Dawson Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire 5) by T. S. Joyce Page A

pulled into an iced-over parking spot near the Taco Trailer. “Did he hurt you?”
    “Once. He choked me, and I thought I was going to die. He looked insane, but he doubled over on himself and dropped me, then ran out the back door.” Into the snow where she’d watched him change into a gray wolf just on the edge of the back porch light. His contorted body and white eyes still visited her nightmares. “Dalton?”
    “Hmm?” he asked, more growl than question.
    “How did he die?”
    Dalton inhaled deeply. “He hurt a woman, cut her face with an ax and went after her man.” He slid an unsympathetic look to Kate. “The woman hurt him back.”
    “Good for her,” she murmured. The blinking neon lights cast Dalton’s face in greens and blues. She liked Dalton’s wolf eyes much more than Miller’s. They weren’t crazy, just enthralling. “Since we’re full speed ahead on this mortification train, do you want to see what I got in the mail the other day?”
    Dalton held out his hand. “Yep.”
    She giggled and pulled out the ripped envelope from her purse, slid the wedding invite out of the thick covering, then set it gingerly onto his palm.
    “Dalton read it in the glowing lights of the Taco Trailer. “Whose wedding?”
    “My pre-Miller ex.”
    Dalton slid her a grossed-out look. “Why would he invite you to his wedding?”
    “Because Nadine Bertrand,” she explained, pointing to the bride’s name on the invite, “was my best friend for more than twenty years. Basically since we were fetuses.”
    Dalton’s eyes went wide. “Your ex is marrying your best friend?”
    “ Ex best friend.”
    “Please tell me they started dating after you broke up.”
    She stifled a laugh at his expression. “Nope.”
    “That’s fucked up. Wait, you’re not going, are you?”
    “Heck no. I haven’t talked to either of them since I found out. Nadine keeps calling me though, wanting to be friends again. Apparently, she misses me. As you can see, I don’t have the best taste in…people.”
    Dalton huffed a dark laugh. “No, you don’t. Wait there,” he said, shoving his door open.
    “Why? I’m hungry.”
    “Because, you impatient woman, I’m going to open your door for you.”
    “I knew this was a date,” she murmured, feeling giddy.
    Dalton gave her a heart-stopping grin before he closed his door and jogged around to her side. He helped her out of the high cab and settled his hand on her lower back as they approached the food truck. Bats flapped around her stomach as his touch lingered at the base of her spine. How could a man pull such a potent reaction from her body with nothing more than the brush of his palm?
    Giddy and a little off-balance, she took a spot in line behind a couple of slurring bar patrons ordering what sounded like one of everything.
    After Dalton put their order in and collected their paper-lined baskets of tacos, she sat down at one of the tables right beside the giant heater. It was warm on her back, and she offered Dalton a shy smile as he took a seat right beside her rather than across the table.
    At the first bite of steaming taco, she rolled her eyes closed and groaned in ecstasy. It had been a long shift under Dr. Vega, and she hadn’t eaten since this morning. “This is my favorite food,” she said around a mouthful. “What’s your favorite food?”
    “Pussy,” Dalton said through a baiting grin.
    She nearly choked on corn tortilla. “Dalton,” she admonished.
    He was laughing now as he poured hot sauce over his own tacos. “Meat. I like any kind of meat. The rarer the better.”
    Another tongue-in-cheek werewolf admission, and now he was looking at her, daring her to ask questions.
    “Favorite color?”
    The smile fell from Dalton’s face. “It used to be blue, but now it’s green.”
    Huh. Her eyes were green. She ducked out of his serious gaze so he wouldn’t see the color in her cheeks. “I like your truck.”
    “Thanks, I just bought it today.”
    “You