Wild Wolf

Misty knew she owed Diego and his guys for all their help. Graham too, even more so. She and Paul would have been dead today if it hadn’t been for Graham.

Xavier Escobar had driven her down to the store and come in with her. “What a mess,” he said, looking around. “At least we got the bastards who did this.”

Misty nodded, her throat tight. “I really appreciate you taking care of Paul. If something had happened to him . . .”

“It wouldn’t have been your fault,” Xavier said quickly, putting a warm hand on her shoulder. “Guys like Flores think they own the world and everyone in it. They need to be taught they don’t.” He chuckled. “It’s kind of fun to teach them.”

Xav was such a nice guy, in a hard don’t-mess-with-me kind of way. He too was a former cop, and had started DX Security with Diego to help people who couldn’t otherwise find help, which Misty could respect.

“We can have a team in here to clean up right away,” Xav said. “Make the place good as new.”

Misty shook her head and moved away from him. “Insurance assessment first. That’s why I pay for it.”

“Okay, but if they start being a pain in the ass about it, you call me. I know people, Iona’s family runs a construction company, Shifters like to build things . . .”

He leaned against the one clear spot on the counter as he spoke. Xav had brown black hair, dark brown eyes, liquid dark skin, and a square, handsome face. A hot man on a hot day. Why couldn’t Misty fall for someone like him?

But no, she had to have a soft spot for a crazy wolf Shifter with a growling voice and a piercing gray stare. She shivered as she thought about that stare when she’d closed the door on him. But Misty had needed to be alone, to think, to worry about why Graham had been so enraged at her, why he’d said such things to her. And why was she so thirsty?

“Any more water left?”

Xavier looked into the little cooler he’d brought with him. “You drank the last one.”

No problem. She’d go across to the convenience store. Misty was out the door and halfway across the parking lot before Xavier could follow.

At the convenience store, Misty nodded a hello to Pedro at the cash register then went straight to the drink refrigerators and started taking out bottles of water. If she was this dehydrated, she thought dimly, she should grab some Gatorade or something. But no, she wanted water. Buckets of it.

“Hey,” a voice said beside her.

Misty looked up, her arms full of blissfully cool and moist bottles, to see the hiker from the desert. He was still in his hiking gear, a little more sweaty and dirty than before, and he was reaching for water too.

“You made it back,” he said.

Obvious, since Misty was standing right there. “Yeah. We made it. What happened to you? I thought you were right behind me, and then you weren’t.”

The hiker shrugged. “Took a different trail. Didn’t see you. When I looked for you, you were gone, so I figured you’d caught a ride.”

Misty nodded. “Friends came and picked us up.”

“Good.” He plucked a bottle out of the fridge and smiled at her.

The smile was odd. His teeth weren’t exactly pointed, but they didn’t look right either. His hair, tousled and sweat soaked, covered his head to his neck. When his hair wasn’t dirty, it would be very light blond, almost white.

“See ya,” he said, and turned his lanky body to move to the cash register.

Misty took yet another bottle from the fridge and wished she’d thought to grab a handbasket. By the time she struggled up to the register, the hiker was gone.

“What are the odds?” she asked.

“What?” Pedro looked at her blankly, pausing as he rang up her purchase.

Misty realized she’d said the words out loud. “What are the odds that a guy I met out in the desert turns up at this convenience store? How many are in this city—say, thirty? More than that? But he comes to the one right next to my shop.”

“Maybe he likes you,” Pedro said, counting out her change.

“And followed me? Creepy. Did you see what kind of car he has?”

“Nope. Didn’t see him get into a car at all. Or anything.” He handed Misty the change. “Sorry about your store. Did they get the guys who did it?”

“Yes. They’ve been arrested.”

“Thank God. That was fast. I worked at a store that was robbed seven times, and no one ever found anyone. Cops were all over your place though.”

Misty didn’t bother to mention the role Shifters had in taking down Flores and his little gang. She wasn’t sure which way Pedro leaned on Shifters.

“Thanks, Pedro. See you.”

Pedro said a cordial good-bye and turned to his next customer. Misty drank half a bottle of water walking back to her store, where Xavier met her and escorted her back inside.

“You shouldn’t stay here,” Xav said as Misty looked around at her ruined store again.

“I need to . . .” She stopped, and couldn’t finish.

Misty felt Xav’s warm arm around her. “I’ll give you a ride back home. Our guys will watch over this place better than any security camera or cops on patrol. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

One of the “guys” he talked about was Shane, a bear Shifter who lived next door to Eric, who now grinned at her from the back and gave her a wave. Misty had never seen Shane shift into a bear, a grizzly, but his bulk at the door did make her feel better. Sam Flores and men like him would never get past Shane.