Pack Dynamics (28 page)

Alex balanced a hip on the corner of his desk with a relieved expression, sipping his drink. Ben had no doubt he’d still work on the lycanthropy issue, because Alex liked nothing more than unraveling puzzles. “Well, I promised everyone a vacation, anyway. Ever been to Moab, Utah? You’ll love it there.”

Epilogue

Vacationing with Alex, Megan knew, was just as much of a roller-coaster as working with him. He didn’t do anything by half-measures, and he’d bought complete camping gear and a Jeep Rubicon and set them up at a site alongside the Colorado River. It was just the four of them in three tents with air mattresses and sleeping bags and cooking on the grill when they didn’t eat in town. And for a town this size, in Utah of all places, it had ridiculously good restaurants that served ridiculously good microbrews. They wouldn’t go hungry anytime soon.

Which was a happy circumstance, because Alex kept them on the go from sunup to way past sundown and they were always ravenous by the end of the day. Whether they were hiking to Delicate Arch or jeeping on the Poison Spider trail or climbing up some impossible rock face next to the river, the manic grin never left Alex’s face and he was never far from his supply of scotch.

Megan insisted on driving, most of the time.

The fourth day, Alex disappeared, leaving a note that said, “Don’t worry, back tonight.”

Megan crumpled the piece of paper. “Dammit. He’s gone off to do something stupid he doesn’t want me to nag him about beforehand.”

With the availability of extreme sports in the area, Megan decided to ignore Alex’s admonition not to worry. She gnawed her lip practically nonstop as they spent the day strolling through the shops on the main street, waiting for Alex to wander in.

They’d been back at camp for about an hour when he called. “Hey, Megan! Watch this.”

“Where are you?” Megan’s grip on her phone was white-knuckled.

“Look across the river, up on the cliff.” A tiny figure waved at them from the clifftop—and leaped.

“
Alex
!”

A parachute blossomed over his head before she got the exclamation all the way out, and he floated toward the ground. “Piece of cake, safe as houses,” he said, and disappeared behind the trees. “Ow. Shit.”

“Alex?”

“Ow. Gotta go. Be there in a little while.” The call ended, and Megan stared in consternation at the phone. But, true to his word, Alex showed up in camp about a half hour later.

Limping. Still with the manic grin. And reeking of scotch.

“What happened?” Megan moaned.

“Did you know that base-jumping is a huge sport around here? And it’s even legal.”

“Alex …”

“You should try it sometime.”

“What happened to your leg?” she said into her hand.

He shrugged, elaborately casual. “Oh, landed wrong, twisted my knee, and hit a cactus. Nothing big.”

“Alex …”

“So, where are we eating?” Alex asked blithely.

O O O

Ben decided to address the subject they were all avoiding on the fifth evening. “We should go for a run tonight, honey,” he said to Janni as they sat around the campfire after a day of jeeping. Bats squeaked overhead, and billions of stars shone down brightly in the absence of the light pollution and smog they usually had in L.A.

Janni twisted her fingers together. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Where better to wolf for your first time? Out here in the middle of nowhere where no one’s likely to see you?” He smiled, only not exactly. “Better than the way I first did it.”

“Sweetie, any way would be better than the way you first did it.”

He stood up and held out his hand. “You can Change in the tent. I’ll walk you through it.” Time for him to help her for once, he thought.

She followed him into their tent, apprehensive and clearly not at all sure she wanted to do this. “Ben …”

“No worries, honey.” He pulled her to him and kissed her neck. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, and she squirmed and wiggled, but didn’t exactly push him away either. “In it together. Always.”

“Which is a long time when you’re a werewolf?” she half-laughed.

“Exactly.” He held her at arm’s length and regarded her seriously. “And you’ll be a pretty, pretty wolf.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she said, dimpling, and that was the expression he was looking for. “How do I do this?” she asked.

“First, the fun part: we get undressed. Because tearing out of your clothes when you triple in size gets inconvenient and expensive after a while.”

She huffed out a laugh. “About that. I checked our account today, because we had a bill due that needed paying? There’s an extra million in there.”

