Omega Hunter

“Do you mind if I borrow this? I don’t have any dress clothes, but I noted the staff wears dark pants and white button-downs in there, so I’ll at least look the part.”

“I’m sure it will look much better on you than it does on me.”

“I doubt that,” she laughed, slipping it on and buttoning it up before tucking it in.

She looked beautiful, more beautiful than any woman had ever looked before, and he already found himself wondering how he would give her up when the time came to do so.CHAPTER TWENTY-TWOAutumn-9

Autumn did her best to hide her nervousness from him as she dressed for her first day of work. She had dipped into the money she had and purchased a few white shirts and another pair of black jeans of her own at a nearby thrift store but had to buy the slip-resistant shoes they required new from a discount shoe store. Plus, she had bought a cheap burner phone of her own to take work calls or whatever. They weren’t the most expensive purchases, but when you were clinging to every dime, it seemed like a fortune.

They had hired her on the spot, telling her to come in the next day and bring her paperwork. Malcolm had already been working on that for her and went to see his friend to see if it was ready.

“Are you sure it will work for tax purposes? The last thing I need is for the government to come after me.”

“It’ll be fine. I don’t know how he does what he does, and I don’t ask, but he’s been doing it a very long time. It comes in handy to cover how old some of the wolves get before they die, lets them maintain property and such without it coming under scrutiny. I suspect that he just recycles some of the birth certificates for some of the wolves that have died at an age near whoever needs the documents. Wolf deaths rarely get reported. I’m sure it’s the same with bears.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it, but you are probably right.”

“Okay, wait here.”

Autumn sat in the car, looking around. They were at a brick office building about an hour away from the cabin. The parking lot was empty except for them and one motorcycle that she could see parked in a breezeway at the center of the building. Malcolm was only gone for a few minutes and returned with an envelope in his hands.

“There you go. Driver’s license, social security card. If anyone asks about your accent, your father was Canadian and you spent a good bit of time up there, but you lived with your mother here. It’ll explain it without too many questions.”

“Great. I’m American now. I never thought I’d get citizenship this fast,” she said as she pulled out the documents and looked at them. She made a face and held the license up toward him. It was her face. He had taken the picture himself for his contact to use, but the name was never going to work. “I told them my name is Autumn. How am I going to explain paperwork that says I’m Sarah Ann McEntire?”

“These people don’t really care in these small towns here. As long as you’ve got passable paperwork, they won’t ask a lot of questions. Just tell them that Autumn is a nickname and you go by your mother’s last name rather than your legal name or that you’re divorced. Something like that.”

“Sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it?”

“Not if you don’t make it sound fishy. Women go by different names all the time. It’s harder for men to get by with, but pretty common for women who’ve been married. Hell, you can tell them it’s your stage name from when you were trying to go into acting and you just prefer it if you want. I’m telling you; they won’t really care.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am. Come on, it’s getting late. I’m going to give you the car to take to work and I’ll get myself back home.”

“You’re shifting?”

“Yeah, as soon as we get back out to the edge of the road. It’s pretty quiet here, so I’m going to strip and give you my clothes and then shortcut it through the woods. I haven’t been out for a run in a good while.”

“Okay. I could use a good run myself. Maybe we can take one together soon?”

“We can do that. In the meantime, here’s a good spot. I left my phone at home, so I’ll have that when I get back there if you need anything. You have the number programmed into your new one, right?”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t help but note that he sounded like a worried mom on a kid’s first day of school. Leaning over, he kissed her and slid out of the car, taking a quick look around and then stripping down to his beautiful, bare skin. She watched as he shifted and bolted into the nearby woods before she slid behind the wheel and finished driving out onto the road. It felt weird to be driving again, especially someone else’s car.