To Grandma's House

Mom, We Killed Dinner!*

"Yes, shine the light over here, and not in my face." Even though it was still daylight out, the area they were in had a lot of tree cover. Being under the hood of the jeep made things even darker.

She rolled her sleeves up, exposing the burn scars on both of her muscled forearms and stepped up on the bumper, she felt his eyes on her.

"You're staring at me Deputy Shado."

"Oh sorry, are you sure you don't need me to do anything?"

"I just need you to hold the flashlight, your good at that."

Xael turned to him and smirked.

She had the battery hooked up in less than five minutes. As she started on the belt she stopped and sniffed the air.

"Shit!"

"What is it?"

"I smell blood..."

Shado sniffed and sure enough the smell of blood was in the air. Xael removed the glove from one of her hands and whistled loudly, minutes later the sound of paws were heard. As her pups came out of the brush, they each had very large and very dead rabbits in their jaws.

"For fucks sake...seriously guys?"

They dropped the rabbits at her feet and sat looking at her. Proud that they had caught dinner for her. She shook her head and petted them both. Xael couldn't really be mad at them, they were mostly wolves afterall.

"Good boys, Good boys!"

She turned to Shado. "You know how to dress a rabbit?"

"Yup!"

"Hold on." Xael went to the back of the jeep. She returned with a knife. She gave the knife to Shado and picked up both the rabbits, handing him one to dress. The other one she took and stepped off the shoulder and into the grass, pulling a knife out of her pocket she quickly skinned it like an expert hunter. Shado was surprised, most women didn't care to handle game. Holding the rabbit by its hind legs she asked Shado to get the machete from the passenger side door.

"You seriously carry a machete in your vehicle? I could give you a ticket for that you know."

"Yeah, but you're not. And what happened to those flashing lights to protect me?" another gorgeous smirk.

"Hey I got my hazard lights on! Those flash!" He returned her smirk and upped it with a bright smile after that.

She cut the rabbit in two and gave each pup a half. "Eat."

The two laid on the ground, chomping away at their fresh meal, bones and all.

Hands now bloody, she wiped them on the grass. Shado had finished field dressing the rabbit. She looked at his handy work.

"Not bad."

She took the rabbit and went back to the rear of the jeep, she had a yeti cooler that was still cold. Shado followed her, as she grabbed a towel out of a tote bag, the two wiping most of the blood from their hands. She took out the food and placed the rabbit in there after finding an empty plastic bag to wrap it in. It would keep just fine until she made it to the cabin.

Now back to the belt. The two returned to the front of the jeep. Xael stepping up on the bumper, leaned over to remove the old one. A chain of shiny dog tags fell from the collar of her shirt. She quickly grabbed them and tucked them back inside, but not before Shado had a good look at them. There were four of them instead of the normal two.

"You served?"

"Yeah."

"How long?"

"Too long. I need you to help me tighten the pulley."

Xael handed him the tool that was in her hand. She didn't really need his help but didn't want to talk about her time in the military. Keeping his hands busy would shut him up, at least she hoped. The belt was replaced in no time.

"Hungry?" She spoke to him, still avoiding direct eye contact. They both stepped down from the bumper, the loud slam of the jeep hood following.

"Starving. I haven't eaten since breakfast. Where'd you learn to work on cars?"

The pups had finished their meal by the time they finished with the belt. Walking to the driver side she dug out her keys and the jeep started right up. She opened the rear passenger door on the jeep and the pups jumped right in.

"Meet me at Grams for dinner. Hope you like rabbit."

Shado shook his head at her for what must be the 50th time since he had met her, again she flat out refused to answer him.

'She's definitely an Alpha...'

That was the thought running around in his head as the two headed to the cabin.