Chapter 9

By the time they were walking home, Ruby was exhausted, as usual. And Rafe, by her side, insisted on staying in town and avoiding the woods, making the walk even longer. And making Ruby even grouchier.

The night was hot and humid, the air heavy with the threat of thunderstorms. It was past one o’clock and the streets were deserted, especially when they hit the residential side of town. Ruby shifted her bag of leftovers to her other hand and adjusted the purse on her shoulder. She could feel the heat of Rafe’s gaze on her even though they hadn’t spoken a word since they left the bar. His presence was as warm and ominous as the storm clouds overhead.

He tried to take the bag from her hand but she tightened her grip.

“What are you doing?”

“Let me carry it.” He tugged again on the bag. “You’re tired.” His voice was a low rumble and while part of her wanted to argue that she was perfectly capable of carrying her own bag, the other part of her was really fucking tired. So she let him take it. Then he lifted the purse from her shoulder and slung it over his own.

Ruby glanced over at him. Her purse looked absurdly tiny against his huge chest. The laugh burst from her lips so fast and loud, she clapped a hand over her mouth to quiet it.

He quirked a small smile. “What?”

“You look ridiculous,” she told him between snorts.

“Well, you sound ridiculous.” He pulled the purse strap higher on his shoulder and looked down at her with a haughty expression that had her doubling over in giggles. He let out an exasperated sigh, but his smile grew.

She nudged him with her shoulder and he didn’t budge. “Thanks for carrying my stuff.” They started walking again, crossing the bridge over the highway that led to her neighborhood. A few cars raced underneath, their engines loud in the quiet night air. “And thanks for the whole saving my life thing,” she went on, the bridge safely crossed. “I don’t think I ever said that.”

Rafe’s gaze was heavy on her again, his looming presence towering over her. A familiar trail of goosebumps broke out along her arms, the hairs rising on the back of her neck. She didn’t dare look at him, for fear of those flashing silver eyes.

“It was my pleasure,” he rumbled, every word coming from some place deep in his chest.

“So, is Callie a wolf like you?” she asked, suddenly needing a change of subject.

Rafe cleared his throat, his eyes back on the sidewalk in front of them. “No, she’s not like me.”

“What is she then?”

“I’m not really in the habit of outing other people.”

A sudden chill raced up Ruby’s spine, despite the heat of the night. How many others were there? “Right. Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s a lot to take in, all in one day.”

“That’s an understatement.”

Rafe huffed that wolfy laugh and heat pooled in Ruby’s stomach. They turned onto her street and the realization that Rafe—a man she barely knew, one that was capable of turning into a wolf— was going to sleep in her house tonight hit her hard in the panic center of her brain. The fire alarm started going off in her skull, drowning out whatever it was Rafe had said last.

“Uh … what?” She turned to face him as they stopped on her front path.

“I said, I can sleep outside.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, in wolf form.”

Right, wolf form. That did make a heck of a lot more sense than him sleeping outside in man form, which was what she’d imagined when he’d brought it up earlier.

“Do you like sleeping outside?” she asked, tipping her head to look up at him. The scent of fresh cut grass and electricity hung heavy between them.

He shrugged. “It’s not bad. I used to do it a lot when I was younger.”

Ruby nodded, her gaze running across his wide chest to where her purse dangled from his shoulder. Her leftovers were clutched in his other hand. It was hard to be scared of a man while he was holding your purse. She let out a long sigh.

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he said, dipping his head to rumble quietly in her ear. “I just want to keep you safe, but we’ll do this however you want.” His breath was a cool breeze against her overheated skin. He smelled like pine and sawdust. Ruby wanted to climb him like a tree.

She shook her head. Yikes. No climbing the werewolf, Ruby.

“You can sleep inside.” Her voice shook and she cleared it. “We wouldn’t want the neighbors calling animal control.”

“Right.” Rafe nodded once, his gaze never leaving her face, like he could read her every dirty thought about him. She was in so much trouble.

“Lead the way.” Rafe gestured toward the door.

Fireflies flicked on and off in the dark yard, creating a pattern that only made sense to them. Ruby took a deep breath and led the wolf back into her house.

* * *

The enormity of how bad an idea this was didn’t hit Rafe until he was standing alone in Ruby’s living room. She’d crept upstairs to check on her sister and to find him some blankets and a pillow. Her scent clung to him like a second skin. He should have slept outside in the dirt. He should keep his distance from this woman who looked at him like he could be human, like he could be redeemed. But Lord knew he was beyond redemption. His father had made sure of that long ago. The old bastard had never failed to remind his sons of their true selves. They were monsters and he made sure they acted like it.

Even now, with his pack life behind him and his father cold in his grave, Rafe couldn’t shed that truth. What happened to Scarlet couldn’t be undone. But Ruby’s eyes on him in the dark made him long to start over.

Her footsteps on the stairs interrupted that dangerous line of thought. For now.

She stopped in front of him, the exhaustion clear on her face. She worked so damn hard. He’d seen it for weeks, of course, her bone-tired steps through the woods, her weary trek toward home, but now he knew she had been heading home to more work. More caretaking. He’d wanted to carry more than her purse tonight. He’d wanted to lift her over his shoulder and carry her home.

