Running Wild

this tent and keep visiting you. Now I’ve brought big trouble to you.”
The last words were uttered with guilt, and Seamus said, “Hold on, hold on. I’m fine. You haven’t brought me any trouble, okay? Besides kidnapping me tonight. But you can fix that tomorrow by taking me home.”
“ Pete found you.”
Oh, yeah, this whole werewolf angle, because nothing about Ri was simple. “Look, I’ve known Pete for years, Ri. He didn’t find me because of you. He contacted my parents.”
Ri held up a hand. “I know, you’re former…friends. But he might be interested in you because he’s looking for me.”
Unlikely given Seamus sometimes felt like Pete had been interested in him forever. There was Pete, always hanging around the edges of his life. At least since university.
Ri smiled to himself. “You know, I thought I’d have trouble convincing you I’m a horse shifter, so this is far beyond my expectations. But it does make sense, Pete looking for me.”
Not really , but Seamus wanted to keep the man talking. “Okay, explain. Why would Pete, if he were a werewolf, look for you?”
“In my experience, wolves like to hunt down horses.”
Seamus winced. “Good God. Pete is not a killer. I swear.”
Ri blew out a breath. “Remember that night I saved you?”
“Yes.”
“Remember the men who were following you?”
Seamus nodded. He hoped like hell Ri wasn’t going to say one of the men was Pete, although Seamus could refute that. He would never forget their voices.
“They were wolves.”
“But not Pete,” Seamus put in.
“Not Pete,” Ri agreed, taking a moment before returning to his story. “They were hunting me and you stumbled upon the hunt, so they were going to toy with you. Kill you. That’s what wolves do.”
It was somewhat alarming to be told his life had been in danger, even if he’d felt that at the time. But still. It didn’t fit.
“Ri. Wolves live in Wolf Town. They have normal lives. They don’t go around killing people.” Seamus was a bit uneasy stating this as fact, given that wolves weren’t super-well-accepted by the general population and there were occasional rumors of dark deeds during the full moon. The government continued to assure people that shifters were not violent, or not any more violent than humans.
“That is not my experience.”
“You’ve met werewolves?”
“Yes.” Ri looked at the bulletin board. “They might have killed my brother.” He paused to glance up, his eyes dark and deep. “I’ve killed werewolves.”
That took Seamus aback. “Uh, how?”
“A well-placed kick to the head will smash in someone’s skull. They aren’t able to shift with that amount of brain damage, so they die before they can heal.”
Suddenly this conversation was too much. If Ri thought he’d killed people who were werewolves, he might be dangerous. Though he looked pretty miserable sitting down there on the floor.
Ri sensed Seamus’s alarm. “I killed them in wolf form, if that makes you feel any better. I haven’t been knocking in any human heads. Keeps the police out of it when they’re wolf, whereas a dead body might cause me problems.”
Seamus was speechless.
“Seamus, I would never hurt you, let alone kick you.”
How reassuring. The conversation had turned surreal. Exhausted, Seamus wanted to end it for the night. But. One last question. “Did Pete seem like a killer to you?” Pete always struck people like a big teddy bear. It was one of the things that had attracted Seamus in the first place.
“Well, no,” Ri conceded. “He didn’t seem stupid either.”
“He’s not. But you can be smart and not be a killer, right?”
Ri glanced up at Seamus, understanding he wasn’t being taken entirely seriously.
“Pete is fine. Look, why don’t we go to town and meet him?” After all this crazy talk, Seamus felt the need to assert some normality into his life, return to the familiarity of the city.
“No! We have to hide from them.”
“We won’t tell him you’re a…horse.”
“Absolutely not.” The resolute expression on Ri’s face made Seamus feel like this was a hopeless case.
“What’s your solution? We hide in this tent together for the rest of our days? How is that possibly going to work? This isn’t winterized. You can’t live here all year round.”
“I don’t,” Ri acknowledged. “I either stay horse, or stay at my grandfather’s during the coldest months. This was a first step, getting you away from the farm.”
“Ri.” Seamus