Zach gave a growl of his own and stood up. “Fuck this shit.” He angrily yanked off his boots and jeans. Standing naked in the middle of the room, he shifted.

A few minutes later, a 200-pound dark brown wolf silently padded out of the shack. He smelled her scent in the air and knew exactly the direction she had gone to meet up with her friends—he turned and trotted off the opposite way.

Chapter Seven

TOC

She had easily gotten through the intense question rtion of the evening: Where did you go? No where. Did you see Zach? Nope. What happened to your leg? Just a scratch.

She flew through Miki’s 20 minute analysis on the group’s business—some of the hottest clubs she’d heard of in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, London, Milan, the list just went on and on—and why a bunch of so-called club owners would be in a little dinky town in Texas throwing a rave.

But it was Angelina’s innocent “I had so much fun tonight” while they were driving home that Sara simply couldn’t take the pressure any more.

“I’M A WHORE!” She screeched.

Miki hit the brakes of the white pickup, causing the vehicle to fish tale. It stopped in the middle of the deserted highway.

The three friends sat in the vehicle, not moving, not speaking. They stared out at the big, star-filled Texas sky.

Miki, her hands still gripping the steering wheel, glanced at Sara “You’re not wearing any underwear, are you?”

Sara let out a strangled squeal and buried her head in her hands.

Angelina and Miki burst out laughing.

“Bitches.” Sara muttered.

***

It had been a busy night for Sara. A slammin’ rave. Head from a stranger. And shit from her friends. But she was sure it was the mere three hours of sleep that was making her unbelievably cranky. She’d already ripped poor Marrec’s head off when she got to work. He’d run out and gotten her a large cup of coffee, like an offering to some evil bitch goddess, then scurried away to his workshop to finish off some guy’s order. She didn’t blame him. She was being a total bitch and she knew it. She blamed Zach.

Zach. That was a stupid name. He was stupid. Stupid big armed, big handed bastard. Both Miki and Angelina assured her that she would never see the guy again.

“Honey, he’s a biker. He got his wings and flew.” That was after they had arrived back at her apartment. During this portion of the conversation, she had buried her head in the couch, her hands over her ears, but her friends weren’t giving her a break.

“Would you prefer we lied to you,” Miki asked, “Tell you he’s going to marry you and take you away from all this.”

“We love you too much to do that.” Angelina added.

Yeah. Sure. That was it.

Sara flipped through a magazine she foundlying around. She figured it was Angelina’s since it was all the newest fashions, none of which she knew. But she wasn’t reading anything. She wasn’t even seeing the pictures. All she kept seeing were those big hands and those beautiful hazel eyes. She kept remembering how his tongue tasted and the feel of his hands on her legs… between her thighs…

“Hi.”

“Nothing!” She snapped, for no reason in particular. She saw Angelina in front of her.

“Hmm, I wonder what you’ve been thinking about?” Her friend asked with mock innocence.

Sara sneered at her. “Why are you here?”

“I was just seeing how my best friend was doing after her recent bout with promiscuity?”

“I’m tired and cranky.”

“Clearly.” Angelina tugged on her friend’s jacket. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ll get you lunch or something.”

Sara’s eyes narrowed, “Did Marrec call you?”

Angelina turned on that dazzling smile. “Well, he’s been hiding in the back now for two hours. You scared the shit out of him.”

“Honestly.” Sara slipped off the stool and grabbed her backpack. “I’m leaving,” she yelled at the back door. “You can come out now.”

Sara came around the corner and moved toward the front door. When she realized that Angelina wasn’t next to her, she stopped and spun around. “Are you coming or what?”

But the expression on Angelina’s face startled her. She was staring at her like she had grown another head. “What’s your problem?”

Angelina’s eyes narrowed. “Honey, where’s your limp?”

Now it was Sara’s turn to look as if her friend had grown another head, “My… what?”

“I’ve known you 20 years now. And since day one, I’ve watched you limp your ass around this town. Now. Today. I just watched you practically skip to the front door. Pain free. What the hell’s going on?”

Sara looked down at her legs. She took a few steps. Nope. No limp. Because there was no pain. None. Stranger still, even on those rare occasions that Sara didn’t have pain, her leg was always so weak that she still had the limp. Now it felt like her wounded left leg was as strong as her right. And both felt even stronger than that.

Sara bent her knee and raised her leg up. She stretched the leg out behind her and leaned forward. No pain. No weak muscles. Just fluid movement.

Sara had been so late this morning and so busy thinking about Zach she hadn’t even realized it. In fact, when she got out of bed she immediately started limping out of habit.

“I don’t know. It hurt yesterday. A lot.”