Page 21 of Squirrel Hunt

The night was cold. Dahy tucked himself closer to the trunk of the tree in the employee parking lot behind the coffee shop. A guy arrived and went in not long after Dahy had arrived, a baker, he assumed, but no one since then. He didn’t know if Myka worked an early shift, a late shift, or if she was off altogether.

He waited.

And waited.

He might have nodded off at one point but woke when a car turned into the parking lot. He did his best to stay out of sight and still be able to see. It wasn’t Myka, but he believed he recognized the woman exiting the car as one of the people who had been working the day he’d met up with her.

Not long after, there was another car with another person who wasn’t Myka. Hopelessness grew in his chest. Maybe he should leave. He’d find a new phone somehow and let her know he was okay and how much he appreciated her help.

A third car came, and this he recognized. He took a step out on the branch, trying to see if she was alone or not. Would Roan allow her to come here on her own?

When she was the only one exiting the car, he scanned the parking lot. Was someone hiding in the shadows, watching her? He made a low chattering sound, but she didn’t appear to hear him.

He rushed halfway down the trunk and chattered some more. Myka stilled near the employee’s entrance and looked around the dark parking lot.

Dahy made another sound, and she reached into her pocket and shortly after a light swept over the ground. When she raised the phone, the beam from the flashlight reached him and he jumped onto the ground and chattered again.

“Dahy?” It was nothing but a low hiss.

He chattered again and moved toward her.

“Shit, people are looking for you. Are you okay?”

He tried to tell her he was exhausted, freezing, and hungry, but all that left him was chatter.

“You’re so cute.” She crouched. “I don’t dare touch you. There will be wolves here today. I don’t think they mean you any harm, but Farris is angry.”

Dahy snorted. Of course, they meant him harm.

Myka continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “He called Roan in the middle of the night, and now Roan’s pissed at me for hiding a squirrel. I told him I had no idea. Sorry. I panicked and didn’t know what to say. I told him you were a friend in need of a place to hide, same as I told Konrad.”

Dahy nodded. He’d never meant to cause her any trouble.

She looked around. “I think someone will come any second. Roan is still having me watched all day. He thinks someone will come and kill me because I’ve been hiding a squirrel. I laughed at him and told him he was insane. He has a wild imagination.”

Dahy stilled. Fuck. Would someone harm Myka because she’d been harboring a squirrel—yes, they would. But she hadn’t known. He’d believed her a human with no knowledge of the supernatural world, and she’d believed he was an ordinary human man. Or maybe not ordinary, but close enough.

“Do you want to hide in my car until I get off? My shift ends at two, so it’s an early day today.”

He chattered and bobbed his head. Yes, he wanted to be in the car. No one would look in her car, he hoped, and he could rest.

“Come on then. Quickly now, before anyone sees us.”

Dahy ran after her toward the car, and she clucked. “So cute. I want to cuddle you, but scents…apparently.”

Yes, scents.

She opened the door to the back seat. “I have the blanket here.” She reached for the green fleece throw she’d rolled up behind the headrest after Dahy last had hidden underneath it. “And I have a granola bar in the front.” She more or less crawled between the front seats to reach it and tore the pack open. “I think it has peanuts in it.” She placed the open pack on the seat. “It’s pretty calm back here during the day but stay hidden.” She reached out to pet him only to snatch her hand back. “Fucking wolf noses.”

Dahy couldn’t agree more.

Chapter 11

Konrad hardly slept at all during the night, and when he did, he dreamed about chasing a squirrel. It was super important he got hold of him, but he wasn’t sure why. Whenever he woke, his cock was throbbing, his balls aching, and he was covered in sweat. If he didn’t feel better during the day, he might have to talk to someone.

After crawling out of bed, he had a quick shower and breakfast, then he grabbed the plastic bag Farris had given him with Dahy’s things. He tipped them out on the kitchen table. A phone and a charger, a pair of ratty jeans, a dark blue sweatshirt that looked way too big for him, and a pair of yellow Crocs. Konrad stared at them. Crocs in February and there were no socks or underwear. There was half a bag of pistachios tucked into one of the Crocs, a toothbrush, and a book. He turned it around and huffed at the cover showing two men kissing.

It wasn’t much, and there was a pang of something he couldn’t name. Was this all Dahy had? Surely, he had to have a home somewhere. Or was Myka’s story true about him running from an abusive ex?