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realizing that she didn’t know what either one of them did for a living, other than working as hired muscle for other shifters. She gestured at the stairs. "I’ll tell him that dinner’s ready."
    Sam nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen, and she could have sworn she heard whistling.
    It was odd. Her kind either avoided men or embraced a promiscuous lifestyle. Her mother had done the latter – lover after lover entering and leaving the house during Miko’s childhood. The fox hormones made it a lifestyle choice that few could resist.
    Miko had resisted, though. After seeing her mother’s relationships dissolve over and over again and her mother’s liveliness turn to bitter unhappiness, Miko had resolved to have better for herself. Her father had been a nice blond country boy from Montana, and he’d been unused to her mother’s were-fox ways, or her Japanese customs. They’d broken apart when Miko was very small, and she rarely ever saw him. After that, Yui went through lover after lover, discarding them like used tissue. Every break-up was filled with drama, and it taught Miko a valuable lesson: a simple, monogamous relationship wasn’t right for a were-fox.
    So she avoided them like the plague. Miko’d had the occasional lover, but when she grew restless, she knew the cause. One man wasn’t enough to suit a were-fox’s needs, and so she’d quietly break off the relationship. Her job offered her a lot of flexibility; she could live in the countryside by herself. Didn’t need to be around others, male or female. She didn’t need anyone, she didn’t depend on anyone, and without the opposite sex around, she didn’t feel the need to be promiscuous. It was lovely and freeing. It was…kind of lonely, too, if she admitted it to herself. But she usually didn’t.
    Miko knocked on Jeremiah’s door and then entered a moment later, hoping to catch him off guard. He glanced up from the computer screen and gave her the slow, thoughtful smile that she’d learned to associate with him. "Miko," he said in greeting. "I hope you don’t mind if we cleaned up a little. It’s the least we could do since we’re staying in your house."
    She shrugged, moving over to his side and peering at his laptop screen. "I don’t have much of a choice since my mother sent you to stay with me."
    He looked pained at her words. "I hope we’re not too much bother."
    Oh, you bother me , she thought.  On a whole new level. That’s the problem . "What are you working on?"
    He scratched the back of his head, ruffling his thick brown hair. "Just retrieving some files off a server." He gave her a quick look. "I do network security when I’m not tied up in…other things.”
    "And Sam?"
    "Sam’s a plumber."
    She’d have thought they’d have matching jobs to go with everything else they did. "A plumber and a computer geek? What makes the two of you team up?"
    He shrugged. "Sam was my roommate in college. He dropped out, I didn’t, but we remained friends. We’re still roommates. We work well together, and he’s a good wing-man on the X-box."
    How very…dorky. Still, at least they were normal. She could live with that. "I don’t have an X-box."
    His shoulders lifted in a shrug. "We weren’t staying here long, remember? Just until the fox hunters go away."
    "Right," she agreed, but it sounded hollow. Already she wasn’t looking forward to their leaving. How sad was that? "Dinner’s ready," she said, and left the room.
    The steaks were terrific. For some reason, that depressed her. Better yet, it made her antsy. She needed a good shift and run through the wilderness. But she couldn’t, because she was trapped here. Stuck with two handsome, sexy men that she knew were terrible for her easy, quiet life but she wanted them anyhow.
    It was driving her nuts. Miko threw down her fork. "I need to get out."
    Sam wiped his mouth with his napkin. "You want to go to town?"
    "No, I want to go for a run."
    "Absolutely not," said Jeremiah.