Page 14 of Leave Me (Shift MC #1)

Chapter thirteen

Fowler

W hen I left Blue Lake, I hadn’t been old enough to drink in public. Since The Barn served food, and Dad was a regular, I had been there many times. Carrying him home drunk was part of why I didn’t drink much. Usually.

Most of my hangover was gone after a nap and a second shower, but the mix of scents in the bar would normally have been annoying enough to make me turn around and leave.

In the city, I lived above my motorcycle shop and near the ocean, two things that helped to temper all the odors of being surrounded by millions of people.

The bar had a hundred individual fragrances and colognes on top of people’s natural scents, plus the drinks and food served there.

The smell of Riley—apples, ready to pick and take a bite out of—overpowered them all.

“…and King said he could make the biggest splash from the roof,” Ricky yelled, slapping me on the shoulder and laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes.

I’d tuned out the beginning of his story, bu t I knew he was referring to the party after Homecoming and Cara Simpson’s house. “And you fucking did it!”

“I’m a man of my word,” I replied, hiding my smirk by taking a sip of my cider. I’d decided to have whatever Riley was having, and wondered if he tasted like apples, too. “And I was right.”

“You nearly broke your arm!” Riley rolled his eyes and sighed at the memory, but I could see a smile in his eyes. “You could have missed the basketball season.”

“It was a sprain,” I shrugged. “And I just shifted to heal it.”

“Lucky,” Riley muttered under his breath, but I heard it.

The bar had quieted down, and Rel had already left since he had a shift at the firehouse in the morning. We moved to a booth, with Ricky between Riley and me. It was probably a good thing, because I kept my hands off Riley while also getting to look at his face.

Being around them was so much like old times, where we laughed and teased one another relentlessly. The difference was how much I wanted to kiss Riley. I’d always liked being alone with him; he was my best friend, but back then, I’d been so in my head about my dad and identity.

A decade later, I knew who I was and had a lot more room in my head for others.

Ricky was off duty, but he was looking tired. He yawned and tried to hide it behind his hand. My instincts told me to send the poor guy home.

“You should get some sleep.” I nudged him with my shoulder. “You didn’t get a nap today like I did.”

“Yeah, and we’re not kids anymore.” Ricky nodded, and I stood to let him out of the booth. “It’s just so good to see you, man.”

Ricky’s—and everyone else’s—easy acceptance of my gender was overwhelming, so I pulled him into a hug. “I’ll be here tomorrow.”

Slapping his back, I went to release him, but he clung a little tighter, Ricky’s strong hands fisting my jacket. “Don’t leave so suddenly this time, okay?”

Riley stood from the booth behind Ricky, and my eyes caught his when I replied, “I promise.”

Reluctantly, Ricky let me go and hugged Riley. A rumble echoed up my throat, but I stopped it before my wolf could voice his displeasure. I usually had full control of the beast within, but something about being home was triggering my baser instincts.

“See you tomorrow,” Ricky said, and I caught the smile on his face before he waved and went behind the bar to grab his keys and helmet. Maybe my wolf had been loud enough for my friend to hear.

“You want to stay longer?” Riley asked, but was interrupted by the owner of The Barn announcing the last call for drinks. “Shit, it’s later than I thought.”

“Time flies, and all that.” I grinned down at my old friend and gestured towards the door with my head. “Walk you home?”

“You didn’t take your bike?” Riley asked, following me out after leaving a tip on the bar.

“Naw, I didn’t want to drink and drive,” I told him, holding the wide swinging door open for him. “Learned some things from my dad, even if it was what not to do.”

“How are you feeling… after everything today?”

We fell into step, leaving the parking lot as I thought about his question.

Across the street, I saw my dad’s shop, Motorvated, but the lights were out.

Slightly above it, I saw a light on in the house on the same property.

It was where Uncle Clark lived, and where I’d spent a lot of time in my teens.

His words had choked me up at the funeral, and I needed to remember to stop and tell him what his support had meant to me before I left town.

