by Troy Hunter
So I sprint toward the back of the building, where I know there’s a door. I slam through it and run through the parking lot toward Cliff’s truck. Taking refuge behind it, I send a quick text to Cliff that I made it out.
“That’s just bad management!” Cliff yells.
I peek out over the bed of his truck to see him exiting the building. He jogs toward me, a grin on his lips. Without speaking, we slip into his truck. He speeds away from the Department just as the security guard comes bounding out the front door, looking for me.
I sigh, sagging back against the seat. “Holy shit.”
He laughs. “I was worried for a bit back there. Glad you made it out.”
“How did you know they sent that security guard?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I saw him hurry in your direction and suspected it was about you. So I took a chance.”
“Well, thank you for taking that chance,” I laugh nervously. “Man, I thought I was going to jail.”
“I’d never let that happen,” he says fiercely.
His words and his tone send a thrill coursing through me. I adjust my satchel to cover the bulge of my cock in my jeans.
“I have more bad news,” I say hesitantly.
His face crumples as he listens to me explain that, right now, I can’t change the code. The lottery is still on. And he’s not a guaranteed winner.
“Damn,” he whispers. He smiles sadly at me. “Thanks for trying.”
“Of course.” I nod.
“Analysis indicates that now is an appropriate time to inform the target of the subject’s use of the ARF device,” the machine says to me again.
Instead, I reach toward him and place a comforting hand on his thigh. “Want to get a drink?”
“It’s eleven a.m.,” he says, cocking a brow.
“It’s five o’clock somewhere,” I joke. “Besides, I could use a stiff drink.”
Cliff smiles wryly at me. “I just had one of your terrible pickup lines come to mind. You’re a bad influence on me.”
“What was it?” I grin.
“That’s not the only stiff thing you need,” he says, bellowing with laughter.
“That’s worse than mine,” I insist, laughing.
“No way in hell.” He shakes his head, smiling. “They were both awful. Now we’re even.”
We reach town and he drives toward one of the oldest bars. An old-time saloon, this place was operating even when we were in high school. It’s rumored to be the oldest building in Bear Moose and the longest operating business in the region.
The parking lot is near empty, but luckily, the bar is open. I wasn’t kidding about needing a drink. That was the closest I’ve ever come to being arrested and it’s given me severe heart palpitations. Cliff stops me with a hand on my arm before I can exit the truck.
“What is it?” I ask, brows furrowing with concern.
“I need you to know I appreciate that you tried,” he says. His eyes are sorrowful.
“Analysis indicates that initiating a kiss with the subject is the most appropriate course of action,” the ARF device says.
But I’m already leaning toward him. I press a tender kiss to his lips and will all my feelings and confessions into it. That kiss tells him I like him, it tells him I haven’t been honest, and it tells him I want to take things further. But it’s just a kiss.
His lips are soft on mine, his hand on my cheek. It’s the perfect kiss.
CLIFF
Every time I think about how close Dale was to being arrested by the security guard, my stomach feels like a rock. I’m just grateful I picked up the security guard’s yelling with my heightened senses. If I hadn’t heard him, I wouldn’t have known Dale was in trouble.
And I think I’m pretty lucky Dale is sticking around despite the fact that I almost got him arrested. He’s sitting across from me in the near-empty bar, nursing his drink. I know he was pretty shaken after the incident at the Department of Fish and Game. His heart was beating wildly the entire drive and I could still smell the dried sweat on him. He seems to have calmed down, though, like he really did need a drink.
He catches me staring at him and smiles nervously. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” I smile. “I was just thinking about what a good actor you are.”
He laughs. “I’m a terrible actor. I don’t know how they fell for it.”
“It was probably the sniffling and throat clearing that really sold them on it,” I joke. “But really, you did good back there.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he says.
“Truer words have never been spoken.” I lift my glass up in a toast. “To desperation.”
“To wolves.” His glass clinks against mine.
“Earlier, you asked me why I wanted to change the lottery,” I say, mulling over my words.
“You love animals,” Dale supplies.
“That’s not all of it though,” I sigh. “There’s a special place in my heart for wolves.” And not just because I am one.
Dale reaches across the table to rest his hand on mine. He says nothing, simply waiting for me to continue. His encouraging silence spurs me on. I want to tell him about my family, my wolf family.
“I was out taking pictures one day, a few months back,” I begin. Except I wasn’t shooting but stretching my four legs. Dale doesn’t need to know that. “I heard gun shots, but it wasn’t hunting season, so I followed the sound. I found a man tracking a wolf through the forest. He shot her before I could stop him. I had to choose between making a citizen’s arrest and saving that wolf. She was bleeding out, but she was still alive.”
“That’s terrible,” Dale murmurs.
“I brought her to the nearest vet and insisted they save her no matter the cost. She had pups—the vet said she was pregnant recently. I knew that without her those pups would die.” I take a deep breath. “She lived, though, and I released her back into the wild.”
Dale smiles, visibly relieved that the wolf was fine. “I’m so glad. I hope she got to her pups okay.”
“She did.” I smile softly, thinking of those little pups and their mother. “I tracked her a few days later and she was taking good care of them. I check in on them every now and again. They’re getting big.”
