Derik's Bane

"Yes, and yes. It doesn't happen all the time— cubs with a human—but it does happen. I don't know why, I'm not a goddamned biologist." He groaned again and got up, then loped off toward the truck. "Are we ready? Let's go. Ready?""



"What's the rush? And why are you so scratchy this morning?"



"Couldn't sleep," he replied shortly, stomping on the clutch and starting the truck with a roar. "Went for a walk. All night."



"Well, excuuuse me, Mr. Insomniac—wait!" She ran to throw the last sleeping bag into the back of the truck. "Nobody told me werewolves were such rotten morning people!" She lunged, and just managed to pop the door open as he accelerated.



"Well, now you know," he said, shifting into second as she slammed her door.



"So, what's the plan, Grumpy McGee? Besides a second, possibly third, breakfast by ten o'clock?"



"Drive until we're tired. Stop again. Eat. Sleep. Drive more. Find Arthur's Chosen. Kick their asses. The end."



"A fine plan," she said.



"Except..."



"What?"



He yawned again, which was startling—his jaw stretched wider than she thought would be possible, and he showed a lot of teeth. "Well, I have to stay in touch with my people, or they'll start to worry about me. Maybe send someone else out here. So I thought tonight we'd stay at a safe house." This was a rather small lie. He didn't have to stay in the safe house; he could check in from the road. But the thought of having Sara in a warm bed .. . having Sara ...



"What? I didn't catch that."



"I said okay," she repeated. "I don't mind sleeping with a roof over my head. Don't yawn anymore."



"Huh? Never mind. And a shower. You should shower so you get all the bug spray—"



"Yes,fine, all right. So, we stay at a safe house."



"Well, the thing is, I'd have to explain you. Because if any other werewolf ever found out who you were, they'd try to kill you."



"A possibility to be avoided at all costs," she agreed. "So what do you suggest?"



"Pose as my future mate—my fiancee, I mean."



"Oh."



"I have to tell them something," he explained.



"Well. Okay. I guess. I'm against being killed, you know—I'm not totally irrational. We'll just have to hide the fact that we don't know each other very well."



"Um." He cleared his throat. "There's one other small problem."



"Small, huh?" She sighed as he slowed down and took the exit for Burger King. Like he hadn't just eaten a pound and a half of bacon! "I'll bet. Well, bring it on. The week I'm having, I can take it."



"The thing is, they'll know—my people will know—if we're not really, um, intimate."



Her mind processed this, then decided, the week she'd had, she couldnot take it. Probably she had misunderstood. "What?"



"Well, like I said, they'll know if we aren't, you know, sleeping together. So we have to if we're going to pull this off. Sleep together, I mean."



She turned in her seat to glare at him. He kept his eyes steadily on the road, she noticed. Coward. "You're telling me I have tofuck you in order to stay at the safe houses?"



"Yeah."



"Well, too damned bad," she snapped, ignoring the surge of heat to her cheeks.



"You'd rather have your neck broken at the safe house?" he snapped back.



"Yes, upon careful consideration, I think that would be preferable!"



"Oh, stop with the drama queen thing. It's just sex, that's all, just sex, sex, that all it is, and frankly, I'm kind of insulted that you'd rather be gutted than see me naked!"



"They're called standards, pal. And I can't help it if I'm one of the few who didn't tumble into bed within five minutes of first meeting you!"



"Standards!"



"Want me to find a dictionary, blondie?" "I want you to be a realist," he growled. "In other words, drop your pants and save your life."



"Anything sounds bad if you say it likethat." "Forget it."



He pounded the steering wheel, which groaned alarmingly. "Damn it, Sara, you are the most hardheaded, stubborn, infuriating, annoying, stuck-up, curliest, annoying—"



"Curliest?"



"Aw, shut up. Fine, it's your head. We'll sleep out in the woods again, no touchie. And again. And again. Homo sapiens, man, fucking hothouse flowers, I swear to God."



"I am not," she said automatically, inwardly crushed. She'd sort of been looking forward to a shower. And a bed. She'd gone camping quite a bit as a girl, but now that she was in her late twenties, her idea of roughing it was a Super 8 and a hair dryer.



She cleared her throat and then asked timidly, "Can't—can't you just tell them that because I'm not a—a werewolf, you're still working on getting me into bed?"



