“Are you growling at me?”
“Remove your fucking finger from my face before I eat it,” he said low.
Whatever Darrel saw in his expression, he dropped his hand to his side.
“I’ve been working this job for three years. How many times have I dropped a limb where I didn’t want to?”
Darrel didn’t answer.
“How many times?” Dodger barked.
“Just this one that I can remember.”
“You’ll give all those fuckheads over there a hundred chances, but when I make a mistake, it’s the end of the world. Why?”
“You know why.”
“Because I’m a werewolf?”
“Because you are a liability! If you want to work on an all-human crew, you have to be perfect. That’s what you signed up for.”
Dodger made a click sound behind his teeth and shook his head as he walked to his truck. He slammed his hard hat into the bed of it and climbed inside with one last fiery look for his asshole boss.
Darrel didn’t understand what Dodger was capable of. Yelling at him was a dangerous game.
He hit the gas and spun his tires out, spraying gravel behind him and peeled out of the parking lot.
He’d messed up today. His job was to cut limbs back from power lines, and he was the one with the chainsaw up there. Where had his mind been today? On the human from Copper’s, honestly. He couldn’t afford to lose focus right now. He was just now getting back into the rhythm at work, on a new shift with a new crew after he’d quit a couple of months ago. His Pack had been dissolved by the Elders and he’d left, only to be dragged back by his Alpha in hopes of creating a new Rogue Pack.
Dodger regretted coming back here every day, but still, he was putting down roots like an idiot.
He’d even bought a small modular home and put it up on Liam’s territory. Sure, he could move it anytime he wanted, but he was starting to get that old familiar trapped feeling again lately.
He hated it.
Doing lunch with Nate’s mate? And having to give a shit about her feelings? Annoying. Not fighting his Pack mates because Liam had made a dumb rule about it? Super annoying. His job? Annoying. The fact that he couldn’t get his mind steered clear of the beauty from earlier—Destiny—Mega annoying.
Now he was headed to the lumber yard to buy supplies to fix a fence he didn’t care about at his own expense. If Dodger were human, Darrel would’ve just patted him on the back and told him ‘everyone has bad days sometimes’ and got the wholecrew to patch the fence at the company’s expense. But he wasn’t human. Consequences were bigger for him.
Up ahead, there was a school zone, with the speed limit sign flashing.
Shhhit.
Dodger slowed and rolled his window down just to feel the cold air on his face. He didn’t usually go this way at this time of day to avoid the droves of little human kids running all over the place like they had no survival instincts at all.
Two cars in front of him made it past the crosswalk before a herd of little kids had gathered on the sidewalk to cross.
The crossing guard was a lady, nice legs in tight leggings, oversized jacket that hung halfway down her thighs, burgundy beanie, and neon green crossing guard vest, and a stop sign held in her hand.
Destiny recognized him at the exact moment he recognized her. He could tell.
She stood there frozen in the middle of the road, the stop sign held up, her eyes round as saucers.
Dodger pulled forward a little and hung his head out the window. “Hey. What are you doing?”
“K-keeping kids safe while they cross the street?” One of the kids in question took that moment to hug her legs and look up at her. “See you on Monday, Ms. Young.”
“See ya,” she said in a pretty tone.
