by Sadie Moss
“We couldn’t decide what to get, so we got some of everything.” Noah dropped a plastic bag on the bed next to the one I was sitting on.
Jackson mimicked his movement, adding another bag and some bottles of water. “Yeah, we supersized the shit out of it.”
The most enticing aroma I’d ever smelled drifted up to meet my nostrils, and drool pooled in the corner of my mouth. Without even realizing what I was doing, I stood and drifted over toward the other bed, eyeballing the large bags.
“Have you ever had fast food, Scrubs?” Noah asked curiously.
I shook my head, chewing on my lower lip.
“You can pick first, then. Whatever you want. And there’s plenty, so go nuts.” He grinned and stepped back, gesturing to the bed with a grand flourish.
I shot a quick glance at all the guys. Everyone but Rhys nodded encouragingly. He probably hated to see me getting special treatment again, but the rumbling of my stomach spurred me on despite his death glare.
Tentatively, like a squirrel sneaking up to a picnic, I crawled onto the soft mattress and reached into one of the bags. I didn’t have the guts to rifle through it all, so I just grabbed the first thing I touched and unwrapped it.
A hamburger. I knew that much, although I’d never eaten one before.
Holding it in both hands, I took a small bite.
My eyes bugged out. Holy shit. So fucking good.
I chewed in a hurry before going in for a second bite that was twice as big as the first. The burger wasn’t huge, and after just a few more bites, it was gone. I barely restrained myself from licking the paper it’d been wrapped in. Instead, I reached into the bag again and drew out a container of French fries, wolfing them down too.
Then I had another burger. And another.
By the time I finished, I was pleasantly stuffed. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. And I hadn’t known how fucking delicious fast food was.
I was licking the salt from the fries off each of my fingers when I finally came back to my senses and realized the men were staring at me. My heart stuttered in my chest, and I looked up, eyes wide.
“Shit! I’m sorry. Did I take too much?”
They all looked slightly stunned as they took in the carnage of empty wrappers around me. Their expressions were a mixture of surprise, awe, and something else I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Something that only made my blush deepen.
Then Jackson laughed, the infectious sound breaking the tension.
“Fuck no! That was amazing. I like a woman who isn’t afraid to eat.”
The other three chuckled, and I had a sudden desire to melt into the carpet. I scrambled off the bed, gesturing to the bags. “Er, I’m done.”
The guys descended on the remaining food, polishing it off in short order—although none of them ate quite as much as I had.
I watched them talk and bicker good-naturedly among themselves, wondering if I’d ever learn to act normal around these men. To become something more than a curiosity or an oddity to them.
And more importantly, I wondered why I cared.
Chapter Twelve
I woke in a cold sweat.
Images of my mom had infiltrated my dreams again, along with strange and twisted visions of the Strand complex. Instead of being the safe haven I’d once seen it as, the walls in my dream had dripped with blood, and screams had echoed down the corridors as I was dragged into dark laboratories under the main building.
When my eyes popped open, a shout hovered on my lips. I choked it back, burying my face in the pillow as my body shook with latent fear. The pillowcase was wet, I realized, soaked with tears I didn’t remember crying.
I dragged the blanket over my head and lay curled up beneath it for a moment, trying to block out the world.
When my heart rate finally slowed, I lifted the covers. The room was empty. With my belly full last night, I’d crawled into bed and passed out, exhausted from the long day. I hadn’t even considered the sleeping arrangements, and as I peered around the dingy room, guilt rose up in me.
Blankets had been torn off the other bed, probably so some of the guys could sleep on the floor. They’d given me an entire bed to myself, and although I appreciated the gesture, I felt like a royal asshole.
Not that I want to share a bed with any of them, I reminded myself quickly. But I could’ve been the one to take the floor.
And where were they all now?
A sudden stab of panic pierced me. Were they gone? Had they decided Rhys was right about me being too much of a burden and abandoned me here?
