Chapter 9

nine

RUSS

For the two weeks I don’t hear from the PI, I could tear holes right in the wall. I don’t, of course. I don’t have the time, energy, or money to have that fixed after digging through my meager savings for four grand.

The wait is agonizing. Instead of avoiding my friends, I deluge them with invitations to get out of the house so I can think about something else for a few minutes. I wonder if the PI is taking so long because she hasn’t had any luck yet, and Dee will be even harder to track down than I thought.

Then, one night, a familiar number calls me. I hurriedly pick up the phone.

“Did you find her?” I say, without even a greeting.

“Why, hello to you, too,” the PI says, with what is most definitely a smirk in her voice. “The answer is a little more complicated than that.”

Uh oh. I don’t like the sound of this.

“Well, do you know where she is, or not? I feel like it’s pretty simple. ”

She sighs through the phone. “Your girl, whether accidentally or not, is pretty hard to find. I have her car model, make, and license plate number, but she hasn’t updated her address on her driver’s license yet.”

“So you have nothing for me?” My paw curls into a fist, and I clench my teeth together. “After four grand and two weeks?”

The PI huffs. “Cool down. I’m calling to let you know I’m still on the trail. Now that I’ve found the car, I can keep my eyes peeled for it. And I got some other clues about her. She has a friend who has a much bigger presence online, and I think I can use her to find Deanna.”

So that’s why it’s taking so long. She’s waiting for someone else to lead her to Dee.

“So how much more time, do you think?” I try to sound calm as I ask it, but I feel anything but calm. The fur on my mane is standing on end, and my tail is thrashing back and forth behind me.

“Working as hard and fast as I can,” she says, though her tone is bored. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I have something. Keep your britches on, wolfman.”

With that, she hangs up, and I shove my phone back into my pocket. Humans.

I wonder who this friend is, and if she’ll be able to get me to Dee.

Dee, with her long black braid hanging over her shoulder. I remember her soft, broad hips, and perfect round ass. I can almost feel it under my claws again.

Which leads me, inevitably, to her squeezing pussy, and then fuck, I’m hard as a rock.

Right there in my kitchen, in front of my big glass windows, I unzip my pants and pull out my cock. It’s leaking for her, just thinking about being inside her again, imagining her cries. With an agonized groan, I jerk one out, and after I’ve splattered all over the floor I do it again, just remembering how she wanted me to fuck her over, and over, and over.

I know I will never find anyone else like her, like my mate , ever again.

I have to find her. I can’t wait any longer to learn where she is, how she’s doing, whether the cub inside her belly is well and safe.

Fuck. I have to know. I will destroy the world just to get to her.

Miraculously, though, I gain some post-nut clarity. This friend of hers... if I could just smell her, I would know if she’d been with Dee recently. Then I could track the scent back to Dee’s home.

Yes. That’s the answer. Maybe I don’t need this human PI after all when I have my nose at my disposal. I just need someone to get me closer, to dangle a scrap of clothing in front of my face and I can do the rest myself.

I pull out my phone and quickly call the PI back.

“I need whatever information you’ve found already,” I tell her. “Right now.”

After trucking down to the prickly young woman’s office to get a copy of her documentation, I sit outside the office building of one Liesel Monahan, waiting for her to emerge for the day. My shift starts later tonight, and I should probably be sleeping—but finding my cub and its mother is my top priority right now.

Once I know they’re safe, I can relax .

I almost nod off while waiting, but then I catch a head of white-blonde hair leaving the office building. There. She looks just like the driver’s license photo the PI gave me.

I hop out of my car and, without any fear at all in me, I stalk towards her. I have a plan, even if it’s a half-assed one.

Her face gives nothing away as I approach, even though monsters aren’t common in this part of town.

“Can I help you?” she asks, slinging her briefcase over her shoulder.

“I’m... trying to find someone in this building,” I say. “Mister, um, McJenkins. Do you know which floor I could find him on?”

While she surveys me, still silent, I breathe in a big whiff of her. There. I have it. It’s Dee’s smell, still faint and twisted up with many other smells, but there. My heart leaps. It fucking soars , and greedily I inhale again to savor that familiar musk.

“There’s no Mr. McJenkins here,” Liesel says coolly, looking me up and down. “I think you’re at the wrong place.”

I hum thoughtfully, but inside, I’m turning over how best to accomplish what I need to accomplish. How to get to my woman.

“Maybe not. I thought this was the right address.” I pull out my phone and pull up the map.

“I’m sure you did,” she says, tilting her head curiously at me. “What’s your name?”

Great. I’m not so good at acting, I guess.

“Oops,” I say instead, pretending that I’ve just found the right location on my phone. “I guess he’s in the next building over. My apologies.”

“Hm,” is all Liesel says, before she walks away, and I suck in another blissful, tormenting whiff of Dee before she’s gone .

Once Liesel has returned to her car, I go back to mine. I wait until she pulls out of the lot, and then I do the same, making sure to keep another car between us. Her little sedan is easy to follow, mostly because she drives like an old lady. I almost want to honk at her to get her out of my way.

As she reaches her house, I take a right turn and park on an adjoining street. I get out and watch as she pulls into her garage and then closes the door behind her.

With the way now clear, I jog across the road. A woman walking her dog on the neighboring block stops to stare at me, and I give her a polite wave.

Now that I’m at Liesel’s house, Dee’s smell is stronger. She’s visited recently, and that might just be enough to get me to her. In the driveway, I pick up the tang of a different car—one that doesn’t seem to belong to Liesel. It has a slight oil leak.

That should be enough. I bend down and sniff around the driveway, following the smell back into the street. I follow it to the closest intersection, where it curves around and continues to the right, along a larger road.

Now that I have the trail, it’s much faster for me to follow it. My blood turns warm thinking about where this trail leads me, who might be waiting for me on the other end. It leads me through the city, and even though my legs are growing tired and the cement is hot under my paws, I keep going as her path leads me out of Aston.

It will take me some time to get back to my car, and I hope I make it to work on time.

The sun is low in the sky by the time I finally reach a suburban development with a few shops and a grocery store. The scent of Dee’s car winds through the parking lot, and I dodge cars as I follow it. This is another human area, and people are surprised to see a wolfman running about like a loose dog. But I ignore them as the trail passes through the gas station and then back onto the street.

Finally, just when I think I might have to give up so I can get to work on time, the scent of her car approaches a cute duplex and stops in the two-car lot. On the upper floor is a balcony, with a few pots full of blossoming plants leaning over the railing.

The scent of Dee is all over it. But it’s not fresh, and there are many other smells tangled up with it. She must not be here, and perhaps hasn’t been all day.

At least now I know where she lives—that’s the ideal first step. I got much farther than that worthless PI did. Now all I need to do is come back when she’s home and knock on her front door.

Surely she felt the same thing I did, and she’ll understand why I’m here. What happened between us... I’m positive that it wasn’t one-sided. I hope Dee still thinks of me the way I fantasize about her.

Buoyed by this thought, I start the long journey back to Aston to get my car.