The thought that she probably would have kicked him brought a small smile to his lips. Ruby frowned.

“So I might have made things worse,” she said.

“Worse?”

“Uh, yeah.” Her arms were suspiciously empty of blankets. Good. Outside would be better. “I may have told Lena we’re sleeping together.”

“You what?” He nearly choked on his surprise.

Ruby winced. “I’m a terrible liar! Especially when it comes to Lena. She was looking at me with those moonbeam eyes of hers and I panicked!”

Moonbeam eyes. That was a perfect description of her sister’s eerily pale eyes, but Rafe didn’t have time to appreciate Ruby’s flowery language right now. Not when she’d said out loud the thing he had been trying very hard not to think about. Sleeping with Ruby. A growl started low in his throat and he couldn’t stop it from spilling out into the quiet of the little house.

“You panicked and the first thing you thought to tell her was that we’re sleeping together?”

Ruby’s pale skin flushed pink. “It didn’t make sense that you were some friend she’s never heard of and that all of a sudden you needed a place to sleep.” She put her hands on her hips in that way he already liked too much, the way that said she wasn’t backing down.

“So you told her…”

Ruby blew out a sigh like he was the one being difficult. “I told her we’re seeing each other and that we met at work. I said you might be spending some nights here. That’s all. No big deal.” She tilted her chin up to look at him and goddamn if he didn’t want to take that ruby red bottom lip between his teeth and ruin her makeup completely.

“Okay,” he said because he was an idiot who was never finished punishing himself for past sins.

“Okay.” Ruby nodded once and then turned back toward the stairs. “Come with me.”

He followed her up the creaky steps, worn smooth with age. He kept his eyes on her bare feet instead of her ass. Mostly anyway. That damn skirt was flapping at him like a red flag to a bull. Upstairs, Ruby led him down a narrow hallway to the second bedroom on the left. She pushed open the door and he followed her in like a puppy.

The room was small like everything else in this house. It was clearly built by gnomes or something. Ruby’s bed took up one entire wall. Under the only window sat a desk covered in stacks of books and a small lamp. Two closet doors filled the other wall. A worn braided rug hid most of the old wood floor. He leaned against the faded daisy wallpaper next to the door as Ruby’s scent wrapped around his throat like a vice. He would not survive the night.

Ruby’s gaze flitted around the room like she was seeing it for the first time.

“Maybe this was a terrible idea.”

Rafe looked at the thin rug and then at the full-sized bed. Neither option was particularly promising. Not that he would dare to think he could sleep in the bed.

“How light of a sleeper is your sister?”

“She sleeps like the dead.”

“Perfect. Turn around.”

Ruby’s eyes widened but she obeyed. She’d had enough shocks for one day. The last thing he wanted was for her to see him shift. He closed his eyes, letting his body rearrange itself. Bones shifted and muscles transformed. Fur sprouted from his skin. His hearing sharpened. His sense of smell nearly killed him. But this was better. He’d be more comfortable on the floor as a wolf and he’d be ready if anything happened to threaten Ruby.

Most importantly, as a wolf he couldn’t do any of the incredibly stupid shit he was thinking of doing right now. With him as a wolf, Ruby was safe.

When he was done shifting, he brushed against Ruby’s hand. She sunk her fingers into the fur at his neck and if wolves could purr he sure as fuck would have.

“All right, wolf-man, let’s go to bed.”

* * *

Rafe woke up to the sound of soft laughter. He lifted his head from where it had been tucked beneath his tail. It was still dark, but a soft glow was emanating from Ruby’s bed. Rafe stretched and ambled over to her bedside. He rested his chin on the edge of the mattress.

“Sorry,” Ruby whispered. “Did I wake you?”

Rafe huffed and nudged her free hand. She immediately dug her fingers into his fur. God, he was getting way too used to that.

“I couldn’t sleep. Bad dream.” She waved her phone at him. “Thought I would watch a little Golden Girls to calm me down.”

Had he been in human form he would have loved to tease her about that, but as it was he just huffed again. Ruby cocked her head, studying him for a minute before patting the spot beside her.

“Do you want to come up?”

He should not come up. There was no scenario in which coming up was a good idea. And yet…

Rafe glanced over his shoulder to find his damn tail waving like a sail in the wind. Son of a bitch. His own body betrayed him.

Ruby smiled.

He jumped up.

Apparently, being in wolf form was not going to help him as much as he hoped. He circled twice out of habit and dropped down on the blankets beside her. She kept her distance at first, holding up her phone so they could both watch, laughing quietly at every snarky remark from Sophia and every absurd comment from Rose. But slowly, her hand began to droop and she slouched lower into her pillows. Her phone dropped into her lap and Rafe nudged it with his nose, pausing Blanche’s dirty jokes and the audience’s canned laughter.

Ruby sighed softly in her sleep and snuggled in closer to him, her body warm and soft against his side. He could feel every breath she took, every twitch in her sleep, every dreamy murmur. He lowered his head to his front paws and watched the clouds sweep past the moon out the window, casting shadows on the bed.

Sleep was no longer an option. Not with Ruby’s hand resting on the top of his head, her chest rising and falling against his back. It was the perfect torture. And it gave him far too much time to think, to remember.