“Any sign of danger, we’ll turn around,” I promised. “As long as you walk quietly, they won’t even know we’re there.”
Ace straightened and his lips curled back in a snarl. “I can walk quietly.”
“As a human?”
He hesitated.
Hah. Got him there. “Would it be easier to travel as a wolf?”
Ace shrugged. “Not really. I won’t be able to check out your amazing breasts as easily from that angle.”
“Ace.”
“Relax.” He held up his hands. “I can still do it.”
He was infuriating. How would we get anything done if?—
“But…” Ace interrupted my thoughts. He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You have given me an idea. Hand over the map.”
I did as he asked.
Ace studied the floppy page for a while, his brows drawing farther and farther down. “I have a compromise.”
“This sounds ominous.”
He folded the map and handed it to me. “I don’t really want to separate from you. But I also don’t like the idea of going anywhere near a marked location where O’Reilly’s group has been.”
“The Circle.”
“What?”
“The Circle. O’Reilly mentioned the Circle in one of his ramblings. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think he was referring to his group.”
“I have stronger words to call them.”
“Ace…”
He threw up his hands. “I don’t care what you want to call them. I just don’t want them anywhere near you.”
“What do you suggest?”
“We walk off the path a little more and you stay in a secure location while I check out the mystery town in wolf form. I’ll come back and report and then we can make a more solid plan after that.”
I didn’t like the idea of being separated either.
“It won’t take me long to get there and back. If you’d brought one of those smutty books of yours, you would only be able to read three, maybe five, chapters while I’m gone.”
“I think you’re drastically underestimating my reading speed and voracious hunger for the written word.”
Ace scoffed. “I took that into account.”
I sighed.
“Please let me do this, Mouse.” He stepped in close and cupped the side of my face. “Let me scout the location for you.”
“On one condition,” I said.
“Anything.”