I sat up, clutching the blanket to my body as my gaze scanned the room. Three of the packs were still here. The sight made my chest unclench just a little. They might leave me behind, but I seriously doubted they’d purposefully leave without their stuff.
Pushing down my fear, I threw the covers off and padded over to the backpack I’d carried yesterday. There were more clothes in it, including brand new underwear and a bra. In fact, everything in Sariah’s bag still had tags on it.
These things were all new, probably bought by Rhys in anticipation of freeing his sister. My guilt about wearing her clothes piled on top of the guilt about hogging the bed, and I felt about as tall as an inchworm as I headed toward the bathroom to shower.
The Strand complex had been a prison in disguise, but it was still hard not to miss certain things about it. Like the shower. Especially compared to this hotel’s shitty shower, where huge droplets of water pelted me hard enough to sting, and the temperature knob balanced on a razor’s edge between scalding and freezing. I spent the entire time adjusting the knob by eighths of an inch, and by the time I stepped out, my skin was pink from the wild temperature swings.
I threw on a fresh set of clothes and stepped out of the bathroom just as Noah and Jackson returned.
“Oh, hey, Scrubs. You’re up!”
Noah kicked the door shut behind them with his foot, smiling at me—the same smile that had knocked my socks off the first time I’d met him.
A lot had changed since then. I now knew his name was Noah, not Cliff. I knew he was a wolf shifter, and I might be one too. In fact, my entire world had pretty much fallen down around my ears in the past few days.
But the effect his smile had on me was exactly the same.
My tongue immediately tied itself in knots, and I nodded awkwardly, settling onto the bed to roll up my old clothes and stuff them back into the bag.
“We brought some breakfast. Shit, I can’t wait to see you decimate these,” Jackson teased, dropping a box of donuts on the bed.
Oh geez.
I was never going to live that down. Jackson seemed to find my voracious appetite for new foods both hilarious and—shockingly—attractive.
I peeked into the box. It looked like it’d once held a dozen donuts, although there were fewer than that now. Feigning nonchalance, I picked up a plain one dusted in cinnamon sugar and took a bite. Rich sweetness exploded on my tongue, and I worked hard to bite back a moan. The two men were already staring at me; I didn’t want to make it any worse by adding pornographic noises.
To distract myself from wolfing down the entire pastry in two seconds, I looked up at them. “So, what’s the plan? Where are you headed now?”
“We’re headed to Washington,” Noah answered, emphasizing the word we as he made a gesture that encompassed me. “But we need to make a quick stop on the way. We have an old friend who might be able to help us. West and Rhys are picking up a car right now.”
My brow furrowed, and I quietly snuck another donut. Somehow, despite my attempts at restraint, I’d finished the first one while Noah was speaking. “From where? Is there a car rental place in this town?”
“Oh, Alexis.” Jackson smirked at me, plopping down onto the bed next to me and stretching out his long, muscular form. “They’re not renting a car. They’re stealing one.”
I almost choked on my donut.
Oh. I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that. After al
l, these same men had broken into the Strand complex two days ago and stolen something valuable from that place too—me.
But it was still hard to wrap my head around the fact that they were off stealing a car. It probably said a lot about how unworldly I was, but none of these guys fit what I imagined carjackers would look like.
Almost as if he could read my mind, Noah grinned at me. “Hey, when you’re living under the radar, you take whatever work you can get. After we escaped the Strand compound in San Diego, we fell in with a crew in Vegas. Learned a lot of useful skills on the jobs we did. Not all of them legal,” he added with a wink.
I found myself grinning back at him. My shock was beginning to fade, and for the first time since leaving Strand, I found myself feeling excited and a little hopeful. I didn’t know if I’d ever get over the lies I’d been fed my entire life, but it was finally starting to sink in that I’d gotten the one thing I wanted most in the world: to be in the world.
