Little Wolf (8 page)

“That’s my choice.” Nathaniel Neri was an evil mind reader, or just very, very talented at picking out scents and knowing what they meant. Tim glared at Nathaniel for that, out of spite, exuding
Read this, bitch,
as he crossed his arms. Of course he wasn’t going to stay. There was no advantage to staying, except for having a way to earn more money and his own personal sheriff alpha were bodyguard who happened to be the hottest thing on both two and four legs, probably, and possibly even an entire town full of people who might look out for him—though that seemed as far-fetched an idea as the sheriff letting Tim see his wolf.

Tim wasn’t meant to belong to a… group like this. That would be stupid, which was why when he opened his mouth he heard himself agreeing. “If I… if
that
happens, it doesn’t mean anything. I’m still going to leave. I’d only be staying to learn”—Tim waved a hand—“stuff.” He should be running, and instead he was arguing. He was fucking negotiating despite having no leverage. Of course. His uncle was right about one thing at least; Tim needed to learn that just because he thought fast didn’t mean his mouth had to try to keep up.

The sheriff grunted for a reply, seeming about ready to growl at Tim and then changing his mind. “Fine,” he barked, pointing a finger into Tim’s face. “But you don’t go back to that room. You come home with me.”

There was that tittering sound again, like a cross between nerves and genuine laughter. Seeing their leader arguing with someone like Tim must be really weird for Nathaniel’s deputies. Tim ignored them the way Nathaniel was, as if they were beneath his notice. Privacy was for humans, anyway.

“I didn’t agree to that,” Tim countered loudly, after the jolt down his spine at the thought of himself staying in Nathaniel’s house, with Nathaniel, all body and casual dominance and protectiveness and that hand that had petted Tim so gently.

“Would you rather wander around town with no money or live in the state park with your, I’m guessing very limited, hunting skills?” Nathaniel could cut someone without having his claws out. Tim gasped, and it was ignored by a very serious sheriff. “When was the last time you shifted?” Nathaniel was evil, Tim was sure of it now, and Tim scowled, mostly because there was nothing to really deny. The question about his shifting he couldn’t begin to answer with any kind of dignity. The titters behind him became a full-fledged laugh. Tim turned and snarled. The guilty party, a well-built blonde behind a desk who had to be were as well, shut up.

So it was painfully obvious that Tim couldn’t survive as a real wolf. There was no need for Nathaniel to point it out, except that Nathaniel acted like there was every need, with his eyes narrowed and his arms crossed. He was furious, probably at Tim for defying him. That’s what Tim assumed until Nathaniel sighed and took a step closer.

“Tim, we’ll get you more charms for out at the house and you can….” He hesitated, acknowledging Tim’s unusual hobby with a tiny grin. “Work your magic.” If he had been anyone else, if they hadn’t been discussing Tim’s life on the run, Tim would have said the sheriff was teasing him. He might even have said that was an attempt at cheesy flirting, but since that was impossible for
so
many reasons, Tim stared until Nathaniel went on. “There’s plenty of space.”

Tim knew that. That was something else the people in town had been happy to tell him when extolling the sheriff’s virtues. The sheriff took in a lot of the weres who were new in town until they got on their feet, though some, like Zoe, never left his den out in the woods.

“It isn’t like I take up a lot of room,” Tim joked to say something, and got a small growl for his trouble. Now that the station was quiet he felt itchy again. “This is a big deal to you isn’t it? Me staying there?” Nathaniel stiffened at that, so Tim tried to explain. “Like, an instinct thing? You have to keep an eye on me?”

Nathaniel watched him intently. “Something like that.”

“Oh.” That was reasonable, Tim supposed. So instinct sucked for everyone. He’d never thought about it, but almost everyone else around him had a wolf inside them making demands, and those demands weren’t always comfortable or appropriate for the majority-human world. If you were in charge, it was probably worse. It wasn’t as though the sheriff was dying to have Tim around, annoying him, getting hard, smelling up his house with his horniness and fear.

Tim’s heart rate ratcheted back up. He would be in Nathaniel’s house with Nathaniel, all the time. Out there in the middle of the woods with just Zoe between them, and Zoe would probably do whatever Nathaniel wanted. That was what Luca would have done, no hesitation, if his uncle had grown too weak to control him.

