I Faked My Death, and the Alpha at My Grave Has Lost His Wolf novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Burn

The sale barn on Highway 77 is empty on a Friday night, and it smells of sawdust and cattle and cold iron.

I found the door at the back by the loading chute, and I found the stairs by the light at the top of them.

The loft office hangs over the auction ring on the north side.

It has a plate-glass window that looks down on the sawdust, a desk, a space heater and a cot with an army blanket.

Anton had been sleeping there since Christmas Eve.

He stood at the top of the stairs in his stocking feet with a ledger in his hand.

"I didn't hear the truck," he said.

"You wouldn't have," I said. "You can't smell it coming."

It was the first time I had said it to him as a plain fact, and it did not hurt either of us.

He set the ledger down.

"I drove here on purpose," I said. "I'm saying that first."

"All right."

"I'm saying yes first, too. Before you ask me anything, before you stand there being careful. I would like you to go to bed with me."

His mouth opened and closed.

"Here?" Anton said.

"It's got a cot."

"It's got an army blanket."

"I've slept on worse in Marathon," I said, and shut the door behind me.

The heater ticked.

Through the window the empty ring lay under one bulb, with the gate chains hanging still.

I walked up to him and took his face in both hands.

I kissed him slowly, and he put his hands on my waist and left them there.

"The undershirt," I said against his mouth.

"Zora."

"You said soon. It's been six weeks, and I'm on my feet in a barn."

He stood with his forehead against mine.

I felt his breath go in, and hold, and come out.

"I've never taken it off for anyone in the light," Anton said.

"I know."

"The doctor in Victoria said it was a mercy it healed at all."

"I'm not a doctor," I said. "Take it off, or I will."

He gave a short laugh with no air in it.

Then he took the hem in both fists and drew the gray cotton up over his head, and dropped it on the floor.

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