Free Love Bear Nun by Ava Hunt Page A

day.”
     
                  “What do you mean during the day?” Jacinda asked, twirling a pencil in her fingers as Henson smoked hit his cigarette.
     
                  “We always attacked at night. We used it for cover and for deniability. We could simply say some animals attacked them. They never had any evidence that we were there, maybe fur, but it wasn’t anything human that they could use to track us.” Henson replied, shaking his head back and forth as memories flashed through his head of the dead bodies he had killed then made the mistake of making eye contact with; he felt like that haunted him worse than killing them did.
     
                  “You’re not there anymore, you don’t have to live like that and, in fact, you can’t keep living like that. Especially being a shifter.” Jacinda said quietly. “You could turn yourself feral.”
     
                  “I was close to it.” Henson explained, shaking his head to the side as he felt horrible for his past actions. “I just want to have a normal life, a life without the pain, without the flashbacks… without… ugh… you’re lucky you didn’t get the shifter gene.”
     
                  “We’re actually out of time already.” Jacinda said, looking at her clock, “Wow, time flies…”
     
                  “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” Henson said, putting his cigarette out casually.
     
                  “What are you doing later?” Jacinda asked. Henson couldn’t help but think of when her lips were wrapped around him and visualize taking her to bed but did his best not to let his urges control him and played it cool.
     
                  “I’m probably not going to the bar, that’s for sure.” Henson said with a chuckle as he walked over towards the door. “Why, what time do you get out of work?”
     
                  “Eight o’clock. I was thinking we could catch a late dinner.” Jacinda said with a smile.
     
                  “I’d like that.” Henson replied, smiling without even trying. For once, he felt happy.
     
                  Henson walked out with a grin on his face, unable to scowl if he wanted to; he had a date. As he walked out Stacy looked at him with a weird look on her face as if she was confused by his grin but he didn’t care and she just went back to her paperwork. Henson walked outside and headed for the store, smacking his lips together in thirst. Along the way he thought he saw Darren but knew he couldn’t have gotten out of jail already. He walked as casually as he could on his way to the store, enjoying everything from the sunlight to the mid-summer breeze.
     
                  He could do without the various smells in the town, but some of them were pleasant, like smelling what someone was cooking for dinner or laundry being done. He walked into the store and headed for the cooler he usually picked his drinks from but they were out. He shrugged his shoulders, it was no big deal and he even was glad to experience something so small as that, something that would happen in a normal life. He smiled and grabbed some milk instead figuring it was better for him especially since he didn't have a hangover anymore.
     
                  Time seemed to go by pretty slowly with Henson looking forward to his date with Jacinda. He continually told himself that it wasn’t a date to try to calm his nerves but he couldn’t lie to himself; what else could it be? He went home and took a shower and got ready for his date but still had an hour to go before she even got out of work. He chuckled, feeling like things were falling into place and realized that he wasn’t having as many flashbacks as normal. He smiled, wondering if Jacinda was the key to his normal life in more ways than one.

Chapter Nine
     
                  Henson couldn’t help but