I NEARLY SHIFT  RIGHT  THERE in the street. Somehow, I know the crash involved Jasmine. I sprint at top speed to the intersection as a wrecked silver Volvo tears off down a side street.And there, in the middle of the intersection, is Jasmine’s bus, smashed on the side like she got T-boned, and spun around facing the sidewalk.“Jasmine!” I shout, leaping over the wall separating me from the road and nearly tearing her door off its hinges.There’s no airbag, nothing soft for her delicate human face to hit. Jasmine’s forehead rests on the steering wheel and the smell of her blood makes my vision dome. I’m ready to shift to defend her, but there’s no one left to fight. The assholes took off after smashing into my lovely human.“Jasmine. Fuck, Jasmine.” I want to tear the bus apart to make space for her crumpled body. I draw in a deep breath to calm the fuck down.Chri

I DISCONNECT one of the wires to Jasmine’s alternator, just in case she’s serious about leaving. I don’t think she will, but the woman is pretty stubbornly independent. And it wouldn’t be the first time she’s run off on me.I rub my forehead as the testier part of me grumbles that I should let her leave if she wants to leave. I’m not looking to get tangled up with her again anyway. But there’s no way I can let her fend for herself like this. A few days until she’s out of pain and I can get her bus repaired. Then we can part ways before things get intense again. It’s the only decent thing I can do.I walk over to the diner and pick up three orders of the huevos rancheros (two for me, because I have a wolf’s appetite), and I get a couple giant bear claw pastries too.My wolf gets cheerful on the walk back, like the idea of providing for a fema

FATES. I can’t believe I just tried to mark Jasmine. A human.That doesn’t happen. That shouldn’t happen. Something’s seriously off with my wolf if he’s picking a human to try to mate with. After all these years, after him never choosing to mark Barbara, the mate I chose.It’s insanity.The worst of it is Jasmine somehow knew. I don’t know what she sensed, but she screamed right when I was about to sink my serum-coated teeth into her flesh to forever mark her with my scent.A bite that could be fatal on a human.Fuck.And now she’s scared.And possibly hurt.“You’re not strange,” I lie. My rational mind tells me not to get within ten feet of her, but the scent of confusion and pain fills the room, and there’s no way I can heed my own warning system.She touches the goose egg on her forehead. “You know, I think I&rs

I OUGHT to be glad Jasmine’s through with me. I called her on her shit and she walked, same as last time. But there’s something itchy and unsettled in my center. Like I fucked up and I need to fix it.So my compromise is making sure Jasmine gets safely to her RV instead of wandering around the plaza like a vagabond.The drive to her RV is beautiful and the place she chose to park exquisite. She’s nestled right on the edge of the Rio Grande gorge, but still among pine trees.She has a couple solar panels on the roof, a solar shower set up in a tree and a little flower pot with wilted columbines by the front door.“Oh, you’re thirsty, aren’t you, sweet flowers? Let me give you a drink.” The looney woman is talking to her flowers. She opens the RV and comes back out with a jug of water, which she pours on the wilted flowers. “The pot is too small,” she says to me, as if I was wonderin

I DON’T KNOW what in the fuck I’m doing. If I believed she was capable of it, I would say Jasmine is truly a witch and she cast a spell on me. But that’s obviously not her speed. She’s not looking to tangle anyone into her web.Not intentionally, anyway.Yet, tangled I am. That’s the only explanation I have for why I feel it’s necessary to drive her bus out to her with supplies in the back to make her flower boxes.It’s stupid, really.I should just be dropping the vehicle off and then slink off to shift and sniff around her place to see what I can find. I have a job to do for Alpha Green.Instead I’m set on playing gardener to a woman who doesn’t want my help.Fuck-nuts crazy.And yet when Jasmine bursts out the door in all her jasmine glory when I pull up, I forget all my grudging reluctance. Her hair is pulled up on the top of her head in a messy bun that ma