Page 75 of Wolves Always Bite

“He’swith the doc.ThelastIheard fromXanderthe guy is still recovering.Itcould take a while,”Vansaid.

Thehellhound’s voice got soft at the mention of the doctor.Italmost sounded like the hellhound was enamored with thisXanderperson.AndnowIwanted to meet the man.WhowasIkidding?Iwanted to meet every single supe in the town or, if possible, the world.Ihad a lot of research to conduct.

“Butyou said theJahallerwas fine before he was stolen.SoIsuspect he was fine untilBabetteretrieved him from the wolf pack,”Adriansaid. “Giventhe way she was trafficking other supes,Isuspect she was wrapped up in a lot more than we know right now.Peopledon’t cage supes without a bigger plan.Iwouldn’t be surprised if she did something that drained his magic.Westill don’t understand exactly how it happened, but perhaps they’ll find answers at her warehouse.”

Vanrubbed his hand over his face.

Haydenleaned forward, his face paler than it had been when he’d first sat down. “Andyou’re sure my brother’s pack wasn’t involved in all that?”

“Idon’t know anything for sure,”Adriansaid. “We’llneed to interview theJahallerwhen he is healthy enough.But, at the moment, the only sure link we have is that they were usingBabetteto sell the stuff they stole from here.Thereisn’t anything to tie them to the other prisoners.”

Haydenexhaled. “Well, that’s something,Iguess.”

ChapterTwenty-Three

JEREMY

Itwas almost midnight when we finally returned to the motel room withClawie.

Clawieyowled to be free of his cage, whileAdrianandIstood inside our purple motel room as if neither of us knew what to do next.God, it’d been a long day.AllIwanted to do was crawl into bed, but that had to wait.Assoon asIopened the door toClawie’scarrier, he bolted free.Hepatrolled the perimeter of the room, sniffing and rubbing his chin over the furniture as he went, whileIsorted through the supplies we’d picked up from the pet store on our way out of the city.

Idebated whether to shove the litter box in the bathroom, butClawiewas a terribly messy eater, regardless of whether it was soft or hard food.Hegot crumbs everywhere.So, in the end,Idecided it’d be better to keep his food bowls in the bathroom since it was the easiest to clean location, which left the litter box in the bedroom with us.Afterall, no one should be forced to eat where they shit.

“WhatcanIdo?”Adrianasked.

“Canyou wash these bowls and fill one with water?”

Hetook them and disappeared into the bathroom whileIset up a kitty litter box in the corner of the room.Thearrangement wasn’t ideal, andIwasn’t looking forward to hearing or smellingClawietaking a dump a few feet away, but there weren’t many options in a motel room.

“Nowwhat?”

“Setthe bowls in there on the floor, please.I’llgrab his food.”Ihad no idea ifBabettehad fed him, soIpoured a heaping pile of hard food into one of the bowls and emptied a tin of his favorite soft food in another.

Adriangagged and waved his hand in front of his face. “What’sin that stuff?Itreeks.”

Itossed him the box so he could read it for himself.Givenhow he reacted to the food,Ididn’t have the heart to tell him about the kitty litter box situation and what lovely smells awaited us whenClawieneeded to do his business.ThenIcleaned up and got ready for bed.WhenIcame out of the bathroom,Adrianwent in.

Iflopped on the bed and wondered ifIshould pretend to be sleeping when he came out.EversinceIwoke up from that weird magic thing,Adrianhad seemed intent on talking about what had happened.

AndIjust couldn’t.

Icouldn’t hear how it was time for me to go back to my own life.

WasIcurious about my so-called magical abilities?Sure.DidIwant to talk about them and experiment with them and order a spandex superhero costume for myself online?Ofcourse.Butright now, shoving my head in the sand sounded like the better way to go.Iwasn’t ready to hear that whatever time we’d allocated to our dating experiment was over and we both had to move on.

Myhead-in-the-sand routine was going great;I’dbeen pretty successful at evading the conversation so far.Wasit too much to ask thatIhad one more beautiful night in his arms before we had to go our separate ways?

Twosongs kept repeating in my head like my life needed its very own ‘80s soundtrack.SimpleMindssang “Don’tYou(ForgetaboutMe)”, then theThompsonTwinstook over with “HoldMeNow,” beforeSimpleMindstook over again.

Clawiejumped up on the bed and prowled over to me.Hepurred loudly as he nuzzled my chin and settled on my chest.Thevibrations of his purring calmed my gloomy thoughts.Istroked his back, and large tufts of fur came away with each stroke.It’dbeen almost a week sinceI’dbrushed him, so that didn’t surprise me.

Thebathroom door opened.Itwas too late to feign sleep now.

Thebed dipped asAdriancrawled in beside me.ThankGodhe didn’t choose the other bed.Maybehe wanted one last night with me too.Ikept petting my cat as he moved closer.Adrianmade a strange noise and rolled away.Hesneezed.Once.Twice.

“Igot fur up my nose.”

“Shouldn’tyou be used to having fur around?”