Chapter Eleven
Temple
When I woke in the middle of the night, for a split second, I didn’t realize where I was. Then I remembered I was in the motel with Gabe. It hadn’t been a dream.
Leave it to Gabe to get the only room at the motel that had a freaking sofa. He was so far across the room from me, I could barely see his shadow in the dark. I hated it.
I closed my eyes, trying to sleep again, but my mind kept reeling about everything that had happened over the past day. So, instead, I called out and asked him if he would sit with me. Had I been fully awake, I doubted I’d have mustered the courage.
As I fell asleep, I fully anticipated waking up in bed alone, Gabe back on the couch, but he wasn’t. I was still snuggled against him, his arms around me, as I soaked in his warmth. And he smelled so good.
He’d been sitting in that diner all afternoon long with me. Sure, he wasn’t near the grill, but it had to have soaked into him too, right? But no. As I inhaled, cedar and amber and rosemary, all mixed together in this intoxicating aroma, filled my nose. It was officially my new favorite scent.
Before I knew it, I was holding him tight, inhaling deeply again and again.
“You’re awake.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you sitting up all night.” Or to be smelling you like you were a flower or a perfume sample.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m so glad to be here and that you asked me. How’d you sleep?”
I should’ve pushed myself up instead of staying glued to his side, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to enjoy every last second we had together. “It was the best night’s sleep I remember having.”
As a kid, I’d wake up to my brothers playing what they called pranks on me, trying to “toughen me up” like a real wolf.
We didn’t know then that I wasn’t, but that wasn’t the true reason.
It was just an excuse to torture me. They’d cut my hair, pour water on my bed, and put rice under my sheets.
You name it, they tried it. They’d always been shitheads.
After they discovered I had no wolf, it got worse.
The good nights now were when they woke me up to make them something to eat or do their homework or clean up their vomit from when they’d had too much to drink.
When those were the good nights, it wasn’t hard to imagine what the bad ones were like.
As much as I tried to never think about them, it was impossible not to.
“I’m so glad.” He bent down and kissed my head. At least, I thought he did. He definitely brushed against it. It was close enough for me.
“What time is it?” I asked.
Unfortunately, he had to get up to grab his phone on the other side of the room. When he told me it was nearly time for my shift, I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t opening, but I did have part of the breakfast duty and had less than twenty minutes to get there.
“I need to go,” I said, jumping out of bed and grabbing my backpack. “I have to work.” I ran right into the bathroom to brush my teeth and get dressed. The last place I wanted to go was away from Gabe, but I couldn’t let down Gary and Layla either, not when they’d done so much for me.
When I came out, he was sitting back on the couch.
“How many days are you in town?” I wanted him to say a million, a bazillion, a trillion even, but he gave me the most noncommittal answer ever.
“I’m staying for a while.”
A while. A while could mean anything, but I didn’t have time to drill down for a more concrete answer. I was already pushing it timewise. I left, missing him by the time I reached the car.
I dropped the car off at the apartment, not wanting to deal with my brothers, and left the keys on the seat. It wasn’t like anybody was going to steal it. If anything, people would feel bad for me and give me keys to a new car. I ran in the back door just as my shift was supposed to begin.
“Sorry, Gary, I overslept.”
“You look like you slept well.”
“Yeah, I did.” I didn’t ask if I normally looked like garbage because Gary was honest and he’d tell me. I really didn’t want the answer. I was pretty much guaranteed to get a bad one.
“Thank you for working all day yesterday,” he said.
“Anytime.”
We started it off like a normal shift with me frying eggs, making hash browns, trying to be creative with the pancakes, and Gary and Layla delivering them with a smile.
But today was different. Every once in a while, Gary would come in and pepper me with questions, catching me just off guard enough that I’d answer. That was probably his plan.
So, did you stay at the motel last night?
Gabe, that’s your alpha’s name, right?
He’s not from around here, is he?
He didn’t even play it nonchalant, and, by the time I was getting ready to switch over to the lunch crowd, he knew where I went, who I went with, that my brothers were aware of all of this, that he was in town “for a while,” and that we’d spent the night together but not done anything.
That part, I tacked on, not because I thought he’d be judgy if I had gotten wild with him but because I was disappointed and whiny about it.
“What do you think a while means?” I finally asked, having spent far too much time thinking about it.
“You mean, in the context of your alpha?”
“He’s not my alpha,” I said for the third time, and once again, it felt like a lie. “But yes, I mean about that.”
“I think it means he doesn’t want to leave you any more than you want him to leave you.”