my head, bleary eyed and annoyed. “What time is it?”
He checked his phone, not the watch on his wrist. “Nearly two in the afternoon. We moved back two time zones, so we have plenty of hours left in the day.”
“Did you get any sleep?” I asked, trying to show him I wasn’t the worst traveling partner ever.
“I did, thank you for asking. I was able to get a solid nap. The announcement woke me up.”
“Better you than me,” I said casually. “Let’s hope the landing is smooth.”
“Let’s hope,” he agreed. “Weather app says it’s just over sixty there right now. And partly cloudy. Hopefully, we don’t have to deal with this area’s reputation for pissy, shitty rain.”
“Don’t like the rain?”
“Have you ever smelled a wet dog?” he asked back, grumbling. “I like thunderstorms. This area doesn’t have those. It has perpetual drizzle. The annoying rain where the lowest setting on your windshield wipers is too fast but leaving them off makes it hard to see.”
I chuckled. “You should have remembered all of that before agreeing to come up with me.”
“It’s not a big deal,” he huffed. “They’re going to pick us up at the airport.”
“That makes things easy. Hopefully, I’ll live long enough to check into the hotel and tell my family I’ve settled in to wait for Jabari.”
“You might want to text them once we land.”
“No shit.” I turned slowly to give him a look.
He chuckled this time.
The landing wasn’t rough, and we were able to get off the plane without a problem. He grabbed my bag and carried it for me, and I wondered if his old school manners had finally come back to the surface after months of me forcing him not to try it on me.
I have to admit, it’s kind of cute.
I nearly shuddered at the idea of Heath being cute. There were adjectives one could use for the Alpha werewolf, but none of them were cute.
Attractive. Broad. Tall. Annoying. Exasperating. Aggravating. All better words than cute.
We tried to get to baggage claim quickly, avoiding humans as much as we could. From there, it was the long wait for our things, knowing any moment, a werewolf could walk in looking for us. I started feeling itchy, so far from my territory. So far, in fact, there was no way for me to run home if something went wrong. How did Jabari do it? He traveled the world when Hasan needed him to. Mischa was a rogue werecat. How did she live without a safe place to go?
I crossed my arms tightly across my chest, trying to feel safer. I tried to hold off any jumpiness, knowing it would bother people around me and make Heath worry more than he always was. I knew he could smell my anxiety because I could already smell the concern on him.
Bags started to drop out, and we found ours quickly, not bothering with a cart. I threw my duffel on top of the rolling suitcase, letting Heath keep my laptop bag for now. If he had it, maybe this other pack wouldn’t take it and dig for information. Maybe he had the same idea. He wasn’t a stupid wolf.
Walking outside together, all I could smell was oil and gasoline off the cars driving by to pick up those riding with them. Heath, however, snapped to attention, looking over my head.
“Over there,” he whispered, nodding his head to my right. I turned to see a large, black SUV parked with its warning lights on. It couldn’t have been there for very long because no one was telling it to move along. To the side, there were two big men wearing black. A few steps closer, and I could smell the werewolves for what they were. Their heads snapped to us as we got close enough. We had been downwind and nearly snuck up on them.
“Alpha Heath Everson?” one asked brusquely.
“Just Heath Everson now.”
“Certainly, Alpha Everson. I’m Ryan. And this is Jacky Leon?” The wolf nodded at me, sizing me up quickly. I watched him visibly relax at whatever he saw.
“Yup. I’m here to introduce her to Alpha Lewis. Let’s be polite, wolf.” Heath stepped a little closer to me. “He said we would have no trouble from him.”
“Of course. Your bags?” Ryan extended a hand and snapped his other, making the other wolf jump into action.
“I’m going to keep my laptop on me in case my son and daughter need me for anything,” Heath said quickly before the second wolf