Chapter 6

Pacing her truck down the mountain wasn't difficult for him. His sleek, gray form veered around the trees without disturbing a branch. There was something to be said for being an otherworldly monster with almost limitless strength and a speed that couldn't be matched by any animal on the planet. She wasn't driving as fast as she could, but she wasn't taking her time, so he didn't interfere. They made it down the mountain and turned southeast at the fork.

They traveled for another few miles and had almost made it back to the main road when headlights appeared ahead of them. She slowed down as the other vehicle approached, trying to get off to the side so that the other vehicle could pass by on the narrow dirt road. When the approaching vehicle was about fifty yards in front of her truck, it swung sideways, blocking her path. She hit the brakes and laid into the horn. She managed to stop just a few yards short of the other truck. Two men jumped out, both were wearing holstered handguns. They approached her truck; one of them had a large flashlight and he turned it on, shining it into the cab and over the back of the truck.

She rolled down her window and shouted,

"Are you crazy? Who do you think you are?"

The one with the flashlight didn't answer her, but turned to his buddy.

"Hey, Bob! She fits the description but there ain't no wolf in that truck."

"What are you talking about? Of course, there's no wolf in my truck. Now, would you please get your truck out of my way?"

The one with the flashlight still ignored her.

"What do you think, Bob?"

Bob was looking all around the truck and into the woods. Since he didn't have a flashlight, he really couldn't see much. He finally looked at his buddy.

"Fuck it, Tim. Let's get out of here. I don't like doing this. Screw Scott! That asshole! I think that shithead made up the whole story so we would help him stop her so he could fuck her. Screw that shit! Let's go back to the bar and get another beer."

With that pronouncement, they got back in the truck, backed up and left the way they came. Casey sat there, stunned at the idea that the ranger would have actually sent someone after here.

"Well, thank God for drunken stupid dickheads who couldn't find their own ass with a flashlight and a gun!"

She heard a rumble off to her left and she turned towards the noise. All she could see were two fiery red dots floating above the ground. They winked one at a time at her, and then disappeared. It gave her the shivers to think that those were the eyes of her lover. She rolled the window back up and started the truck down the road. She kept the truck at a fairly good speed, but she didn't want to leave Dagomarus behind.

When she saw a flash of gray appear in the headlights several yards up in front of her, she knew she didn't have to worry about it anymore, so she sped up. She made it to Teton Canyon Rd. without any further interruptions; turning left she headed for Highway 89 and home. She kept a lookout for the other truck, but they must have turned down a different road. She didn't see any headlights or taillights in either direction. The rolling hills kept the sighting distances short, but at night it was always easy to see the twin beams of headlights as they approached the top of a hill. At one point, she looked in her right side view mirror and found that she had a passenger. There was Dagomarus in the back of her pickup with his head sticking out over the side, tongue flapping in the wind grinning ear to ear.

She made it to Choteau with no other problems. She noticed Dagomarus wasn't letting his tongue flap in the wind anymore. He had laid flat in the bed of her truck so that any casual inspection of the truck would reveal nothing. She drove to her house on the east side of town. As she pulled into her driveway, she looked around at her neighbor's houses. Lights were on but nobody was outside.

Choteau was one of those sleepy little towns where, after the sun went down, the residents were either at home watching TV or they were at one of the local bars soaking up a tomato beer with lots of salt. Since the curtains were closed on both houses, she decided it was safe. She got out of the truck and pulled the backpack out with her. She casually walked to her front door, unlocked the deadbolt and pushed the door open wide. She stepped aside as if to check her mailbox on the side of the house, when she felt, rather than saw, Dagomarus shoot past her.

She walked into the house and shut the door. She had a few small nightlights around the house, so she didn't have to flip on the overhead lights to see her way around. She set the backpack on the kitchen table and then walked over to the fridge. She opened it up and reached to get a beer, she really needed one tonight. She didn't drink all that often, but when she did, she liked the really good stuff. Grabbing a church key off the side of the fridge, she popped the top off her Brown Ale and took a long pull. She sighed, oh that was so good. She noticed she had someone at her elbow. She looked down and saw that Dagomarus was staring at her beer and sniffing. She chuckled.

