Running Wild

werewolf. But they do exist.”
“ Wolf Town .” Incredible. They were hardly hiding with a name like that. Good God, they might as well paint bull’s-eyes on their backs the way they were going. Except, it sounded like Pete was still hiding who he was… Ri was getting off track and decided to return to the main point. “You know about shifters?”
Seamus shook his head sharply, that exasperation back. “Where the hell have you been, Ri? It’s one thing not to follow news, but how could you have missed this story of the year?”
“I’ve been a horse .” To his surprise, Ri shouted the last word, and it came out loudly, laced with his own frustration. His anger. His resentment.
That wasn’t right. Ri loved being a horse. Or maybe it was more that Ri wanted to love being a horse and it wasn’t quite working. His human sometimes seemed desperate for a chance to exist.
Seamus had stepped back, though Ri hadn’t moved. He remained seated on the floor, arms wound around his knees. They stared at each other, and Ri had to work at not rising and running. Just sit, just sit. Seamus is not going to betray you. In fact, Seamus is in danger.
“Remember the night I saved you from those wolves who were hunting you? Remember I came by? Black horse and you jumped on me and I took you to Zachariah. Remember? ”
Seamus went sheet-white, and he gave an odd shake of his head, as if trying to dislodge something. “This is the second time today someone has mentioned that night. I’d begun to think I’d made that up.”
“You did not fucking make that up.”
Chapter Six
    “I need to clear my head,” Seamus said quietly after staring at Ri for what seemed like ages. Who was this man? How had he come to rescue him seven years ago—if indeed he had. No matter what he was, Seamus wanted to get away from Ri. He headed for the door of the tent.
Ri leapt up from the floor. “No.”
    Seamus whirled on him. “No?” Like hell Ri was going to order him to stay here, and the way Seamus was feeling he was ready to physically fight the idea.
“I’ll go. You stay.” Ri circled around Seamus, ducking his head where the ceiling sloped down. “You’ll stay here, right?”
“Or what?”
Ri’s puzzled face irritated Seamus.
“Yes, yes. Tonight, I’ll stay in this tent. Without you. Since apparently you can go outside and turn into a horse and do whatever the hell you think you do.”
With a brief nod, Ri disappeared into the graying night, dutifully zipping the tent door back up. Seamus slapped dead a stray mosquito on his neck and collapsed on the cot, throwing an arm over his face.
He didn’t know how long he lay there, not really thinking, despite there being too many things to think about. He refused to feel guilty about kicking Ri out of his own place since Ri was the one who’d forced him to come here in the first place.
No. Wait. Thinking that meant he believed Ri was a horse shifter. Or could somehow magically control the horse, and Seamus didn’t want to go there either. He didn’t want to think; he wanted to sink into oblivion.
It wasn’t working. Zachariah kept looming into view, memories of working with him, talking to him, eating his sometimes god-awful food like canned pork and beans.
At some point, Seamus rolled off the cot and examined the photos once more, gaining enough light from the hanging lamp to see them. He killed four more mosquitoes as he went over the family pics, looking at the three individuals. Ri had been pained, talking about his brother. They were easy to tell apart, Ri’s brother having red hair and a stockier build, but they had the same dark eyes, killer cheekbones and identical smiles, large on their young faces.
Seamus let out a long, shaky sigh. He should be furious that he was here, but there was something entirely too sad about this situation, about Ri and his life and his ragged photos, no matter what Ri’s truth was.
Where was Ri, Seamus wondered as he slapped another mosquito. Perhaps being eaten alive. Unless he’d shifted. How many times a day could a shifter shift?
Gawd, Seamus didn’t even want to think that question.
He straightened up to standing, calmer, past feeling threatened by his strange companion. As the night arrived, concern had crept back in. “Hey,” he shouted, and listened to hear someone moving outside.
“Is everything okay?” It was Ri’s voice approaching, and Seamus relaxed.
“Get in here,” he said wearily.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m