Seth blushed brightly and joined them behind the desk. He had his own workstation, but he was rarely at it. As the go-to guy for whatever needed to be done, he got worked pretty hard. But he didn"t seem to mind, or rather Marius had never heard him complaining about his workload.
"I watched a doc.u.mentary last night," he explained, getting comfortable in his chair. "Caffeine is just one of the things werewolves can"t eat. There"s this place in Oregon that is starting its own chain of werewolf-friendly restaurants. It"ll be like gluten-free or low-fat, but for the werewolf diet."
Marius wasn"t surprised; a lot of people had been trying to capitalize on the whole new market once they"d come out. There were now werewolf advertising agencies, dating sites, and quickly growing p.o.r.n empires-all about werewolves. Or at least men and women pretending to be them. Since there was no way to tell them apart from the humans until they shifted or otherwise gave themselves away it wasn"t like things had really changed all that much.
"Hey, Marius, why"s Missy up here?" Seth asked him, leaning back to look at the silent dog that was trying to hide in the corner farthest away from them. "I didn"t even see her back here." He straightened up and turned to better see her. He"d ruined more than one chair by leaning back too far in it.
"There"s a guy that I"m hoping will come back today and spend some time with her," Marius explained. He was focused on the parking lot, intent on seeing Jack"s beat-up little blue car come back.
Seth whistled loudly as if he was surprised. He probably was. The idea of anyone spending time with Missy, or rather, her spending time with anyone else, was pretty strange.
"There"s something wrong with him," Clara said. Marius shot her a look, which she promptly shrugged off. Her words weren"t meant to be mean-he knew her too well to believe that-but still, it wasn"t a nice thing to say.
"Maybe he"s got a social disorder," Marius reasoned, though he couldn"t name any of them and had barely pa.s.sed psychology in his first year of college. Which, if he was going to admit his age, was more than a decade ago, and he didn"t remember much from his time there. He remembered his boyfriend, and they"d been inseparable for the first year before Robby had decided he wanted to be a politician. Just not an openly gay one. He was a senator now, complete with a house in Martha"s Vineyard and a wife and two young kids. Marius wished him well.
"Is anxiety a disorder?" he asked aloud, even though he didn"t expect either of them to answer him any more than Missy would. Seth had no idea who he was talking about, and Clara was deeply involved in her work. He could tell by the way her fingers tapped over the keys, each one loud in the quiet lobby. He didn"t think anxiety was a social disorder. Everyone had some level of anxiety at times, so how could it be?
The sun bounced off the rusted blue hood of a car pulling into their parking lot, and Marius sat up a little straighter. Jack slowly got out of his car. He was wearing the same clothes he had on the morning before, and Marius frowned, wondering if he had multiples of the same outfit or if something else was going on with him. But when he came into the lobby and Marius took a deep sniff of the air, he could tell the man"s clothes had been washed. They smelled like fresh laundry soap. But not a very nice one. Oh, the smell was fine and all, but it wasn"t natural, and the artificial brightness and floral notes tickled his nose until he thought he was about to sneeze.
"Hey," he called, smiling at the other man.
Jack"s steps faltered, and he looked like he was about to trip but he recovered and, even though she was clearly busy, placed the volunteer form in front of Clara. She gave him a look but took the form anyway. Marius tried not to let Jack"s actions bother him as she handed the form to him, and he started reading it over. He didn"t need to see all of it, just the basics and anything that really popped out at him. He had no history of animal abuse, which Marius already knew from the background check, and had grown up with pets. Anything else wasn"t really necessary. If he decided to adopt Missy they"d do a more in-depth visit with him, including a home check. But for just hanging out with her there wasn"t much Marius needed to know about the man, especially since he"d be staying right nearby in the s.p.a.ce behind them. But that didn"t stop him from being curious.
"Looks good," he said, putting the paper aside and looking back up at Jack. Who wasn"t even looking at him. He tried not to let that bother him either. It seemed like there were a good number of things he was trying to ignore about Jack"s behavior around him. If he could actually pinpoint the reason behind any of it then it might help him understand the man a bit better. But he didn"t have the slightest idea, and not knowing something tended to frustrate him. "Come on back and get comfortable. She"s in the corner."
