Running Wild

sure.”
Ri moved quickly, unzipping and zipping the tent, then standing cautiously beside Seamus. “I didn’t want to go too far away.”
“In case…?”
“In case you needed me.”
“What would I need you for?”
Ri looked away and scratched his arm. Seamus winced at the sight of all those bites.
He grabbed Ri’s wrist, and Ri did that quivering thing again which he ignored. He ran fingers over Ri’s forearm. “Do you have anything for the bites?”
“It’s okay.” Ri sounded rather breathless, and Seamus looked up, saw Ri glance away, saw bites on Ri’s face too.
“God, Ri, I didn’t mean for you…” Seamus let him go, his words trailing off. “Well, if I kick you out of the tent at dusk, I guess the mosquitoes are going to get you. I wasn’t thinking. Sorry.”
“Mosquito bites are the least of our worries, Seamus,” Ri said. “I’m used to them. They fade fast.”
“Least of our worries, eh?” It might be true, but Seamus suspected they had different ideas about what there was to worry about. No way was Pete a danger, a wolf . Pete had been unreliable at times, absenting himself for no reason, but that had been his worst flaw. Well, apart from an annoying tendency to hang on to Seamus after their relationship ended. “Do you need to eat more?”
“Yes.”
“Look, I didn’t mean for you to starve yourself and get attacked by the bugs.”
“I wanted you to feel safe.”
“That’s nice, Ri, but I’d rather you didn’t kill yourself over it.”
Ri crouched down and pulled out some more of those unappetizing bars. This time, when offered, Seamus took one and washed it down with water. He must have been hungry because it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared.
“So you don’t believe me?” Ri asked.
“Which part?”
“That I’m a horse shifter.”
Seamus cocked his head. “I’m undecided. Tell me more.”
He couldn’t believe it. But he could play with the idea, could listen until he caught Ri out one way or the other. Though he had the sinking feeling Ri believed himself. Which made everything harder.
Plus a nagging voice reminded him that Black had rescued him that night seven years ago, and Ri couldn’t know the details of it, Pete’s reference aside.
Besides, if people could shift into wolves and the occasional cat, why not a horse?
“I’m the only one,” Ri said.
“Your brother isn’t a horse shifter?” Seamus thought of the two horses in the photos.
“And my brother,” Ri acknowledged, and pulled in a breath. “I hope. I don’t know where he is. Family history says that horses get themselves killed, starving when they’re young and shifting too often, or staying horse too long when we need to eat a lot. My grandfather worked hard to prevent that for Zach and me.”
“There are other shifters. Is there some kind of community? Can’t they help you out?”
Ri made a sound of derision. “Other shifters aren’t safe, they’re predators and we’re not. We can’t trust humans either.”
“So why trust me?”
Ri didn’t answer right away then offered a crooked smile, eyes not quite meeting Seamus’s. “I didn’t want to.”
Something softened in Seamus. It wasn’t just the smile, but the hope that lay behind it.
“First I rescued you.” Ri darted a glance Seamus’s way, and Seamus nodded, acknowledging the night. “Then you worked for my grandfather and…”
“You, I mean, Black, never let me touch you when your grandfather was around,” Seamus pointed out. “You avoided me.”
“I didn’t want to give myself away.”
“I don’t get it. How would that give anything away?”
“I didn’t want to get attached, which would tempt me to give myself away,” Ri said more harshly.
Seamus considered this, considered that such a few interactions would make Ri attached, and felt scared for the man again. Whatever Ri had been doing, whatever Ri was, it must be an isolating, lonely experience.
“I looked after my grandfather these last couple of years. I’m glad I did, but it was a mistake for me. I’m having trouble moving on.” Ri shrugged, a slight movement of those shoulders, his entire long body folded up on the floor. A part of Seamus wanted to take Ri to bed.
Bad, bad idea. Nothing about this could be casual, and Seamus could not predict Ri’s actions or reactions.
“I thought when Grandfather died that I’d run wild, stay horse, forget about this…” He swept a hand over his balled-up body. “And I can’t. Instead I put up old photos in