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That wolfish grin was back on his face. All the bodies of water around the town must be as clean as the water he and Markus had

been in yesterday for him to be confident enough to drink it.

“Come on,” Markus said, putting his arm around Lance’s

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shoulders. “I’ll show you all the good spots.”

Lance grinned and went with him. “Great.”

Markus cleared his throat. “So, uh, what are you hoping to find

out here?”

* * * *

Markus had never been very good at being subtle, but he liked to think he was decent at reading body language. He saw the sharp way  Lance looked at him when he asked the question, and he could practically feel the embarrassed heat rising up his neck and under his cheeks.

“Saw the blog, did you?”

Because nature was virtually everywhere in Brampton, it was  simply a matter of getting across the highway and finding the right  trails to go hiking on. It took all of three minutes before they were in  the trees and off any man-made roads.

“Well, yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry or anything,” Markus  said.

“No, no, don’t worry about it,” Lance replied a little too quickly.  The trail they walked on was slim but still wide enough that they  could both walk side by side. It meant they were nearly shoulder to  shoulder. “The blog is there so people can read it. Sometimes when  someone I just met finds it, they tend to think I’m a little…” Lance  trailed off. He seemed to be having some trouble finding the right  words to use.

“Strange?” Markus said, doing his best to be careful here.

They both climbed over a fallen tree that had blocked their path  before continuing on.

“I guess that would be the nice way of putting it,” Lance said.

“I don’t think you’re strange or anything,” Markus said quickly. It  was difficult for him to think something like that when werecreatures  did actually exist. “But I am curious about why you would believe

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something like that.”

He needed to find out. It was one of the conditions James had

given him when he’d begged and pleaded to be able to come here and

meet Lance for their sort-of date.

Mate or no mate, someone who was out to prove that werewolves and other similar creatures existed was to be carefully watched, and suspected.

If Lance was in any way involved with hunters, the pack was going to have some serious problems on its hands.

Lance was silent for a time. He sighed, and his whole chest seemed to heave with the movement. “It’s hard to explain without sounding even crazier.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy. I’m just curious.” Markus wanted to be as honest with the man beside him as he could possibly be, minus the whole werewolf-in-hiding thing. “People believe all sorts of things, and I guess when you think about it this is just another belief.”

“But it’s not just another belief,” Lance said, looking at Markus from the corner of his eyes. “I didn’t just read a book one day on shifters through history and decide that they were real. I’ve…I’ve seen them.”

That last part was spoken with some hesitation, and now Lance was looking at Markus full on, waiting for his response.

Markus had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. “As in…someone changed into an animal in front of you?”

Lance suddenly stopped. “Look, I’m sorry if this is too weird for you. You don’t have to be my guide anymore if you don’t want—”

“No!” Markus said quickly. He stared at Lance as though the man might’ve grown a second head in front of him. “I mean, it’s not too weird at all. I don’t know if I entirely follow you here, but the locals do say strange things, and I’m just curious to know where you’re coming from on this.”

Lance raised a quizzical brow at him, and then he smiled. “I couldn’t have been that good in bed.”

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Markus grinned back. “Good enough that I want to hear your side

on this.”

Lance continued to study him, and then he shrugged, and the both of them kept on following the trail.

“It’s actually part of the reason why I came to Brampton. There’s so many stories about wolves here. Sometimes wolves are even seen walking around the town at night, and other times dead wolves are found. I even found a newspaper clipping about a kid who supposedly saw a man transform in front of him.”

Markus clenched his neck on that part. Eli had been the one to do that little stunt. He’d gotten drunk at the bar in the local restaurant, and when he decided to call it quits, he’d gone around back and started taking his clothes off, getting ready to make the shift.

Apparently, James had dumped a bucket of ice over his head the next morning before angrily shoving a paper in his face. The kid had gone to the local news, but thankfully the reporters had been more interested in what an underage teen was doing at the bar in the first place, rather than anything he’d supposedly seen.

“I remember reading about that,” Markus said, the air suddenly becoming hot around him. “That kid was drunk off his ass, from what  I understand.”

“I spoke to that kid. He wasn’t as intoxicated as the reports made  him out to be. Small towns like this don’t always follow the books so  strictly, and he wasn’t even made to use a Breathalyzer or any kind of  test to see how inebriated he supposedly was.”

Fuck. Lance was really doing his homework.

“So back to the previous topic,” Markus said, smiling and trying  to make this awkward situation as pleasant as possible. “What got you  believing in shifters to begin with? You said you’d seen them before.”

If Lance told Markus some heartbreaking story about how his  parents or siblings, or even both, were eaten alive by wild shifters,  Markus didn’t know what he would do about it. Stories like that were

exactly the reason why hunters existed today. Some jackass shifter

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turned violent and did something horrible, and the surviving victims  turned into bloodthirsty monsters themselves.

Lance didn’t give off that impression, but Markus was going to be  careful here.

“One saved my life.”

“
What?
” That certainly was never how the story went.

