Page 427 of His Hungry Wolf

Football wasn’t enough, though. I needed more to take my mind off of Lou and to keep me from losing control of my wolf, so I told Claude I was in on his business idea. That led to a discussion about marketing. And that led to research that said that the only way to get our town added to maps was to incorporate it.

Incorporating a town is a big deal. There is a ton of work involved. I had to get people to sign a petition that I sent to the State. They had to approve it. And now I have to organize an election to decide on the town’s charter.

It’s a lot of work, but not nearly as much as finally getting Dr. Tom to take down the protective barrier he put over the town. And between that, incoporation, football, and school, it was just enough to keep me from thinking about Lou every minute of the day. Now Lou wanted back into my life.

On one hand, I couldn’t be happier. The only thing I want is to kiss him like we did that weekend. A vice grips my chest and squeezes whenever I let myself think about it.

On the other hand, he doesn’t want to be with me. The thought of being so close to him and not being able to have him makes me want to go feral on everyone at East Tennessee. I can’t take being reminded every day of what I can’t have.

That means that I can’t accept his help in finding my brother, right? I shouldn’t. Then why did I want to?

He was the one who suggested I take the DNA test. It was a good idea. The only thing I could come up with was pressuring my mother to tell me more. But after telling me that first time, she pretended like she didn’t know what I was talking about when I brought it up. What other options did I have?

My whole life I wanted a brother and it wasn’t just because my town didn’t have a pack. It never felt right that I was an only child. When Nero found his brother Cage, I wished it was me.

Could finding my brother transform my life like it did Nero’s? When he met Cage, Nero was hosting wolf fight clubs for money. Now he’s playing in the NFL.

I don’t know if finding my brother would do the same for me. But maybe if I did, I wouldn’t feel so god damn alone all the time. And Lou was offering to help me find him. Is the torture I feel being around Lou worth a chance at finding my family?

Not able to decide, I did what I did best. I put it out of my mind and lost myself in everything else I had going on.

Although the team lost almost every game before I joined, we had a perfect record since. I had to keep my intensity up. On top of that, I had to review the budget Claude put together for the business and prepare for the town meeting I arranged. Oh, and classes.

The days flew by in a blur and only slowed down when I got a text from Lou. Every part of me wanted to answer him immediately and then text back and forth for the rest of the day like we used to. But I couldn’t. I always got back to him, but not until the next day.

‘Quin invited me to stay at his place on the weekend of your town meeting. Would you mind if I came? I have an idea that could help you find your brother,’ he texted.

Staring at the text, there was so much I wanted to write. What was his idea? Why that weekend? Did he know that I was making a speech? Did that have to do with why he wanted to come? But instead, I texted,

‘That’s fine.’

His reply didn’t come as quickly as it used to. I was torn by how I felt about that.

‘Thanks,’ he wrote before going silent.

“He’s coming up this weekend,” I told Cali as we sat waiting for practice to end.

As the kicker, Cali never had much to do during practice. I was sitting out after a brutal hit during the last game that left my shoulder sore.

I had already sacked the other team’s quarterback five times. An asshole from their offensive line tried to send me a message. I replied by laying their quarterback out on the next play.

The guy lay sprawled on the ground like an outline at a crime scene. That was me marking the message ‘returned to sender’.

That didn’t change how much the hit I had taken had hurt, though. It was easy to play through the pain while channeling all of my anger. But, the following morning I felt it. And worried about what would happen if I let my wolf out, I hadn’t shifted to get rid of it. So here I was sitting on the sidelines instead of practicing and the only one sitting next to me was Cali.

“Who’s coming up? Lou?” Cali asked me.

“Yeah.”

“How do you feel about that?”

I took a deep breath. I didn’t know how I felt. This would be the first time he visited. There were so many things I wanted to show him. I wanted to take him everywhere. I wanted to kiss him under a waterfall. But then I looked across the field and saw Sey.

“What do you think is going on with Sey?” I asked Cali.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you get a weird vibe from him?”