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CHAPTER TWO: HUNGER MOON - PART FOUR
Russ opened the third floor laundry room door before Tucker could even knock, the man’s knuckles poised to rap. Narrowing his gaze on the man, he frowned and watched the man awkwardly let his hand drop, guilt coloring his face. As it should, for wasting Russ’s time on a dryer that’s only problem was an easily fixed, loose exhaust vent.
Even so, part of him would have been more than happy to ignore Tucker altogether, except he’d also sensed Dawn along with him. She stood behind Tucker, practically pressed against the opposite wall, her scent liberally mixed with sour pain and bitter irritation. Curious, he turned his gaze to her. “What do you need?”
Tucker gave him a wry smile. “Busted light fixture, while trying to change a lightbulb. We need a new one. Can I have the key to the storage room?”
Technically, Tucker — as a caretaker — should have one. But, shortly after he’d started working, Russ noticed things — lightbulbs, tools, cleaning supplies, and the like — seemed to mysteriously go missing or unaccounted for. So, he’d strongly suggested to management that, seeing as the storage room was in Building A, only A’s caretaker should carry a key.
So, with a huff, he grabbed his keys out of his pocket and pushed past the man. Dawn, with her tail tightly tucked, scurried to keep pace with him down the hallway. Noticing her favoring her left front leg, Russ wordlessly slowed his stride. Without looking at her, he nodded her way. “You okay?”
She shook her head. “Just twisted it a bit. Happens all the time. Weak ankles and all that. If I just walk it off a bit, it’ll be fine.”
If she said so. Still, he made sure to keep a slow, steady pace as they made their way to the storage room. He swallowed hard as her swinging hand brushed the back of his. Once. Twice. And a third time. He wondered if he was crowding her. These hallways weren’t really big enough for them both to comfortably walk side by side like this. She might be a tiny little thing, but he certainly wasn’t and, even if four of them were slight, six feet were a lot for a narrow space.
But, peeking at her, she didn’t seem uncomfortable. Truth be told, he wasn’t either. He inhaled, content when he noticed both her pain and annoyance had faded. Like she’d said, she was fine, so he would be too.
Except, distantly, his nose caught a whiff of something sharp and rotten. He glanced out the corner of his eye at Tucker who followed a couple of feet behind them. The usually grinning man’s face was set in a hard frown as he glared at their backs. With… jealousy? Was that what he smelled?
Which was ridiculous. Why would Tucker be jealous of Russ?
Throwing that thought away, he opened the storage room and stepped into the packed space filled to the brim with sturdy metal shelves stacked with all sorts of replacement or repair supplies. He squeezed between the industrial shelves, in search of the replacement hallway fixtures. He was surprised — not unpleasantly — when Dawn followed him in. “How many you need?”
She shook her head. “Just the one. And maybe a new screw. One of the ones I’ve got is pretty rusted.”
He nodded and dug deeper in the shelves.
“Yeah,” Tucker’s voice piped up right behind them, making Dawn tense up next to Russ, “little Dawny here tried to change the lightbulb all by herself.”
Russ caught her cringe as shame flushed beneath her cheeks and the burnt smell of resentment simmered from her.
“Imagine my shock, when I found her on the floor! She’s lucky I’m her downstairs neighbor and came running when I heard the crash.” Tucker said it with a strange smugness, like he enjoyed having some small, stolen kernel of knowledge about her that not everyone had. That Russ didn’t have, since he was the only other person here. Like it was some secret or a fucking prize.
But, if it made Dawn feel bad, Tucker could keep it. Russ didn’t want anything of Dawn that she didn’t trust him with. So he grunted and grabbed the screws he needed. “No big deal. I’ll go replace it for you and you should be good,” he said, turning to Dawn, “right?”
She smiled up at him gratefully, making him feel uncomfortable — though, again, not entirely unpleasantly — in the small, confined space. “Yes, thank you.”
Russ nodded to Tucker. “You can head back now.”
Tucker frowned. “You don’t want me to come along?”
Russ, noticing the slight tick in Dawn’s jaw as she laid a timid hand on his arm, shook his head. “I got this.”
