‘Yes.’ Finally, she released his gaze and looked across his shoulder at the dilapidated house. ‘Once you bring my stuff back.’
‘Oh yeah.’ Again he gave a sharp, rapping laugh. ‘Yeah sorry about that. Bit tired, not thinking straight. I could give you a ride to the next town in my car?’
She shook her head. ‘No thanks, I can ring someone from here.’
Opening the driver’s door and reaching across to the console, she grabbed her mobile phone and pulled it out.
‘Shit.’
‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘Battery’s dead.’
Her teeth began bothering her lower lip again. She looked up at him, her gaze even.
‘Can I borrow yours?’
A vision of the scattered remains of his mobile flashed before his eyes. He moved uncomfortably on the spot.
‘Yeah, I would except, um...’ he paused. ‘I broke it.’
She closed her eyes briefly, a sigh escaping her lips.
‘Fuck.’
‘Look I can drive you anywhere you need to go. Or you can stay here for a bit, and I can charge your phone from my car?’ The bonus of being able to sit that close to her for a considerable time was appealing. Her lush lips only a few feet from his own. The soft curve of the nape of her neck softly rising and falling with each breath. He gulped.
Her eyes flew open, and a flash of irritation crossed them.
‘It’s fine. I’ll figure something out.’
He stared at her, a tingle rolling along his shoulder and down his back. Even when angry, she was beautiful.
With an enormous sigh, she pushed past him and walked towards the house, the mere touch of her hand on his arm sending his body into brief spasms. He followed behind her like a puppy.
#
CHapTEr SiX
Her skin was burning from where it had touched his. Her body was ridiculous and uncontrollable. She cursed herself as she stomped up the path to the entrance of what once would have once been a beautiful B&B. Now, the sign lay discarded in the front yard, the welcome long since weathered and worn off. ‘This place is like something out of a movie’, she thought. As she took in the peeling wallpaper, broken windows, plants growing through walls and cracks, she wondered what happened to the people that used to live here. Why did they have to leave?
There were plenty of deserted towns around Australia, some of them from poverty or disease, others from the drive of the younger generation to find work. But there was something ominous about this place. It vibrated with a sense of profound sadness, and she could sense it almost like a whisper of wind along her whiskers. As she found her things in a back room, with relief she noted that he had found her a room that had a working door. With a few adjustments, she felt sure she could make it secure that night. Slumping down on the floor, she reached out and selected some new clothes for the day. The ones she had put on from last night felt dirty and itchy. Next, she would have to figure out if the water worked in this place and then she could go hunting.
On cue, she heard the soft footsteps of Dru outside.
‘Hey, did you want something to eat? I’ve got some food in the car and I was just going to build a fire and cook something up. Are you hungry?’
Her stomach growled in appreciation. ‘Yes, please.’
‘OK, won’t be long. There’s a tap in the kitchen that still works if you want to get some water to wash up. It’s cold, but clean.’
He wasn’t what she expected. She wondered why someone as famous as him was hiding out in a deserted town. Surely if he was only sobering up like he had told her last night, he would have disappeared first thing that morning. Instead, he was cooking her a breakfast in the backyard. It seemed surreal.
When she had tidied herself up, she stood out in the yard. The sky various shades of white, grey and blue. Clouds holding tight in a thinly veiled threat. Dru stood with his arms stretched out to greet the warmth that radiated off an enormous bonfire he had built. The flames nipped and flicked upward, and he was deep in thought. It again struck her how handsome he was. Tall, with wide, strong shoulders that tapered down into a narrow waist. The white t-shirt he wore barely concealed the ripple of his muscles underneath, and his jeans were tight enough for her to make out every curve of his tight buttocks. Her mouth ran dry as she imagined what lay beneath. Sensing her arrival, he turned, and her heart skipped a beat. The blue of his eyes was mockingly similar to the sky she had just seen. A strong square jaw framed soft sensual lips, which were bending upward in a smile as she walked closer.