Jack nodded and moved around the counter. A moment later he was back with them and sitting on the floor by Missy. Marius felt bad that they didn"t have any blankets to give him to sit on and maybe be more comfortable, but that didn"t appear to bother Jack as he leaned toward her. Before he could get caught watching him, Marius turned around and found something to work on. There wasn"t much but shuffling papers around, and pretending to work wasn"t really helping either. He wasn"t good at faking being busy, especially with Clara around. She probably knew what Seth was working on too, even if his desk was away from both of theirs. All Marius knew was that his mouse was clicking things. He could have been playing a game for all Marius knew or cared, as long as Seth got his work done, which he always did.
Clara frowned at him, a sure sign that she knew he wasn"t busy. Ducking his head to avoid getting the next stage-a loud, highly dramatic sigh-he opened the rescue"s e-mail server and started answering the messages. Most of them weren"t important, and that was after he got done going through the vast number of spam e-mails. Some people asked about their hours, which he gave them. Others asked if they had a specific breed of cat or dog in. He kept the rescue"s website completely up to date through a system his brother had designed, so he directed them to their list. He was actually pretty impressed with the coding for the system, probably since he had no idea how it worked.
But his brother, Jeremy, a.s.sured him it was just like the point-of-sale programs they used in his bar. An animal had a number, and when that animal was adopted, the paperwork went through the system, and it checked for that number, then removed that animal from the available list of pets waiting to find homes. Jeremy made it sound so simple. Marius just liked that he didn"t have to manually enter their site, remember the pa.s.sword to access it, and then go through the animals to find which had been adopted that day. Before he"d had to wait until the end of the day, which frustrated potential adopters who were coming down to see one particular animal only to find out it had been adopted. Now it was instant, but he still recommended people call to double-check and ask questions about a pet in case they got slammed or he"d been called by the pet"s owner that they were coming to get them.
They didn"t have many lost pets. Usually the county shelter took them in, but sometimes they got them and hadn"t yet driven to the other shelter to turn them in. That was one of Seth"s many jobs. Marius didn"t like driving and Clara had done it at first before they"d found sweet, naive little Seth who was happy to help in any way he could. The guy deserved a raise and lucky for him, that was one of the few things Marius did know how to do. He made it happen and ignored the surprised look Clara sent him when the notice that he"d changed something in payroll popped up on her screen. They were co-owners of the rescue. He could change things like that if he wanted to.
He reached over to the s.p.a.ce between their desks and turned on the radio, finding a quiet jazz station while he found more things to focus on so that he could pretend that he wasn"t trying to catch glimpses of Jack and Missy each chance he got.
Half an hour later, Marius had completely given up pretending not to watch Jack, and he rose from his chair and joined the other man on the floor. When Jack shifted away from him and stopped petting Missy, Marius knew he"d made a mistake. If he"d been a wolf right then his ears would have gone back, and he would have slunk away to his desk. As a man, there was no easy way to say he was sorry for coming up to him, so he tried to show it instead. Whatever was bothering Jack, Marius knew enough to realize it had to do with him being too close to the other man. So he put some s.p.a.ce between them and found instant fascination with a crack on the floor to appear distracted. It wasn"t hard to still see Jack-after all, he had decent peripheral vision, and the other man was only a few feet away. But the distance appeared to ease Jack"s troubles as he again reached for Missy. His movements were far more tentative than they had been before Marius had interrupted him, though.
"Clara, have we always had this crack here?" he asked her, hoping that the emphasis on it would help Jack believe he hadn"t meant to interrupt him.
She turned in her chair and gave him a look that told him in no uncertain terms that first of all, she was not fooled by his actions, and secondly, she didn"t have time to play these games with him. He scrunched his nose at her and went back to focusing on the floor as she turned around, once again ignoring him.
"I"m done in the kennels," Seth loudly announced as he came out of the back rooms.
Clara smiled at him and handed him a big pile of paperwork. "Good job, you. Now please give these doc.u.ments to the wolf so that he may sign them and do his job."
Marius raised his brows and met Seth"s gaze. The younger man pressed his lips together as his eyes grew warm. He was trying not to laugh, and Marius found it hard to resist the urge as well. "She"s really mad at me," Marius said, stating the obvious as Seth tossed the papers in his lap before taking his seat at his own desk.
