“So, any other condescending questions about my town?”

“Oh, I’m not being condescending. I’m very interested in your tiny little town, with its tiny little people. I bet you guys even have a movie theater.”

Sara barked out a laugh, “You certainly are a charmer.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“By who? Your mother?”

“She does adore her son.” He looked out the window again, “I thought there’d be desert. Coyotes. Clint Eastwood.”

“You’re in Hill Country. We have rivers, canyons, and forests. You want desert, you need to hit the Panhandle.”

Zach leaned across the counter and smiled at her, “You’ll have to show me around some time.”

“I have been known to go off alone with strange bikers.” She responded sarcastically. “It’s a thing I do. Like eating glass.” He heard the front door open and she frowned.

“Oh, shit.” She muttered under her breath.

“Well, hello, all.”

Angelina walked up to the counter, a brown paper bag in her hand. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“He’s here to pick up that girl’s bike.”

“The one who crashed?” Angelina looked at Zach, “How she doing anyway?”

“Right as rain.”

“That’s interesting.” Angelina was thoughtful, “She’s a mighty fast healer.”

“That she is.”

Angelina turned to Sara. “I just came to drop this off. Didn’t want Miki to see.” Sara took the paper bag and looked inside.

“Christ!” She slammed the bag shut and tossed it into an open back pack behind her. “I hate you.”

“Just looking out for my friends.” Angelina turned and strode out of the store, “See ya tonight, Zach.”

“Bye.” He didn’t turn around. He was too busy staring at the blush that had crept up Sara’s neck and straight to her hairline. “You okay?”

“Fine.” She bit out way too quickly. “Just fine.”

Zach wasn’t buying it. “Can I see what’s in the bag?”

“No!” She almost yelled it. “Tampons.”

“I’m ready!” Marrec yelled from his workshop. “Send him back.”

“Well, you better go.” She was actually trying to shoo him from the room.

“You know,” Zach moved toward the workshop entrance, “When my sister and I were teenagers, she always threw out ‘tampon’ when she didn’t want dad to see our bag of pot. But you and your friends seem amazingly straight edge to me. So it just makes me wonder… what’s really in that bag?”

Zach backed into the workshop as Sara’s face turned a darker crimson. Then he hit a wall and turned around to find that wallwas Marrec.

“Having fun?” Marrec asked, his arms folded across what might be a normal chest for a bear. The man was short but powerfully built. Red wolves were always a little “stunty,” though.

“Loads.”

“You know her father died when she was very young.” Of course he did. That’s why they were here in the first place. “And I kind of took his place. She’s as close to me as any of my daughters. And I’ll kill any man who fucks with her.”

Zach wondered if he already had. “Good to know.”

***

Once Zach had disappeared in the back, Sara shoved the bag filled with boxes of condoms into her backpack. She was going to kill Angelina when she saw her.

She had one friend throwing condoms at her and the other telling her men were nothing but trouble. But as much shit as the three of them talked, they probably knew less about men than anyone on the planet. They all had their own ways of keeping people at bay. Miki had her intense distrust of… well, everyone. Angelina had her fortress of ice. And Sara had her armor. They’d all destroyed potential relationships in record time and without much regret. And although they never discussed it, none of them ever really thought they’d find true love or romance or any of that other crap.

So why did Sara feel like Zach was some how different? What was it about him that spoke to her on some other level that the few men she’d had in her oh-so-tame past just never could? Why did she itch to touch his skin? To feel him touch her? What was it about this man that made her feel like she’d been waiting her entire life for him to come walking through her door?

What was it about this man that made her want to punch him right in the forehead?

***

Marrec moved over to the bike he had readied for Julie.

Zach kicked the door to the workshop closed; ensuring Sara couldn’t hear the conversation. “I have a question.”

Marrec leaned against the bike, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Why didn’t I turn her myself?”

“It would make sense.”

“Her grandmother. The craziest bitch I’ve ever met on two feet or four. When my oldest boy showed interest in Sara, she set my car on fire. She said after that it would be my house.”

Zach felt a growing sense of horror for this woman’s hatred of herself. He couldn’t imagine his life without the Pack. Without being who he was.

“If only she would have shifted, I would have snapped her neck. But I wasn’t going to kill her as human.” Zach didn’t blame him. Kill one of them as human, they stayed human. Killed them as beast and they stayed beast. In the end, much easier to explain the dead animal on your territory to the cops. “So, I figured I’d wait until the old bitch died on her own. I just didn’t know she’d take so long to do it.”