Uncaring that it might scare prey away, he gave a happy yelp before freezing in place when he stood on top of the incline and saw wolves he had not smelled due to the direction of the wind. Stiff and ready to protect Ember, it took him several moments to realize it wasn’t the pack living in the valley.
They were his pack.
Werewolves.
When Ember poked his curious nose out of a bush, Yev pushed him back with enough strength to make his point.
Five werewolves. Burian’s chief ass-licker, Fedir. Alex. Boris. Vasily and his brother Anton. Some of them were Yev’s childhood playmates, and now that he saw them in their animal forms, the longing to go back to simpler times became a thick ball in his throat.
In a desperate need for connection, Yev howled from the bottom of his lungs. Boris took a step Yev’s way, but Fedir snapped his teeth at him, and that was that. No answer. All five of them turned and walked off without acknowledging the outcast.
Yev went completely still, eyes fixed on their backs, and wouldn’t even dare look Radek’s way, too ashamed of how he’d just been snubbed. His ribs tightened around his heart like snares about to snap and bleed him out.
He sat down with his head bowed, and in the corner of his eye spotted the ginger shape approaching with caution. But when Yev didn’t push him into the bushes like last time, Radek climbed up his back and started licking Yev’s ear. He couldn’t fully understand what had happened, but he was still there for Yev, interpreting his body language and offering comfort in return.
Only that if Yev ever wanted to be with his pack again, he’d need to leave his cute Ember behind.
Chapter 17 – Radek
Yev cleaned up nicely. So nicely in fact that Radek couldn’t stop glancing at him. Not that he wasn’t handsome in his scruffy-woodsman-werewolf way, but it was so new to see him like this. With a clean shave, unruly hair tied back into a short ponytail, and sipping from a cup of hot cocoa at a Starbucks in a Cracow mall, he didn’t seem like someone who lived in the forest, far away from trendy cafes. Well, when you ignored his ripped ear, and the large facial scar, but Radek had not only gotten used to those but also kinda felt they added an edge to Yev’s handsome features.
Bright lights, busy shops filled with expensive clothes weren’t the usual backdrop for Yev’s handsome form, yet somehow he fit in with his casual look of jeans, a black T-shirt and a leather jacket with a dense woolen lining.
“I just hope Coal will be fine without us. I know it’s just one night, but he’s used to being able to communicate his needs with me. Emil is great with animals, but he doesn’t understand Coal the way I do,” Radek said, thinking back to the shy black fur ball.
Coal was still a scared little thing. His nature told him to fear wolves, which in turn made him wary of Yev, but he was healing well, and while a chunk of his tail needed to be amputated, and his infected eye—removed—Radek had no doubts he’d thrive in their care.
Yev smirked, as if he knew something Radek didn’t, and pressed on Radek’s toes under the table. “He will be fine. Relax. You won’t be able to once your bitchy business partner arrives.”
By now Yev knew all about the business arrangement with the Golonkos and was even helping Radek get his head around the options for the farm, but in truth, Radek hated the topic. They’d buried the fur trim of Radek’s jacket in the back of Yev’s house, in what was a very thoughtful way of easing Radek’s regret. Yev hadn’t made fun of him about it, and had dug the hole in the frozen ground before Radek had gotten up that day.
Radek could hardly remember that time he’d hated Yev for no reason other than him being an authority figure who’d dared to oppose him. He’d been such a dumbass. If he wasn’t so selfish, he might have decided he didn’t deserve Yev’s care and attention.
The two weeks he’d spent with Yev in human skin had been a whirlwind of a kind he’d never experienced. For one, he’d never lived with any of the guys he’d slept with, but the intensity of their sex life was incomparable with anything he’d ever done either. It was as if Yev wanted to crawl under his skin and live there. Overwhelming, and addictive. When they fucked, Radek could so easily forget what he’d lost. With Yev, he was whole.
“I just want this over with.” Radek groaned and rested his elbows on the tiny table between them.
Yev exhaled, crooking his head as the music changed to a slow, overly dramatic ballad. He looked through the glass windows of the café, at all the people walking by with their shopping, with friends and families. There were surely more people in the mall at this moment than there were permanent residents of Dybukowo.