“One day at a time, right?” Wyatt said. But he wasn’t exactly talking about the cure for bear flu. He was talking to himself, and telling himself that he needed to take things with Juno one day at a time. He was already desperate to get to know her better, and he’d hadn’t even known her for a full twenty-four hours at this point—several hours of which he’d been asleep in the lab. It was safe to say that he was hopelessly falling. Emphasis on the word hopelessly. He didn’t think there was much he could do to stop it if he tried. Suddenly, he realized that Juno was still shivering violently.
“Oh, shit,” he said. “Come on. Let’s head inside where it’s warm.”
He took her to the staircase and led her down into the building and into what used to be the Hancock Tower’s Signature Restaurant. Most of the tables were still there, but he’d pushed them aside to make room for a bed and an armchair. He’d also had brought in several new computers and other various items he’d gathered from his explorations of the deserted city.
“Wow,” Juno said. “You’ve got quite a collection here. And, holy crap. What is that? A wall of liquor?”
“Yeah,” Wyatt said. “This place used to be a restaurant. It was a pretty fancy one, with expensive food and expensive drinks and all of that. When everything started to fall apart here in Chicago, this place was pretty much abandoned. But because the security was pretty high it was difficult to get in here. It was that way with a lot of the nicer restaurants. They were all starting to implement high-security eye scanners and such. By now, most of the other fancy restaurants have been broken into. But because this one is up so high and the security was so intense, nobody seemed to bother with it. We’re on the ninety-sixth floor, in case you were wondering. I came up here, hacked my way in, burned down their eye scanners, and then rebuilt a door and rigged a computer system to it. It’s pretty secure, and I don’t think anyone would really come looking for me up here. It’s hard to get in from the bottom floor with all the security scanners on every floor. But I can fly so it’s easy for me to just come in through the roof. Essentially it’s a perfect dragon lair, complete with the fully stocked bar. Would you like a drink?”
Wyatt felt like he was awkwardly babbling and he needed to force himself to stop.
“I would love a drink,” Juno said. “I haven’t had liquor in a long time. Sometimes we got beer in the wilderness, but even that’s gotten pretty rare as the situation in the outside world gets worse. When you’re struggling to make sure you have enough food to feed a bunch of shifters, alcohol tends to be pretty low on the priority list.”
Wyatt laughed. “Alcohol should never be low on the priority list.”
“I agree,” Juno said with a smile. So where is this drink you’re promising me?”
“Pushy, pushy,” Wyatt said. “What would you like to drink?”
“I’ll take the best whiskey in the house, please,” Juno said.
“Whiskey, eh?” Wyatt said, his eyes widening. “You’re one of those whiskey girls?”
Juno shrugged. “After a day like today, yeah, I’m a whiskey girl. Rum isn’t gonna cut it tonight, buddy.
Wyatt laughed as he went to pour her a drink. “That bad huh? I thought it turned out pretty decently, considering you did get into the lab. And you seem to be making progress.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure I’m making progress quickly enough. I need to get the cure figured out done sooner rather than later, before my clan realizes where I am.”
Wyatt stopped in his tracks. “They don’t know where you are?”
“Well, they probably do by now. I snuck out and stole a helicopter, which is going to make them pretty pissed. I came here on my own when I was supposed to be waiting for two of my clan members to come with me.
Wyatt paused with his drink in midair. “Wait. Say that again. You stole a helicopter? I didn’t know those even existed anymore! How did you do that? You can fly helicopters? And why did you sneak away instead of waiting for your clan members?”
“Well, to answer your first question,” Juno said. “Yes, I stole a helicopter. This guy that we’re hiding out with in Michigan has been hiding out for a while, and he’s collected quite an assortment of gas powered vehicles. He somehow knows where to get them and how to hide them. He had a helicopter, and I learned how to fly them when I was younger because my dad was a helicopter copilot in the Coast Guard. I was planning to come out with two of our other clan members later this week. They wanted to get a few things together first, but I didn’t want to wait. That’s something you should know about me. I never want to wait.”
