Page 19 of His True Mate

“Shit!” I turned and ran for the a nearby Porta John in fear that I was about to shift in front of a whole lot of unsuspecting humans.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I whispered.

My wolf growled in my head again.

Someone banged on the door outside.

“Just a minute,” I barked.

I sucked in deep breaths trying to regain control of myself and ignore the permanent stench of the place.

“You cannot wolf out here,” I told myself.

“Clay? You alright in there?” Cruz asked.

Was I okay?

No. I was far from okay. My wolf hadn’t behaved like this since the early days of transition.

Stay!I thought sharply and then laughed at myself.Jesus. I’m losing it.

Feeling slightly calmer, I opened the door and stepped back out.

“You good?”

“No. Where’s Brady? We need to get out of this place. I can’t stay another night.”

“Are you shitting me? You promised. Two nights. You said we could go to the rodeo. It’s all Brady’s been talking about today.”

“I know, but I can’t stay here.” I begged him to understand before dropping my voice low enough that no human would hear me. “My wolf isn’t dealing well with those guys we ran into. I almost wolfed out, man.”

“Shit.” He ran his hand through his hair and looked around, then up. “Brady’s already up in the stands holding our seats. You sure you can’t try?”

“Do you really want me to take a gamble on this?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know. I just don’t want to disappoint the kid.”

I sighed. “Neither do I. Okay, look. Just head on up and I’ll hang out down here. If it happens again or you can’t find me, I’ll be back at the hotel. Deal?”

He hesitated but nodded. “Be careful.”

“I will. Just make sure you guys have a good time. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I watched as he walked up the bleachers to take a seat next to Brady.

Without having to worry about them, I was free to leave, but the mere thought brought my wolf to life again.

I groaned.

You don’t want to leave but we can’t stay if you can’t behave,I thought rather harshly.

Much to my surprise, my wolf withdrew.

I walked over to the fence and stood, watching and testing his reaction.

The rodeo began with barrels, clowns, and lots of laughter. I even started to relax a bit and tried to enjoy the show. The kids coming out to hog-tie some calves were particularly entertaining. But I was more fascinated by the animals than the people in the show. They were obviously well cared for and trained with an impressive precision.