back.”
He pressed his lips together and turned his gaze heavenward. The woman was a trial. Truth be told, most Cougar women were, but Hannah had been a Cougar for, maybe, a month. She’d acquired her knack for cruelty in other ways.
He’d always assumed that if he took a Cougar mate, he’d have to get used to it. He’d been
jubilant
that Hannah and her friends hadn’t been Cougars, but in a sick twist of fate, of the three of them, the only one that could that could be called sweet went to the brother who was arguably the biggest asshole of the three of them. Neither Sean nor Hank had thought Miles was right for Hank, but apparently she was. So that meant that somehow, the braid-fondling battle-ax standing beside Sean’s bike was supposed to be his counterbalance.
Gods, how?
She harrumphed, hitched her backpack up to her shoulders, and walked around the motel’s corner.
He followed without a word, knowing there probably wasn’t a damned thing he could say that would help more than harm their rapport … if he could even
call
it a rapport. They were barely tolerating being in each other’s space.
Sean got them checked in. After stowing their bags in their respective rooms, they met in the parking lot as planned to decide about dinner.
“We can walk it,” he said when Hannah started for the bike. “It’s a couple of blocks from here, and I need the exercise. The cat in me is agitated.”
She stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’m getting that vibe. Your energy is flaring. God forbid you get close to anyone who can tell what you are and you don’t have that shit under control.”
“I’ll shift later and run it off.”
She grimaced, then walking toward the street before she could say anything.
“What?” He followed.
“Nothing. Did you call Mason and let him know we got here?”
“No. Didn’t have time to. I used the bathroom and came straight down. This way.” He crooked his thumb toward left—toward downtown, though they wouldn’t be going that far. He’d discovered the little hole-in-the-wall he was taking her to somewhat by accident. GPS had sent him on a wild goose chase for a sports bar that had actually closed a year before he went looking, and he’d ended up at Sapphire’s frustrated and exhausted. The food had turned out to be worth all the frustration, though.
He checked the time on his phone, and figuring Mason would still be awake, dialed in his number.
“Sean, that you?”
“Yeah. We’re in Tucson, heading out now to get some dinner.”
“Cool. I was hoping you hadn’t turned yourself into an organ donor out there on the road.”
“If you distrust my driving so much, why’d you put me on the bike?”
“Like I said—it’s less visible than your truck with all the Foye Woodworks decals on it. The alternative would have been for you to borrow Belle’s car, but I didn’t think you’d want to be caught dead in a sparkly purple punch buggy.”
“Why is discretion so important? What happened in the past three weeks when I was …” He caught Hannah cutting him the side-eye and furrowed his brow at her. “When I was indisposed?”
“You know how we try to keep glaring business under wraps, but try as we might, word gets out anyway. I think Ralphie ran his mouth a lot before the guys found him hiding in Mom’s barn. He was probably feeding all kinds of information to his family, and they were probably feeding some back to the Coyotes.”
“And this other shifter group here in Tucson?”
“
Los Impostores
. Lola hopes you’ll be able to find out their habits and if necessary, make contact. We do want to nip whatever they’re doing in the bud without it coming to a fight, so keep that in mind as you pursue them. They’ve got to be expecting that we’d send our Cougars out to investigate after their guys showed up at our gathering last month. They’re going to be looking out for one of our trucks, probably, and not
He pressed his lips together and turned his gaze heavenward. The woman was a trial. Truth be told, most Cougar women were, but Hannah had been a Cougar for, maybe, a month. She’d acquired her knack for cruelty in other ways.
He’d always assumed that if he took a Cougar mate, he’d have to get used to it. He’d been
jubilant
that Hannah and her friends hadn’t been Cougars, but in a sick twist of fate, of the three of them, the only one that could that could be called sweet went to the brother who was arguably the biggest asshole of the three of them. Neither Sean nor Hank had thought Miles was right for Hank, but apparently she was. So that meant that somehow, the braid-fondling battle-ax standing beside Sean’s bike was supposed to be his counterbalance.
Gods, how?
She harrumphed, hitched her backpack up to her shoulders, and walked around the motel’s corner.
He followed without a word, knowing there probably wasn’t a damned thing he could say that would help more than harm their rapport … if he could even
call
it a rapport. They were barely tolerating being in each other’s space.
Sean got them checked in. After stowing their bags in their respective rooms, they met in the parking lot as planned to decide about dinner.
“We can walk it,” he said when Hannah started for the bike. “It’s a couple of blocks from here, and I need the exercise. The cat in me is agitated.”
She stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’m getting that vibe. Your energy is flaring. God forbid you get close to anyone who can tell what you are and you don’t have that shit under control.”
“I’ll shift later and run it off.”
She grimaced, then walking toward the street before she could say anything.
“What?” He followed.
“Nothing. Did you call Mason and let him know we got here?”
“No. Didn’t have time to. I used the bathroom and came straight down. This way.” He crooked his thumb toward left—toward downtown, though they wouldn’t be going that far. He’d discovered the little hole-in-the-wall he was taking her to somewhat by accident. GPS had sent him on a wild goose chase for a sports bar that had actually closed a year before he went looking, and he’d ended up at Sapphire’s frustrated and exhausted. The food had turned out to be worth all the frustration, though.
He checked the time on his phone, and figuring Mason would still be awake, dialed in his number.
“Sean, that you?”
“Yeah. We’re in Tucson, heading out now to get some dinner.”
“Cool. I was hoping you hadn’t turned yourself into an organ donor out there on the road.”
“If you distrust my driving so much, why’d you put me on the bike?”
“Like I said—it’s less visible than your truck with all the Foye Woodworks decals on it. The alternative would have been for you to borrow Belle’s car, but I didn’t think you’d want to be caught dead in a sparkly purple punch buggy.”
“Why is discretion so important? What happened in the past three weeks when I was …” He caught Hannah cutting him the side-eye and furrowed his brow at her. “When I was indisposed?”
“You know how we try to keep glaring business under wraps, but try as we might, word gets out anyway. I think Ralphie ran his mouth a lot before the guys found him hiding in Mom’s barn. He was probably feeding all kinds of information to his family, and they were probably feeding some back to the Coyotes.”
“And this other shifter group here in Tucson?”
“
Los Impostores
. Lola hopes you’ll be able to find out their habits and if necessary, make contact. We do want to nip whatever they’re doing in the bud without it coming to a fight, so keep that in mind as you pursue them. They’ve got to be expecting that we’d send our Cougars out to investigate after their guys showed up at our gathering last month. They’re going to be looking out for one of our trucks, probably, and not
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