Wyatt laughed, and Juno paused to take a sip of her whiskey before continuing.
“Besides, I felt like the other two guys in the clan were better off staying behind. They have lifemates, and it’s dangerous here. I don’t want them to get hurt or caught up in who knows what kind of trouble. I wasn’t even sure exactly what was going on in the city myself, and I thought it was better if I came alone. So I snuck out the middle the night and stole the helicopter. At some point today, they probably realized I was gone. Then they probably went looking for the helicopter and realized it was gone. By this point, they know that I’ve taken off to Chicago and they’re totally pissed at me, to put it mildly.
Wyatt wasn’t sure how to respond. “But they must be coming for you, if they know where you were going. And then what was the point of sneaking away?”
“It will take them a while to get here,” Juno said. “All of the supplies that we need have gotten harder to get, including gasoline. So even if though they have other gas-powered vehicles, they don’t have the gas to power it.”
“Can’t they just take a hover car?” Wyatt asked.
Juno shook her head no. “There aren’t any hover cars or anything electronic at the hideout. No computers of any sort. Drew, the guy who owns the place, has been living off the grid for a while. He’s pretty extreme. He doesn’t allow anything with a computer or anything remotely electronic that might send a signal where people could find us. It’s annoying, but I have to admit it’s been pretty amazing the way he’s taking care of us. I’ve never felt like I was in danger at any point when I was out there with him.”
Juno fell silent for a moment, staring down at her glass. Wyatt took a long sip of his own whiskey before replying.
“I thought you clan shifters never did that,” Wyatt said.
“Did what?” Juno asked.
“You know, went against your own clan members,” Wyatt said.
Juno laughed. “Haven’t you ever heard of clan wars? That’s a real thing, you know.”
Wyatt frowned. “Well yes, I’ve heard of clan wars. But isn’t that always between two different clans? Are there civil clan wars where you fight amongst yourselves? I thought it was all clan loyalty or death or whatever.”
Juno laughed again. “You dragons are funny,” she said. “Just because we bears aren’t solitary and we live in clans doesn’t mean we don’t fight. We fight all the freaking time. Bears can be pretty feisty too. I mean, yes, clan loyalty above all else. But we’re all still individuals and we all still go our own way on things.”
Wyatt shrugged. “Okay. I guess it just seems pretty extreme to leave without telling anyone, though.”
Juno looked annoyed. “Trust me, if I had told anyone they would never have let me go by myself.”
Wyatt knew he shouldn’t press the matter, and that he was only going to annoy her more. But he couldn’t help it. He was curious about Juno’s stubborn streak.
“But don’t you think you should let them decide for themselves what’s dangerous?” he prodded.
To his surprise, Juno didn’t snap at him. Instead she looked thoughtfully off into the distance. “I guess you’re right. But I just think that if you’ve found true love and you know it’s the person you’re meant to be with…why would you unnecessarily risk your life? They have someone. I have no one. Better for me to take on the danger than them.
Wyatt pondered th
e question for a moment. “I see what you’re saying. But I think you can’t live your life that way. Life is full of risks, and you can’t manage them all for someone else. Besides, just because you don’t have a lifemate doesn’t mean there aren’t people that love you. I’m sure your clan members love you.”
Juno didn’t say anything, so Wyatt pushed her a little bit further.
“Am I wrong” he asked, his voice holding a note of challenge.
“No,” Juno said quietly. “You’re right.”
“And do you have a family?” Wyatt asked. “Maybe a mom and dad?”
Juno nodded.
“I’m sure they would be devastated to lose you. Romantic love isn’t the only kind of love, you know. It’s not the only relationship that matters.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Juno said. “You’re a dragon. You guys don’t feel the same pull that we feel as bears.”
“What pull is that?” Wyatt asked.
