off a white SUV. Mario is behind the wheel and he easily spots me, since I have no helmet on.
“Shit.”
I watch as Mario immediately spins the wheel around to follow us out onto the street, and I lean up to yell close to Lafe’s ear. “He’s following us!”
Lafe moves one of his hands off the handlebar and yanks his helmet off, passing it back to me. My hair is blowing wildly around my face, but I manage to shove the helmet over my head with one hand. As soon as both of my arms are wrapped around him again, he picks up the speed and starts flying down the street so fast that a scream tears out of my throat.
We weave in and out of cars, passing their blurred figures faster than I can focus on them. My toes and legs become frozen in a matter of seconds, and the wind keeps blowing my shirt up, no doubt flashing people as we speed by, but I keep my death grip on Lafe and just hope that I don’t fall off.
I always used to think that motorcycles were awesome, but no one ever tells you that they’re freaking scary. I look back to see if Mario is still following us on the busy highway, but he’s nowhere in sight. I let out a huge sigh of relief, but I don’t let up on my hold, and I’m grateful that Lafe doesn’t try to get me to loosen up. I’m way too scared for that, and my heart pounds the entire time.
He drives around on the highway for awhile, and then starts taking backstreets for a good hour before doubling back and heading to his house. When he finally pulls into his driveway and parks the motorcycle inside his garage, my body feels completely numb and raw from being wind-whipped the entire time.
Lafe hops off and then reaches out to take my hand. My legs are shaky and unstable as I lift my leg over, so he helps steady me for a minute before reaching over and lifting the helmet off of my head. I thought my hair was a tangled mess before, but now I look like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket.
“First time on a bike?” he smirks.
I rub my arms, trying to get the feeling back into them. “How could you tell?”
“Well, it was somewhere between the death grip and the shrieking.”
I cross my arms. “I do not shriek.”
His smile widens. “Sure you don’t.”
He runs his hands up through his long hair and re-ties it in his signature man bun, and I’m annoyed at how good it looks. He frowns when he catches sign of the goosebumps all over my skin. “Sorry. I should’ve given you my jacket,” he says sheepishly.
“I think that would’ve been a bit difficult while you were going a thousand miles per hour and taking ninety degree turns,” I reply with a smirk. I like Lafe, and honestly, his reaction to me and my duck this morning wasn’t bad. He wasn’t disgusted like Herrick and he didn’t act like I was an inconvenience like Penn did. Out of all of them, I felt like me being a duck didn’t matter so much to Lafe. But maybe that’s just hopeful thinking.
“Come inside. You can use the bathroom to shower and get warmed up. Then you can call your alpha.”
He locks up the garage and then leads me inside the house. As soon as we cross the threshold, I notice how quiet it is. “Where are Penn and Herrick?”
“Herrick took off right after you left. Penn did, too.”
“Herrick was a dick.” There, I said it.
Lafe looks over at me in surprise, but he doesn’t dispute what I said. “Yep,” he says, agreeing easily. “So. A duck. I’ve never come across a duck shifter before.”
“Like most prey, there aren’t many of us left,” I reply.
He hums under his breath as he leads me down the hallway. “Hey, you wanna relax and watch some duck-umentaries later?”
I punch him lightly on the arm, which only hurts my hand and makes him laugh harder. “Sorry. Bird puns really quack me up.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re annoying.”
“Oh, come on, you know you want to tell me to duck off.”
I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face. I know that Lafe is mostly doing this to help relax me, and I appreciate it immensely.
“Wanna play a round of duck duck coyote?” He wags his brows.
“Shouldn’t it be coyote coyote