Page 57 of A Broody Mate for the Human

Raffy stares at me in horror and surprisingly worried, halting the car almost instantly. Good thing we are basically all alone on the road. “What happened!?” he asks.

“There.” I point with my finger at something outside, smiling when Raffy gets out of the car to look for the invisible monster that just scared me. I use the time to slip over to the driver’s seat and adjust the mirrors and the seat again.

Raffy turns around, staring at me for a moment while he slowly seems to put two and two together. He approaches me with long strides, opening the driver’s door. “Do you find that funny?”

“No,” I say evenly. “But I’m not letting you drive anymore. Now get in and stop complaining.” I throw him a bag with chips and one of the sandwiches. “You can have a snack meanwhile.”

Raffy huffs and grumbles and glares at me. It seems like he wants to reprimand me further but doesn’t dare to, which is kinda funny, considering he is so much taller and bulkier than me. He obediently sits down in the passenger’s seat. “Why?” he grumbles.

“No offense, but you drive like my neighbor, Mrs. Miller, and she is ninety!” I start the engine and take off.

“You are driving way too fast!” he yells.

“Even a snail would be too fast for you,” I mutter. “Even Sugar was getting bored.”

“Who’s Sugar?” Raffy demands to know.

I point towards the backseats, noticing how Raffy shifts a bit to inspect the crate. Sugar uses exactly this moment to bark. Raffy’s head snaps around. “You have a fur monster in the back of your car!?”

I shrug. “Raffy… Sugar. Sugar… Raffy, our bodyguard.”

To my annoyance neither of them seems particularly excited about meeting the other. Raffy just keeps glaring while Sugar demonstratively sneezes into his face and then farts. Well, our trio is off to a good start, it seems.

I open the windows a bit to allow the fantastic odor of Sugar’s fart to pass while Raffy just grunts and grumbles.

“Not a fan of dogs?” I ask him.

“I’m a wolf,” he mutters.

“And?” I shrug. “Don’t you have the same family tree?”

Raffy looks at me, seriously violated, like I just told him I was an alien, ready to suck out his brain. “Werewolf,” he says, pointing at himself. “Dog.” He points at Sugar.

I raise my brows. “Is there a reason you’re not using full sentences?” I ask, ignoring what he just said.

He blinks. “A habit.”

“A habit? What kind of habit is that?”

It’s silent between us before Raffy turns to look out of the window. “Have been wandering around on my own for a while.”

“Oh.” I suck in a breath. Wow, Dave, yes, you’re being really empathic at the moment. Just because Matthew fucked with your feelings doesn’t mean you need to trample over others. “I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “I wasn’t thinking.” I smile a bit. “Well, you’re not alone anymore.”

Raffy glances at me, clearly surprised. I can’t quite read his expression—well, his beard basically covers half of it, so there is not much to read right now.

“You really can’t remember anything?” I ask quietly.

He shrugs. “Just a few glimpses and pieces, but nothing crucial…” He coughs a bit, and I hand him a bottle of water.

“How can you do all that at once?” he mutters, drinking out of the bottle. “Driving, feeding me and your dog, talking…”

“I’m multi-tasking, baby.” I grin. “You should try it once.”

“Baby?” Raffy blinks.

I sigh. “You really haven’t been around civilization for a while. But we’re about to change that.”

“What are we doing?”