“I still can’t believe she’s not coming back with us. Especially after all the shit she put you through.”

Still shivering from the cold and the excitement of riding on his back like he was some sort of carnivorous horse, I curled against Jake as we drove down the dark Wyoming Interstate. We’d blown through Casper a while ago and were headed back to Yellow Rose. Only seven or eight more hours of hard driving to go and we’d be there for our meeting with Trigger.

“I know,” I said glumly. “I’m really torn about it. I’m glad she found something that keeps her from wanting to constantly run. Seems she’d always had that kind of need in her heart. But I don’t think I’m a big fan of why she’s staying, with her thinking my boyfriend is some kind of angel.”

“Are you implying I’m not moral?” he asked, the grin on his lips coming through clear as a summer day in his voice.

“You know what I mean. It just weirds me out that she’d willingly stay with those people.”

“Well, why does that weird you out? People want to belong, babe. It’s in our nature.”

“In human nature, you mean.”

“Shifter nature, too,” he said, his voice quiet. “And, besides, I’m just as human as you are. I’m just, you know, different.”

We sat quietly for a little while, just the singing of the tires on the asphalt accompanying the low tones of the Social Distortion album he’d put on. At least with Eve in one place, I could, in theory, find her again. And, if she did go wandering anytime, maybe it wouldn’t be too far away this time around.

“Glad you found her, at least?”

I snorted. “Glad? The past day has been one of the strangest days of my life.”

“At least you got an adventure in, you know. Lots of people can’t say that.”

“I know, right?” I said with a small smile. “I got to pull a gun on someone–”

“A whole group, actually.”

“Right! And join a cult, and ride a giant wolf!”

He laughed, shaking my whole body.

“So, answer me this question.”

“Shoot,” he said, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel.

“I’ve been wondering about this. Do you think Reverend Fenris encountered a shifter out there in the Wyoming badlands? That one of your kind saved his life?”

“The thought had crossed my mind, and it’s likely. I mean, we’re not wild, unchained beasts. For instance, if I’d seen a man with a gun to his head, I might have spooked him into dropping it just so he’d take a moment to reconsider his actions, wolf form or not.”

“Even now? Even knowing it might spawn a crazy cult?”

“Good point. But you saw those people. They needed something to believe in. And, you know, what’s the harm in that? They weren’t hurting anyone.”

I wanted to say something, to contradict him about how they were deluding themselves and how their ideas were crazy. But what did I know? I hadn’t been raised to be religious or anything. Spiritual, maybe, but even that hadn’t taken very well no matter how hard Mom tried. And then I remembered the look on Eve’s face, like she’d found some kind of meaning in this awful world. It couldn’t be bad, could it? All bad? Sure, people did some crazy shit for religion, but there was good in it, too. Like people giving up their drugs and alcohol, the things they felt kept them chained in one place in their life, the things that limited them.

That wasn’t bad, was it?

“I say,” Jake continued after a long pause, “if they’re not hurting anyone, why bother them? This is America, after all. Maybe it’s not the best it could be all the time, but it’s pretty damn good, all things considered. And I fought for it. Sure, you might not agree with everything happening all the time, but at least it’s a big country. You don’t like your neighbors, just move. You don’t like your state, find a new one. Or vote for people who’ll change it to your liking. We’re the people who make this place, right or wrong.”

“Jesus Christ, you sound like Pops.”

He laughed again, his chuckles finally trailing off after a long moment. “Wait. That a good thing?”

“Well, he was a good man.” I reached up and kissed him on the cheek just above his beard line. “And I love him.”

“So yes?”

My consciousness feeling lighter than air, I settled back down in my spot against him, soaking up his warmth as the vents continued to pump out heat. The feeling wasn’t just from the heat from his body or the vents, though. The sensation was more like giddiness, the kind you had when you were a teenager and found out the cute boy from English had a crush on you the same way you were crushing hard on him.

“Yes,” I said, the smile still on my face. “Most definitely.”