“It was a lot,” I admitted. “But it felt good to say goodbye.”

“Makes sense.”

We were headed up Wolf Creek Road, and Riley’s mom lived halfway to my place. Well, to the pack house. Not my place anymore.

“How long are you around this time?” I asked, knowing from our earlier conversation at the reception that Riley had only been back from an assignment in Africa for a couple of days. “Your mom must like having you around?”

“Not sure. And she does.” Riley smiled to himself and stopped to look up at the sky. There were millions of stars out, very different from San Francisco, and I spent a minute gazing up with him. He shivered and started walking again.

It wasn’t cold out to my shifter blood, but I wondered if the light breeze in the middle of the night was uncomfortable for him. I itched to hold his hand, warm him up like I used to, but that felt too forward after so long.

“You want my jacket?”

“No, I’m actually warm,” Riley insisted, and my wolf grumbled in my head. He wanted my scent on the man.

“Might stay for a while this time.”

Riley’s words took a second to penetrate my brain. He wasn’t going back out on another assignment right away. “Yeah?”

“Kind of want to put down roots.” Riley bit his lip and stopped. We’d reached his place, but I was reluctant to say goodnight. Talking to him felt comfortable, like the quilt my grandmother crocheted on my bed at the pack house. “Maybe shift my career and work from home. From Blue Lake. ”

“That would be a big change. I thought you loved traveling the world?”

“I did. I do.” Riley nodded, and we started up the path to his mom’s front door. Riley had never lived anywhere else permanently, aside from a college dorm, so I could see the appeal of wanting to stick around.

Part of why I’d let us lose touch was not wanting to hold him back from his dreams. He’d offered to transfer to a university in San Francisco, but he had a full scholarship in Southern California. And big dreams. I couldn’t be the one who caused him to lose sight of that.

“What changed?”

Riley turned to face me at his door, and I could see he was choosing his response carefully. “It’s just time to come home.”

His words hit me square in the chest, and I felt a mix of wanting to hold him close and also to run away.

“Goodnight, Fowler,” Riley whispered, his words deciding for me.

Pulling him to me, I wrapped my arms around his back, tucking my face into the crook of his neck. It was a mistake. I was scenting him without permission, but damn, he smelled good.

Instead of pushing me away, Riley held me tighter and chuckled. “Do I smell good?”

“Mmm,” I hummed, filling my lungs as I rubbed my beard and cheek along his neck. “Warm. Like an apple tree. But stronger. Sweeter than you used to smell.”

My face heated at the admission, but my wolf practically purred in contentment. He liked rubbing our scent on Riley.

“You smell stronger too,” he started and hesitated. “Still like cherries, but more like almonds. Richer, like a whole cherry tree in bloom.”

Riley had never told me he could smell me in high school. We were pretty sure he was only a quarter shifter, and his senses were barely above any human’s. He pulled back, and where I expected to see embarrassment in his eyes in the porch light, I only saw lust.

Swallowing hard, I licked my lips and asked for what I’d been thinking about all night. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” Riley answered without hesitation, his voice breathy.

Pulling him close until our bodies aligned from hip to chest, I ran my nose along his, nudging Riley to tilt his head so I could have my way with him. He obliged as if I’d spoken the command, closing his eyes as I pressed my lips to his.

Sparks of lust and longing raced from my lips to my limbs when Riley sighed and parted his plush, pink mouth. Licking at the seam, the tip of his tongue met mine, and I was gone.

Our kiss after prom had been sweet and turned me on—everything turned me on when I was a teenager—but I’d held back then. It had been Riley’s first kiss, and I denied my wolf, who pushed for more. Now, my wolf wanted to ravage the man in my arms.

Yes.

Ours.

Take!

Breaking the kiss before my wolf took control and hurt Riley, I nuzzled back into his neck. I could smell his arousal, tart and crisper than his softer scent from before, and I could feel his hardness against my upper thigh.

Holding Riley, kissing him, felt more like home than I’d known in a decade.

I was so fucked.