Free Little Wolf by R. Cooper

finished, feeling like a very obvious liar and a kid at the same time. Something about the sheriff brought it out in him. “Fine!” he burst out a second later at Nathaniel’s expression of disbelief. Tim gave himself a last few minutes of freedom by moving a few steps from Nathaniel’s heat and mouth and body and the complex scent that was nearly as intense as Nathaniel’s eyes. “But I can leave when I want.”
    He was in no position to be giving orders, but at least there were witnesses. They made him feel a fraction less ridiculous for issuing ultimatums to someone who would have no interest in keeping Tim around if not for an instinctual drive to protect everyone in town. It was probably why Nathaniel had become sheriff.
    It was another thing Tim hadn’t thought about before—did leaders find careers that allowed them to lead, or did they end up in their careers first and then grow into being leaders? His uncle had definitely been born a leader, but to his uncle’s way of thinking, anyone stronger than him should have been in charge. Silas loved his Nietzsche.
    Tim considered asking Nathaniel if he believed in a werewolf will to power, because sometimes when he was mentally freaking out, it was good to have something else to think about, and Nathaniel had said Tim could ask him about that kind of thing, but Nathaniel was staring at Tim and breathing deeply, and Tim was abruptly and acutely aware they still had an audience.
    “Are you making rumbling noises?” Tim questioned carefully, though barely above the steady, low hum—because it hadn’t seemed like a growl, or at least not as forceful as a growl, because growls weren’t pleased .
    “You’re going to be in my house.” Nathaniel continued to stare at him.
    Tim shivered. “Yeah.”
    Nathaniel took a long, long breath. “You are coming home with me. You will be close. I will keep you safe.” He definitely rumbled as he said it, animal and human at the same time.
    Tim wasn’t entirely sure about that, but the sheriff believed it, so he nodded. “Yeah,” he said again, and it was like with that one word, he’d given everyone permission to go about their business like they’d been doing before he’d walked in. He turned to watch the deputies for a while, not getting it, and not likely to with how everyone was now completely ignoring his presence.
    Everyone but Nathaniel, who reached out to him again, letting his hand graze Tim’s elbow. “I’ll visit Mrs. Pinsky tomorrow and explain. For right now you’ll have to stay here. I can’t take you home until my shift is over in the morning.”
    Tim resolutely acted like he didn’t shiver at the phrase take you home . “ How are you working again right now? I know you didn’t get much sleep.”
    Nathaniel paused to give him a look with one eyebrow raised. Tim didn’t think he’d ever seen Nathaniel make that face before. It was pure amusement, though, yeah, it might have been because Tim had scolded him.
    “See? I’m not a kid. I am secretly as old as Carl in my soul.” Tim thumped his chest for good measure. Nathaniel continued to give him the eyebrow for another second before he took Tim’s bags from him so smoothly that Tim handed them over without thinking.
    “Then you need your sleep too,” Nathaniel responded. He gestured for Tim to follow, as if unaware that was exactly what Tim’s body wanted to do, and Tim stumbled after him into what had to be his office, which had a desk, two chairs, and a couch. Nathaniel put Tim’s bags next to the couch before turning. He cleared his throat. “No one will come in here or bother you.” He really didn’t need to make everything sound like he was making a vow about life or death, but even Tim had enough manners to realize it might be rude to say that out loud.
    “This is a lot of trouble,” Tim remarked instead, then shut up at the Eyebrow of Bitchy Doom. Seriously, he hadn’t known the sheriff could be sarcastic or funny, but today