Little Wolf (7 page)

He ended that thought there by reminding himself of Luca and the delight Luca would take in seeing Tim afraid. There was no such thing as safety around other werewolves. They had no reason to stick up for Tim, even in this town, even if Tim made them smile. He hadn’t even done that for very long before he’d fucked it up.

Tim had to get out of town, get to the safety of the trees and the mountains and the amazing smell of warmth and pine and safety that was so close he could taste it. He
could
taste it and stopped abruptly, blinking as he looked around and saw that he wasn’t outside on his way to the town limits, but inside a building. Inside the sheriff’s station. The freaking s
heriff’s station
.

His nose had led him here, he got that much, but he was confused as to why. The station was the opposite of safe, and, as if to prove that, his pulse spiked and he flushed with heat when a door several yards away opened to reveal Nathaniel.

Nathaniel’s gaze swept the room until he found Tim. At the sight of him, Tim froze, more terrified than he had been a few minutes ago. It was as though his heart was seizing in his chest the way it did whenever he thought of Luca and how Luca had enjoyed showing Tim how strong he was. There was no telling what Luca would do in a town of potential challengers. There was no telling what Luca would do if he ever saw Nathaniel looking at Tim the way he was right now.

Tim felt a growl slip out, and then Nathaniel was in front of him, moving too fast for Tim to have a chance to stumble backward over his own feet.

“I hunted you down,” Tim wheezed at him, so shocked it was all he could say, which was fine because it was all his tight chest would let him say at first. “I’ve never done that. That’s good. I mean, no, it isn’t, unless… is it?” He had sought out safety, and his instinct had brought him to the sheriff. Staring up with wide eyes and failing to catch his breath seemed to be all he could do about it.

He could tell the very second Nathaniel noticed his bags, because Nathaniel let out a sound that made the others around them stop.

The sound wasn’t a word, at least not a human word, but Tim heard himself trying to answer it. “I have to go. They know I’m here, or that I was here. It’s why I have to… I have to go.” The stream of words was almost too fast for Tim to understand, and he was the one who said it, but he could hear the fear in his voice and the way he repeated himself, as if he was asking for something. “Nathaniel, I….” He couldn’t seem to shut up. “I have to go.”

Tim barely had the realization that what he was really doing was asking Nathaniel to help him, and then Nathaniel spread his hand out on Tim’s shoulder, his fingertips at the collar of Tim’s shirt, close to his skin. Nathaniel’s hand was a steady, warm pressure until Tim swallowed and raised his head, and then Nathaniel stroked his thumb over Tim’s Adam’s apple before he exhaled and let Tim go.

Nathaniel’s handsome, ridiculous face was locked into a frown, and he was looking at Tim as if he was afraid to blink. It was a ludicrous thought—Nathaniel being afraid of anything—but Tim stared back at him until his eyes burned.

“I have to go.” It scraped out of Tim, making him notice how quiet they had both been, and wonder how long they’d been like that. “I didn’t have the money for my room this month yet, I mean, I will need it. But tell Mrs. Pinsky I will get it to her. And tell Carl, I really…. Anyway, I came here because… to thank you, I guess. You’ve been decent, considering how annoying I was.” Tim felt the heat from Nathaniel’s hand fading away and hurried on, because it sounded like he was saying good-bye and he didn’t actually know how to do that, or why he felt the need to try it now on someone who couldn’t possibly care. “Someone might come looking for me. So it’s better if I go.”

“Do you want to go?” Nathaniel finally spoke. He stared at the room behind Tim. Tim turned to see why, then let out a breath when he realized Nathaniel was looking for threats, threats to
Tim
, probably so he could crush them.

“Do I want to go?” Tim repeated, because that wasn’t a question he had ever heard. Not even Ray had ever asked him that.

Nathaniel looked away from the imaginary predators before putting his hand back on Tim’s shoulder to drag him forward. Tim flailed and touched Nathaniel’s chest, then yanked his hands away with a hurried apology.

Nathaniel stood straighter and enunciated every word. “Do you want to go?”

Tim wet his lips and shook his head without thinking. Thinking, he decided faintly, was impossible when inches away from Nathaniel Neri and inhaling so much of him that he was dizzy with it.

