5. Chapter Five
Chapter Five
HARRISON
Emily is lying to me.
I’m not an idiot. I don’t buy her “I’m saving for a car” story. Not for one second.
No. I’m pretty sure she’s planning to run.
She’s never said it outright. Not that I’d expect her to.
She’s smart, and she knows it’s safer to keep everyone in the dark.
But it’s what she doesn’t say that gives it away.
It’s what I hear between the words of the stories she tells.
It’s the way she thinks omega is an acceptable, everyday term for a werewolf without a rank, or how she never misses the van back to her pack in the afternoons, or how the safest place for her money is a backpack that sorely needs replacing.
Yes. She’s definitely planning to run far away and disappear forever.
And if that happens, I’ll never see her again.
I can’t let that happen. Not without presenting her with other options first. Which is why I’m sitting in Brewed Awakenings on December twenty-seventh, waiting for Emily to arrive.
Luckily, it took little convincing on my part to get her to agree to meet with me. I told her I wanted to buy her a coffee, and that I had a birthday gift for her.
Neither are lies. I have a white mocha with cinnamon and vanilla waiting in front of an empty chair. I have a wrapped gift sitting next to her coffee, and I have an envelope full of cash. Just in case she still wants to run.
I hope I don’t have to give her the cash. I hope she’ll listen to my alternative option and agree to it.
But as the sky darkens and her drink cools, my hope turns to worry. Over the three months that she’s been “tutoring” Brad, she’s never once been late. Granted, we meet at Brewed Awakenings right after school, so she’s already in town, but punctuality may as well be her middle name.
“Harrison.” Felix, my future gamma and my other best friend, slides into the chair across from me. The chair I’m saving for Emily. He sighs and folds his hands on the table. “I don’t think she’s coming.”
“It’s still early.” A stupid response.
Felix seems to agree. He arches a thick, dark brow and glances at the pitch-black sky.
I bite back a growl.
I’m not sure why I brought Felix with me instead of Brad, to be honest. Brad is the one who knows Emily. Felix is older than all of us. He graduated from high school several years ago, turned twenty-one last spring, and he’s already found his mate, Fiona.
But it felt right—important—for him to be here. For him to meet Emily.
He’s my future gamma, after all. If my assumptions about Emily are correct, then—
I force my mind away from that line of thinking. “There’s still an hour until the café closes. If she doesn’t show up by then, I’ll leave.”
I throw the cold drink I purchased for Emily away, order another coffee for myself, and move to a table at the front of the shop. This way, I’ll see her as soon as she arrives.
If she arrives.
If she doesn’t… I can only hope that means she got out, and she’s on her way to a new pack. A pack where she’ll be safe, happy, and loved.
I just wish that pack could be mine.