Page 258 of His Hungry Wolf

“It’s not that bad. I work under it every day. You went to school under it.”

“Yeah. Before I shifted for the first time. After I started shifting, being under it made me feel like I couldn’t breathe.”

“Come on, Nero. It’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad? Says the guy who’s been a shifter, for what, a minute? There’s no breathing under that thing.”

“There’s no smelling. That’s completely different.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Look, Quin has been shifting from the day he was born and he’s okay with it.”

“You get used to it,” Quin confirmed. “It’s really not that bad.”

I didn’t know what else to say to them. Dr. Tom, the town’s most powerful fae had put a protective spell over the town to shield our scent from everything else out there and it had a side effect that only effected shifters. It dampened our heightened sense of smell.

Our mobile home was outside of the barrier. Its location was chosen by my mother long before I started shifting. But once I did, having to go under it every day for my shitty job was like choosing to go blind. And it truly pissed off my wolf.

“Look, Nero, it’s not like we like the idea of living under the spell either.”

“Then why would you even consider it?”

“Because on top of needing more space, we want to be a part of the community. We don’t want to live like lone wolves. We want to have some say on what’s going on in our town. And if we do, maybe we can get Dr. Tom to take it down.”

I stared at the two of them. It was clear that they had made up their minds. They were going to do this no matter how I felt about it. A part of me wanted to argue with them for the rest of the night but there was something important I needed to talk to them about.

“You guys coming to my game on Saturday?”

Cage flinched at my change of topic.

“Of course.”

“The person they assigned me for that anger management program they put me in is gonna be there too. He doesn’t know much about football. Do you think you could, you know, explain things to him? I just don’t want him to be bored to death. I want him to have a good time.”

“No worries. We got you. How’s the program going, by the way?”

“I was a little nervous about it. But, it might work out?” I said thinking of Kendall.

“You seem happier,” Cage pointed out.

After he said that I realized I was smiling. “Maybe.”

“We’ll make sure he has a good time,” Cage agreed. “What’s his name?”

“Kendall.”

As soon as I said it I saw them take a deep breath. There were certain things that were hard to hide from wolves.

“Okay, yeah. We got you,” Cage said with a smile.

“Don’t worry about a thing,” Quin agreed.

I wondered what they would think when they took the same breath around Kendall and found nothing at all. It was one of the reasons I wanted him to go to my game. Quin was the smartest person I knew. If anyone, I knew that my brother’s genius boyfriend could help me figure out what was going on with him and what he was.

Texting Kendall about his ticket, he replied with a simple, ‘Thank you.’ I was hoping for a little more. If he was still into me, wouldn’t he have at least wished me luck on the game?

I remembered what he said to me the night of the party. Drunk-Kendall had made clear that he wanted me. The same was true when we met up on Sunday before he found out I played football.