs.
Evangeline had tried to talk some modesty into him when they started sleeping together six months into their relationship. It hadn't worked. Maddox was a stubborn wolf who couldn't understand putting on clothes when he was going to have to take them off again to shift. She tried pointing out that if he was sitting bare-assed on the chair, how many other asses had sat there before him? That predictably led to a comment about where he'd like her bare ass to sit. Hint: nowhere near anything of Colt’s.
It wasn't until his sweet Evangeline growled at him and told him that she hated the idea of anyone else seeing what was hers that Maddox promised to be naked only in front of her. Because possessiveness… that he understood.
Normally he would just borrow something of Colt’s rather than tote around a bag between his teeth. But these clothes were special. He was wearing the same shirt and jeans the last time he saw Evangeline—it was what he'd gone into the Cage wearing, and the only personal belongings Wright grudgingly handed over upon Maddox’s release. Even after all of this time, if he breathed deeply enough, he could still smell his mate on the fabric.
Until they were together again, he wouldn't wear anything else.
He didn't have any underwear so Maddox went commando as he took special care to zip up his jeans. The black tee stretched tight over his chest, another clue that he was even bigger than before. He strode across Colt’s backyard barefoot, making a mental note to borrow a pair of his brother’s boots. He would need them when he took Colt’s truck.