“You’re terrified,” Nathaniel announced in a flat voice, as if he was just getting the level of Tim’s fear. Tim flinched, but this time no one in the background laughed. Nathaniel took another step closer. “Of whoever is hunting you, or of me?”

Tim looked away, because even if Nathaniel’s expression was impassive, he knew Carl would have been furious with him for saying what he was going to say. “Both. I….” Tim lifted his chin. “Shit. I don’t mean it like you are going to…. I am pretty sure you aren’t like…. Shut me up, please. Why did I come here? Why didn’t I run?” It was seriously something Tim had to think about when he had a second.

Nathaniel didn’t have to think about it. “Because you know I’ll protect you.”

Tim glanced up and froze when his gaze got caught by golden eyes.

“It’s… they… if they find me, it will be bad,” Tim started to explain again, not wanting to be specific, because it would be too easy for Nathaniel to guess who exactly Tim was related to. “You want to protect me.” He was so weak he was amazed he was still standing. “But it isn’t really your business.” He could lick the taste of hurt from the air now that he knew it. “Nathaniel.” He kept saying that name, over and over, until it was a taste on his tongue too. “Nathaniel, if I’m with you in your house, it will be—”

“That’s my problem,” Nathaniel told him firmly, as if that made any kind of sense. Tim tried to ask
What the hell
, but Nathaniel only got more insistent. “My house will be safe. You can hide there. I’ll protect you.”

“I can take care of myself.” Tim was barely breathing. There were too many scents now for him to identify, and too many eyes on them for him to take the time to ask what they meant. “You have enough to do.”

Nathaniel stepped farther into Tim’s space. Tim raised his head and that was a mistake, because it put his mouth close to Nathaniel’s skin. He flicked his gaze up.

“You came to
me
,” Nathaniel argued, his voice rumbling on the word. There was no denying that, even if Tim could have thought clearly at the moment.

“Instinct,” Tim murmured. It was like no matter what he did, it always won.

“Little Wolf.” If he didn’t know better, he would have said the sheriff whined, a pleading, tiny sound that made Tim want to whine back and lick him to make it better.

Tim tried to form a coherent sentence. If he was like this now, no telling what he might do in the sheriff’s house with him. “But… but Zoe is there.” It was the best he could do with something telling him to comfort the sheriff until he smiled. Tim’s inner wolf was as confused as the rest of him.

Nathaniel cocked his head to one side; clearly he had not expected that response. “What’s wrong with Zoe?” His slight puff of air seemed offended.

“She’s the worst,” Tim told him for no reason at all, then shook his head. “Okay, I’ve never really talked to her.” The one time he’d tried, Zoe had rubbed Tim’s head like Tim was a child. Aside from that, she and Nathaniel were probably sleeping together, and Tim didn’t need them smelling his jealousy all over the house. “She seems like she could be the worst,” Tim finished, feeling like a very obvious liar and a kid at the same time. Something about the sheriff brought it out in him. “Fine!” he burst out a second later at Nathaniel’s expression of disbelief. Tim gave himself a last few minutes of freedom by moving a few steps from Nathaniel’s heat and mouth and body and the complex scent that was nearly as intense as Nathaniel’s eyes. “But I can leave when I want.”

He was in no position to be giving orders, but at least there were witnesses. They made him feel a fraction less ridiculous for issuing ultimatums to someone who would have no interest in keeping Tim around if not for an instinctual drive to protect everyone in town. It was probably why Nathaniel had become sheriff.

It was another thing Tim hadn’t thought about before—did leaders find careers that allowed them to lead, or did they end up in their careers first and then grow into being leaders? His uncle had definitely been born a leader, but to his uncle’s way of thinking, anyone stronger than him should have been in charge. Silas loved his Nietzsche.

Tim considered asking Nathaniel if he believed in a werewolf will to power, because sometimes when he was mentally freaking out, it was good to have something else to think about, and Nathaniel had said Tim could ask him about that kind of thing, but Nathaniel was staring at Tim and breathing deeply, and Tim was abruptly and acutely aware they still had an audience.

“Are you making rumbling noises?” Tim questioned carefully, though barely above the steady, low hum—because it hadn’t seemed like a growl, or at least not as forceful as a growl, because growls weren’t
pleased
.