“It’s hard to explain in words,” Juno said. “But it’s like I know deep within me that there is a part of me that’s missing something. I mean sure my life overall has been happy, notwithstanding the crazy events of the last few months. But hey, even that has turned out okay. I’m essentially enjoying a wilderness retreat with a bunch of my closest friends. So it’s not all that bad. But even with the happy, fulfilled life that I’ve had, I’ve always felt like there’s something missing within me. It’s like missing someone I’ve never met. I can feel him. I know that he’s there, and there’s this pull that’s always tugging at my heart. The lifemate bond. I might forget about it or it might be less strong for short periods of time, but other times it gets stronger. It’s just something that’s always been a part of me, and for a long time I didn’t even know what it was. I just knew that sometimes I was sad for no reason. Now I know that it’s the lifemate bond calling to me. I would love to find my lifemate and have that empty part of me filled, but there doesn’t seem to be any sort of roadmap to where he is. I’m just searching and searching and hoping that someday I’ll find him.”
Wyatt had heard the lifemate bond described before, but never in such emotional terms. It always been described him as somebody knowing when they met someone that that person was who they were supposed to be with for the rest of their life, but he had never heard someone explain it as an aching for someone whom you hadn’t met yet. The more he thought about it as he sat there, draining the whiskey from his glass, the more he realized that he’d felt a similar sadness himself. There had been many times over the years where he had been inexplicably lonely, even though he had a good life and good friends. At times he’d even had girlfriends, although that had never lasted too long. He was too much of a free spirit for most girls. Besides, when it got to the point in a relationship where he had to explain that he was a dragon, things always got a little awkward. He usually avoided the subject until his girlfriend thought that he was lying to her about something important or was cheating on her and then left him.
“What’s wrong?” Juno asked, pulling him out of his reverie.
“Nothing,” Wyatt said. “I was just thinking that maybe I have felt that lifemate bond before.”
Juno shrugged, “You would know better than me.”
Wyatt was silent again. Was this what he was feeling now? This aching for Juno? He had just met her, and yet he felt like he couldn’t get enough of her. But if they were lifemates, then shouldn’t she feel the same thing towards him? She didn’t seem to be interested in him beyond a general friendship sort of thing.
“What’s wrong?” Juno asked. “You’re frowning.”
Wyatt looked up at her and tried to smile, but he couldn’t manage a very convincing one at the moment.
“You say the lifemate bond comes and goes,” he said. “Do you feel it strongly now?”
Juno bit her lip thoughtfully. “It’s hard to say. I would say yes, because I’ve felt the pull very strongly the last few days. I feel like my lifemate is calling to me more than ever before. But then I wonder if it’s just the emotions of trying to save the world and all that. It’s a pretty big thing.”
Wyatt felt a glimmer of hope in his chest. Maybe she did actually feel something for him, after all, and just hadn’t realized it yet. He looked out over the water thoughtfully. It was strange being up here. He had come to this restaurant a few times on dates, before the city had gone to ruin. He’d sat here in this very room with beautiful women, trying to impress them. But he’d never wanted to impress anyone as much as he wanted to impress Juno right now. She was different. Special. She had a certain life and energy to her like no one he’d ever met. And it wasn’t just the fact that she was a shifter. He’d met plenty of shifter woman over the years, and no one had ever been quite like her. She was so matter-of-fact about saving the world, which was a lot of pressure to put on herself. Not only that, but she was trying to protect her clan while she did it. Wyatt thought it was a little silly of her to leave her clan behind. He was a big believer in letting people make their own decisions about what kind of dangerous situations they wanted to get into. Still, it was sweet of her to try to protect them, and to protect the romantic bonds that her friends had made.
Wyatt stood and started to pace. He felt uneasy, like there was an itch growing in him that he had to scratch. He knew that Juno was the only one who could scratch it, but he wasn’t sure how to move forward in this situation. It’s not like he could exactly take her out on a date, and the only food they had up here was his stash of nonperishable food that he’d acquired over the last month or so by raiding homes and businesses. But he wanted to somehow show Juno that she meant something to him, even though they had just met.
