Page 14 of Squirrel Hunt
Getting ready for bed, there was an ache in his chest at the same time that his body was buzzing. Stress. Had to be. Or maybe he’d breathed in too much of the perfume and been poisoned somehow. He kept replaying every little facial expression Konrad had made—to make sure he remembered what he looked like should he ever run into him again, no other reason. The way his body clenched when he recalled a small smile meant nothing.
Dahy wasn’t attracted to wolves and definitely not alpha werewolves. Vicious creatures.
Huffing to himself, he grabbed a blanket from the couch and carried it up to the bed. He fluffed the duvet, added the blanket, and crawled in but something was missing. He got up again, went downstairs and pulled out the Adolph Hitler book. Where were the nuts? He was sure he’d placed a bag there. Looking around the cabin, he searched for signs there had been a break-in. Maybe Konrad had come back to steal his nuts.
He went into the kitchen. He had peanuts there. Somewhere. He narrowed his eyes. Right, in the pantry. He’d placed a bag inside the cereal box Myka had bought for him. Yanking the box from the shelf, he glared at the cereal inside. He was sure he’d removed them and put a bag of peanuts inside instead. He remembered placing the plastic bag with cereal next to the box on the shelf.
Squinting at the spot, he gave a squeal of delight. Nuts!
Pistachios.
Where had he placed the peanuts?
It didn’t matter. He’d be able to sleep now when he had nuts nearby. He hurried up the stairs and crawled into the pile of duvet, blankets, and pillows while clutching the pistachios. He tucked them into the Crocs and burrowed down. He did his best to sleep, and for a few minutes he believed he might succeed, but then he remembered there were cushions on the futon in the oil painting room. He got out of bed before he could question if he needed cushions.
Creeping down the stairs, he looked around the dark cabin which was of no use since he had crappy night vision, but he didn’t believe there was anyone there. He pulled in a deep breath. Nope, no unfamiliar scents.
He padded across the hallway to the small room. When he grabbed the first cushion, a bag of nuts fell to the floor.
Oh good! Now he’d have two bags upstairs. He picked it up and grabbed the second cushion as well.
* * * *
Konrad didn’t know what was wrong with him. He’d gone home and eaten a hearty meal to make sure it wasn’t lack of food causing the weird buzzing in his bloodstream. He was pretty sure it wasn’t, since he was horny as hell, and all he could think about was what Dahy had looked like wrapped in a towel. Maybe he’d been drugged, after all. How did those human potency pills work?
Maybe one of the humans on the mountain tour had slipped him some in some sneaky way. Either way, his cock was like a steel rod in his jeans, but he didn’t want to take care of it on his own. It would be a poor substitute for what his body craved.
Growling, he pulled off his clothes and shifted into wolf. He’d run. If he ran himself into exhaustion, his dick would get the memo.
The night was clear, the moon a waning crescent, and Konrad’s breath misted around him as he sneezed when the first cold air made it into his nostrils. He stretched and trotted down the gravel road. There was no one around. A hare had crossed over not too long ago, but he was too full to be interested in a hunt, so he moved along.
After a couple of minutes, he picked up speed and ran. He steered toward town but wouldn’t enter it. Wolves died that way. If a human spotted a wolf in the center of a city, they’d get bent out of shape, and suddenly there would be men with guns everywhere. They always overreacted.
As he approached the more populated areas, he left the road and ran in the woods instead. He slowed his steps and walked around the neighborhood of small one-story houses. Mostly older humans lived there, and the trails were heavy with the scent of dogs.
He moved on. There was nothing interesting here anyway. Closer to the town core, it was harder to find foliage to hide in, and he backed off again. Right as he was about to turn around, he caught the scent of a bear. His senses went on high alert. Someone had been here, and the Doson bears normally stayed out of town.
He sniffed around. It had been some time since they’d left, but a bear had been here. Shifters passed through towns the same way humans did, and maybe they were local, but with a predatory man coming to see Myka…He turned and steered toward Roan’s house. There was nothing they could do at this point, but it couldn’t hurt for Roan to know the scent.
It didn’t take him many minutes to reach the house, and once he did, he scratched the door. Roan, like the majority of the pack members, lived in a house with no visible neighbors. The door was yanked open, and Roan looked into his eyes. Konrad took a step back and tried to tell Roan to follow him through head motions.
“Myka! I’ll go out for a bit.”
“What?” Myka appeared behind Roan, her eyes widening as she spotted Konrad. “Oh, okay. I’ll…eh…wait here.”
Roan pulled her close and nuzzled her neck. Longing deep enough to hurt swamped Konrad’s mind. There was something wrong with him today. He wanted to find his mate, but he’d been around plenty of mated couples without reacting this way.
They parted and Roan exited the house. “Should I shift?”
Konrad shrugged. He didn’t think it mattered one way or the other.
“I’ll shift.” He pulled his clothes off, opened the front door to the house, and tossed them into the hallway. Then they trotted off, two wolves in the dark night.
* * * *
Konrad ran long after he’d left Roan. He ran and ran but no matter how tired his muscles grew, the gnawing feeling in his chest wouldn’t go away and neither would the aching need coursing through his veins.
If someone had slipped him a drug of some kind, his body should have taken care of it by now.