He tried to glance around, because they must look strange like this, talking intensely in the middle of the station, with Tim barely keeping from plastering himself to the sheriff and telling him everything. But although people were watching, they didn’t seem shocked. They looked
intrigued
if anything, so Tim turned to Nathaniel and his glowing eyes, brown and gold and incredible.

“Then don’t go,” Nathaniel said, like it was a counterproposal, offered it really, as his fingertips glanced over Tim’s bare skin, making Tim’s pulse go faster.

Tim felt his mouth drop open. “That isn’t an option!” he sputtered. Thinking was difficult at the moment, much less talking. He used his hands to help get his meaning out. “So easy for you to say that when you are you, but I am me, and even if I was you, I wouldn’t stand a chance, don’t you see?”

For whatever reason, that speech seemed to calm Nathaniel down. Not that he had been as panicked as Tim, not that other people would have noticed, but Tim had felt the death grip on his shoulder and could hear the racing beat of Nathaniel’s heart. Nathaniel took a breath in that way people did when they hadn’t been breathing regularly for a while. Then he leveled a look at Tim that would have seemed annoyed if his eyes hadn’t been reflecting all the light in the room.

“No, Little Wolf, I don’t see even a little bit. What I do see is that you’re scared, you’ve
been
scared, but you won’t let me….” Nathaniel stopped again. “You won’t let me help you.”

“Help me?” Tim blinked and sank down onto his heels. “What?” The words ran right out of his head. He stared up, feeling every inch of height he didn’t have and yet too confused to be upset about it. “I’m not—”

“Little Wolf.” Nathaniel was using a calm tone, but he was showing his teeth.

Tim swallowed, thinking distantly that one really shouldn’t be uncertain and turned-on by something like that, at least not at the same time.

“Tim.” Nathaniel said his real name, making Tim straighten up. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Tim shook his head again, like a five-year-old with a secret, which was about how old he felt. He should have run, except he
had
run, and he had run
here
. That probably wasn’t even instinct, or if it was, it was instinct tripping over his dick, because there was no other reason for his subconscious to have sent him into the sheriff’s arms.

Except this entire town was devoted to helping weres in trouble, and Nathaniel Neri was the kind of wolf who might have even made Tim’s uncle sit up and take notice, the kind of were who might make Luca feel small and insecure.

“Tim.” Nathaniel said it again, not quite threatening. Tim scowled. He wasn’t standing in front of his uncle, and he didn’t plan on ever doing that again. He bared his teeth right back at Nathaniel, this time aware he was doing it and not especially giving a shit. His instinct had brought him here; it could deal with the fallout.

“Stop making me feel like a kid,” he snarled.

“Then stop running and let us help you.” Nathaniel didn’t even blink.

Tim opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. He had a vision of Luca coming into this place, finding him and then finding Nathaniel. Not the sheriff, Tim had the sudden confusing thought. Not the sheriff, but
Nathaniel
, who tolerated Tim and joked with him and defended him to Carl even when Tim didn’t need defending. Tim imagined the things Luca would have to say about that, and then what he might do, especially with his uncle’s money to back him up.

He stuck his chin out without maintaining eye contact, arguing with Nathaniel’s chest. “It wouldn’t be safe for anyone in town if they came here.” His uncle could probably buy and sell this town, though there was a chance he wouldn’t if he respected the werewolf traditions it had been founded on. But Tim felt like his belly was showing, and shivered. “Don’t tell anyone I said that. Don’t tell Carl.” Carl would probably die laughing at the thought of Tim giving a crap about this town. Which Tim didn’t, exactly. He just didn’t think anyone deserved too much interest from a Dirus, especially not people who had been nice to Tim when they didn’t have to be.

There was a long enough moment of quiet to make Tim glance up, and when he did, Nathaniel’s eyes were fierce with some emotion Tim didn’t understand.

Nathaniel spoke softly. “Little Wolf, you think this town can’t defend itself?” He actually seemed relieved that Tim was telling him they were in danger. Tim was never going to understand him. He tried anyway, only to get indignant that Nathaniel wasn’t taking the threat seriously.

“What? You asshole, don’t get all badass right now when I’m trying to tell you it’s dangerous to help me,” he yelled. The people around them jumped collectively, probably because he’d called the sheriff an asshole to his face.