"Would you like one too?"

He nodded his head rapidly and grinned. She pulled another Brown Ale out of the fridge and got a bowl out of the cupboard. She set the bowl on the kitchen table and poured it for him. He began to lap it up, and he didn't stop until it was all gone. He was chasing the bowl around the top of the table before she giggled and grabbed it from him. He sat down, looked up at her and let loose a belch that rattled the windows. She started laughing and trying to shush him at the same time.

"The neighbors will hear you!"

He looked at her and grinned.

"That figures, I bring a new guy home and the first thing he does is drink my beer and belch so loud the cops get called."

Chuckling, she bent down and kissed the end of his nose.

"Come on; let's go get you settled into your new home."

He followed her out of the kitchen and down the hallway. She pointed to the door on her left.

"That's the bathroom. We'll have to figure out if you can use that or not."

She walked a little further and turning to her right.

"This is our bedroom."

He didn't miss the stressed word, but he was just a little leery about walking into her private bedroom. She stepped inside and motioned for him to come in. She walked over to the window, rolled the blinds shut and then turned the nightstand light on. When his eyes adjusted to the new brightness, he looked around the room. It was a fairly typical woman's bedroom. There were flowery prints on the wall, lacy drapes on the window, stuffed animals on the bed, and shoes lining the closet floor. Things haven't changed much in a hundred years, he observed.

He walked over to her nightstand and sniffed at the drawer. He could smell HER inside the drawer. This confused him a little. He sniffed at it again. Yep, definitely her musky scent inside that drawer. He looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow. She looked at him with the same quizzical expression, until he pointedly sniffed the drawer front. Then her face went completely beet red.

"You can stay out of that drawer, pal. What's inside that drawer is mine. Besides, with you here now, I won't need that anymore anyway."

He shrugged. He didn't open the drawer, but 'that?' sure smelled good.

He looked at the size of the bed and chuffed. He looked at her and then looked back at the bed. They weren't both going to fit on that thing. She realized what he was getting at.

"Yeah, I'll have to dip into the savings account and buy a bigger bed. I'll do that tomorrow during my lunch break at work."

He turned to her when she said the last and raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, I have to work for a living, fuzzy-face. Somehow, I don't think anybody in town would hire you."

He shook his head. This was very different. Women working at jobs? Somehow he just couldn't picture her slaving over a stove or up in front of a classroom. Those were the only things women had been allowed to do the last time he had been around civilization. He looked up at her, giving her that quizzical expression again.

"I work at the local newspaper, the Acantha."

That seemed to satisfy his curiosity for the moment. She watched as he walked back down the hallway and entered the living room. Seeing the large fluffy couch, he walked over to it and plopped himself down. Stretching out his entire length, his nose hung off one end and his tail the other. She walked in behind him just in time to see him do that.

"Are you going to shed all over my nice clean couch?"

He opened one eye and looked at her, then nodded.

"I guess I'll be buying more vacuum cleaner bags too."

He relaxed into the cushions of the couch, luxuriating in the feel of the softness. This was a damn sight better than a bunch of pine needles or a damp dirt floor in a hole. She watched him settle in.

"You go ahead and rest there for a little while. I'm going to take a shower and get ready for bed. It's been a long day and I do have to go to work tomorrow."

He grunted but didn't open his eyes. She turned and walked back down the hallway. A few minutes later she was under the spray of the hot water, letting the stress and the grit of the day wash off. When she finished and had toweled off, she slipped an extra large men's t-shirt over her head and walked back out into the living room. She could hear him snoring. Well, he must really be relaxed for him to be making any noise at all.

She tiptoed over to him and bent over next to his head. Just before she was going to say something, the eye closest to her opened up and looked at her. The snoring didn't change pitch or speed. She smiled at him.

"Come on, fuzzy-face. I know it'll be a tight fit, but you're sleeping with me tonight."

He grunted and rumbled. He wondered if she had really meant to say it the way he took it. When her face turned red and she tweaked his ear, he had his answer.