“It’s true,” Lance said, though he was still avoiding Markus’s  stare. “At least I’m pretty sure it is. I was young when it happened,  and whenever I told my parents they insisted it was a regular dog to  come and save me, not a person who turned into one.”

The more Lance spoke, the more curious Markus became. “So  what happened?”

“My father owns a small cottage on a private lake. Still has it, too.  One day when I was seven or so, I went out for a walk.”

“I’m assuming this was in the middle of the woods that you did  this?”

“Yeah, but my family was like that. It wasn’t anything to really  worry about, a young kid going off on his own to collect spiders, or  whatever it was I was doing. I can’t really remember.”

“Okay, more details on how a shifter saved your life,” Markus  said. He wondered if the others were around right now, and if they  could hear this story, too.

James had said he would get some of the alphas to follow them for  a little while and make sure Markus would be okay while he did this.

“I was stupid. I’d brought some cookies with me for my little  expedition, and a black bear smelled them. It was a young bear, but  not a cub, and you can understand that something like that would’ve  still killed me if it wanted.”

Markus nodded. It was ridiculous the way the story made him worried. He already knew the ending. Lance clearly got away. “You said a dog came to save you? What kind of dog?”

“Actually, back then I thought it was a dog, but now that I’m an adult, I’m more prone to think it was a wolf. A werewolf.” Again, his

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voice became quiet as the word left his mouth. He seemed to be  constantly worried of what Markus might say to him.

“Okay.”

“He fought off the bear, always staying between me and the bear,  too. He took some hard hits, but eventually it gave up and lumbered  off.”

“What makes you think the wolf was a werewolf?” Markus asked.  He didn’t know where Lance grew up, but even if he did, it wouldn’t  matter anyway. Stories tended to get around in the shifter  communities, and even for a story that was nearly two decades old,  that should’ve made the rounds, too, where Markus would have at

least heard of it.

He hadn’t, so clearly this hadn’t happened anywhere near this territory.

“It collapsed, and it transformed in front of me. Into a naked teenager,” Lance said.

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Chapter Seven

By this point, Markus could scent some of the other alphas surrounding him, following their path and listening to every word that came out of Lance’s mouth. James’s scent was among the alphas. Had he ever heard of this story?

“What happened then?” Markus asked. The ground beneath them sloped a little, and soon they were walking into the rocky hills.

“Ran home screaming to my parents. I told them what happened, and I think they only followed me back to the spot to make sure there was no one else there. By then the shifter had vanished. I don’t know if he left on his own or if he’d died.”

Lance’s mouth twisted just slightly. Markus could tell how much the thought of his rescuer being carted off by some other wild animal upset him.

Markus doubted that was the case. His kind were too tough, even when injured, for that to happen.

He said so to Lance.

The other man actually smiled at him. “You talk as though you

believed me.”

Lance was going to have to know for sure eventually at some point, if Markus wanted to reveal himself as his mate, that is. He couldn’t just reveal himself right away, however. There were still precautions that needed to be taken. “Well, like you said, weird things do happen around here. The locals do have a lot of wolf stories.”

Lance’s smile was genuinely pleased. “Usually the people who believe me don’t look so well adjusted.”

Markus wondered what sort of individuals showed Lance support

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for him to describe Markus as
 
well adjusted
. “Why? What kinds of

people believe you?”

“Fanatics, mostly,” Lance said. “The worst was when I got this

nice e-mail from someone, seemed intellectual, and was more

interested in the topic of shifters beyond what’s seen in the movies.”

“What happened?”

“He turned out to be thirteen.”

Markus laughed.

* * * *

Markus took Lance along all the trails he knew. All the ones that he and the rest of DeWitt’s pack didn’t frequent, that is. To make sure  Lance didn’t stray too far away from those areas, every once in a while, one of the weres would allow himself to be seen.

Markus recognized Adam and one of the newcomers to the pack,

Cole.

They were both in their wolf forms, sitting idly under the shade of a pine safely down the hill. Lance saw them and immediately pulled out his camera.

Adam and Cole scattered before he could get a shot off.

“Must’ve heard me reaching into the pack,” Lance said.

Markus just smiled and shrugged, and as they walked, he continued to tell Lance about how the wolves came to these spots, and how it was a good place to take pictures.

They stayed out for most of the day, with one of the members of  Markus’s pack coming out for a quick glance once in a while, even  James at one point, to give Lance something to look at.

They returned with little trouble to Lance’s motel room, and only when the door was shut behind him did Markus feel like he was

finally alone with the other man.

“I might have to keep going out with you,” Lance said, and then

his face turned. “For more hiking trips. I mean, with so many wolves

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around, it might be dangerous if I’m alone.”

This was exactly what Markus was hoping for as well. “I’ll give  you my number so you can give me a call. I take it you had a good  time?”

“Very. No proof of werewolves or anything, but even hearing the  stories from the townsfolk made coming here worth it.”

“Really?” Markus said, surprised.

Lance sat on the bed and was kicking off his hiking boots. “Sure. I  mean, if this really exists, it’s clearly been around for a long time. The  secrecy on something like that is already amazing. What are the odds  that I would be the one to expose it?”