“Because of who is after you?” Once again, Nathaniel didn’t seem too put out by the insult, doubtlessly because Tim was no kind of threat to him. His thumb was still at Tim’s throat, and he had to feel every frightened, aroused rush of blood while Tim thought about an answer. He’d never touched Tim before. Tim had the sudden suspicion that Nathaniel was touching him on purpose to get a rise out of him and trick him into explaining more, and the worst part was it was working.

Tim couldn’t even get that upset, and when he did it was to lament that of course someone that good-looking had to be smart too.

“Yes,” Tim agreed finally, without explaining who was after him. After coming in here and freaking out, after freaking Nathaniel out, he knew Nathaniel deserved more of an explanation. Maybe it was the thumb stroking slowly over his skin, but he suddenly wanted to give it to him, more than anything. He bit his lip and considered. “I can use human magic, a little.” He was essentially admitting there was human blood in him, because everyone knew werewolves didn’t use magic, but Nathaniel didn’t react to that, no matter how much Tim looked for the disgust or contempt on his face. Tim swallowed and continued. “So I put wards around my room, wards to protect me from Seeking magic. They weren’t strong, but they let me know that someone broke them tonight.”

Nathaniel ran a touch over Tim’s skin, smoothing his thumb up along Tim’s carotid, then down to the string of charms. Nathaniel lifted them for a moment as if weighing them. Tim nearly closed his eyes.

“And now you want to leave?” Nathaniel’s voice seemed to get even gentler. Tim wondered if Nathaniel would try to stop him if he left, then couldn’t imagine why he would bother.

“Um….” Tim couldn’t imagine much of anything actually, except for fantasies of Nathaniel wanting him to stay. “No?” Tim was pretty sure he was hallucinating, because there was a hand at his throat, petting him softly.

There was a hand at his throat.

He jerked at the realization and stumbled backward. Nathaniel brought his hand down while Tim continued to struggle to breathe and
not
look at the people around them who had witnessed that.

“But I have to leave,” he insisted quickly. “You don’t understand.”

“So tell me. Did you do anything illegal?” Nathaniel had to know the answer to that, since he knew Ray had helped Tim before, and Ray wasn’t the type to let a criminal go.

Tim scowled at him. “No.” He raised his chin to look more convincing. “But I don’t want them to find me.”

“Will they hurt you?” Nathaniel would not blink first; Tim knew that like he knew he didn’t have to answer out loud, because Nathaniel could hear the way the memory of Luca made Tim’s heart pound with panic. But Tim didn’t let his fear show on his face; he had learned that much from Luca at least. Nathaniel probably wouldn’t be impressed, but it was a skill Tim was proud of.

“I’ve done okay so far,” Tim said instead, insulted at the way Nathaniel lifted one eyebrow. Tim immediately protested. “You said even a little wolf has teeth!”

Nathaniel stepped forward into his space, intimidating and big and knowing it. “If they knew how to use those teeth, that would be useful.” And
Tim
was the sarcastic one? Tim straightened, but he wasn’t even close to taking up as much space as Nathaniel did. Nathaniel explained himself without sounding any less doubtful of Tim’s ability to defend himself. The fact that Tim
couldn’t
really defend himself made it more infuriating. “If you knew anything, which you don’t, you would know that without other weres around you, you are more vulnerable.”

Pack talk. Tim put a hand to Nathaniel’s chest but shook his head. Tim hadn’t seen Ray with a pack, and that proved how they weren’t necessary. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“Maybe.” Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, like Tim was being an idiot, then huffed out a furious breath. “But you do now.”

“What?” Tim gaped. Someone around him made an actual tittering sound, but he didn’t turn to see who it was. “I don’t take orders from you.” Not even when he wanted to. Although, of course, Nathaniel hadn’t actually ordered Tim to do anything, he had just said that Tim could choose. Tim got to choose whether or not he wanted into a pack. “Wait. You’re inviting me to be in your… family?” He finished the sentence in barely a whisper while he tried not to feel anything at all, definitely not the heady rush that made him sway.

Nathaniel snorted, as if all of this had been obvious for months and Tim was slow. Tim supposed he was. He shook his head until he could see clearly again. “But you don’t want to get involved in this. Trust me, you don’t.”