This was real life, in all its messy, terrifying, unknowable glory. And as much as it sort of made me want to bury my head under the covers again, there was a part of me that relished it too. The bright chaos of the outside world was a constant reminder that I was alive.
That I was free.
That I’d made it this far.
“We all know how to hot wire a car. We could do it in our sleep. You didn’t think the owner left the keys in that SUV yesterday, did you?” Jackson raised his eyebrows at me, leaning over the bed to grab a donut from the box.
He had a pleasant sandalwood scent that tickled my nostrils, and the proximity of his body to mine made the little hairs on my arms stand up. I wasn’t used to having other people this close, let alone such unnervingly handsome men, and it threw me off balance.
“It’s not really a two person job, but it’s easier if there’s a lookout.” He shrugged. “Safer too. I’m sure the Strand Corporation is still trying to find us, and if we have to split up the pack, it’s better to do it two-by-two than to send anyone off on their own.”
I toyed with the second half of my third donut. “Pack. Right. That’s what you guys are. It’s so strange; I saw it with my own eyes, but I can still hardly believe it’s true. You’re… wolves.”
“You’ll get used to it.” Noah shrugged. “Especially once your wolf is called. When you can shift too, it’ll seem as natural as anything.”
I nodded, although I was a little doubtful of that. “I guess so.”
Jackson shoved the last bite of food into his mouth. “Wanna see it again?”
My heart stuttered in my chest. “What? Your wolves?”
“Yeah.” He grinned mischievously, looking over my head at Noah, who stood on the other side of the bed. “What do you say? Should we show her?”
Noah ran a hand through his spiky blond hair. “I don’t know, Jackson. In a hotel room?”
“Aw, what difference does it make? Sure, it’s not as impressive to see a wolf in a hotel room as out in their element, but whatever. The lady hardly got a chance to see what she’s in for. Let’s show her.”
Noah sighed. I got the impression Jackson was the instigator and troublemaker of the group, but at the moment, I was totally on his side. When he and Rhys had come back to camp the other day and shifted, I’d been in such a state of shock that I’d barely been able to take in the details of their wolf forms. And as terrifying as it was to think of being trapped in a small hotel room with two large, dangerous animals, my curiosity overrode my nerves.
“Come on, Noah.” I met his gaze, biting my lip. “Please?”
Something shifted in his gray-blue eyes. His expression softened, and I knew he was going to give in because I had asked.
That thought pleased me way more than it should have. I was trying to keep up some level of barrier between myself and the four men who had barged into my life two days ago. But the walls I put up kept slipping. It was hard not to let these men take center stage in my life and my mind when they were literally the only people I knew outside of Strand.
“Yeah, okay. Close your eyes, Scrubs.”
I furrowed my brow. What? Why couldn’t I watch? Was this some sort of magic trick? They’d shifted yesterday in plain view.
Noah read my expression again and chuckled. “I mean, hell, you can keep your eyes open if you want. Most shifters don’t give a shit about nudity, but I wasn’t sure if you were quite there yet.”
My cheeks flamed. Duh. Right. They probably had to take off their clothes to shift, and Noah was just trying to make sure I was comfortable.
I swallowed hard. Part of me wished he hadn’t said anything, because now that he’d warned me, I really felt like I should close my eyes.
But if I was absolutely honest with myself? I didn’t want to.
Because I want to watch the shift happen, my inner voice argued unconvincingly. I just want to see how it works. That’s all.
It had absolutely nothing to do with wondering what their tanned skin and defined muscles looked like when they weren’t covered up with clothes. Or wondering what their—
Oh Jesus.
Praying my face wasn’t as red as it felt, I squeezed my eyes shut. I heard a chuckle that I was pretty sure came from Jackson, and then rustling sounds as the two men removed their clothes. Even though I couldn’t see them, I swore the air in the room changed the second they were naked. As if it became charged with some kind of low-level electricity.
Goose bumps popped out across my skin, and my breath hitched.
