Free Wild Wolf by Jennifer Ashley Page B

in it. They need to be taught they don’t.” He chuckled. “It’s kind of fun to teach them.”
    Xav was such a nice guy, in a hard don’t-mess-with-me kind of way. He too was a former cop, and had started DX Security with Diego to help people who couldn’t otherwise find help, which Misty could respect.
    â€œWe can have a team in here to clean up right away,” Xav said. “Make the place good as new.”
    Misty shook her head and moved away from him. “Insurance assessment first. That’s why I pay for it.”
    â€œOkay, but if they start being a pain in the ass about it, you call me. I know people, Iona’s family runs a construction company, Shifters like to build things . . .”
    He leaned against the one clear spot on the counter as he spoke. Xav had brown black hair, dark brown eyes, liquid dark skin, and a square, handsome face. A hot man on a hot day. Why couldn’t Misty fall for someone like him?
    But no, she had to have a soft spot for a crazy wolf Shifter with a growling voice and a piercing gray stare. She shivered as she thought about that stare when she’d closed the door on him. But Misty had needed to be alone, to think, to worry about why Graham had been so enraged at her, why he’d said such things to her. And why was she so
thirsty
?
    â€œAny more water left?”
    Xavier looked into the little cooler he’d brought with him. “You drank the last one.”
    No problem. She’d go across to the convenience store. Misty was out the door and halfway across the parking lot before Xavier could follow.
    At the convenience store, Misty nodded a hello to Pedro at the cash register then went straight to the drink refrigerators and started taking out bottles of water. If she was this dehydrated, she thought dimly, she should grab some Gatorade or something. But no, she wanted
water
. Buckets of it.
    â€œHey,” a voice said beside her.
    Misty looked up, her arms full of blissfully cool and moist bottles, to see the hiker from the desert. He was still in his hiking gear, a little more sweaty and dirty than before, and he was reaching for water too.
    â€œYou made it back,” he said.
    Obvious, since Misty was standing right there. “Yeah. We made it. What happened to you? I thought you were right behind me, and then you weren’t.”
    The hiker shrugged. “Took a different trail. Didn’t see you. When I looked for you, you were gone, so I figured you’d caught a ride.”
    Misty nodded. “Friends came and picked us up.”
    â€œGood.” He plucked a bottle out of the fridge and smiled at her.
    The smile was odd. His teeth weren’t exactly pointed, but they didn’t look right either. His hair, tousled and sweat soaked, covered his head to his neck. When his hair wasn’t dirty, it would be very light blond, almost white.
    â€œSee ya,” he said, and turned his lanky body to move to the cash register.
    Misty took yet another bottle from the fridge and wished she’d thought to grab a handbasket. By the time she struggled up to the register, the hiker was gone.
    â€œWhat are the odds?” she asked.
    â€œWhat?” Pedro looked at her blankly, pausing as he rang up her purchase.
    Misty realized she’d said the words out loud. “What are the odds that a guy I met out in the desert turns up at
this
convenience store? How many are in this city—say, thirty? More than that? But he comes to the one right next to my shop.”
    â€œMaybe he likes you,” Pedro said, counting out her change.
    â€œAnd followed me? Creepy. Did you see what kind of car he has?”
    â€œNope. Didn’t see him get into a car at all. Or anything.” He handed Misty the change. “Sorry about your store. Did they get the guys who did it?”
    â€œYes. They’ve been arrested.”
    â€œThank God. That was fast. I worked at a store that was robbed seven