"You, mister, have a one track mind. Now come on, I need to get some sleep."

She stood up and he slipped off the couch, following her to the bedroom.

He stood in the doorway while she turned the sheets down and crawled into bed. He got a flash of her bare backside as her shirt rode up when she slipped under the covers. She flipped the covers back and patted the mattress.

"Come on, fuzzy-face. I want you next to me tonight."

He grinned and walked up to the bed. He looked at it and tried to decide how best to accomplish this. He put his front paws up on the bed and scooted forward until his head was up next to hers. When that was semi-comfortable, he lifted his rear legs and curled them up over the top of her legs. He shifted a few times, and finally found a position where she wouldn't be crushed by his weight, and he could still put his head up by hers. She lay back on the pillow and turned out the light.

"Good night, fuzzy-face."

She kissed the end of his nose and closed her eyes. He snuggled up to her and put his muzzle against her neck, his hot breath fluffing her hair. She felt the warmth of his body next to hers and she could smell his unique odor. She found this comforting and the smile on her face stayed as she drifted off to sleep.

The buzzing wouldn't stop.

"NHMMMMmmmmm."

Monday morning. Work. She rolled over and hit the snooze bar on her alarm. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. Was it a dream? She was alone in her bed. No, it couldn't have been a dream. It was too real. Then she heard the toilet flush. Dagomarus? She flipped the covers back, and padded over to the doorway. When she peeked around the corner she watched Dagomarus step out of the bathroom door. He turned and saw her peeking at him around the door jam. Her looked back into the bathroom and then to her and shook his head. He stepped into the hallway, stuck his nose inside the door, and pulled the door shut. He then turned to her and gave her an apologetic expression. Well, she thought, at least he tried. I guess this wouldn't be the first boyfriend I've ever had to clean up after.

She stepped into the hallway and walked to him. When she got to the bathroom door, the smell hit her. Nothing smells as bad as a high protein diet predator in the morning. She wrinkled her nose, opened the door just enough to reach in and hit the fan switch.

"Is there a mess?"

He shook his head.

"So, it's just the smell?"

He nodded.

"Okay, I guess I can live with that, just hit the second switch before going the next time and it won't be as bad."

He nodded again.

"I don't want to kill my appetite, so let's move this conversation to the kitchen."

He spun around and headed for the kitchen, with her right behind him. He padded over to the table and pushed one of the chairs over to the corner, sat down and waited for her. She started the coffee maker and pulling a bowl from the cupboard, fixed herself some cereal. He watched her go through her morning routine. He managed to not drool on the table when she bent over to pick up a flake of cereal she had dropped, her pale white cheeks peeking out from under the shirt. She felt the stare and turned to look at him.

"Not this morning, fuzzy-face. I have to make it to work not smelling like sex."

She gave him a kiss on his nose and sat down next to him.

"Are you hungry? What can I get you to eat?"

He shook his head. He got up and went to the kitchen sink. He jumped up, putting his paws on the counter top. Turning the cold tap on with his nose, he started lapping at the water. When he was done, he turned the water off and came back to sit next to her.

"You are slick. Okay, so you can do some things around the house for yourself."

She went back to eating her cereal and drinking her coffee. She put the dishes in the sink and went back to the bedroom to get dressed.

While she was getting ready for work, he went into the living room and stretched out on the couch. I am going like living in here, he thought to himself. When she came back out, her hair was up in a bun and she had a suit on. He turned to look at her when she stepped into the room. The difference in her appearance was shocking to him; he sniffed in her direction to make sure it was still really her under that get up. She smiled.

"Yeah, I know. Everybody body says the same thing the first time they see me on the weekends after I dress like this all week."

She went to him and kissed him on the end of his nose.

"Now, behave yourself today while I'm at work. You can't eat the vacuum cleaner salesman for a snack."

He grinned.

"Seriously, if someone starts poking around, hide in the basemen; the door is at the far end of the hallway."

He nodded. She kissed him again and went out the door.