“You’re going to be in my house.” Nathaniel continued to stare at him.

Tim shivered. “Yeah.”

Nathaniel took a long, long breath. “You are coming home with me. You will be close. I will keep you safe.” He definitely rumbled as he said it, animal and human at the same time.

Tim wasn’t entirely sure about that, but the sheriff believed it, so he nodded. “Yeah,” he said again, and it was like with that one word, he’d given everyone permission to go about their business like they’d been doing before he’d walked in. He turned to watch the deputies for a while, not getting it, and not likely to with how everyone was now completely ignoring his presence.

Everyone but Nathaniel, who reached out to him again, letting his hand graze Tim’s elbow. “I’ll visit Mrs. Pinsky tomorrow and explain. For right now you’ll have to stay here. I can’t take you home until my shift is over in the morning.”

Tim resolutely acted like he didn’t shiver at the phrase
take you home
. “
How
are you working again right now? I know you didn’t get much sleep.”

Nathaniel paused to give him a look with one eyebrow raised. Tim didn’t think he’d ever seen Nathaniel make that face before. It was pure amusement, though, yeah, it might have been because Tim had scolded him.

“See? I’m not a kid. I am secretly as old as Carl in my soul.” Tim thumped his chest for good measure. Nathaniel continued to give him the eyebrow for another second before he took Tim’s bags from him so smoothly that Tim handed them over without thinking.

“Then you need your sleep too,” Nathaniel responded. He gestured for Tim to follow, as if unaware that was exactly what Tim’s body wanted to do, and Tim stumbled after him into what had to be his office, which had a desk, two chairs, and a couch. Nathaniel put Tim’s bags next to the couch before turning. He cleared his throat. “No one will come in here or bother you.” He really didn’t need to make everything sound like he was making a vow about life or death, but even Tim had enough manners to realize it might be rude to say that out loud.

“This is a lot of trouble,” Tim remarked instead, then shut up at the Eyebrow of Bitchy Doom. Seriously, he hadn’t known the sheriff could be sarcastic or funny, but today the man was pulling out all the stops and showing Tim sides of his personality that probably even Carl had never seen, and Carl was likely some kind of being Tim had never heard of that lived forever and had untamed eyebrows.

“It’s a couch, Tim.” The sheriff snorted but then rubbed at his face and turned away. “I meant you could sleep here if you wanted. I will be back in a bit with—”

“Do not say food,” Tim warned. “I feel like a baby as it is.”

“
My
dinner,” the sheriff finished, then cracked a tiny smile before Tim could feel any more stupid. “And some food for you.” He put up a hand as Tim opened his mouth to voice a complaint. “You might want it by then.”

“I’m not little because I’m underfed, you know that right?” Tim crossed his arms but tried to keep his tone light. “Little is just something I am. Believe me, people have tried force-feeding me to get me to grow.”

“Have they?” Nathaniel didn’t react as if Tim’s remark was funny. He didn’t seem amused at all anymore. His voice went so cool and soft that he was like someone else, some
thing
else. He had a wolf’s eyes in a man’s face. “Introduce me to these people someday.”

Tim backed up, hit the couch, and fell on his ass. He was like a wolf in the wild, he was. “I am the king of the awkwards,” he whined at the ceiling. “You sure you want me in your house? Wait, of course you do, because who could resist all of this?” He waved a hand over his body and looked over when Nathaniel didn’t answer.

Nathaniel dropped his gaze to the doorknob. He held on to it for a moment, then took his hand away to wipe his palm on his pants. “Just rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Your life is hard enough without me in it.” Tim was tripping over his own tongue. He was a wreck of a person, and he only got worse when in this man’s presence. It was best to address it now.

“Do you think so?” Nathaniel frowned at him without seeming angry. “What exactly do you know about my life?”

Tim gave up on debating the point when he realized he had nothing on his side of the argument. “Okay.” He let that go since he had deliberately not inquired into Nathaniel Neri’s personal life. “But why do you care?” He looked up. “About me?”

“You know, for someone convinced he has no place with me, or in this town, you have a lot of concern for both.” Nathaniel flicked a glance at the desk while Tim tried to think up an answer for that. “Feel free to look around if you get bored. There might be a magazine or a book in there. I know you like to read.”