‘Hey,’ he greeted her. ‘It won’t be long.’
She nodded, unable to form sentences.
They stood together, the only movement being Dru bending down to move some meat skewers around in the heat as they cooked. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders as the wind whipped around them.
‘You cold?’ he asked, standing back up from his crouched position.
‘Nah, I’m okay,’ she lied, her teeth were chattering a little.
He grinned and picked up a jacket from off the back of a log beside them and passed it up to her.
‘I’m hot blooded so I don’t need it,’ he grinned, revealing and two small dimples in his cheeks. She pulled the thick denim and cotton jacket on, and smelt the musky warmth of his scent wrap itself around her. Her heart fluttered again.
‘I didn’t always have a bed to sleep in which would be safe, so I got used to sleeping outside.’ She pulled her arms tighter around herself, staring at the fire. She felt his eyes on her face but didn’t look back at him.
As she warmed up, her tongue loosened. ‘So where did you get the meat from?’
‘From the boot. I brought some supplies with me.’ He paused. ‘Wasn’t sure how long I was going to be on the road.’ His lips drew into a tight line, and she turned to see that his eyes stared straight ahead into the flames. She wasn’t sure why, but he looked sad.
‘Oh,’ was the only thing she could think of to say.
‘So what about you?’ He turned to look down at her again, his sky-blue eyes scanning her face. ‘What brought you here?’
A flush of pink tinged her cheeks. ‘Got lost,’ she muttered. It seemed easier than telling him she was a thief. She found it hard to tell people about her past, and she had already let slip more than she normally would. People tended to assume things when they heard she was a foster kid.
‘Right.’ His eyebrow arched slightly. ‘So.’ He pulled a couple of logs up behind them and turned them into temporary chairs for them both. She sat down gratefully and curled her legs towards her chest. ‘We never got to discuss what pack you come from last night. There aren’t that many of us around. Are you with the Victoria crew or the Queensland crew?’
‘Neither,’ she admitted. ‘Or both. Actually, I don’t know where my family is from.’
He turned and searched her face again. ‘You don’t really look like either,’ he admitted. He turned back to the flames and considered it for a moment. ‘Do you hear them? Like, inside your head? The pack?’
‘Yeah,’ she murmured. ‘Sometimes. But not often. They sound a bit,’ there was a catch her voice. ‘Grumpy.’
He snickered. ‘Sounds like mine. Maybe we’re related.’
Nicci shuddered. She sure hoped they weren’t related. The last thing she needed was to find out she was lusting after a direct relation. ‘Like, if I close my eyes I can probably hear my Dad telling me to sort my shit out. Again.’
He held a smile on his lips, but there was no happiness there.
‘Does it ever go away?’ she asked him, watching the flames flicker. ‘Like, when you get older or something?’
‘Mum said when I form my bond, I won’t hear them unless they are in danger and in need of my help. Something about me being the next Alpha. But as cats we are solitary creatures. I rather like not
hearing anything at all, but if I have to choose, I would rather be the voice in someone else’s head instead of them in mine.’
He didn’t seem happy about it.
‘I guess I am stuck with it forever then,’ she sighed.
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ He stretched his legs out in front of them, the tips of his shoes almost in the flames. ‘Maybe you’ll bond with an Alpha and get to boss everyone else around one day.’
He gave her a wink, and she felt a blush on her cheeks. ‘Hardly,’ she muttered. A sliver of silence sat between them.
‘So, who taught you how to morph?’
He was making small-talk, but the memory for her was a painful one. She could still see the horrified expressions of her foster parents, their terror radiating off them in waves as their brains tried to comprehend what they were seeing. She also remembered the disgust on her foster mother’s face once she had turned back up at their door, cold, wet and hungry having just completed her first morphing. The sharp sound of the door as it slammed in her face and the fear of not knowing where to go and what to do burning in her chest.
