I told Merrick I was going to take a nap. It was a lie he didn't seem to believe, but he sat down with his back against my door once again when I closed it.
Turning on the shower, I dragged Liv into the bathroom with me.
"His hearing is better than ours," I whispered, gesturing toward the front of the motel room. Liv nodded her understanding, and I closed the door before dropping to my ass on the ground and shoving my fingers into my hair. "I don't know what to do," I told her, honestly.
Liv closed the toilet seat and sat down on it. "You've landed in a pretty shitty situation," she agreed, "But it's a hell of a lot better than the one you were in before you got here."
That… was a good point.
"What would you do?" I asked her. "Easy. I'd fuck the falcon."
I snorted. "He's a griffon."
"Either way, he's damn gorgeous. I'd pick him hands-down." She grinned, then her grin faded to a sincere, sad expression. "I wish you had time to fall in love, here, Haze. But we both know real love isn't built in a week, and you have less time than that. So you've got to decide whether you're going to spend the next six days getting to know a handful of guys to make the best, most logical decision… or if you're going to pick one guy, and get to know him as well as possible before binding your life to his. You have to make the choice, because you're the one who's going to have to live with it. Though, let it be known I vote for the griffon." She winked.
I tilted my head back against the door, staring up at the ceiling. "Common sense tells me to get to know as many of these assholes as possible, but the damn pheromones tell me I'm not going to find anyone better than the damn grizzly. It's ridiculous, Liv—I held his hand in the café, and it felt better than anything. I've never felt so… important. And I'm a damn ruby wolf!"
"That was a lot of damning," Liv grinned. "And for the record, the hand- holding isn't because of pheromones. When Kent was chasing me, I liked holding his hand almost as much as I liked making out with him. There's just something really comfortable and sweet about it."
Well, that was nice to know.
Or shitty to know; I wasn't sure.
"You're a really smart girl, Hazel. You're a business bitch, a boss bitch, a biker bitch… you're every kind of bitch, okay? And I know you almost always make decisions based on logic, but I think this is one situation where you should stop thinking and just go with your gut. What does your gut tell you?"
"To take Merrick up on his offer to tell me about himself if I stop looking for other guys," I admitted.
"Then do it," Liv said.
I considered taking more time to think about it, to run through my options, but she was right. My whole life, I'd wondered what things would be like for me if I got to mate with someone I actually had feelings for. With Merrick, I might have that chance.
So I shut off the shower, stepping out of the bathroom and striding toward the door. When I tugged it open, Merrick tilted his head up to look at me.
"You have four days to prove you'd be a good mate. If I'm not satisfied, I'll spend my last two days getting to know other guys and choose someone else."
He nodded, standing and stepping past me into the motel room. "Where's your bag?"
"Don't have one."
"Alright. Grab your little leather skirt and we'll get going. If I only have four days, you'll be spending them in my den, not a damn hotel."
"This is definitely a motel, not a hotel." Liv corrected him, grabbing her backpack. She'd had time to pack us a few changes of her clothes before heading out, but her bag didn't fit a lot.
We wore the same size, though her body was softer and curvier than mine, just like her personality and her preferred style: beachy and casual. Her naturally tan skin and style made people think she was from California rather than Upstate New York. Her muscles and fighting skills were hidden by boobs, ass, and charm, while I wore mine like a shield to keep the world out.
"It was nicer before the last battle," Merrick said with a glance her way. "I'm sure." Liv grimaced.
I bit back a grin. We both came from wealthy backgrounds, but I'd traveled the US and a good chunk of Europe, checking out packs with my parents for the first half of my life and then by myself over the last few years. I'd stayed in packs that lived like plain old wolves and rarely shifted to human form: in the forest without homes at all. So to me, Shifter City was falling apart, but not awful.
To Liv, it was shit.
I grabbed my clothes, bundling them and tucking them under my arm.
"You're going to want to park your bikes in my garage and ride in my truck, or the rocks will chip your fancy paint," Merrick warned on the way down the stairs.
"How many rocks are we talking about?" Liv checked. "However many can fit on a fifteen-mile dirt road."
I patted Liv on the arm. She hadn't been riding as long as me, and was still in the newlywed-mode with her bike, constantly wanting to ride Banana. "It's fine. We can park our bikes. Fifteen miles isn't far to run in wolf form if we need to make a getaway, and you can leave whenever you want."
After checking out of the motel, we all climbed inside Merrick's truck. There was only a bench in the front seat of the cab, no back seat, so I ended up squished in the middle. Merrick turned on the radio, and country music flooded the cab.
"Country? Really?" I shot him a grimace.
"Hell yeah." He turned it up, shooting me a grin. "Beer, dirt roads, and sex. What else does anyone need?"
"I changed my mind," Liv declared. "I no longer support this pairing." "What would you rather listen to? Pop?" He shot us an incredulous look.
Liv shot back an equally incredulous one. "Dude, yes. I'm all about pop music."
"I listen to everything but country," I shrugged.
He turned up the music—some song about fried chicken and jeans. I preferred grilled chicken and mini-skirts, but liked
the way his expression relaxed with the calm tone of the country music.