“How are you feeling now?” I asked Addie.
She wiped at sauce on her lower lip. Her expression went from bright to grim.
I tilted my head to peer at her. “Still feeling guilty?”
Addie’s sigh was long and ended with a choked sob. She let her messy hands fall into her lap. Staring at them despondently, she remained silent.
My wolf told me that there was something I could do to cheer her up. If I leaned in and licked the sauce from her lips, she would laugh giddily. I would hear her heart speed up. If I kissed her hard and pinned her to the floor, her body would turn warm against me. She wouldn’t be able to think about the things making her sad.
I shook myself.
Back down, wolf.
Horny beast was going to make a mess of things. It’d been a long time since I’d slept with a woman. It seemed that those urges never went away. The beast dragged them out and put them on display to remind me that I was nothing more than a man with base needs.
“We don’t have any clues,” Addie said pensively.
Her words shook me out of my lewd thoughts.
“How many times have we run into this guy? We still don’t know anything about him. You haven’t found any clues at all.” She shook her head.
“I found a few things at some of the scenes, but it was all trash that fell out of my own pockets.” I wasn’t proud of contaminating a scene.
My beast grumbled. It wasn’t convinced that I was the one who’d dropped those pieces of paper. My pockets were full of them, though. Between all these shifts, it made sense that I would have lost some of the trash I constantly carry on my person. I didn’t like it, but it was a reasonable assumption.
The beast pushed me to revisit that idea, though. I hadn’t bothered to smell the paper. There was only one way we would know for sure. If I sniffed the paper and it carried my own scent, then I would be able to set this suspicion aside.
However, that meant heading back into town where I’d left my clothes. I needed to get my wallet anyway.
“I think it’s time we do some actual investigation,” I said.
I moved to wipe my hands on my pants, then remembered that these clothes weren’t mine. I really should have grabbed some napkins.
“Don’t look at me,” Addie said. “I’m not going to suck the sauce off your fingers for you.”
I laughed and held out a hand. “Are you sure you’re not tempted?”
Addie’s face turned red. However, her gaze dropped to my outstretched hand. My heart clenched. Deep within me, my beast growled hungrily. I’d let her suck anything off me then taste it on her lips after.
There was something about her pale eyes looking at me from beneath that veil of dark hair that drove me wild and scattered my thoughts. I imagined her looking up at me like that, but the idea didn’t last long. The vision in my head shifted so that I was the one looking up at her as she lovingly caressed my cheek.
The thought shattered something in me. I became unhinged, drifting away in this imaginary scenario where I could trust someone enough to have such a hold over me. It was a small relief from my waking life where I had to worry about all things at all times, and I only hoped that I could offer her the same relief outside of the bedroom.
Shit.
I tore my gaze away from Addie and shook myself again. The beast laughed at my feeble attempt to regain control over my wandering thoughts. If I ever got time to myself, I would see if I couldn’t get this out of my system on my own.
Until then, I would have to assert control over my mind.
“Right.” I nearly tripped over the single word. Only nearly. “Let’s see if we can use my teleporting ability to get back home.”
“What about my car?” Addie asked too loudly.
“I’ll have my aunt and uncle drive it back for you. Once I get back to my phone, I can send them a text.”
Addie shot me a disapproving look. “You can’t ask them to do everything for you.”
“I’m not. I’m asking them to do something for you. There’s a big difference. My family won’t do shit for me, but my uncle likes you already. He’ll do anything for you. Just you wait and see.”
Addie snorted. “You make it sound like I’m going to be a part of your life for a long time.”
I paused, realizing how I’d spoken. She was right. And a part of me wanted that. I wanted to spend more time with this soft woman capable of sacrificing her own life to save mine. No one else had ever done anything so risky for me before.
I was used to doing things on my own, but she made me think that I could actually rely on someone for once. That would only get me burned again, though. I had to remember what it meant to love someone, and what it meant to lose them, too.
Addie and I wouldn’t cross that boundary, damn it.
“Let’s go get my stuff. Do you think this tree stand is big enough for me to shift in?”