Chapter One.

The guy was following him, Grady knew it. He had known for a few blocks. His stomach knotted tightly and he sped up a little. He’d caught only the briefest of glances at the guy trailing him, not wanting to give away his suspicion, but saw only a shadow. Something about the shape or the size was familiar, and Grady had a feeling he knew exactly who it was.

He’d seen the guy a lot over the past few days. Once at the Jazz festival he worked a booth at on Sunday, again on Tuesday down at the piers. He was a big guy with a broad chest and thick, muscled arms. Not huge, but there was power there. His body was certainly larger than Grady’s lean runner’s frame: all long, skinny legs and thin, compactly muscled arms. He was built to cut right through the wind. He could run like hell but he wasn’t one to back down easily from anything. At the same time, Grady knew a beating when it followed him home from work at night, and he had no doubt this guy could snap him like a twig.

He should run. He thought back to the piers, when he’d caught the guy staring. Their eyes had met briefly, half a second, but Grady still couldn’t shake the feeling that had gripped him in that instant. The feeling that something in his gut had just been bottled up and shook and now begged releasing, like those bursting bottles of champagne at parties on TV, or the sodas kids sprayed at each other down at the beach.

The guy was getting closer. Grady sped up. Yeah, he should run, but in trying to lose the guy he’d become slightly disoriented. Was it turn right on Empire then left on Tenth or left on Empire and right at Ninth? He didn’t see the lights from downtown and realized they must be behind him.

“Excuse me!”

Grady nearly jumped right out of his skin and even ran halfway up the block before turning back at one of the light posts, putting it between them.

“What the fuck do you want?” he yelled at the guy, hating how hard his heart was pounding. “I know you’ve been following me!” Yeah, unnecessary, but shit. He was scared. And there was downtown: the Merc and a bunch of office buildings blinking and winking all night and all day. And right before that, scary stalker guy.

The guy didn’t move toward him, just stood at the other end of the block under a second street light with his hands up.

“I just want to talk to you,” the guy said, sounding calm, which only served to piss Grady off further.

“Are you nuts?” he yelled, actually wanting to know.

The guy hesitated. “I don’t believe so.”

Still, Grady looked at him like he was crazy.

“Well, maybe.” The guy shrugged.

“You don’t go following people around in the middle of the night ‘cause you wanna talk to them,” Grady pointed out, omitting for now that the guy had probably been following him much longer than that. He came out from around the light post and moved a few yards closer, but still hung back. “You’ve seen me before, right?” he asked. His gut twisted. In the light, he saw the guy wasn’t bad looking. Seemed tired but he was clean, well dressed even at this hour. Grady remembered that from before, that he was handsome, but mostly he’d been too freaked out to notice.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” the guy said, still sounding calm but now with an edge to his voice. Excitement? “I wasn’t sure at first. I mean, how was I supposed to know? But, looking at you now…” He stopped, jaw working. Grady felt an odd sensation tingle all over, fight or flight. He should have just run. He should run now.

Instead he moved closer. His heart still pounded, only now somewhere up in the middle of his throat so he couldn’t talk right, couldn’t breathe right. The thump-thump battered his eardrums over all else.

“What?” he asked, quick and harsh, because the guy had said something. Asked him something. The guy moved one step forward and Grady moved two steps back.

The guy’s hands were still up. “Wolf,” he repeated, his voice coming rough. “Are you a wolf?”

Grady’s face burned. “Fuck. You,” he grated harshly. This was it. Either he was being messed with or any moment now they were going to come out and catch him. And that made sense, didn’t it? How long could something like him go unnoticed in the world? He wasn’t the only one, not by a long shot. It only made sense that normal people would catch on and find them and do things. Maybe the others gave him up. He could see that happening. Experiments. Shampoo or puppy kibble or hand cream or there was a video he’d seen once of a mouse with a human ear growing right out of its spine. Bile burned at the back of his throat.

The guy kept talking, moving slowly forward. So slowly that it hardly registered. “I am,” he said, “Are you? No, you have to be.” His tone was knowing.

“And why is that?” Grady asked, irritated, all thoughts of running forgotten. Fuck this guy. Fuck him for weirding Grady out. If Grady was going down he was going down on his own two feet. Or something like that.

“Please don’t be scared,” the guy said. “I didn’t think I’d ever find you. Ever. I’d never hurt you. Please don’t be scared.”

Grady could only stare openmouthed. The shook up soda can in his gut threatened to burst. “What is this,” he found himself saying in a hollow, foreign sounding voice, “What the fuck is this. Who are you?”

“I’m Luke,” the guy said, splaying a hand over his chest. Me Luke, you Grady. “Are you a wolf…? I’m sorry, I just--”

Grady kicked at a rock. It skidded off into the street and he said, “Yeah,” quietly.

“What?” The guy frowned. Luke frowned.

The corner of Grady’s mouth twitched. “I said, yes. I’m a, you know. A wolf.”

The frown disappeared. The moony look returned to guy’s eyes. Luke’s eyes. “Oh,” he said.

Luke. The name fit, Grady thought. Kind of masculine, no frills.

“I’m Grady,” he said, deciding. He released a deep breath, aware of a strange calm descending. “Hey,” he continued, “Let’s not talk about this here.”