‘I was in foster care. They weren’t like us, so let’s just say, it’s not something I want to dwell on.’
He gave her a small smile. ‘Sorry, shouldn’t have asked.’
‘Not your fault. You didn’t know,’ she admitted, continuing to watch the flames. Actually, despite the hard questions, it was nice to have someone to talk to about it. She had never had that before. Normally once people found out she was different to them, they either ridiculed her or ran. Neither was a pleasant experience, especially when she was a teenage girl who just wanted to fit in.
Dru reached out and pulled the skewers off the flame and passed one to her.
‘I’ll got some bread here too if you want to make it into a sandwich.’ He reached down to where a supermarket bag lay and opened it to pull out some rolls. Grateful to finally have some food, she took one, their fingers brushing as she did so. Her skin shimmered where they touched, and she pulled her hand away quickly.
As they ate, silence surrounded them except for the distant call of a kookaburra in a tree in the distance. For the first time in a long time, Nicci felt less restless. Maybe being around Dru wasn’t such a bad thing.
#
CHapTEr SeveN
Dru cursed himself for prodding. As Nicci sat there, munching on the meagre food he had prepared, he could sense profound sadness surrounding her. He didn’t need to know what had caused the damage; but he wanted to. A long withheld instinct had awoken in him, and he wanted nothing more than to protect her. Shit, he couldn’t imagine not having anyone else of his kind to work things out with. His lips drew into a tight line. Anger simmered in his stomach. If her parents were a part of the Victoria pack, he would hunt them down himself and tell them what he thought of abandoning her.
She interrupted his thoughts by shifting in her seat.
‘Hey, do you mind if I stay here with you for a couple days? Just while I sort things out?’
‘Of course not!’ escaped from his lips before he had even computed what she had just said. He could feel heat radiate in his cheeks as she turned to look at him, one of her beautiful eyebrows arching.
‘I mean,’ he stuttered, ‘If you want to. I don’t mind.’
Everything about this girl made him nervous. When she looked at him, it was like she was seeing right through him and measuring up his soul.
‘Thanks.’ It was her turn to look uncomfortable. She shifted again in her seat. ‘Actually, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind teaching me how to hunt?’
He could feel all the blood from his head depart and move southward. He was struggling to control himself being close to her in human form. With the addition of his animal instincts, he wasn’t sure that he could stop himself.
‘Um, I would, but um…’ he trailed off.
Red flushed on her cheeks, and she wrapped her arms around herself tightly. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I mean, you probably don’t do that thing. I was just...’
‘No, it’s not like that!’ he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder and watched transfixed as her eyes followed to where they lay. He pulled it back like they scolded him.
‘It’s just, um, do you realise how you smell at the moment?’
Red slashes flooded her cheeks and her eyes narrowed. ‘Do you have a problem with my body?’ Her jaw set solidly, and she challenged him to reply.
‘No!’ he yelped. ‘It’s not like that. It’s that you’re...’
‘I’m what?’ she interrupted.
‘You’re in heat.’ He could feel his own blood rush to his cheeks, making him feel flush.
‘I’m what?’ she paled. Her eyes were stuck on his face.
‘You’re in heat,’ he murmured. ‘I can tell.’
‘Like a dog?’ She changed from white to red and back again in a second.
‘Well actually, more like a cat,’ he smiled.
‘Oh god, I mean, sorry. I didn’t know what it was. I mean, there was nobody there to explain it, I just assumed it was a normal hormone thing like other girls...’
Her words tapered off at the end as she stood up and took a step away from him. ‘All these years and nobody explained to me that other people could sense it...’ She was pale and visibly shaken.
‘Look it’s nothing serious!’ He jumped up and tried to calm her by raising his hands. ‘It’s normal. But I’m a red-blooded male, and well... It’s probably not a good idea right now.’
‘Yes, I could see why that might be a bad idea,’ she admitted. ‘Maybe I should go.’