He had begun to question whether life was even worth it anymore before her. The human race was dying. Shifters were hiding in the shadows, and many of the world’s most beautiful cities were in ruins. Something about Juno had brought him to life again, and made him realize that there was hope for the future as long as you had someone to care about. Juno cared about her clan, and cared about humans. And now he cared about Juno.
Juno let him pace, seeming to sense that he needed some space. After several minutes, he decided that he would make this into a date. Maybe he only had simple boxed food to cook. And maybe the situation wasn’t exactly ideal. But the important thing was that there was something deep within him telling him that Juno mattered. It wasn’t just the fact that she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Her story was intriguing. He wanted to know more about her, about her clan, about where she came from, and about what kinds of things made her happy. He had a feeling that no matter how much he learned about her, it would never be enough. He’d thought that he was in love before, but those feelings paled in comparison to how he felt about a woman he had only known for a few hours.
Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it the urgency brought on by the fact that the world was ending. But whatever it was, Wyatt knew that he wasn’t going to dance around the truth. He was falling for Juno, and he was going to make sure she knew it.
Chapter Seven
“Do you need a refill?” Wyatt asked. He carefully carried two plates piled high with spaghetti toward the table, where Juno was sitting.
“No thanks. I’m still good,” Juno said, glancing over at him for just a moment before glancing back out the window. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and it took her a moment to even notice that Wyatt had put food down.
“Oh wow,” she said when she finally turned back and saw the plates. “This is way better than a meal replacement bar.”
Wyatt had scrounged around his stash of food to find the best meal he could come up with. Spaghetti was kind of boring, true. But he did have a decent selection of pasta sauce, and the one he had chosen was a Cabernet infused red sauce. It smelled amazing, and he hoped it tasted amazing, too. He would’ve loved to add meat to the meal, but fresh meat was a thing of the past right now. He would have killed for a steak dinner, but it wasn’t happening any
time soon. In fact, he didn’t really know if it would ever happen again, the way the world was falling apart. But he didn’t want to focus on the negatives right now. He wanted to focus on the fact that he at least had a beautiful woman sitting here with him. A beautiful woman whom he hoped he would be able to impress just a little bit with his attempt at dinner.
“So, you were a scientist before everything fell apart?” Wyatt prompted. He wanted to learn everything he could about Juno.
Juno nodded. “Yeah, I was getting my PhD in biology, actually. Right outside of Chicago. I worked at a lab as a research assistant. Ironically enough, I was assigned to work on the shifter scanners when they were still in development. I love science, and I loved my life here in the city. But I don’t think I’ll ever live here again, even if things turn around for the better. Chicago will never be the same, you know?”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Wyatt said. “I’ve lived here for a while, too, and it’s sad to see how the city has fallen apart.”
“What did you do here?” Juno asked “It’s a shame I never met you before the shifter scanners arrived.”
Wyatt smiled, and nodded in agreement. He would have loved to have met Juno in happier times, but he tried not to dwell on that, and to instead be happy that at least he had met her now.
“I did a lot of odd jobs,” Wyatt said. “A lot of construction in the summer. In the winter, I would help plow snow. Or, if I was feeling really ambitious, I would go up to Wisconsin and work as a ski instructor. I taught a lot of kids to ski up there. I did some other stuff here in the city, too. Washed windows, worked as a painter…mostly physical labor. I guess that probably sounds silly to someone who was going for her PhD, but I just have never been able to sit still. Wasn’t really my thing. I couldn’t handle school, or an office job.
“I don’t think it sounds silly,” Juno said. “I think there’s something very therapeutic about physical work. It was an adjustment for me when I moved from Alaska to here. I was used to having a lot of space to roam in the wilderness, and everything here felt confined.”
Danger in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 4) Page 5