Page 31 of Bad Blood Wolf

Chapter 12

When Brody woke up, the bed next to him was empty. The woodstove had almost gone out and the skylight was open, letting frosty air pour into the little shed.

Brody dressed quickly, the cold penetrating into his gut. He’d asked Jasmin if he could spend the day with her. This was looking a lot like a ‘no.’

He thought he remembered her jaguar rubbing its face against his, just before she left in the middle of the night while he was half asleep. He’d hoped it was a gesture of affection.

Now he was thinking it was ‘goodbye.’

When he stepped out of the shed, he saw no one but a man up in the oak tree, busily hanging a fourth reindeer ‘corpse’ from the limb he was sitting on. He had on all black—jeans, t-shirt and fleece-lined denim jacket—and his black hair tumbled down over his collar.

“Nice decorations,” Brody called out casually. “Nothing like dead animals to make Christmas feel festive.”

The guy gave him a feral grin. “That’s what I always say.” He jumped off the tree branch, landing gracefully on the ground eight feet below. “I’m Xander. Panther. I like to kill stuff. You looking for Jasmin?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Come on inside, then.” He headed for the main house.

When they stepped inside, there was no Jasmin, only a blond man measuring coffee into the coffeemaker. He glanced up in surprise.

“Who the fuck is that?” he asked, looking at Brody.

“It’s a Nashville wolf,” Xander said. “I think it’s a stray.”

“And you didn’t kill it yet?” the man asked. “Why not?”

“That’s Sloan,” Xander said, as Brody backed up a couple of steps, trying to keep both of them in his line of sight and hoping he could take them. “Sloan doesn’t really like to kill stuff that much. He usually lets me do it.”

“You’re welcome,” Sloan muttered.

“You don’t actually need to kill me,” Brody said. He wasn’t sure if they were really hostile, or just fucking with him.

“You’re Nashville,” Xander said. “Nashville tried to kill us.”

“I actually fought on the other side,” Brody told him. “With Donnie Jenkins?”

Xander narrowed his eyes. “I don’t remember you.”

“Um, I think you were kind of passed out at the time,” Brody said. “Poisoned?”

“Hmph,” Xander grunted. “That wasn’t my fault.”

At that moment, Jasmin walked in from the back of the house, fresh from the shower, wearing sweats and rubbing her wet hair with a towel. The feelings from last night hit Brody in the gut like a sucker punch.

“Shit,” she said, looking at Brody, then at Xander. “Where did he come from?”

Not exactly the welcome he’d been hoping for.But she didn’t sound pissed. More… surprised. Maybe that was a little smile at the corners of her mouth?

“He followed you home,” Xander said. “I think he’s a stray.”

Sloan finished measuring coffee and pushed the ‘start’ button. He gave Jasmin an exaggerated ‘what did you expect?’ look. “You fed it, didn’t you,” he said. “How many times do I have to tell you? If you feed them, they just keep coming around.”

“That explains you two, then,” Jasmin said. She was smiling. Brody felt himself start to relax, warmth spreading through him. Maybe he could still convince her to let him spend the day.

“She didn’t feed it,” Xander said. “I think she did the boingo-boingo with it. Now it’ll never leave.”

Jasmin head-smacked him as she went by.