“You still see them?” Dale raises his brows.
“I do. Sometimes I track them and take their photos. They’re my best subjects,” I joke half-heartedly.
“That’s why you want to stop the lottery,” he breathes.
I nod. My head feels too heavy. “Yes. If there are three hunters out there, chances are good they’ll find the pups and their mother.”
Dale lets out a heavy breath, one that sounds as if he’s been holding it a long time. “I’m so sorry.”
“You did the best you could. I appreciate that you even tried,” I say.
“I understand why you’re doing this. I think if I were in your position, I’d do the same thing,” Dale says. “That has to be tough.”
Everything he says is the perfect response to my unspoken questions. Dale isn’t the insensitive man Nicholas was, or even most of the guys I’ve dated. He respects my love for animals and nature, and he appreciates them too. That’s the kind of man I want to be with. The kind of man I could open myself up to completely. I lace my fingers through his and squeeze his hand. I just want to feel him close.
“I’ve missed the open air, the mountains. All of this.” Dale waves a hand around, indicating the town. “I just didn’t realize it until…well, until I met you and you reminded me how amazing nature is.”
I grin, rolling the pad of my thumb over his knuckles. “It’s a good place. It changes you.”
“It’s quiet enough to think, to just be. I can’t remember the last time I sat in silence and just let myself exist, you know?” Dale says.
“Exactly,” I say. There’s one place I desperately want to take Dale. One of my refuges in the storm, the perfect place to simply be.
“
Maybe someday I’d move out here,” he says absentmindedly.
“I wouldn’t say no to that.” I smile.
For a moment, Dale’s face crumples, but then the expression vanishes. “You know I haven’t been camping in years?”
“We should go,” I suggest casually. But my mind is wandering to fantasies of Dale and me in the wilderness, sharing a single sleeping bag, our legs intertwined. I shudder softly, growing stiff at the thought.
“We should,” Dale agrees. “Maybe after we sort out this hunting license situation.”
“What do you mean sort it out?” I ask. “Are you saying there might be another way?”
“Maybe,” he says slowly. “It’s a big maybe, but I do have an idea.”
“What is it?” I can’t help the excited grin stretching across my face. If there’s a way we can save the wolf family, I’ll do anything.
“I can’t change the code without accessing the computer of one of the Department heads, and that’s not likely to happen. So to bypass the actual coding, I thought we could corrupt the random number generator,” Dale explains.
“So, what would that mean?” I’m no tech genius and I don’t pretend to be.
“A virus.”
“A virus?” I echo.
He nods. “Random number generators like the one they’ll use for the lottery are complex systems. The generation is actually a mathematical function. Because it’s a mathematical function, it needs a starting value, what mathematicians call a seed. With the same seed, it will always generate the exact same number pattern, so every outcome will be the same series of events. It’s not random. To make it random, the function is different.”
“Math was never my subject, Dale,” I say, wracking my brain to understand the implications of it all.
“Okay, think of it this way. If we can corrupt the function, we can create any result we want.” He grins. “Let’s say we infect the servers with a virus that will automatically seed the function with your number. You’d win the lottery no matter how many times they try to generate a random number.”
“Okay, so what you’re saying is we can control the outcome of the random number generator with a virus?” I ask, desperately hoping for clarification.
“Exactly! And if we do it right, you could win all three hunting licenses. It would look a little suspicious, but I think it’s the best we can do,” Dale says.
Relief and excitement floods through me at his words. We can save the pups! “Dale, that’s brilliant. I don’t fully understand it, but it’s brilliant,” I say, grinning at him. “I can see why you’re a Silicon Valley hot shot.”
He blushes. “Remember, it’s a long shot. It may not work.”
I lean across the table to kiss him. At this point, I can’t resist. With his dedication to helping me and his genius solution, I’d jump him right here if I could. Instead, I sear a kiss to his lips with enough passion to earn a pleasurable groan from him. I tug on his bottom lip as I pull away. His cheeks are flushed and his eyes half-closed. That look on his face feels nostalgic, but more than that, it feels right. And it’s more than enough to stiffen my cock.
“Thank you, Dale,” I say, back in my own seat.
“No, thank you.” He gives me awkward finger guns.
I return the gesture. “Look at you, still a bad influence on me. Making me do embarrassing things like finger guns,” I tease.
He laughs. “So says the man who encourages me to break the law.”
“You’re right,” I chuckle. “I’m the bad influence.”
“There is a problem though,” Dale says. I can see the cogs turning in his mind as he reconsiders his new plan.
“What is it?”
Dale chews his lip. “I can’t infect their servers with the virus remotely. It has to be inserted into the servers directly or it won’t work properly.”
“Why?” I ask, my brows twitching together.
“It’s the best way to infect a computer system with a virus. Remotely, I’d have to email it to them, but that’s not definitive. If they have good security software, it would prevent them from downloading the virus.” He eyes me. “I don’t know about you, but I think in this case, we need to be certain.”
“I agree,” I say. “But how are we going to get access to the servers again? I think the IT bit is played out.”
