Feral Northern Shifters 2

you’re telling me the truth.”
“No need to hope. I am. Look, you phoned me. I dropped everything to do what you asked me to do.”
Ethan didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. He’d done what he could for Bram, who was maybe safer, maybe not. But Ethan couldn’t really know Trey’s agenda. Couldn’t really know that what Trey said was true.
“Ethan?”
He stayed silent, trying to think this through clearly. Trey was associated with the Winter pack and Ethan had to careful around him. Maybe whatever Doug had wanted Ethan for, Trey now would.
Trey’s voice went lower, became more confiding. “Call me in a week or so. I can tell you what I find of Bram. Or, call me anytime. I’ll talk to you. I can even introduce you to another cat shifter.”
The offer made Ethan suspicious.
“Ethan?”
Very quietly Ethan hung up. The temptation to meet one of his own kind was strong. He had to resist. Trey might be as big an asshole as Doug or even Gabriel. Alphas were treacherous creatures. He’d had firsthand experience with that. Twice.
He stood in the pay-phone box, feeling stunned, looking blindly out the dirty window, aware people were passing by but not really seeing them.
His entire reason for entering the city had been to phone Trey, who might have been able to save Bram. Maybe Bram would have been better off if Ethan had never picked up the phone, but he couldn’t undo it. It was over. Done. Ethan had no other resources to turn to.
He could shift tonight, leave the city and return to his life as a cat.
The human in him balked. It was too soon. He needed to stay in this skin. He needed to keep hold of his humanity. It had been years as cat, yes, but this past week as human would not let him go. Not yet. It was not something he could relinquish.
He’d lost all social skills. At twenty-nine years of age, he didn’t know how to function, couldn’t even fucking read, and could barely punch in the right numbers for a phone call. Ethan scrubbed his face.
Robert had always been kind. Boyfriend or no, Ethan didn’t think Robert would turn him away from his doorstep. It would just be for a few days, just to talk to someone who might care a little.
Bram had cared, sure. But Bram and Ethan’s relationship, such as it was, had been forced upon them both. Besides, Bram was gone.
Ethan pushed out of the phone box and strode down the street. It would take him three hours of walking and he’d be hungry by the time he arrived, but he could reach Robert’s house.

Chapter Eleven
    Ethan lifted his hand, made a fist and rapped at the back door. It was near midnight, he’d dithered that long. Somehow he’d rather be turned away from the back door than the front. Besides, he didn’t like the glare of the streetlights much. He hadn’t recalled that they burned this brightly.
    Robert was home. So was a second man, but that didn’t concern Ethan. It took a few minutes for that someone to answer the door. A sleepy-looking, thirty-something guy with bed head peered out, then switched on the light.
    Ethan winced at the sudden brightness and had to squint to see that the boyfriend was a little alarmed, probably by Ethan’s shabby appearance.
“I need to talk to Robert,” Ethan said quickly before the door got slammed in his face or the police got called. Or both. He wasn’t sure how bad he looked.
The nervous boyfriend shut the door. Shit .
“Jeremy?” Robert’s sleepy voice sounded puzzled. “What’s going on?”
“Robert?” Ethan called, trying to keep his voice calm while hoping it carried through the door. There were mutterings and murmurings, mostly Jeremy’s. “It’s Ethan. Robert?”
Negotiation continued but ended with Robert snapping, “Let me see.”
Robert flung the door open. He was forty, hair receding now, eyes a little older, but still Robert, and Ethan’s chest squeezed with gratitude at the sight of a familiar face. It was extraordinary to see a familiar face. He’d been fond of Robert.
“It’s me, Ethan.”
Robert’s expression didn’t change and Ethan feared his ex didn’t actually recognize him.
He stepped closer, Robert backed up and Jeremy barked out, “Stay where you are,” as if Ethan was a threat to them.
Ethan shuddered, at the noise perhaps, or at being commanded. He’d wanted to see Robert, an old friend. He looked down at himself. Perhaps he appeared to be homeless, which wasn’t that far off the mark. He raised his gaze to meet Robert’s, hoping to be