For a second it didn’t register. “An extra million what?” And then it did, and he choked. “
Dollars
?”

“Courtesy of Alex. The notation on the deposit said ‘payment for services rendered way above and beyond what anyone should have to endure ever.’ Which has Alex written all over it; the man never uses one word where three will do.”

Ben took a minute to pick his jaw up off the floor and resisted the urge to go confront Alex about it. The tax implications alone …

But he needed to do this thing with Janni. His wolf was tugging at the leash, not hard, but pretty insistent. The tall red rocks and wild desert vistas soothed something primal within both Ben and the wolf, and the ever-present knot in his chest had loosened more with each passing day. He’d talk to Alex later, he promised himself, although the billionaire had probably figured out the tax thing already, or Megan had. Something.

He shook himself. “Okay, wow. So not worrying about expenses for the near future, then. But you should still take your clothes off, because I like watching you do it.”

He grinned, pulled his T-shirt over his head, and tossed it on the air mattress, and Janni followed suit a second later. The rest of their clothes joined the shirts, and Janni stood there, shivering a little in the cool of the evening. The last thing that came off was the engagement ring, and she let it go with a little whimper of protest.

“Now what?” she asked, slightly breathless.

“Feel the wolf in there?”

She nodded, eyes wide.

“Just … let her out. If she’s anything like mine, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Sometimes the hard thing is keeping it in.”

“Will it hurt?”

“It’s uncomfortable. Weird. You can feel the bones and muscles and things sliding into a new configuration.” He shrugged a little. “I wouldn’t call it actively painful, unless you’re trying to stop it during the moon. It’s just really strange.”

“Okay.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, relaxing into it and letting it happen. A few seconds later, a huge black wolf with orange eyes stood in front of him. She tilted her head, and her tail lowered a little as she waited for his reaction.

“Boy, was I wrong about you being pretty.” Her ears drooped, and he clarified. “You’re
beautiful
.”

She wrinkled her nose at him, bumping his stomach with her head, which was all it took for him to Change, although he’d wanted to admire her for a few more minutes.

They stepped out together, and Alex scrambled for the camera. Impatient to be off, they didn’t let him take too many pictures before slipping away into the trees.

What followed was one of the most fabulous nights of Ben’s life. No danger lurked here, nothing threatened them, and he was able to fully enjoy running through the desert with his mate. She matched him stride for stride, and they found a sandbar on the river and wrestled there, getting soaked in the process.

Panting and happy, they lay down on the bank and licked each other dry. Ben decided that life as a werewolf really wasn’t terrible, and if Alex couldn’t find a cure …

Well. He was okay with that.

He nuzzled Janni, and they made their way back to camp. Alex and Megan had retired to their tents, although both of them were still awake, and they chuffed to let them know that they’d returned before going into their own tent.

Human again, they snuggled inside the zipped-together sleeping bags. “That was fantastic,” Janni murmured, on the edge of sleep.

“Wouldn’t mind doing it for the rest of my life,” Ben ventured, “now that no one’s trying to kill me.”

“Mmm. I’m with you on that.”

“Yeah?” The air had caught in his throat, waiting for her reaction to the whole thing, but it eased at her pronouncement, and he felt like he could actually breathe for the first time in ages.

“Yeah. Love you, sweetie.” And she dropped off.

Okay, then, he thought, right before he fell asleep himself. The lycanthropy was a feature, not a bug.

He wondered if they’d have puppies.

About the Author

Julie Frost lives in Utah with her family, which consists of the same number of pets as people, along with a collection of anteaters and Oaxacan carvings, some of which intersect. She writes an eclectic mixture of science fiction and fantasy, and has appeared in
Cosmos
,
Unlikely Story
,
Plasma Frequency
,
Stupefying Stories
, and many other venues, and has been a Finalist at Writers of the Future and the Hidden Prize for Prose. This is her first novel. She whines about writing, a lot, at http://agilebrit.livejournal.com/, or you can follow her on Twitter @JulieCFrost