“If we’re all going to live together, I don’t want to walk on eggshells inmyhouse.” I pulled a bottle of water out ofmy backpack and put it to my lips, hoping Austin caught the emphasis. “You should be kissing my ass instead of—”
“Austin, where’re you from?” Roscoe interrupted.
The werewolf didn’t say anything at first, but Adam shoved him with an elbow.
“Sweetwater, Arkansas,” he growled.
Roscoe’s face lit up. “Shit, no way. I’m from Black Springs.”
“Where the hell’s that?”
Roscoe scratched his head. “Don’t really remember. I think it’s a little town on the west side of the state.”
“That would explain your dumb hillbilly accent.” The larger werewolf cracked a toothy smile for the first time while fidgeting with the broken lock switch on the door. “I didn’t live in that state for long, so I don’t really know much about it.”
“Did yer family do a lot of moving?”
“Fuck family.” Austin’s response came sharply before he went silent again.
Roscoe’s ears fell to the side, and he turned up the radio, this time at a lower volume. I expected him to get angry, but that didn’t happen. Roscoe was a smooth talker and obviously had a lot more patience than I did.
“How much longer?” Adam asked, squinting to get a better look at my phone’s screen.
“Two hours and forty minutes,” I replied. “I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed again.”
“I can’t wait to sleep in yer bed again, either,” Roscoe added, running his clawed hand along my inner thigh while keeping his eyes on the road.
I glared at him.
“Aw, don’t look at me like that. Think of how warm you’ll be when it starts gettin’ colder. Remember when you fell asleep with my dick still in you? You looked so cute. It can be like that every night.”
“Cute? I slipped into unconsciousness because I was exhausted.” It was hard not to think about that night without smiling. He’d come into my life like a whirlwind, and just like that, we were about to start our lives in a whole new area. “Just don’t piss me off, and I won’t make you sleep on the floor… like a dog.”
Roscoe’s smile widened to a sinister grin.
“I mean it.”
“Mm-hmm.”
My threats didn’t work on him anymore, and Adam’s description of what was in store for this new body was all I could think about lately. Were the cravings really going to get worse than this? I’d gone from thinking I had control to knowing it was actually Roscoe who held the cards, similar to how Austin kept Adam coming back. There were major differences, and the more I thought about it, the more I may have lucked out.
The werewolf leaned in, and our lips met.
“God dammit! Keep your eyes on the road,” Austin shouted, grabbing onto the ‘oh shit’ handle as the truck veered onto the rumble strips.
“I got it, I got it,” Roscoe said, centering the vehicle again.
“It ain’t terrible,” Roscoe said while looking around the darkened living room. He flipped on the light switch, and a few roaches scattered into the cracks in the walls. “I’ve lived in worse.”
Adam slipped into the hallway, turning on more lights. “Is it too late to get a hotel?”
I was in a strange state of mind—shocked at how awful the place looked, but too tired to react.
Austin ran his claws along the cracks in the paint. “Needs a little work, but at least it’s roomy.” I had expected him to complain the loudest, but he didn’t seem fazed at all. When he opened the door to the garage, his tail went from limp to a rapid wag. “Hell yeah!”
“What?” Roscoe asked.
“Look at all this space. I can actually use my tools.”
