The Night Beat

of the moment, you decide to trot off. Did you date at all before I met you?”
    He spun around. “Not really, no.”
    “It shows.” He stood there, looking very unsure and also, I was happy to realize, really cute. Like a big puppy who wasn’t sure if he was going to get swatted or loved on. Clearly, I was going to have to help. “Ralph, this is the part where you kiss me again.”
    He brightened up. “Really?”
    I couldn’t help it -- I laughed. “Come closer and find out.”

Chapter 63
     
    Our incredibly hot make-out session was interrupted by Sexy Cindy. “Maurice says to stop slobbering on each other because we need you two, now. Exact quote, by the way. If it were me, I’d let you two go at it.”
    Ralph and I separated. “Fine, fine. But Ralph has to stay here.”
    She shook her head. “Nope. Maurice got him cleared. The doctors want him under observation, so he has to stay in a full team, no solo work. Otherwise, good to go.”
    “Our kind heals fast,” Ralph reminded me.
    “True. I just don’t want you to get hurt again.” My voice was back to almost-whining.
    Ralph hugged me tightly. “We’ll be fine. A pack together can never be defeated.”
    I didn’t make any sarcastic comment and I wondered at myself. His outlook, while still a little militant, made sense now. And I felt safer next to him.
    Normally I’d have been in a funk over what had happened with Jack and hesitant about getting involved with Ralph for a variety of justifiable reasons. But I’d made the fastest mating switch of my entire existence, thanks to Jack actually being evil incarnate, and I still wasn’t having any problems with it. And if it would make the horrific ick factor about having been intimate with what was at least a part of my biological father fade away sooner as opposed to later, so much the better.
    “You got a big pack, if they don’t all have to have four legs,” Sexy Cindy said. She gave me a wry grin. “Told you he was gonna be worth it.”
    “You did. Good insight. Who’s with us besides you?”
    “Freddy, Merc, L.K., pretty much everyone else from earlier.” She gave me a long look, then stuck her head out the door. “Boys!” Freddy, Merc and L.K. arrived. “You three take Ralph back to Maurice. We girls’ll be along as soon as we clean up a little.”
    No one argued. Either Sexy Cindy was really gaining some on-the-job authority, or I looked like hell.
    The males trooped out. “Okay, how bad do I look?”
    Sexy Cindy shook her head. “You look okay. I mean, brush your hair and straighten your clothes, but otherwise, you’re fine. You and Ralph seem all loved up. You sure you’re okay?”
    I considered lying, but Amanda wasn’t here and I needed someone to talk to. Besides, I probably wouldn’t fool Sexy Cindy either. “I think I am, but let’s be honest, I’m not totally sure. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I feel completely out of love with Jack and more than grossed-out by the whole experience. I wanted to give Ralph a chance, even before I saw him in human form, and it feels natural and right to be with him like this. But, Adversary or not, beyond-gross familial relationship or not, I was so in love with Jack….”
    “What you thought was Jack.”
    “Ralph thinks he was a sleeper. He’s probably right. But that means I didn’t just fall in love with Jack’s exterior, I had to have fallen in love with at least a part of him . So, the part I fell in love with was likely more Jack than Adversary.” I considered Jack without Adversary parts. “Of course, he was screwing Susan the day dispatcher, and as far as I can tell, planned to keep on doing it even while professing undying love to me.”
    She snorted. “Could be a good reason why you’re not losing it.”
    I shook my head. “Maybe, but still, even though he wasn’t cheating on me with another being, Jude did have a mistress -- saving the planes of existence. But when I broke up with him I couldn’t consider dating for close to a decade. It was easier with Ken.”
    “You were in love with Jude, and you weren’t in love with Ken.” Statement, not question.
    “Yeah, I suppose. But I thought I was in love with Ken.”
    “Why didn’t it work for you?”
    I thought about it. “He was too perfect. He never minded that I wasn’t as perfect as he was, but I felt…inadequate, I guess.”
    She chuckled. “He told me you dumped him and he was really crushed because he couldn’t figure out what he’d