Smirking, Seth tossed him a pen. "Yeah. I"d say she is. What"d you do?"
"Asked about the-"
"He was a nuisance!" Clara hollered.
Marius snorted and turned to the first file on his lap. Financial c.r.a.p scrolled across the page, and he made a sour face. "I hate numbers," he grumbled.
"Too bad," Clara shot back.
Jack made a noise beside him, and Marius lifted his head, momentarily forgetting they had company and that it could be considered a bit rude to behave so badly in front of him. "Sorry. We"re just playing around," Marius explained. "We do that a lot."
Jack dropped his gaze and nodded.
Seth joined him on the floor, sitting closer to Jack than Marius had been. Jack froze but didn"t move away. Instead, his fingers curled in Missy"s soft, red fur. "You"re really good with her," Seth said, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his hands around his ankles. "You should adopt her."
"Seth...." Marius warned.
He gave him a bratty scowl before turning back to Jack and Missy. Marius ignored his look, well used to them by now. Seth was a great employee, and though he could be immature at times Marius knew he"d grown up a lot since joining the rescue. At twenty-two, though, he was still d.a.m.n young, and Marius couldn"t help wanting to look after him. It might have been a wolf thing but he didn"t think so.
Marius scrolled through the paperwork, signing where he was supposed to and making sure to read everything he signed in case anything was actually important. Usually it wasn"t all that necessary. In fact, most of it probably didn"t even have to be filed, but Clara was a stickler for records in a way that had Marius proud to have her on board. It was better than him trying to do it all. There probably wouldn"t even be a rescue if it wasn"t for her help. He scribbled a reminder on his palm, telling himself to do something nice for her. In addition to the chocolates he owed her for losing the bet from yesterday.
A car entered the lot, and Marius looked up, barely able to see the vehicle"s hood above the top of the gray counter. Whoever was in it didn"t stop, simply idled their car in front of the rescue.
"Clara...."
"I see them," she replied. "They"re just staying in their car. Nothing too serious. Maybe they can"t see the hours from-"
The splattering of an egg against the front window cut off her words with a sharp yelp.
"Did they really just do that?" She sounded irritated as she got to her feet.
Another egg hit the brick wall. "Mutt!" a man yelled. "Fleabag!" another called.
Marius was on his feet, and a moment later he had his arms wrapped around Clara, stopping her from going out there. She squirmed against him and pushed against his chest.
"I"m going to take care of it. You should stay here. With Seth. You know he needs protecting," Marius said.
"Do not!" Seth replied, sounding offended.
"Shifter!"
Marius rolled his eyes. "They need new insults. And, Clara, this is my problem. You take care of things here."
"You shouldn"t have to go," Clara said, her eyes narrowing at him. "But yes, whatever, yes. Go. Deal with them. I"ll call the police."
Marius released her and stepped back. "They won"t come. They didn"t last time."
She huffed loudly and went to her desk. She was already dialing before she sat down. "Doesn"t mean I"m not going to try again. At the very least they will have a record of my very angry self chewing them out for not coming."
Shaking his head, Marius smiled at her. The car was still in the parking lot, and he lifted his gaze to watch them idling. He wasn"t worried about them being here, as like most of them, the men that insulted him didn"t have the guts to actually get out of their cars to confront him.
He took a quick detour into the men"s bathroom to strip off his clothes, leaving them neatly piled on the bench he kept in there for just such an occasion before calling on the wolf that lived inside his soul. The creature came forward, his big paws caressing Marius"s heart as he stepped closer. As one, they threw back their head and howled, the sound coming from the throat of a man but ending on the lips of a wolf. He pushed his head forward, and the door swung outward, letting him out of the bathroom. Clara gave him a little wave as he walked out of the rescue and into the bright summer sun.
At first the men looked worried, and then their slurs started up again as he approached, but as he got closer, they quickly sped off in their car. The trail was easy to pick up, even as he lost sight of the car in its speed, and he took the time to follow it through the streets. The sidewalks were crowded, and those people that recognized him for what he was quickly moved away, giving him room to work as he followed their trail. It would have been easier to follow the car from the street, but he wouldn"t risk getting hit by one of the big trucks that appeared to be favored by the people of the town. So instead, he had to go along the sidewalk, which was complete with noisy children, grabby hands, and frightened adults. He would have thought it was only women who were frightened of werewolves, but there were plenty of men as well that chose to move to the other side of the street as he approached them. Marius didn"t care. Not really. All right, maybe he cared a bit. And maybe their refusal to accept him here bothered him. Sometimes. But this was where he lived, where his rescue was, and where he"d grown up.