‘No!’ he grabbed her arm to hold her in place and felt the rush of electricity blot along his arm and strike him in the chest. He lost his ability to think as he stared down into her eyes. This close he could see that they had small flecks in them, just like the freckles on her nose. It drew his gaze down to her lips, which were small and pink. He wondered what they would taste like and licked his own lips in response. Her pupils darkened as they stood there, staring at each other. She was the one to pull back.
‘Yeah, no, it’s fine. I can probably walk to the next town, anyway.’
Fighting to control his pounding heart, he reasoned with her. ‘How about I start with teaching you some human skills like trapping? It’s not as intimate as a pack hunt, and it might help you out sometime.’
Her eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms across her chest. ‘Are you sure? I mean, if it’s too hard being around me, I can always just leave.’ Just hearing those words made him feel uneasy.
‘Absolutely. No worries. I have some stuff in the car’s boot we can use. And we can have some fresh kill for dinner, which should help with your cravings.’ But not mine, he thought to himself.
She paused for a while and nibbled on her lip, before giving him a single nod. He swallowed down a smile.
They sat by the fire until it had burnt down to cooling embers. It was nice to not have to do anything for a change. No phone, no demands from others, no rush or bustle of the city. Out here he could hear everything and nothing in the same breath. The chirping of crickets in the undergrowth. The call of a crow sitting high in a nearby tree. And the murmur of wind as it passed through the gaps and holes in the old building behind them. He didn’t feel the need to fill in the noise with small talk, and as she sat there peacefully on the log turned chair, she didn’t either. He really liked that about her.
‘So, shall we go see what we can find then?’ Her words broke through the cool air.
‘Yeah, sure thing, let’s go.’ He got up and kicked some dirt over the last of the dying embers. He could feel her eyes following him, because it raised the tiny hairs on his arms. He tried not to let this show as he walked to the car and yanked the lid of the boot open. His fingers wrapped around a small backpack and he pulled it out, throwing i
t on the ground beside him. Next was some twine that had been tucked into a corner. Pulling it out, he checked that he had got everything, calculated how much time they had left in the day and raised his nose to catch the scents in the air. It was hard to push past the smell of her that hung thick next to him, but with a small smile he noted the very faint aroma of rabbit in the distance. Perfect.
‘In that bag I have some essentials that I always take when I go out into the woods. Better to be safe than sorry. Just a couple bars of food, some water, and a first aid kit. I used to pack an emergency blanket until I realised it was warmer just to fur up in a crisis.’ He gave her a wink, and he caught the smile that crossed her lips before disappearing back into the glare that guarded her features. Loading the rope into his backpack, he tried to ignore her careful gaze and the tingle it gave him. Focused instead on the job at hand, it didn’t take him long before he stood up ready to go.
‘Ready? Did you want to grab anything before we leave?’
She shook her head. ‘Fair enough, let’s head off then.’
As he walked into the woods, the soft scrunch of the leaves and branches underfoot reminded him he was not alone this time. He hadn’t been hunting with someone from his pack in years. As he had grown older, and stronger, it had become harder to find someone who would risk the consequences. In the hunt’s haze, they well knew it that pack members could turn on each other and cause significant damage. Rank normally won out, but even his own father had a large raw scar running down his back from a hunting expedition as a teenager with Dru’s uncle.
But in human form it was harmless enough, as long as he could control his natural urge to chase. His jaw set in a firm line. A snap of a twig up ahead made him stop mid-step, his eyes shifting into a slant and his breath catching in his chest. He raised a hand to stop Nicci from moving forward as he closed his eyes. It was faint, but it was there. The soft scratching of paws on dirt up ahead. There was another sound, but this one came from behind him. The unfurling murmur of a growl emitting from her throat. Nicci could hear it too, and she wasn’t as in control of her shifting as Dru.
A Town Called Nowhere Page 3
