Wild Side (Dark Side Series: Book 2)

Twenty-Eight

"I am the Moon" by The White Buffalo 

The touch on my shoulder was gently firm. "Hey," Caelan said, hand still warm from the heat of a shower. I rolled onto my back to look up at the sheriff, outlined in the yellow seam of light from the bathroom door.

"What's up?" I mumbled, propping myself up against the (as we discovered last night) rather loose headboard. The board jiggled and thumped against the drywall.

He stepped back, buttoning a sleeve of his shirt. "I'm leaving. Just wanted you to know."

"What time is it?"

"Four-thirty."

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, started the process of prying soft fleece from my body. "And you're leaving now?"

"Got to."

"You're the sheriff."

"Exactly," came his sigh.

"Aren't you tired? I'm exhausted." I stretched and yawned, displeased to leave the haze of sleep, my body feeling well-worked and in need of rest. I peered up at the shadow standing before me, at the glint in his golden eyes. "You've sure got a wolf's appetite. I don't even know how you're on your feet right now." My feet found the edge of the bed. He bent and lifted them back in. One roughened palm slid from knee to hip at a deliberately low, light speed. He lingered there, half-bent over me, one hand tapping my hip, considering.

I thought for a moment he might push me down and take the charge out of my batteries, but he backed off with a grim little chuckle. "God, I hope that's the last wolf joke. They're getting worse."

"No," I said, and since he'd insisted, pulled the covers back over myself. "I wouldn't want to use up all my material in one night, unlike some people."

"Please," he said, shaking his head. "Spend a few more nights with me and you'll start to see how little you know."

"Always so cocky," I said, rolling my eyes.

"You know it." The happy tone seeped into something stiff and serious. Caelan's demeanor covered the last bit of cheer in his eyes. "Anyway, I'm leaving at this fine hour because a silver Alert got issued for an elderly member of the Nepaug pack. Father of a friend in the force. If I didn't need to keep my friends at this point in time, I wouldn't go, but such is life. Casey wandered from the pack while the others were hunting. If he's not dead or wounded, he's about to give some poor person a fright. Casey's got a bad habit of sleeping under porches and inside open garages when the weather's cold. Won't take long for me to suss him out, but by the time the paperwork's done and the other matters on my plate are begun it'll be," he glanced at the red letters of the alarm clock. "It'll be this time tomorrow."

"Fun," I said, and realized then that he had undone a button on his sleeve again, and was fiddling with the cuff slowly. I craned my neck around him to glance into the bathroom; the mirror wasn't even fogged. He'd been ready a while now.

He didn't want to leave.

My chest tightened. I smiled at him, and he smiled back at me, a bit puzzled. "There was one thing on my mind. Being on the verge of airing some very naughty thoughts, you reminded me just now."

"What's that?"

"Marcy," he said, and sat beside my covered legs. "You're certain you can't get pregnant?"

"Haven't officially had the plumbing inspected, but I haven't had my period since..." The headboard bumped again when I tilted my head back against it. Between werewolves and the undead, my hormones had fallen off their schedule and mother nature had never came back right. Or at all. "Since before Zakar's minions overran West Hartford. No chance of pups. Trust me, when I was with..." I bit my lip, and felt ashamed. "There were plenty of chances. We're good. No promises, but the odds aren't in your favor."