Chapter 14

• She turned and headed back up the path and he was almost leaning out the window, just to get a closer look. Dammit! He turned and headed towards the door. He wasn’t going to go see her or get close, he was just—what? Going to spy on her? Ogle her? I have to figure out why she was getting to me, right? To do that he’d have to observe her. It was a flimsy reason, but it was the only one he could come up with as he hit the bush at a brisk jog and headed to the spot in the trees he knew she’d have to pass to get back to her car. He paused long enough to pull his shirt over his head. Hanging it quickly on a branch, he unbuckled his belt and worked to make his jeans quickly follow. He muttered a curse when his jeans hit the boots, still on his feet. As he plucked them off and tossed the jeans on top, he wished that movies were the truth and shifting with clothes on was a possibility. Unfortunately, shifting while still dressed didn’t turn out that way, the clothes did not stretch, adapt or magically dissolve. Instead they ripped, got tangled in body parts not meant to fit them or just hurt, period.
• He smirked before turning to head through the thick treed area. By the time he’d gone no more than four feet, almost at a run, all four paws working with smooth precise motion to take him close enough to see her without being seen. This time he remembered and jumped in time to clear the downed tree without stumbling. As he reached the area he’d been heading to, he stopped and sniffed the air to scent where she was. He’d gotten here before her. Crouching low, he moved over to stand behind the largest trunk in the area, hiding himself in a dark spot, so she could pass without seeing him. Devin focused on his breathing and made sure he wasn’t panting loud enough that she might hear.
• When he was positive he was hidden, noise moved up the path. She’d thought to wear her shoes with the towel, as the ground echoed her steps. Quickly, he moved down to the ferns covering the ground, almost lying down so he wouldn’t be visible even if she was looking around. Hopefully he’d succeeded as he wasn’t a small creature to hide. A long piece of the fern was in front of his face, so he had to swipe at it with his nose a few times before he could see under. Briefly, he thought of how ridiculous he looked, a wolf hiding under ferns to spy on an almost naked woman. He thought he should get up and go back to the house and was just about to move when the smell of gardenias filled his senses and he froze. Even in this form she got to him. This wasn’t a good thing. He was in control of his wolf, but animal instincts were hard to override, even by someone that had practised for over a decade.