He hesitated, then shook his head. "Our kind doesn't make a life-commitment without, uh—"



"Sampling the merchandise?"



"Uh, yeah. I mean, it's a totally natural thing to us. We don't have this whole Victorian attitude toward sex that you guys do. And the thing is, I wouldn't bring a casual date to a safe house."



"Oh."



He shrugged. "So, okay. We'll keep camping. I guess I shouldn't have sprung it on you like that, but I thought it'd be worse if I didn't say anything until we were at the house."



She actually shivered at the thought. "No, that's a good point. Well... what's a safe house like?"



"It's a house where a werewolf family lives and they take in guests a lot. People on the run, or on a mission, or even making a go-see trip to the Cape to meet Michael and Lara."



"Lara being . . ."



"The next Pack leader."



"Oh. You don't run a patriarchic society?"



"I don't think so," he said doubtfully.



"Who's Lara again?"



"Michael's daughter."



"Ah! Dynastic, then. Never mind. So it wouldn't be ... weird ... if we just showed up at this place and asked to spend the night."



"No. It'd be normal."



"But we'd have to share a bed."



"Yup."



"Actually, we'd have to do it before we showed up at the safe house, right? So the other werewolves could tell we'd been intimate? Not that it's any of their damn business," she added in a mutter.



There was a long pause, and then Derik answered, sounding almost like he was strangling. "Yes, we'd have to do it before we showed up."



She drummed her fingers on the seat and watched the scenery go by. "Well. I'm really not that kind of girl."



"Oh, I know," he said earnestly.



"But you're kind of cute."



"Really?" He seemed pleased.



"In an overbearing, totally obnoxious sort of way," she explained, watching him deflate a bit. "And weare on a mission to save the world."



He didn't say anything, just pulled into the BK parking lot.



"We could talk about it, I guess. I mean ... I'd like a shower."



"And I'd like for you to have a shower."



"Bastard," she muttered.



18



They were still debating the merits of lovemaking—or not—when he pulled up to the Kwik N' Go. "Gotta use the phone," he explained.



"How?"



"Huh?"



"The phone," Sara said. She still reeked strongly of bug spray, but driving around for hours with the windows open had alleviated some of the damage. At least he could think about kissing her without gagging—a crucial step. And the wind had tossed her curls around and around; she looked like an adorable red dandelion. "You can't use your cell phone, for obvious reasons. But how are you paying for a phone call to the Cape fromberet You can't use your credit card."



"Oh."



"And you can't call from the safe house?"



"They'd hear me anywhere in the house," he admitted.



"Oh. Creepy. I suppose calling collect is out of the question?"



"Only if you don't mind a bunch of werewolves tracking you down."



"Okay, well, let's try this." She hopped out of the truck and walked up to the pay phone on the sidewalk. "This works for me sometimes," she explained over her shoulder. "I used pay phones a lot before I got my cell, and it usually worked out."



She picked up the receiver, listened, then asked, "What's the number?"



He told her.



She tapped in the number, listened, then handed him the phone. "It's ringing."



He took the receiver from her, staring. Itwas ringing. "Won't it ask me for change, or—"



"Wyndham residence."



"Oh, hi, Moira. Listen—"



"Derik! Hey, where the hell are you? How's it going? Are you okay? Michael's been going out of his mind, here! Me, too," she added.



"Tracking her down has been a little harder than I thought," he said with a nervous glance at Sara. Thank God, thank God Moira wasn't anywhere near him. She'd smell a lie, and then kick his ass righteous. He'd deserve it, too. He couldn't remember ever lying before. It was a waste of time in the Pack. It made him feel like a real rat turd now. "But I'm closing in. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm okay. Got that? I'm okay, everything's fine right now. Tell Mike, okay?"



"Okay, honey. Things out here are fine, too. We're basically hanging around, waiting to get the word, you know? So you take care of yourself, okay?"



"Sure. Um, patch me through to Antonia?"



"Sure. She's had a migraine since you left," Moira warned, which made Derik cringe—Anto-nia was a bear when she was feeling fine—"so I'm not sure she'll be good company, to put it very,very mildly, but here she comes, so hold on to your fur." There was a click as he was put on hold._