He watched her truck disappear down the street. He decided he wanted to know everything he could about this lovely woman. He started going through all the rooms and, when possible, some of the drawers. He did open the nightstand drawer, even though she had asked him not to, but that smell, so intoxicating, drew him like a magnet. He slowly pulled it open and looking inside, couldn't help but laugh. No wonder she was embarrassed, the women he had known in the past would have never openly admitted to having something like that, well, most of them anyway.

He gently nosed the drawer closed so as to not disturb the contents. After a couple hours of nosing around the house, he figured out she was just a single woman who was very ordinary. Nothing dangerous or illicit in the house. The photographs of people intrigued him; he could tell that most of them were of family. The facial features told him that much. He wondered what she would tell them about him, hopefully nothing, but he knew it was only a matter of time before someone discovered she was housing a giant wolf.

He slept most of the day on the couch. He just couldn't get over how nice it was to sink into something so soft after all those years in the wild. When the postman delivered the mail, he watched through the curtains. Nothing odd about the man's behavior, just doing his job. Okay, so maybe that ranger didn't blab it all over, or hopefully everybody thought he was nuts and just ignored him. He wondered when Casey was going to come home. He knew from the past that some jobs lasted most of the day and into the night. Maybe she was lucky and didn't have to work long hours. That brought up another thought, money. He hadn't thought about that concept for a very long time. Civilization ran on money, he knew that much; it hadn't changed since Caesar's time, so why would it be different now?

Something kept floating around just outside his consciousness when he thought about money. What was it? Had he done something to insure he would always have money if he needed it? Why? He loved roaming the countryside, not caring about the humans and their dirty cities. It gave him a headache trying so hard to remember. Maybe I'll take another nap and it'll come to me. So, he lay down on the couch again and slept.

Casey didn't really mind going into work today, even though it was tough getting up this morning, she really needed to go in. Since she worked at the Acantha, the weekly newspaper in town, she'd have access to any 'news' of the weekend's events. She wasn't a reporter, but she talked to the one person who was. There were only seven people who worked at the paper, and she was the typesetter. That gave her access to everything that was going to go into this week's issue. She also took care of the paper's 'other' business, the print shop. To supplement the paper's income and serve a needed niche in the small community, they printed business cards, letterhead, and pamphlets.

Luckily, the paper had modernized a few years ago, so she didn't have to do the 11" x 14" negatives and acid wash aluminum drum plates to print anymore. They had computers and a modern printing press, and although used, it was still much better than handling those smelly chemicals all day. The one caveat to the modern process, her hours got cut. Since she also handled customers' work from the print shop side, she was almost back to forty hours.

She parked around the back and went in to see if there was going to be any immediate fallout from the weekend. Dave, the photographer and printer, was just getting himself a cup of coffee when she walked in. He turned and smiled.

"Hey, Casey! How was your weekend? Didn't you go camping up into Lewis & Clark?"

Her inner fears immediately flowed through her. If Dave hadn't heard a thing yet, maybe she would be okay. Her relief must have shone on her face because Dave gave her a funny look.

"Oh, I went camping, but it didn't go as well as I had planned."

She decided to head off any screwy stories by putting her own spin on the events before anyone else had a chance.

"What happened?"

He had a concerned look on his face. She liked Dave, even if he was a little strange. That guy never went anywhere without a camera, and she suspected that he took a lot of photos of things he really shouldn't.

"Well, my campsite got ravaged by a grizzly bear."

"Oh my god, Casey! Are you all right? You don't look hurt; how'd you get away?"

"I think that there were two of them and they started fighting over who would get to eat me first and I slipped out the back of my tent and ran for my truck."

She wanted to get this out into the air fast. She had to have the two bear story to explain the carcass left by Dagomarus. She knew that once Dave found out about it, he'd jump into his truck and go take photos of it. Something like this didn't happen very often on the Front Range. It was almost unheard of to see a grizzly in the Lewis & Clark National Park, let alone two.

"Jesus! That was lucky. Well, not lucky about your campsite, but at least you got away. Hey! Draw me a map and I'll go take some shots of the campsite. This'll liven up this week's edition for sure! I can see Faith's headline now, 'Local Escapes Mauling'."