by Sy Walker
***
Brandon couldn't keep Quinn out of his head. As he ran through the forest, searching for the next best place to settle, all he could think about was the way that Quinn smelled, and the kindness in his gentle green eyes. He wondered what was going through his head when he had learned that he would be working with Brandon. It was obvious that there was some kind of an attraction between them. Magnetism pulling them together as if it were fate.
He was sure that Quinn had felt it as well, but there was something keeping Quinn from grabbing that destiny and moving forward with Brandon. Brandon was a lot more outgoing, it seemed, and Quinn was very shy and timid. There were things inside of him that were bottled up, begging for some sort of release. Brandon couldn't help but hope that he could help Quinn to unleash his wild side.
In the meantime, it was difficult to focus on the task at hand. The others were settled down a few miles east from where he was. They trusted him to find the next best place for them to stay. Somewhere with food and water, and far away from the people who would hurt them. It was best for them to stay out of sight, and they trusted Brandon with their lives. They had no other choice. Nobody else knew the area as well as he did. And besides, nobody else was willing to take the same kinds of risks.
Brandon was a thrill seeker, through and through, and any chance for a new adventure brought him a great deal of excitement. He could not contain the intensity of his zest for life, and he had never been able to find anybody else who he could share it with. Everybody was sad and shy and scared, timid like Quinn. Maybe there would be a chance to find somebody who wasn't so afraid of themselves that he could unwind with. Until then, his life was full of responsibilities and obligations that he had no choice but to fulfill.
Searching for his Omega mate had left him discouraged and vexed, and he was sure that there would be nobody else to fill the role. He had high hopes about Quinn, however, and was sure that if he could just help the man to accept the truth about himself, things would be so much better for the both of them. Suddenly, the sound of running water made his ears perk up, and Brandon ran toward it quickly, and gave a long howl indicating that he had found exactly what the pack needed in order to survive. He trotted off quickly to find them and lead them back to the area where they would be staying, far away and safe from the humans.
Chapter 5
Quinn’s new job was exciting, and he was thrilled to be able to finally get out in the field and explore a new forest. He was deeply in love with the trees and the wildlife in Montana, but now he was in the mountains somewhere new. It was time for him to fully get himself acquainted to the area, and Brandon would be there to help him do just that.
At the thought of the handsome man, Quinn swallowed hard. He didn't expect someone so handsome and full of life to be paired with him. At the most, he was expecting a middle-aged woman or a man, who lived, slept, and breathed wolves. He knew what to expect going into a new situation, and it was generally his disposition to think things can go from bad to better. He believed that things always went from bad to worse. Unfortunately, sometimes this was a self-fulfilling prophecy for him. He lived full of anxiety and fear, never sure whether or not to take the next step and hurdle into a new moment believing that he would be able to come out on top.
Brandon seemed to have the opposite philosophy, leaping into every new challenge in situation with a smile and the belief that things were going to get better no matter what. Of course they were going to get better, because he was determined to make sure that they did. Quinn admired that about them, and couldn't wait to begin their first day working together.
“Good morning," Brandon said to him when he arrived at the site.
“Morning," Quinn said brightly. Although he was nervous, he was more excited, and it showed on his face. Brandon was excited by the energy, and turned away so that Quinn would follow him.
“Look, I found something before you got here. Do you think that it might be a lead?" Brandon was peering down at a large wolf track. Quinn's heart thudded heavily in his chest and he looked up at Brandon with wild eyes.
“That is definitely a lead," Quinn said excitedly. He pulled out a notebook and began to scribble wildly in it. Brandon watched him, feeling a little bit guilty about misleading the incredibly attractive man. He was just beginning to unwind around him, and here Brandon was deceiving him purposefully so that his wolf pack would remain safe from human intervention.
“Which way are they going to go from here?" Brandon asked. Although he felt guilty, he felt a stronger sense of obligation to protect his pack. He would lie to whoever he needed to lie to in order to protect them. That was why they had chosen him. He was bright and charming and knew his way around the English language. He could have been a salesperson in another life, making thousands of dollars off of things that nobody would ever need to use.
“I can't really be certain about that yet," Quinn said, studying the track closely. Brandon had made it himself that morning before Quinn showed up, and he had created a trail for them to follow together that led away from the pack and toward their previous settlement. At least they would be able to get real work done that way. He would be completely deceiving Quinn, but they wouldn't be finding the pack either. It seemed like a good balance.
“Maybe we should look for more tracks then," Brandon said, standing up and stretching out. Quinn glanced up at him, and found his eyes lingering on the small patch of bare stomach that was peeking out from Brandon's T-shirt. His eyes followed them the V from his muscular stomach and down the small patch of hair leading beneath his jeans. He looked away quickly, a red blush beginning to tinge his pale cheeks.
