With that, I turned to go.
Reed called after me, “The ski lodge isn’t open for another six months.”
I turned back around to face him. “I’ll sleep in my car, then.”
He went pale at my words.
And then I somehow knew—in that weird, wordless way I’d known his emotions back in the bar, except somehow even stronger now—he was thinking of all the ways a monster could attack me if I was defenseless in my car. And how much more likely it was that the monster would come after me if I turned myself into a sitting duck.
Now that I considered it, I wasn’t a fan of that possibility either.
“I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” Reed muttered, his eyebrows pulling together. For an instant he looked so dismayed that I almost—but not quite—felt bad for him.
“Do what?”
“You’re staying with me,” Reed said. “At the commune. You’ll be protected there. At least until you come to your senses and realize the right thing to do is to leave.”
I smiled at him. It wasn’t a nice smile, since my anger with him wasn’t quite gone yet. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
CHAPTER FIVE || REED
Iparked my battered old Ford pickup at the edge of the commune’s gravel lot and got out. Harris was already standing next to his rental car, squinting up at the collection of log cabins set on the hill above us.
“This is where you live?” He frowned at the scene in front of him—the large fire pit at the base of the hill, the log benches surrounding it, and beyond that, trees on all sides. There was a pathway leading up from the fire pit to a ridge. There were a dozen log cabins at the top of it. “It’s… remote.”
“That’s the point.” My tone wasn’t exactly encouraging, but Harris seemed determined to ignore my frosty demeanor.
“Right. Away from prying eyes.” He nodded to himself. “I still can’t get over the idea of werewolves. And there’s a whole pack of you.”
“Scared?” I asked hopefully.
He shook his head. “You’re going to have to do better than that, pal. I became besties with a homicidal vampire with zero human emotions. I don’t exactly scare easy.”
Surprise jolted through me. I’d known he was friends with a vampire, but I hadn’t known the rest. With more curiosity than I should have had, I asked, “And this vampire going off and murdering people didn’t make you reconsider your choice of friends?”
“Well, they were all serial killers, not innocent people. He actually saved quite a few would-be victims along the way. And our becoming friends wasn’t my idea.” He paused. “Anyway, Cole is pretty cool now. He’s officially retired and has sworn off hunting humans.”
I appraised him, hearing the wistful note in his voice. Did Harrismissthe vampire? “Aren’t you a cop?”
“Trust me, doesn’t help.” He avoided my gaze. “I figure that supernatural stuff requires different sets of rules. I can understand something without condoning it.” Then he pointed at the top of the ridge overlooking the fire pit. “So, one of these cabins is yours?”
“Yes,” I said shortly.
“Look, if I’m sticking around, you might as well get to know me. You might even like me.”
I started walking without replying to that.
Harris fell into step beside me and we walked in silence.
His presence beside me was vivid—more so than any human I’d ever met, as if the details of him were sharper or more present in some indefinable way. Though, that was probably expected, given the mate bond that had sprung into being between us the very first time we locked eyes.
But even that was weirdly soothing. Everything about him was.
The trouble was, I did like him. Granted, I was a little iffy on his ethics, given that he was friends with a murderous—sorry,formerlymurderous—vampire. But apart from that, he was brave enough to come all the way here to tell me off, even if he had no idea what he might be walking into. On top of that, he was a homicide detective. A protector, of sorts, like everyone else in the pack. And he was obviously loyal. Once he liked someone well enough, he had a hard time just walking away from them.
Loyalty and bravery were qualities wolves instinctively admired in a mate. And he was physically beautiful, too. Tall, muscular, with his dark skin and even darker eyes, his black hair shaved close to his head and only the hint of stubble on his chin. But it was his face that was so arresting—classically handsome, but above all, kind. Someone you wanted to tell all your problems to, because you knew, just by looking at him, he’d understand.
Someone who—
