“I know enough.”
“Go back to Los Angeles, Harris. It’s dangerous here. Something could happen to you.”
“As opposed to when I’m working in the LAPD’s homicide division?” Why the hell was he fighting this? Couldn’t he feel the pull between us? The bond demanding to assert itself? I wasn’t even supernatural and I sure as shit could. “I’m in danger all the time.”
“Not like this, you’re not.” Reed met my gaze and there was a flat determination there that reminded me sharply—and painfully—of Paul. “Look, we found a hiker in the forest this morning. Something killed him.”
“Something. As in—”
“A thing, not a person and not an animal—it was a supernatural creature. That’s why you need to leave. I can’t have you getting caught in the crossfire.”
His meaning sank in. “Wait. There’s a monster in the woods killing people and you guys are what—hunting it?”
Reed nodded. “Exactly. That’s why you need to leave.”
The wolf didn’t understand me at all. Not yet. But he would.
“And you think I’m going to, what? Stand back and let you put yourself in danger?”
He locked eyes with me, as if waiting for the punch line. “But you’re human.”
“Yeah,” I said, staring him down. “I sure as shit am. And you can be stoic and all that bullshit and tell me you kissed me and felt nothing, but I’m not a liar. And I’m not going to let anything happen to my partner. Not again.”
Disbelief flashed through me that I’d said that aloud.
His eyebrows drew together. He opened his mouth to speak—maybe to ask me what the hell I’d meant by that—but there was no way I was explaining Paul to him. I beat him to the punch, cutting him off with, “Get used to me, Reed. I’m not leaving town.”
He studied me. “There’s a monster out there killing people and you’re willing to hang out here because…” He trailed off, seeming almost bewildered. As if he’d forgotten he was supposed to be angrily running me out of town.
“Because if there’s even a chance I could help you, I will. I’m not going to leave you alone to drown in shit. That’s not the kind of manIam.”
He winced. “Yeah, I guess I probably deserved that.”
I snorted. At least he was willing to own up to his bullshit when he was called on it. Maybe this could work after all.
“Look, after I check myself into the ski lodge, I’ll come back to the bar. Do you promise not to wolf out and head into the woods to look for this thing until we’ve had a chance to figure this shit out? I don’t really feel like heading in after you by myself.”
He hesitated for a beat too long, his expression going tight and unhappy. “I need moonlight.”
His words didn’t make sense. “You need—”
“Moonlight. To shift forms. It’s how we do it. I can’t become a wolf during the day.”
I felt my eyebrows draw together. I had seen him in wolf form in a dream two nights ago—a shared dream, where he’d been hiding from me. And yes, I was still salty about that. But I had a hard time picturing him shifting from man into wolf. My brain just wouldn’t compute it.
“Which means I have a couple of hours, then. To convince you to stop being a jackass.”
“And I have a couple of hours to convince you that you’re in over your head.”
“Good luck with that. It’s a nice town. I’m going to stay awhile.”
“You’re infuriating.”
“And you’re an asshole,” I shot back. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe you could have just talked to me like a person? That maybe if you’d just been real with me, I might not have needed to travel a thousand miles to tell you that you’re a dick?”
His expression turned sheepish. Which led me to think, no, hehadn’tconsidered that possibility.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours. We’re not done here.”