Brandon didn't notice. He was too busy thinking of ways to distract Quinn from any real tracks that they might find. His heart was setting heavily, but he had already made sure that the precautions set in place would be good enough to allow him to do his job for both the humans and the Wolf shifters. Quinn could not tell what was on his mind, but he assumed that Brandon was focused on the work. That was probably for the best, he wasn't sure that he could handle anybody noticing his strange tendencies right now. Northern California was supposed to help him escape these problems, not to make them worse. He had not counted on meeting a man like Brandon. That was for sure.
But there Brandon was, and all of his masculine and attractive glory, prowling in front of him, searching for more tracks. Finally Brandon perked up and called Quinn over.
“I think we should follow this trail here," Brandon said, pointing to a cluster of pawprints. Quinn studied them, drawing his eyebrows in concern.
“It looks like it's a whole pack of wolves, but I don't know if you can tell this or not, these pawprints are all from the same individual. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, maybe there was some kind of a scuffle here. I don't know what happened, but I do know that it's very strange. Maybe we should follow them like you said. I would like to figure out what's going on here."
Brandon stood up, allowing Quinn to move ahead of him. His heart had sunk, and he felt vaguely resentful toward Quinn for being so intelligent. He wasn't sure any other biologist on the team would have been able to tell the distinction, but Quinn was very quick and alert. There was no chance at fooling him if that's what it took. He would have to be a lot more careful. He didn't think that there would be any reason for Quinn to be suspicious and to examine the print so closely. But it just seemed to be a second nature for him. He could tell the difference. It was impressive, but it was frustrating.
He watched Quinn's lithe figure moving forward through the foliage, wondering to himself if he should continue on the path or mislead him on purpose. It didn't seem like there was any opportunity for him to take the lead anymore. He had already put Quinn hot on the trail, and there wasn't much that he could do about it from there. He would just have to remember that Quinn was smarter than most of the other people he had met, and make allowances for that when he was planning in the future.
Chapter 6
Brandon followed the trail all the way to a small stream ahead of Quinn. He thought it would be the perfect area to confuse him. He made it look as if the wolves all went for a swim, and from there the trail had disappeared. Now he wasn't sure that Quinn would fall for it, and he watched him seriously, his heart thudding painfully in his breast.
Fortunately, Quinn took the bait, and eased back on his hunches, sighing loudly.
“I guess whatever happened here we will never know about,” Quinn said. “It seems like whatever was attacking this wolf went into the water and took the Wolf with it. Or maybe the Wolf escaped that way. Whatever happened, there has to be some explanation. And that is the most likely. I would love to figure out what was pursuing it, but it might have been humans encroaching on protected land. That would make sense, because people would know to cover their trail in an area like that. The forest service would be on their ass in no time. I wouldn't hesitate to crackdown on poachers here. This land is too precious and these wolves too sacred to allow to be hunted like prey.”
Brandon looked up at Quinn, completely startled out of his thoughts. The way that Quinn was speaking made Brandon feel extremely loving toward him. Quinn is not worried about capturing the wolves or finding a way to get rid of them. He was worried about protecting them. It was the reason that Brandon had joined the forest service in the first place. For some reason, he had caught a lot of people who didn't seem to care as much about the wildlife as he did. They just did their jobs for an excuse to get paid playing outside. Unfortunately, this left many of the animals unprotected, even when they were facing great dangers like the wolves in his pack were facing right now.
A rival group of shifters had driven them out of the territory that they had been settled in before, and it had been up to him to move them all to Northern California. He remembered tales passed down to him from his great-grandfather about the land where they had come from in Northern California. His great-grandfather didn't want to leave, but there is nothing much that he could do to change the circumstances. Food had become scarce, and there were too many people out after them. It had been terrifying to be a wolf back then, just as terrifying as it was now. Except there was at least some protections for them under the Endangered Species Act. Everywhere else was free game, and if you weren't careful, you could end up mounted on somebody's wall.
Over the years, the rival shifters had all become extinct because of their arrogance. They had dwelled in an area where they were hunted like wild animals, and they had not taken any precautions to keep themselves and their families safe. It was a sad but poetic justice brought to them after driving out Brandon's pack, and now he felt like Moses going back to reclaim the promised land for his people. Compassionate and kind Quinn could never understand what he was going through, or why he had to purposefully mislead him in order to protect the people that matter the most to him. What he didn't know was that Quinn also had his own secrets, and although he would never understand what it meant to protect somebody's very life with that secret, he would understand why it was necessary. That was the only way that Brandon could continue to look Quinn in the eye.
“I guess we're not going to find anything more today," Quinn said. His voice was brimming with disappointment. “But at least there is always tomorrow. Something will happen. I will figure it out eventually. I know I will.”
His determination didn't come from a malicious place. He was just very confused. A question was burning in Brandon’s chest and he found himself unable to hold back any longer.
