Running Wild

where you live?”
Seamus shrugged. “I didn’t tell him, but I’m sure he can find out.” “Then we shouldn’t go there. He’ll locate us.”
“I don’t give a fuck.” The words came out in almost a snarl, and Ri shrank
    back. Seamus tried to get himself under better control. “Sorry. I’m not angry with you, Ri. But you’ll have to accept that I don’t consider Pete a threat and I won’t be chased out of my own place. Even if he is a fucking wolf and couldn’t be bothered to mention it when we were together. My one so-called successful relationship was a sham.”
But Ri wasn’t paying much attention to Seamus’s feeling of betrayal, that
    Seamus’s other boyfriends or dates had been flakes, and now Pete was a fucking liar. Instead, Ri allowed, “Maybe Pete isn’t a threat.” Still focused on Pete’s apparent ability to cause harm. “But his pack—”
    Seamus sliced a hand through the air. “I am ready to strangle Pete.” Especially thinking on how Pete had laughed so dismissively about Seamus’s horse story back then. God, that galled him. “However, that does not mean Pete is going to bring bad guys to my door.”
    Seamus could feel Ri’s doubtful regard. They probably needed to talk more or something, though talking was the last thing he wanted to do. He swallowed some of his anger and spoke more calmly. “Give me this drive home in silence, okay, Ri? Then we’ll discuss what happens next.”
    Ri’s leg jittered up and down, and inwardly Seamus sighed. Ri had good reason for his fears, Seamus understood that, but he wished he’d take his focus off Pete. Seamus didn’t want to think about Pete.
    “The apartment has a deadbolt. We’ll lock it,” Seamus offered. Ri just laughed. Tonelessly.
They walked up the three flights of stairs because Seamus didn’t feel like
waiting for an elevator. The entire time Ri glanced around, as if expecting an attack.
    It crossed Seamus’s mind that Ri had been right about shifters—at least he was coming to believe that. It still wasn’t one hundred percent real to him. Perhaps Seamus should be concerned about Ri’s other fears too.
    Then he thought of Pete. Who was the most gentle lover—suffocatingly gentle at times—Seamus had ever had.
As he unlocked his door, Seamus faced Ri. “I swear to you, Pete is not going to hurt me, or you.”
“He misled you,” Ri said slowly.
“So did you.”
“Not for years .”
Seamus walked in to his apartment. “True enough.” He dropped his keys on the table. “I need some coffee. I didn’t get to drink mine. Do you want some?”
“No.” Ri locked the door, zipped the chain across and stared, like someone might try to break the door down. Then he started pacing.
“You must be hungry.”
“Of course.”
Seamus opened the freezer portion of his fridge and peered at pizzas, relieved to find a vegetarian one. He popped it in the oven. “Food coming up.”
“I don’t know if I can eat.”
“Oh, Ri, you need to calm down.”
Ri stopped pacing to face him. “You need to understand what is going on. You think this is all about Pete. It’s not. They’re wolves . Plural. There is always a pack.” He pulled in a deep breath. “We have to leave here.”
“And go where?”
Ri looked miserable. “I only know how to run.”
Seamus wasn’t quite sure how to interpret that statement, although he took it to mean Ri had nowhere to go. He came out of the kitchen area and approached Ri, who watched as if Seamus was about to do something unexpected. While his original intention had been to give a hug, he revised given Ri’s increasing tension and walked around him, opening the window to the balcony.
“Don’t jump.” Somehow that didn’t come out quite as funny as he’d hoped. It occurred to him that Ri was no longer quite the unhinged individual Seamus had feared he was. His strange disappearances, his isolation, and most especially his belief in horse shifters all made sense.
“What?” asked Ri.
He hadn’t meant to stare in that way, assessing, or reassessing the man standing in front of him. “Tell me what you think of Pete, in terms of him being a threat. Do you believe he means to do me harm?”
“No,” Ri said grudgingly. “I only sense his good intentions towards you. But what you don’t know is that wolves have this dominance thing going on, and if his pack has other plans for you and Pete is at the bottom of the pack, Pete’s intentions won’t matter.”
“Pete has no