“Come on,” he says quietly.
I can feel the change in his energy. He’s calm now, and it’s calming to me. It’s bringing my agitation down. It reminds me of the way the Moon Hunters pack used to respond to Bruce’s emotional state. It’s an alpha thing, the ability to lead the pack through emotional turmoil by maintaining one’s own inner equilibrium.
But why is it happening between Nate and me?
We’re not a pack. He’s not my alpha.
I pad slowly into the apartment.
My jaw drops.
I’ve never seen something like this.
The place looks untouched. As if, in the past twenty years, no one has raided it. No one has even set foot in here. I look down and see the footprints I’m leaving in the dust.
I look up at Nate.
“You can shift back,” he says. “If you’re up for it.”
I like that he’s leaving me the choice. Bruce would have told me what to do, and so would Victor. Nate understands that maybe Ican’tshift back, that maybe I need the strong muscles and instincts of my wolf to make me feel safe.
But actually, I realize, I don’t need them. He told me it was safe now, and I believe him. I resume my human form, further surprised that I don’t feel any particular urge to cover up in front of him. It doesn’t bother me that I’m naked.
“What is this place?” I ask wonderingly.
Nate goes back to the door and throws the deadbolt. He grabs a chair and wedges it carefully up under the doorknob.
“I hoped we’d find something like this,” he says. “Someone’s old apartment. No one ever broke in because the others on the floor were left unlocked when the Reversal happened. But maybe whoever lived here wasn’t at home, so they didn’t leave in a hurry.”
“So no one’s been in here since—sincebefore?”
“I don’t think so,” Nate says. “And that makes it the perfect place for us to stay for the night.”
Chapter 31
NATE
ThefirstthingIwant is food. I head for the kitchen.
I don’t even look at the refrigerator. If there was anything in there, it would have gone rancid a long time ago, and I really don’t even want to see it. I’m going to pretend that it’s empty. It doesn’t smell bad in here, so whatever’s in there can’t betoohorrible.
I go to the cupboards instead.
There are a lot of machines. I might consider taking them apart later to see if I can find anything worth keeping. I don’t know what they are. When it comes to kitchen equipment, I know the basics—forks, spoons, and plates. These fancy pre-Reversal gadgets that people used to have, though—I have no idea what they were used for. How much did these people really have to do to their food to make it edible? You could buy edible food in stores, for fuck’s sake.
Finally, I find a bunch of tin cans in one of the lower cabinets. I pull several of them out and set them on the counter. It looks like they’re mostly vegetables, and I sort through them to see what would be the most useful to us. There are beans and potatoes here. That’s what we need.
Emlyn emerges. She’s dressed now, in a t-shirt that’s a bit too big for her—it hangs partway down her thighs. Underneath that, she’s wearing a stretchy pair of pants.
“It’s not much,” she says. “But it’s what they had.” She holds out an armful of clothes. “I thought these might fit you.”
I take them from her and shake them out. Jean shorts and a plain blue t-shirt. I pull them on, and they do fit, although the shirt is just a little tight around the chest.
“Thanks,” I say. “Hungry?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
I grab a couple of the cans. After a quick search, I find that the wooden block beside the sink is full of knives, and I use one of the bigger ones to pop a few of the cans open. I find forks and bring everything over to the table, setting it out for her, feeling as accomplished as if I had actually gone out and made a kill.