Chapter Seven
Dain
After we finished eating and cleaning up our food, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by… everything. Lanche just seemed so damn earnest, like he truly did believe everything he’d said down to his bones, down to his soul.
And I… wasn’t sure I could handle that right now.
I needed time to think. Time to come to terms with everything he’d said.
So after we finished eating, I said, “I can take you to your car now.”
His face fell, but he tried to hide it by turning away for a moment. When he faced me again, his expression was blank, but I could still see the hurt in his eyes, and it made my heart twinge.
Maybe that had been a bit too harsh. Shit.
Before I could take the words back, he said, “Yeah, okay. Thank you.”
With something stabbing me in my chest, I cleared my throat. “Are we going on a date tomorrow night?” There. Maybe that would make that hurt go away.
He nodded vigorously. “Y-yeah, yes. Yes, that would be great.”
“Cool. Where do you want to meet?”
He gave me a look I couldn’t interpret. “How about I pick you up?”
I thought about it for a moment. I didn’t really like the thought of not having my car—of not having a quick escape if I needed one—even if I didn’t think the big lug could hurt a fly. But I never suspected Joshua of violence either, and I’d been dead wrong about him.
So after a moment, I said, “How about I pick you up?”
He gave me a look again, but this time I was pretty sure he was simply trying to figure me out.
Good luck, Lanche. I can’t even figure myself out.
“Sure. Would six work for you?”
I nodded. “Yep.” I walked to my little table by the door and grabbed my keys. “Sounds like a plan. Let me give you my number so you can text me your address.”
He nodded and pulled out his phone as he stood up.
When he was ready, I rattled off my number, and after a few seconds, I received a text with his address.
It was on a street I didn’t recognize, which surprised me because I thought I knew the entire city in and out, but I figured I’d plug it into the GPS later to see where it was and how long it’d take to get there.
For now, I needed to drive him back to his car at the bookshop.
It didn’t take long to get there, and the drive was a quiet one, although it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable. I could tell that Lanche wanted to say something, but he was too shy or possibly upset, and I wasn’t sure what to do to make it any better. So I stayed silent.
When I pulled into the bookstore’s parking lot, he pointed out his car, so I drove him right over to it.
He put his hand on the door handle, but turned to me. “Thank you for talking to me tonight and for dinner and for… everything.” He was just so gosh darn sincere with everything he said.
I sighed. “No problem, Lanche. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
He stared at me for another minute, and for one unpleasant moment, I thought he was going to lean in to kiss me, but instead, he simply smiled, nodded, and got out of the car. Before he closed the door, he said, “I’m looking forward to it.”
I watched him get into his car, made sure it started, and then I peeled away from there like my ass was on fire. My chest burned a little, but I rubbed at it, ignoring it as best I could.
I made it back to my apartment without even realizing I’d driven home until I was unlocking the door and slamming it shut behind me.
I leaned against it and slid down to the floor, then buried my face in my hands as I tried to catch my breath and slow my frantically beating heart. Did Lanche seriously think I was his viramore? How could he possibly believe that I, of all people, was his one true soul mate?
It made no sense whatsoever.
I was a boring guy who did boring things. Hell, even my job was boring—from other people’s perspectives, according to everyone I’d tried to date the last seven years.
Boring, boring, boring.
Lanche was a three-hundred-year-old snow yeti who’d traveled the world. What in the fuck could I possibly bring to the table? I was a thirty-five-year-old werewolf who’d never even left the city.
The most exciting thing to happen to me was being bitten by a werewolf and turned. And while it’d been horrifying and traumatic, it wasn’t like that’d bring anything to a relationship with a damn old-ass yeti.
But he’d seemed so sincere, so sure.
Not to mention the werewolf curse kept weres from ever finding a viramore.
Maybe I should’ve told him no about the date and sent him on his way to find his actual viramore.
But… but there was something about him that made me want to… see what might happen. And there was no way I could’ve told him no and seen that adorable face of his turn sad.
Surely, he’d come to his senses tomorrow night. After spending another night with me, he’d see that he was mistaken.
Yeah. I’d make sure of it.
With a heavy sigh, I climbed to my feet and headed for bed, giving my very small tabletop Winter Solstice tree I had on my TV stand a little tweak as I passed by.
