“Friends?” I mouthed indignantly, which made her smile.
Her mother didn’t like that either. “Well, be careful. How do you know they’re safe?”
Caitlyn gave a long-suffering sigh, and now I understood why she’d been avoiding calling her mom back. “They’re safe, Mom. I’m safe. Everything’s fine.”
“I ran into Dale Dickman the other day. You know, the principal of Oakview? The private school?”
“Uh huh.” Caitlyn rolled her eyes and I smirked.
“Caitlyn, he’s looking for a science teacher for this fall! He had to fire the last one, I guess the guy did something improper, I don’t know.”
Another eye roll. “And?”
“And?” her mother snapped, clearly offended. “You should apply! It has great benefits. It pays more than what you’re making there as a post-doc—I already found out.”
“Mom, teaching high school science is the last thing I’d ever do! I have a PhD!” Caitlyn paced away from me, giving me a view of that gorgeous little ass of hers. “My research is my life. Even if I had to do it for half the salary I’m making now, I would.”
“But we hate you being clear across the country. The things you do for those wolves are risky. Camping alone. What if you got attacked by one of them? Maybe you should carry a gun.”
I followed Caitlin back into the bedroom, shamelessly listening in on her conversation.
“I do carry a gun, Mom. A tranq gun.” She stopped, her shoulders dropping. “Listen, I need to get going, my friends are waiting for me.”
This time it was Wade who spread his hands and mouthed, “Friends?” with a WTF look.
“Well, be careful. Seriously. Call me when you’re back at your apartment this time. Do you promise?”
“Yes, I promise. Love you, Mom. Tell Dad I love him, too.”
“I will. Love you, sweetie. Bye.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Caitlyn ended the call and tossed her phone on the bed. “I’m sorry about that. My parents haven’t realized I’m a grown-up. Only child.” She shrugged. “And they really hate that I study wolves. That I’m all the way out here in Wyoming when I could be safe in Connecticut. They just don’t understand why I’m so obsessed.”
She glanced from Wade to me. We didn’t say anything. It seemed Wade also wanted to hear her reasoning behind her obsession.
“I love that you guys get it. Those wolf pups we saw last weekend had me high all week.”
“We may understand even more than you think, sugar.” I shot a look at Wade. We needed to tell Caitlyn what we were, and I figured we’d won her trust and affection enough to lay it on her. We may not have marked her, but we’d claimed her as ours.
It would be a lot to digest, and the timing was still way too fast by human standards, but fuck, Wade and I had nearly marked her when we were having sex. We wouldn’t be able to hold off much longer. Besides, I couldn’t stand keeping up the farce about the wolves any longer.
Wade nodded, reading my mind.
Caitlyn started pulling on her clothes. “Really? What do you mean?”
“You know when you asked if West Springs was a weird religious cult?”
Caitlyn went still, one leg in her jeans. “Oh, no.”
I smiled and held a hand out. Laughed. “We’re not. Hell, no. But we are different.” I swallowed, said the words that would change everything. That gave away our very secret to a female who wasn’t marked, who wasn’t truly ours. Who was tracking and studying our species. “We’re wolf shifters.”
“I’m sorry?” She tilted her head like she had misunderstood. A frown marred her brow.
“Shapeshifters. Men who turn into wolves.”
She smiled and twisted to look over her shoulder at Wade, like it was some kind of joke. Like he’d say just kidding and laugh. When she turned, she found a huge black wolf on the bed, instead.
She screamed, flying backward. Since her foot was caught in her jeans, she tipped, right into my arms. I steadied her. “It’s okay, sugar.” She worked her feet to push the jeans off her leg, as if she needed to be free of them to run away. “That’s Wade. He’d never hurt you. It’s Wade,” I repeated, feeling her panic, hearing the franticness of her breathing.
“W-Wade?”
Her body trembled beneath my hands, and she was leaning toward the door like she wanted to escape.
“Please don’t run,” I said, trying to keep my voice low and soothing. “It’s just biology. Genetics, not some crazy disease you get from being bitten by a rabid wolf during the full moon. We’re a different species from you.”
She turned in my arms to look up at me, the shaking in her slight body growing stronger.
“Shift back,” I told Wade. “She’s freaking out.”
Wade shifted, and I turned her back around. “See? It’s Wade.” Fortunately, he was naked before he shifted, and we didn’t have to worry about tattered clothing. “You’re safe, sugar. We won’t shift again until you ask.”