Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves - K.A. Merikan Page 0,6
Radek’s arm, and the strength of his grip made Radek unwilling to struggle.
“N-no.” Radek glanced down his bare chest, which now felt painfully cold. “But I’m Radek Nowak, and I live in Dybukowo. I’m local. And a member of the Hunting Association.” The paperwork should be somewhere at home. Then again, his dad had been the one to pay for both their memberships, and he died two years back, so maybe Radek’s permit was out of date?
“You pointed the rifle at a person. The wolf is a protected species, and you’re drunk,” Yev said, dragging Radek along the shallow ravine, away from the dark little shed and the naked Ukrainian man.
“B-but it’s my birthday.” It wasn’t, but he’d try anything to slip out of this one. The earlier adrenaline was fading away, and he could feel the cold nipping at his skin.
And now, a complete stranger, who claimed to be a forest ranger despite obviously being a foreign drug smuggler, was dragging him farther away from the safety of his cabin, and the friends who’d let him go into the woods on his own.
Emil would have stopped him. Or gone with him, if Radek couldn’t be stopped.
“Shut up. I’m taking you to the police station. They’ll know what to do with you,” Yev said with more conviction as they passed through dense evergreens.
“What? The police? You cannot be serious! How would you even prove what I did or didn’t do, huh?” Radek tried pulling away, but it was like struggling with a bear. It infuriated him that he was so much weaker than this guy, and the hours spent on the treadmill now seemed like a waste of time. He should have done weight-lifting with Jan.
At least he wasn’t about to get killed over the supposed forest ranger’s little side business, or it would have already happened.
Yev sighed and pulled Radek through a row of juniper bushes, onto a narrow road entirely filled by the breadth of an old pickup truck in some dull green-brown color. “I’ll give them a statement. And that firearm surely has your fingerprints all over.”
This wasn’t going Radek’s way at all. He needed to think on his feet, and fast. “Ooor… we could forget all about it, and you could come over to my party? Lots of young, friendly single women there. I could introduce you as the man who saved me from a wolf. Let’s say you strangled it with your bare hands. Or would that be too much?”
Yev grumbled, dragged Radek to the passenger's side of the vehicle, and tossed him inside. “I’m not looking for a woman.”
“Dude, please, don’t be like this.” Radek slid right back out, but his foot slipped, and he landed in the snow. “Are you saying…? I mean no disrespect, but would you rather be introduced to a guy?” Radek glanced up at Yev in a whole new way when that idea wormed its way into his brain as he rolled to his knees. If Yev swung that way, they could definitely work something out.
The man stilled, and with that table turned, Radek took in his sturdy form, his muscular legs and broad shoulders hidden under a thick jacket, the somber features and bright eyes.
Maybe Yev could be reasoned with after all?
Radek bit his lip. What the hell? He could always dismiss any adverse reactions by saying he was drunk and joking around. “I know this one freckled ginger guy. He is such a slut. Your dick would love his throat.”
Yev froze, a monumental presence above Radek’s kneeling form. There was a faint change to his scent, a drop of blood in a pond, but Radek could still sense its aroma. “What?”
Jan always laughed that Radek could’ve been used as a gay detector. It was hard to explain, but he could sense it if men were attracted to him, and it went beyond what people called a gaydar. He could smell their arousal. So yes, he’d dare.
He licked his lips. “I’m saying you’re really handsome, Mr. Forest Ranger.”
Yev’s nostrils flared, and he leaned that bit forward, as if he were about to place his hand on Radek’s head, but then his brows lowered, and he hauled him up, back into the vehicle. “I don’t fuck drunk idiots.”
“How about sober idiots?” Radek grinned, increasingly amused by this interaction now that they were away from the creepy naked man and the wolves.
But he only got the door slammed in his face in answer.