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Where the fuck he’d put his clothes, I have no idea.
“Fuck!” the guy in the backseat pulled his head back into the car really damn fast, and I had a moment of intense satisfaction at the softthunkof his melon-skull cracking against the window frame. Served the bigoted little fucker right.
I couldn’t make out what the driver muttered, but he must have agreed with his friend’s assessment, because he peeled out and down the street, taking the corner to the right, away from us.
I let out a breath, then turned around to find Taavi in Xoloitzcuintli form standing there, the tuft of hair on his head very reminiscent of punk rock. His head came up to about my hip, reminding me that an adult shifter was actually pretty fucking big, even if he was skinny as fuck.
“I don’t think they were expecting that,” I remarked, letting my fingers run over his soft ears.
Chuff.
“I figured that was the idea.”
Chuff. This one was a little more enthusiastic.
Then I realized what was missing. “Taavi, what the fuck happened to your cast?”
He tilted his head to the side, then picked up one front foot.
“Yeah, doofus, that cast.” I ran a hand over my hair. “You seriously justshifted out of it?”
He made an odd warbling sound in the back of his throat.
“I’m sure that’s supposed to mean that you didn’t think about it.”
Chuff.
“Well,nowwhat? You’re not going to be able to just shift back into it.”
A soft growl.
I sighed, probably more annoyed at myself for letting us get into this situation than at Taavi for shifting. He’d been protecting me. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d needed protecting—the dicks in the car struck me as the type who felt confident as long as they weren’t confronted. They wanted to scare people, not risk their own pathetic skins by getting into an actual physical fight. And they really hadn’t wanted to get into a fight with Taavi’s teeth.
But arguing with Taavi about the questionable decision he’d already made wasn’t going to get us anywhere.
“Do you want me to go find your clothes?” I asked him, instead.
He blew out a breath.Chuff.
“But you’re not going to put them on until they’ve gone through the wash on hot?” I guessed.
Another vehement chuff.
“Stay here.”
I made my way down the alleyway, which was actually pretty clean, all things considered, thanks to pavement that had been redone at some point in the last couple years. I found Taavi’s clothes tucked behind a recycle bin in a little cutout behind a garage, and I grimaced at the smell.
“You had to put themthere, didn’t you?” I called.
The look he gave me asked where else he should have gone to strip down completely naked without getting seen by either one of the houses or the asshats in the car.
“Valid point,” I conceded, and he chuffed again.
I picked up his clothes—and his stupid cast, not that I knew what we were going to do with it—and headed back to the street, trying to figure out how the fuck I was going to get him the several blocks we still had to go.
“How stupid would it be for you to hobble?” I asked him.
He lifted his front foot higher, then took a couple funny hopping steps before turning back to chuff at me.This is okay. I can do this, is what it said.