Then another noise filled the space. A sort of whooshing, cracking sound. I waited for one of them to tell me I could look, only realizing how silly that was when a cold nose bumped my hand.
Of course. They couldn’t speak anymore. Not in these forms.
My eyes flew open, and I looked down at the two massive wolves. They stood on either side of the bed, and they looked so incongruous in the seedy hotel room that I almost giggled. Both of them had stark white fur, and one had his black nose pressed to my hand. His nose was cold and wet, but his breath was hot.
As I looked down, his large pink tongue swiped out to lick my hand. I let out a surprised sound that was half gasp, half laugh.
They were beautiful.
Stunning.
Incredible.
Tentatively, I scooted off the end of the bed, my gaze darting back and forth between the two massive animals. They padded toward me, meeting me as I stood up. My heart thundered in my chest, but surprisingly, I wasn’t afraid. I stretched out my hand, and the wolf on my right moved closer, allowing me to stroke the soft, thick fur on his back.
I swore I felt him shiver under my touch, and he must’ve liked it, because he pressed closer to me. I stroked his ears, the fur soft as silk beneath my fingertips.
A low whine sounded to my left, bringing a smile to my face.
“I haven’t forgotten about you,” I promised, as I turned to the other wolf—which, based on where the guys had been standing when they shifted, must be Jackson. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as his lips drew back in what was almost a smile. Leaving one hand on Noah, I scratched Jackson’s wolf behind the ear as he leaned into my touch.
This was unbelievable. I felt like Snow White or something, able to commune with the wild animals of the forest.
Except these weren’t just animals. Underneath that, they were also men.
Men I was currently fondling shamelessly. Not that either of them seemed to mind one bit.
But the surprising thing was, that realization didn’t make me blush. Any discomfort or awkwardness I felt around them when they were human melted away when they were in their animal forms. And strangely, I felt more certain I could trust them now than ever. There was something so pure about them in this state. Not “pure” as in angelic—Jackson’s wolf had the same wicked glint in his eyes as the man himself did—but rather, something primal. Basic. Something that existed in black and white, with none of the messy shades of gray humans were made of.
It ma
de a pleasant shiver run up my spine, and I knelt on the floor, allowing the large wolves to press closer to me. Each beast’s eyes mirrored their human features. Jackson’s were dark amber and Noah’s were an icy gray. Both sets of eyes watched me intently, but this time, I didn’t feel like prey.
I felt strong. Powerful.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmured, running my fingers through the thick fur of Noah’s wolf.
His large head swiveled toward mine, leaving our noses barely an inch apart. I could hear the soft whuffs of his breath, and the eyes that gazed into mine were bright with intelligence.
I stared into them, lost in their blue depths and uninterested in ever finding my way back.
Then his large tongue swiped out and licked my face, and the spell broke as a belly laugh erupted from my throat. I leaned back against the foot of the bed, laughing and squirming, as the wolves wagged their tails, crowding around me to lick me all over.
With no warning, the door burst open.
West stepped halfway inside, his hand still on the handle. He was breathing heavily, and at the sight of me on the floor with two of his pack mates, he stopped, his eyes widening slightly. Then he shook off whatever reaction he’d had, his gaze snapping into focus.
“We’ve got company. We gotta go. Now!”
Chapter Thirteen
Fear soured my stomach at the urgency in his tone. He raced into the room, grabbing one of the backpacks and pulling a gun from inside it. Then he flicked the safety off and stalked back to the door, cracking it open to peer down into the parking lot.
The two white wolves prowled away from me, their hackles rising.
Swallowing my fear, I grabbed for the backpack on the bed, but West’s hiss drew my attention. I looked up at him, and he shook his head.
“Leave it, Scrubs. We’ll get other clothes. Get behind me. Get ready to run.”
I released the strap, crawling off the bed and padding over to stand behind West. The breadth of his shoulders mostly blocked my view out the door, but I felt safer behind the muscled man than almost anywhere else.