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his head up to find Bram standing in the room, but no Doug. He could barely contain his relief.
“You took off your clothes in your sleep.” Bram pointed to the small pile on the floor.
Ethan glanced at the clump of oversized clothes before looking at himself again. His body was in crappy shape. A long time ago, he’d been young and toned. Since then he’d lost his humanity and now? Scrawny limbs, knobby knees, he could see his ribs. He raised his face to scrutinize this dark man who carefully kept his gaze trained on Ethan’s face and off the rest of his body. What role was Bram playing in the werewolf game of Tame the Cat?
“It’s just me here.” Bram offered a half smile and to Ethan’s consternation, he wanted to respond to that smile. Mighty desperate for friends, his human, and Bram was the only possible choice. Doug had crossed himself off the list with, among other things, grinding Ethan’s face into the bed.
“Hungry?”
“Always. Ready to feed your test case?”
Bram frowned, but didn’t respond, simply handed the tray to Ethan who sat cross-legged on the bed and inhaled the contents. As usual, eating made Ethan groggy. He didn’t know why he had to be so wiped out all the time. He’d never get out of this room at this rate. He’d fall asleep in the middle of an escape and they’d find him snoring two meters from the building.
“Are you drugging me?” Not that he’d necessarily get the truth, but at least Bram projected earnestness.
Bram slowly shook his head. “Nope.”
“Someone else is drugging me?”
The slightest hesitation before: “I really don’t think so.”
“Then why am I so tired?”
“We think it’s because you haven’t been human for years, so it’s exhausting for you. Everything feels new with the different senses, different body, so there’s an adjustment period.”
Adjustment period sounded so innocuous that Ethan had the urge to laugh in Bram’s face despite his serious expression.
“Also, you’re malnourished.”
“I’m scrawny,” Ethan agreed. “You must get tired of holding me.”
Bram went quiet, apparently searching for an appropriate response if the look on his face was anything to go by. Interesting that he cared so much about what he said. He finally settled on, “No. I don’t get tired of it.”
Good . Maybe Ethan could somehow use that. Even if a traitorous part of Ethan welcomed Bram’s touch.
“Doug said that I had exhausted you.” Ethan got off the bed and went to the bathroom, then glanced up as he returned to see the wolf standing awkwardly, unsure about the new direction this conversation had taken.
That was good too, Ethan reflected. Bram didn’t appear particularly sophisticated or confident. Perhaps the alpha brought in dumb wolves to guard feral-cats-turned-test-cases. Ethan stared into those liquid brown eyes and Bram’s gaze sheered away. Obviously not an alpha. Thank God.
“I just needed to sleep,” Bram said eventually.
“Like me then.” Bram looked startled by that statement, so Ethan added, “Or wait. That won’t do. You wouldn’t want to be thought to be like me. Feral . In need of being forcibly contained. Apparently I might randomly attack all kinds of innocent creatures.”
Bram’s big brown eyes turned puppy-dog sad. “Ethan—”
“Aren’t you supposed to restrain, sorry, hold me? Keep the cat human and all that.”
Bram’s gaze turned more intense and despite everything else, Ethan was his stupid, sorry self and reacted to that gaze. He’d known it would be like this if he ever returned to the human world. His human needed intimacy, it seemed, and Bram was the logical choice. The only choice since Doug revolted him, which was straightforward thinking in its way, but absolutely insane. Dangerous.
“Never mind,” he muttered, turning away to grab a pair of sweats and pull them on. They held all the cards and they could use his need for human touch against him. He hadn’t realized, hadn’t wanted to realize,