“Why is that you want to find these wolves so badly?" Brandon asked. "You know why we have to for work, but what made you care about wolves in the first place?"
They were marching out of the woods and toward their vehicles. Brandon smelled like the forest now, and Quinn couldn't help but allow his eyes to linger on his chiseled jaw as he turned slightly to meet Quinn's eyes.
“I think everybody deserves somewhere safe to stay. If I can figure out how they work, maybe I can help the rest of the world understand them too. If people aren't so afraid of wolves, they won't be persecuted so unfairly anymore. People have so little regard for what they don't understand. So I want to understand enough for everybody. Maybe that would change the world, at least a little bit."
Brandon had nothing to say to this. He was stunned into silence as Quinn's gorgeous green eyes returned to the path ahead of them. They made it out of the forest in a comfortable silence and each of them walked to their forest service van.
“That's a pretty good reason," Brandon said, climbing into his own vehicle. "Maybe we will have more luck tomorrow."
Quinn smiled at him, a little bit sad and not very hopeful about it.
“These wolves seem a little bit different than the ones back in Montana," he said with a defeated little laugh. “I'm not sure how I can help them. But I'm going to try."
Quinn got into his van and pulled away, leaving Brandon to sit in the parking lot alone. He put his head on the steering wheel and sighed deeply, wondering what in the world he should do.
Chapter 7
Over the next two weeks they were together side-by-side every day. Every day, Quinn left feeling a little bit more intoxicated by Brandon, and Brandon left feeling a little bit more conflicted about keeping his secret from Quinn. If there was any human out there worth telling, it would be him. He was such a gentle and loving soul, completely at ease with the world around him except for the areas inside of himself that made him feel inferior. He was nervous about letting anybody know that he may have a sexual identity that was different from what society called normal. There were a lot of reasons that he was afraid, but when he was out in the woods alone with Brandon and the animals, he was the most beautiful creature Brandon had ever seen.
At night, Brandon prowled the woods, thinking about his need for an omega mate. Everybody in the pack had been encouraging him to find somebody, as it was very unusual for anybody to remain single past the age of 30 in their pack. Because he was their leader, it seemed to be more of an urgent and pressing matter than most of them had ever considered before. If their leader didn't reproduce and raise strong and healthy children, what would happen to the pack?
The question haunted him and the pack both, and desire to reproduce and start a family were burning deeply within him. He wasn't sure if he would be able to reproduce with Quinn, but the idea of Quinn becoming his omega mate really brought his heart to racing. It was a secret fantasy that he harbored himself over the next few weeks. They had been working together for a few months by the time that Quinn finally approached him and swallowed hard.
“I think we should try a different route. We are not getting anywhere the way things have been going."
Brandon's heart lurched. It seemed like Quinn was suspicious. In fact, Quinn was only trying not to hurt Brandon's feelings. They had been working together for so long without getting any real results. And Quinn was concerned that the reason this was happening was because Brandon continued to lead the way. Quinn wanted a chance to do things on his own, without having to worry about being misled by a false trail that Brandon found.
He didn't want to come right out and say that he thought Brandon was incompetent though, and had to rack his brain to try and find a good way to explain what he was feeling. Brandon was very intelligent and very magnetic, and every time they were together alone for a while there was something undeniable that would cross between the two of them. There was something very animalistic about the way that Brandon made Quinn feel, and the wildness of Quinn's hair continued to thinly veil the person Quinn was trying to hide inside. That person was closer and closer to coming out every day, and whatever feelings he was dealing with toward Brandon seem to rise closer to the surface with every encounter.
“What would you do then?" Brandon asked, suddenly nervous. "What route is there to take from here? These wolves are smart, I don't know if they are trying to avoid detection or if they just don't know where to settle down."
&nb
sp; “Thinking maybe if I lead the way, something new would come up. You are really great at tracking one particular wolf, but I don't think that wolf is part of the pack. In fact, it might be a stray.”
The thought of being called a stray made Brandon furious, but of course Quinn would never understand why he was so angry. He felt huffy and walked ahead of Quinn, showing his shoulders and grumbling that he can do whatever he wanted to do. Quinn's face fell, he thought that he had insulted Brandon's intelligence. In fact, Brandon was angry that he, the leader of the pack, might be told that he didn't even belong in the pack. It was one of the deeper insults that he had experienced, even though it was an indirect one.
Quinn felt terrible for hurting Brandon's feelings, even though he misunderstood the situation. There was nothing that he could do about it however, and he quickly made peace with the fact. At least it was a reason to keep Brandon at a distance. He would not have to deal with all of these nagging feelings that arose whenever Brandon was too close, or his hand was lingering near Quinn's. He knew what he wanted, he was afraid to say it out loud, even to himself. There was nothing that he could say to make himself feel better about having feelings for Brandon, and there was no way for him to explore them without feeling like a total monster.