Russ felt his fists tighten and a growl threaten, when a burst of Tucker’s defensive rage filled the air around them. Shocked, Russ turned to Tucker, seeing an irrationally possessive anger churn in the man’s eyes that had Russ’s hackles rising.
He’d always thought Tucker was just a charming slacker who skated through life on minimal effort and boyish looks. But a part of him wondered if, when it came to Dawn, there was something else to Tucker. Something… darker. Dangerous. Straightening to his full height, Russ glared at the man until Tucker backed down, taking several steps back. Russ grunted in satisfaction.
Dawn barely moved a muscle until Tucker made his way out of the shelves and down the hallway. Russ swore he could almost see her ears twitch under all that hair and the scarf tied neatly around them as they both listened to the stairwell door shutting behind Tucker. Russ frowned, wondering what the hell that was all about. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at Dawn. “You okay?”
Fascinated, he watched her shake off her frustration like a fine coat of dust, finishing with a final flick of her tail. “It’s nothing.” She made her way out of the storage room and into the hallway.
Following her, he waited silently, not commenting.
Dawn’s hooves pawed a bit as she waited for him to lock back up, causing her to wince when her left leg struck the floor. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “He asked me out.”
“Oh.” Russ’s eyebrows shot up. Shaking his head, he pocketed his keys again. None of his damned business.
She pouted as they began to walk down the hallway again. “I said no.” Her jaw tensed and her eyes narrowed. “A few times.”
Oh.
Russ wondered if he should tell her about the envious fury he’d smelled on the man. He knew most people were uncomfortable having his werewolf senses shoved in their faces, revealing that he knew something about them that they might have otherwise wanted to keep hidden. But it’s not as if he could help it. He couldn’t turn it off. Much as he would like to most of the time. Still, it seemed impolite to say anything, so he didn’t.
Dawn shook her head. “I’m sure he’s just curious, you know.”
“About what?” Russ asked as he let her lead him to her apartment.
“You know.” She waggled her eyebrows at him, her tail swishing playfully. “What it’s like to be with a deer-girl.”
Russ raised an eyebrow, wondering what that meant.
She crossed her arms behind her back and began to trot next to him, causing her hips and haunches to sway. “I’ve seen guys like that before.” She shrugged. “At the farm, there’d always be tourists or farmhands who’d flirt and chase you, but weren’t really interested in you so much as the experience of you.”
Russ’s brows furrowed questioningly, trying to make her words make sense. It didn’t help that his brain seemed far more interested in the way her body moved, all sleek and sultry, as she walked. His mouth watered as he took in how her fluffy, white-rimmed tail seemed to flounce teasingly. All that tufted white, that seemed to waft her warm, delicious scent his way, was simply tantalizing.
“You know,” she insisted, her tone low and knowing. “Guys who look at a deer-girl and don’t see a person so much as a wild ride or an untamed creature just begging to be broken in.”
Wait, was she saying what he thought she was saying?
“They want to fuck me, Russ,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Russ let out a low whistle. So, that was a yes on what he was thinking. “And that’s bad,” he said, averting his eyes from her body.
She shrugged. “I mean, I like sex just fine, but I like to know that the person I’m having it with is having it with me — the whole of me — and not just the parts of my body they see as a novelty.” She sighed, the small sound pouty and put out. “But, it’s never serious anyway. They’ll trail after me until someone more interesting comes along. They always do.”
Russ had a hard time believing that, but he wouldn’t argue with her. As if he could with his foggy mind still stuck on the idea of Dawn. And sex. Of Dawn having sex. Maybe with someone like him. Someone exactly like him.
He inhaled, that heated scent of her arousal teasing his senses again. He swallowed hard. Yeah, his head just couldn’t wrap around the notion of walking away from that when he felt like he was drowning in it. And was, if he asked his careless cock, more than happy to do so. “And if someone doesn’t leave,” he could hear the words rumbling in his throat, even when he swore he hadn’t given them permission to, “what happens then?”
The tall tip of her tail twitching provocatively, she turned in the middle of the hall to face him, looking up at him through sensually long lashes. His hungry mouth parted as he watched her plump lips form her words, “When that happens, I’ll let you know.”
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