Furious pounding shook the front door, tearing Roscoe and me from a stupid argument about which Star Trek was the best. At first, I thought Austin had locked himself out of the house again. He’d already lost his house key four times, so he’d gotten a brilliant idea. Instead of having the key on his person, he’d decided to hide it in a rock-shaped lockbox among hundreds of other rocks that he’d dumped around the front porch. That turned into a fun evening.
I reached for the knob as the pounding continued louder, but the moment tobacco wafted in through the poorly insulated door, I stopped.
“Shit,” I whispered, peeking through the front window curtains. Mosavi was in human form, but his teeth were bareand eyes glowing that angry silver. “Well, he looks like he’s in a fantastic mood.”
“He always looks like that,” Roscoe replied from behind, leaning over my shoulder to get a look.
“Answer the door, Dakota!” He snapped his attention to the window, his furious gaze settling on me before I jumped back.
“Well, we need to disappear.” I glanced back at the dining room table, which held the large cardboard box of booze and junk food. “That lighter was his connection to me.”
“He ain’t gonna get in unless he goes all wolfy and breaks down the door. He’s human for a reason, so he probably don’t want anyone seein’ what he really is.” Roscoe slid the box off the table and picked it up. “This is gonna be fun!”
The sound of a key slipping into the lock made me break into a cold sweat.
“He’s got keys?”
“Everyone’s probably got a key now thanks to Austin,” Roscoe muttered before flipping the hinge bar lock the absent-minded werewolf had installed after varnishing the door.
As soon as the knob turned, the door met resistance. Mosavi put all his weight onto it. He growled a few harsh words in Farsi before continuing his assault.
“You better hope those ferals have some answers,” I whispered, grabbing a light coat from the rack and the backpack of supplies I packed earlier. Taking care to stay hidden this time, I peeked through the curtains again as the angry mayor pressed his cell phone against his ear. He turned away from the house and spoke quietly. This was our chance, and I followed Roscoe into the hallway toward the back door. “We are gonna be so fucked.”
“We ain’t fucked.” Roscoe opened the door, and we both slipped outside. “He’s bluffing. He probably don’t even know yerhome. And if he’s in human form, he probably can’t smell you—” He gave himself a sniff. “He probably smells me, though.”
“We will be discussing your hygiene later. Again,” I whispered, gently shutting the door behind me. “I’m cutting you off unless you start taking more showers.”
Roscoe let out a quiet snigger, pushing away a few tree branches as we made our way into the woods. “I can be as gross as I want, and you’d still ride me like a horse.”
“Is that so?”
Roscoe shrugged. “Let’s test my theory.”
“That’s cute. Roscoe has a theory.”
“You wouldn’t last a day.”
“Well, Austin’s been kind of sweet on me lately. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
His grin faded quickly.
“Nowyerbluffing.”
“Do you really wanna call it?”
“It’s Austin. The guy has the personality of a rotten pineapple, and I know you ain’t gonna let him do that. Yer too much of a prude.”
I bit my lower lip as we got deeper into the dense trees. The late afternoon was fading fast, and in about an hour, it would be too dark to see anything. We’d both have to rely solely on Roscoe’s night vision and heightened senses.
“There’s a lot more to Austin than you think. The poor guy’s been through some awful things.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You know some of it, but it gets so much worse.”
Roscoe turned to me, the bottles in the box rattling as we quickened our pace.
“There’s more than just the military fuckin’ with his head?”
