Chapter Six: Martin
Martin’s afternoon started with an interrogation.
“Where the hell have you been?”
Martin had expected questions when he got back to the office, but not a faceful of bristling, hackles-raised werewolf. The ambush made his pegasus flare up, wings ruffled, hooves raised, and the last thing he needed was a shifter stand-off. Alpha animals tended to react to any fear or alarm with teeth bared, ready to fight whatever the problem was until it went away. So he understood Colby’s intensity, or at least the human half of him did. The animal half just wanted to fight things out until everyone was calmer.
His pegasus knew Colby was part of their herd and didn’t want to hurt him. His pegasus just wanted to grab that wolf pup by the scruff of his neck and shake him until he stopped yelling.
He compromised by flattening his hand against Colby’s chest.
“Down, boy.”
“That’s not funny,” Colby said. “That’s not even a little funny.”
“We were worried about you,” Gretchen said. She grabbed Colby’s arm and drew him back a little, but kept on talking to Martin. “Theo was seriously on the verge of asking any cops to call us if they spotted your license plate.”
Theo at least had the grace to look a little embarrassed by this, but he just turned his attention to the floor and said, “I don’t like things going missing.”
“I’m not a thing, son,” Martin said. “Or part of your hoard. I went out for lunch.”
“Yes, but—” Theo looked at Gretchen.
“No way,” she told him. “You’re the designated talker.”
“I don’t like being that,” Theo said. “Can I stop being that?”
“No,” Gretchen and Colby said in unison.
Theo sighed.
“I’m happy to leave while the three of you work this out,” Martin said, now a little amused.
“We’ve been worried about you, sir,” Theo said.
That made the amusement fade away pretty quickly.
“You’re tired,” Theo went on. “You’re always here after we leave and you’re usually here before we show up. You’ve been quiet. If you’re still grieving, if this is a hard time for you, please, let us help you. Or at least talk to us, sir.”
Colby frowned suddenly and then sniffed the air, a wolfish trick he didn’t usually pull while in human form. Then a slow, delighted grin spread out across his face.
“Never mind, actually,” Colby said. “I completely understand and applaud your decision to take a... long lunch.”
“What are you talking about?” Gretchen said, scowling.
Colby leaned over to her, putting his mouth against her ear, but instead of whispering, loudly said, “Our boss smells like sex.”
“I’m deaf now,” Gretchen said.
“I’m alarmed now,” Theo said. “You can smell that?”
“Yes, and I can’t help it, so don’t be a dick about it. You’re newly-mated, it’s not like I didn’t already know you were getting laid all the time anyway. Kudos to you and Jillian. But this is about Martin. Who had a nooner.”
“I can fire you,” Martin said, but he couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the mere thought of being with Tiffani in that hotel room.
Or the thought of the way she had securely tucked his telephone number in her purse.
“I need to know everything about this,” Theo said.