As I sat in my car, I contemplated going back inside and grabbing the icicle. It felt weird leaving it at home, but at the same time, was I really expected to carry the thing around with me everywhere I went?
For some reason, I kind of didn’t want other people staring at it. Wasn’t sure why I even cared about that. But I had a feeling people would be curious and would want to look. I mean, who wouldn’t if they saw some random stranger carrying around a chunk of ice? That’d be so weird.
Sigh.
My fingers tapped on the steering wheel as I debated, but my phone buzzed, interrupting my annoying thoughts.
Jed: Have fun on your date!
Before I could respond, another text came through, and I seriously had no idea how the man could type so fast. Did he use vampire speed when texting?
Jed: I like Lanche, but I’m gonna need you to text me when you get home tonight, okay? I need to know you're safe.
Anton: Text in the group chat, please. I want to make sure you’re safe as well.
I blinked and looked at where Jed was sending messages, then rolled my eyes.
I shouldn’t even be surprised. Last night, he’d created a group chat called Dain’s Dating Support and added all of his siblings, Anton, Keryth, Oakley, Roman, Tan, and even the damn king himself, although Garrick hadn’t texted anything in there yet.
He didn’t need to with how many texts his viramore, Jed, Oak, and Ker had sent last night.
Everyone knew my history, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised by their concern, but I supposed I was. I wasn’t completely oblivious. I knew they were my friends, but the way they’d been treating me lately felt like… more.
Shaking that off, I focused on the chat and grimaced. While I’d been daydreaming, more texts had come through.
Ker: Definitely let us know, but have a really great time!
Oakley: Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
They sent a winky face with that. Sigh.
Tan: Your parents are in this chat, Oak.
Oakley: What? I didn’t say anything specific. I mean, I totally could go into details about the very short, and I mean short, list of things I wouldn’t do.
They added another winky face, and all I could do was grimace because I really didn’t need to hear any of that.
Tan: Oh my Mother, stop while you’re ahead, kiddo.
Oakley: But, Stepdaddy, I didn’t do anything wrong.
Tan: Brat.
Three little dots came up, and I knew Oakley was going to keep this little byplay going if I didn’t step in, so I quickly wrote up a text and hit send.
Me: I’ll text when I get home, but I’m leaving now, so I’m muting this nutty and weird group text.
Before I could mute it, one more text came through.
Oakley: Seriously, Dain, have a great time tonight. But be careful.
Me: I always am.
I muted it and stuffed my phone in my pocket so I wouldn’t keep responding and didn’t have to feel all the buzzing since I was sure they’d all keep going if I let them. My fingers immediately went back to tapping on the steering wheel. Great.
I was nervous. Which was ridiculous. This was a date, yeah, but I knew it would be the only one with the handsome snow yeti. I was only going on this thing to prove to him that I wasn’t his viramore. It was a way of letting him down easy.
Hopefully.
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
I mean, I’d be over the moon if he was my viramore—I’d seen how in love viramores became once they got to know one another, and it was a dream relationship for sure—but he couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.
And I really didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
So maybe that was why I was nervous.
He was going to realize I wasn’t his, and it would be awkward and horrible, but we’d… go our separate ways and move on.
My chest panged sharply, and I rubbed at it. What the hell was that? Why did it keep happening? More nerves? Ugh.
With a grumble, I ignored the pang and entered Lanche’s address into the GPS. It would take a good twenty or so minutes to get there, so I put on my latest audiobook—How to Flirt with a Hellhound—and headed out.
When I got to the edge of the city and the directions were still telling me to go straight, I almost pulled over and called Lanche because this couldn’t possibly be right. There was no way the guy lived outside the city lines, was there?
But then I saw that I was only a minute away, so I forged ahead. There were warning signs before you crossed into a dangerous area, anyway, so I’d have plenty of time to pull over if need be.
Just as I had the thought, I drove past a sign that said I had a mile before I entered frost basilisk territory.
Well, that wasn’t what the sign said exactly, but that was what it meant.
My stomach was queasy, but then my GPS said, “Turn right now.”
“Oh, thank the Mother.”
I slowed down, glad no one was behind me, and searched for a road or driveway or something. It was hard to see past the snow bank, but I found the turn-off and went that way.
This road was long, windy, and surrounded by about a billion trees, running along the edge of the border but not crossing it.