He"d gone to school with many of these people and danced with them at school dances or babysat their kids as a teen. He didn"t suddenly become a werewolf; he"d just never been completely honest with them about who he was. Not until the founding members had come out and, in the aftermath of that revealing information, more and more werewolves had come out as well. There were some that still chose to hide who they were for whatever reason. His brother Jeremy was one of those wolves. And he"d begged Marius not to come out of the werewolf closet when the others had, but Marius had grown tired of hiding who he was. Too many years in too many closets had given him a certain distaste for the secrets.
He walked faster and broke into a slow, lazy lope, following the sedan for a good mile until it pulled in front of one of the old apartment buildings that had once been student housing back when the small town had been home to a college campus. The college had quickly outgrown the town and moved away but many of their old buildings remained. He found a gra.s.sy spot to sun himself and waited.
The pa.s.senger had stepped out, a grocery bag in hand as if they"d stopped before coming home and Marius remembered that he needed to go. He watched to see if the driver would be getting out as well. He did and Marius nodded. This was good as he preferred not having to hunt them down separately. That took time and energy, neither of which he really felt like wasting on this little errand. He howled, this time just for show and nearly smiled as one of the men tripped over the other as he spun around to face Marius. Wide-eyed and looking frightened, the men backed slowly into an apartment on the second floor.
Marius was satisfied with this, believing that now that they knew he could find them if he wanted to, they wouldn"t be coming back to bother him or his little family.
His mouth opened, and his tongue lolled to the side as he turned and left the apartment.
Finding his way back to the rescue was easier than it had been to find the men. After all, he knew where the rescue was from any point in the city, and it was never more than an hour"s walk regardless if he was on four feet or two. He took the back roads, choosing to stay away from the traffic and crowds since he wasn"t following a scent anymore. He went through unfenced backyards and fields that cut between groups of houses until he was back in front of the rescue. As he"d thought, Clara had cleaned off the windows and bricks. Either that or she"d had Seth do it, but more likely she"d done it herself. That way she could know it had been done correctly. She liked to say that.
She rose from her chair as he came in. He could feel her watching him, probably looking for any sign that he"d gotten hurt on his little adventure. He went into the bathroom and rushed through another shift, this leaving him sweaty and breathless as he tried to get dressed with shaking hands and unfocused eyes. Clara had a cup of water waiting for him as he came out. He"d have preferred her sweet tea but she"d made it with caffeine that morning, and he didn"t want to end up sick and dizzy all in the same day.
"You worked yourself too hard," she scolded him.
He didn"t argue with her. She could see well enough that he was struggling just to stand, let alone make an actual sentence.
"Did you have to kill them?" Seth asked from behind his desk, a book open on his lap and his black-rimmed gla.s.ses hanging down his nose.
Clara turned and gave him a glare, which he ignored. "Of course he didn"t!" Frowning, she turned back to Marius. "Right?"
He put down the empty water cup and nodded. "Right. No blood." He looked around the area behind the desk, not seeing Jack or Missy. "Where"d they go?"
Clara"s smile was quick and just as brilliant as the warm gold necklace that circled her slender throat. "He took her for a walk."
"Outside?" Marius asked her.
She quickly nodded, and he whistled low in surprise.
"It"s pretty awesome," Seth agreed. "I think she likes him. If he doesn"t adopt her I vote we kidnap him. Her happiness would be worth the charges."
Marius wasn"t too sure he didn"t agree with him. It was a decent idea anyway. When he didn"t immediately tell Seth what a bad idea that would be and how they couldn"t do that, Clara swatted his shoulder. "Tell him he can"t. We have to be good examples for him."
Shaking his head, Marius tossed his cup into the recycle bin and started toward the open doorway again. "I didn"t sign up to be anyone"s older brother. He knows he can"t go around kidnapping people. Right, Seth?"
"Usually."
Rolling his eyes, Marius gave the guy the finger, which he quickly returned. "See? He"s fine. I"m gonna see if I can catch up to Jack."