“And they know my face,” he points out.
“And mine. Well, shit,” I curse, frowning.
“Wait, hang on a second.” He rummages through his pockets and pulls his phone out. “Let me text Kate.”
“Kate? You know Kate?” I ask, surprised. How would he know Kate? I suspected he went to high school here, but he hasn’t been very forthcoming. If he knows Kate, then I must be right.
“Oh, uh,” he stammers, looking up from typing a quick message. “We were friends in high school.”
“Aha!” I say triumphantly. “I knew you seemed familiar.”
He colors. “No, you and I didn’t know each other.”
I mull over this. It’s possible I just picked up his scent around campus all the time, but it seems strange that I’d recognize it after all these years if we’d never really met. Unless, it was an effect of my mate. But that’s a stretch too. I don’t even know if Dale is my mate. Or that mates even exist.
“Kate’s coming—she said she’ll be here in a minute,” Dale says, stuffing his phone away. I catch a glimpse of another white device in his pocket, but I ignore it.
“What do you need Kate for?” I ask.
“The rangers at the Department of Fish and Game don’t know her, right? She could be the one to sneak the virus in, if she agrees.”
I frown. I’m not sure I want to drag more people into this than necessary. But Kate’s a great girl. I don’t know her that well. We talk sometimes but never about anything too personal. Since high school, she’s always seemed a little wary of me.
Suddenly, Dale stands and waves toward the doorway. Seconds later, Kate is sliding into a chair beside Dale, a little too close. I feel a spark of jealousy at the sight of her sitting so close to him, but I thrust it down. Dale has made it clear that he’s interested in me. In men. Unless he’s bi, like his dad, and I just don’t know it. I shake my head. Now I’m just being a territorial alpha.
“Hey, Cliff,” Kate says, smiling brightly.
“Hi, Kate, how’re you doing?” I ask.
“Oh, you know, can’t complain. What did you guys think of the dinner show? I was hoping to catch you on the way out but I got tied up back stage.” Kate flags down the waiter and orders a drink.
I exchange an amused glance with Dale, who blushes a bright pink. “It was great,” I say, sparing him. “A truly memorable experience.”
Dale flushes deeper and looks at me through his long lashes. If he were sitting next to me, I know I wouldn’t have been able to resist reaching toward his cock to feel if it’s as stiff as mine. But from here, I can smell his arousal as he thinks of our date. I get lost in the memory.
She beams. “I’m so glad you guys liked it. In a month or so, we’re going to do a new play. You should come to that one too.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” I say. “What about you, Dale? Think you can commit to visiting us again?” I try to keep my tone light but there’s a slight edge to my voice. I hope he doesn’t notice it.
“It’s a date,” he says wryly.
Kate shifts uncomfortably in her seat and clears her throat. “So, besides third-wheeling with you guys, what am I doing here?”
Dale grimaces and wraps an arm around her. “You’re not a third-wheel, sorry Kate. I have a favor to ask of you.”
My eyes narrow at Kate when she sinks into Dale’s arm like it’s the most natural thing in the world. If we were wolves, I know I’d have to challenge Kate then and there to establish myself as Dale’s mate. Well, as his…something. But I’m in my human form, and Kate isn’t a shifter, so I settle myself instead.
“What is it?” she asks.
> “Keep a secret?” Dale’s voice is serious.
She nods. “Of course, you know that.”
“I…we…need you to infect the servers at the Department of Fish and Game with a virus,” Dale says. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s important.”
“You guys are a ‘we,’ huh…” she trails off. “Wait, you want me to give them a virus? On purpose?”
“Yes, but it won’t be hard. You just have to plug in a little thumb-drive and that’s all.” Dale gestures with both hands, as if to wipe the slate clean.
“Is this illegal?” she asks suspiciously.
Dale hesitates. “Yes.”
She crosses her arms and shoots me a glare. My brows arch with surprise. I guess I would be the obvious culprit in this scheme—I bet Dale’s never even smoked a joint before. I really am the bad influence. I try not to be offended by her accusatory glare, but her presence here has me on edge. First the familiarity and possessiveness with Dale, and now this. My wolf is pacing, growling softly.
“It was my idea,” Dale defends me. “Could you do it? Please?”
“Well, what’s it for?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
“To influence the winners of the lottery,” Dale says. “See, it’s not a big deal. It’s just a lottery.”
She purses her lips, considering. I down the rest of my Jack and Coke, wishing I’d gone with straight whiskey instead. “Since you’re one of my best friends, Dale, I’ll do it,” she says, eyeing me across the table again.
I force a friendly smile. What’s her problem? Kate is usually nothing but nice to me when I see her around town. But, suddenly, with Dale between us, she’s as cold as a Bear Moose winter.
“Thank you, Kate. If anything goes wrong just throw me right under the bus,” Dale jokes.
“Thanks, Kate,” I echo, still smiling.
Suddenly, Kate’s phone rings. “Oh, I have to take this, give me a sec.” She rushes off to take the call outside.
I turn to Dale, tension easing from my shoulders now that Kate’s gone. “Are you sure she should do it?”
“Well, we have no one else,” he says.