Free Conner's Wolf by Jory Strong Page A

Liked talking to her and reading the things she wrote. Hell, he even enjoyed arguing with her. All of which he could see himself doing for a long time to come.
    Nagging doubts returned, questions lost in sex and the need for more important answers. He couldn’t keep ignoring them, not if this thing with her was heading in the direction his gut told him it was.
    “Is Khemirra Reis your real name?”
    She stiffened but just as quickly relaxed. He wasn’t ready to read anything into the reaction—yet.
    “Are we getting ready to play another round of cop and prisoner?”
    She sighed when he refused to rise to the bait. Bringing a knee up, she rested her chin on it and wrapped her arms around her leg. “Yes, Conner, Khemirra Reis is my real name.”
    “You were twenty-one before there was any record of your existence.”
    “That’s right.” Her smile teased rather than taunted. “I thought cops couldn’t pull DMV records unless they had cause.”
    “I had cause, you . Why don’t you exist before you got your driver’s license?”
    She contemplated him for a long moment before finally saying, “Because I was twenty-one before I decided to leave the small town I grew up in and see what the rest of the world had to offer. And don’t bother asking the town’s name. I won’t tell you and knowing it wouldn’t help you. For generations the majority of residents have lived anonymously, completely off Uncle Sam’s radar screen.”
    A band formed around his chest, tightened, compressing his lungs so it was difficult to breathe. “You grew up in a cult?”
    “Hardly. I grew up in a place where self-reliance is valued, and at the same time, the concept of family extends to everyone in town.”
    “Why the secrecy then?”
    “Will it set your mind at ease if I say something like, fear of Big Brother?”
    Jesus. He wasn’t sure how much of this he wanted to know. It didn’t stop him from saying, “It depends on whether or not the citizens are armed to the teeth and ready for a gun battle if law enforcement or government officials show up.”
    “Then relax, Conner. There’d be a mass exodus well before there was any chance of a confrontation taking place.”
    “So why didn’t you run back home?”
    “Because I don’t know how Scholes keeps finding me. And though you don’t want to hear this, since I can’t be sure he’s not using a psychic or a witch or a mage charm, I can’t risk leading him to my family and the town I grew up in. He’s absolutely convinced I’m a werewolf. Imagine what he’d do if he thought he’d found a whole town full of them.”
    Conner grimaced. This was a prime example of how belief in the supernatural and turning into a certifiable whacko went hand in hand. But open that conversational door with Khemirra and a whole avalanche of shit was likely to push through and smother what they had going together, not fertilize it and lead to beautiful things—a thought that had his lips kicking up at the corners though the smile was fleeting. He wasn’t ready to talk about psychics, much less witches or mages tracking her, but he couldn’t quite blow the possibility of it off either, thanks to Aislinn’s having been able to locate the Morrison and Kirby boys.
    They needed to consider the wisdom of leaving. If they were a day ahead of Scholes or whoever he’d sent after her, then he’d just as soon use that day to get somewhere defensible. The cabin wasn’t it.
    He didn’t regret bringing her here. His gut, reinforced by her long run in the woods, told him she’d needed this and wouldn’t have agreed to stay with him anywhere else. But play time needed to end. “We should leave today.”
    “When?”
    “The sooner the better.”
    “Then I need something to tide me over until we stop for the night.”
    He laughed at the reminder of his own words after the mind-frying blowjob in the motel shower. The band around his chest fell away and he wondered how in the hell he’d gotten so