Clara nodded. "Right. To talk about Missy I suppose?"
"What else is there?" Marius joked, grinning at her. Clara"s laughter followed him back out of the rescue as he went in search of the man who had made such amazing progress with Missy in such a short amount of time.
Chapter 5.
"JACK? MISSY?"
Jack looked up from where he"d found shelter in the shade of a large tree, Missy on her belly beside him as Marius"s voice reached them. He hesitated to speak up at first. Maybe because he was scared, but possibly also because he liked where he and Missy were. He wasn"t doing anything wrong, and they hadn"t actually been out all that long. Why did Marius have to come bother them so soon?
Jack didn"t get to remain unfound for much longer as Marius came around the corner of the small brick building and spotted them. Immediately, Jack curled in on himself, his arms coming around his chest and his shoulders rounding. Beside him, Missy sat up, her ears p.r.i.c.ked forward as she watched the large man walk toward them. Marius stopped at the edge of the shadow that covered Jack and sat down in the soft gra.s.s.
"Wow. It"s really nice out here," he commented, putting his hands behind him and leaning back on them. He let his head fall and closed his eyes. The bright sunlight made his golden hair shine, and Jack had to force himself to look away before he was caught staring at the other man.
"You like her. Don"t you?" Marius asked. He didn"t lift his head, didn"t even look up at Jack as he spoke.
Jack"s hand went to Missy"s hip. His fingers sank into her thick red fur, and he tentatively smiled at her. Yeah, he did like her. A lot actually. She was a good dog. She was quiet and didn"t pull on him or jump all over him at the first chance she got. He didn"t know much about dogs but that seemed pretty important. And maybe even a bit special.
Marius lifted his head and brought his body forward. His elbows rested on his knees, and he rolled his shoulders. One of them popped, and Jack cringed at the sound, but Marius simply sighed.
"Ah. That"s better. Too much shifting today. I"m a bit sore, and I could probably use a ma.s.sage."
There was nothing implied in Marius"s words. Not that Jack could tell anyway. He seemed to be simply talking and nothing more. But the idea of touching Marius"s shoulders had his hands shaking. He pulled them back against his stomach, hiding them so they couldn"t give him away.
"So what do you think?" Marius asked him. "Want to adopt her? Foster her maybe? Are you allowed to have dogs?"
Jack nodded. He"d made sure to ask before coming to the shelter. As long as she was up to date on her vaccines and under fifty pounds he could have her with just a small deposit.
Marius"s face scrunched. "Yes to which question?"
His shoulders trembled as he considered talking to the man. He hadn"t had a normal conversation with a person in so long. All right, it had just been two weeks. But it still felt like a really long time. Especially to someone who used to be talkative and upbeat like he was. Or rather, like he had been. Before.
"I can have dogs," Jack whispered.
Marius gasped and grinned at him. "That"s the most I"ve heard you say yet. Glad you can talk," he teased him.
Jack managed to give the man a small smile. "I want her," he continued.
Nodding, Marius got to his feet. "Great. Then I"ll go tell Clara to start up the paperwork. We"ll need some information from you, and we"ll have to do a home check, but one of us can go out to your place tomorrow and do that. We"ll bring Missy with us. Hear that, little girl? You"ll have a new home tomorrow. Probably." Marius smiled and turned around to head back to the rescue. Jack got to his feet as well and pulled Missy along with him. She went easily, her red and white face staying right near his leg as he walked through the gra.s.s.
"You"ll need a few things, but we have a Great Start package that we send out with adopters. Do you like the name? Clara thought of it. She"s a genius sometimes. Or at least I think she is."
Jack tried to follow along, but his mind was focused on the idea of them doing a home check. He should have thought of that first, should have brought that into his mind. It was such a simple thing to think about and after helping a friend bring home a rescued dog a few years ago he knew it was common practice for home checks to be done. So then why hadn"t he thought of that?
He followed Marius through the open front door and stepped around Seth as the younger man poured himself a gla.s.s of tea.
"How was the walk?" Seth asked him. "It"s gorgeous outside."
Jack liked to think that Missy had enjoyed herself, just as he had. He came up to the counter and watched Marius take a seat at his desk. "Where is it?" Marius called to Clara.