Chapter 12
Werewolves at the Diner
For the first hour or so, we didn’t speak.
Then, slowly, Sage began to ask me questions from where she sat in the back.
“So, you’re from Ignareth?”
I wondered what game she was playing, because if everything she said about her fate was true, she should hate my fucking guts.
I mean, I was starting to hate my fucking guts.
But instead, she was making small talk, like we’d just met at a party or something.
I wanted nothing more than to hear her voice, but I needed to keep my guard up in case she was trying to distract me and escape again.
“Yep, born and raised.”
Unfortunately.
“Is that where you live?”
I snorted in disgust. “Ravaric, no. I left that cesspool the night of my twenty-first birthday. I kicked around for a while, spent some time in Fenmoor, and then bought a house in Cindralis three years ago.”
I waited for the surprised look on her face to show, and I was not disappointed. “Wait, Cindralis? Why?”
Adjusting my rear-view mirror, my gaze darted between her big green eyes and the road in front of me. “I travel a lot, and always felt the most at peace in Cindralis. I know it’s not as exciting as Noctis…”
Her expression darkened. “Noctis was a means to an end. And now it’s my personal hell.” She looked out the window, letting a wave of pain take its course, before turning back to face me with a brave smile. “But I agree. Cindralis is great. I‘d always planned to go back there after I graduated.”
I wanted to ask her more. I knew so little about her life, about who she really was. But I didn’t feel right initiating any conversation. I wanted her to lead the precious few hours of interaction we had until she was back in the Premier’s hands.
And I desperately wanted to know what he needed with her, what he’d done to her. Why her return was worth so much money.
“How did you end up finding me?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do you really want to know?”
“Of course. That way, if I escape again, I won’t make the same mistakes.”
I bit back a smile. She was a fighter, this one. Her scars were already proof of that, but knowing she wasn’t giving up yet gave me hope.
“Kaldrin. Your app.”
“Seriously?” Her jaw dropped open in surprise. “How did you know that was me?”
I explained how her professors had alluded to her future business plans, and that I’d possessed the witch at the apothecary in Noctis who gave me a few more details.
“And when I complained to a friend that my rut suppressant wasn’t working, he recommended finding a witch on your app to make me something a little more personalized.”
I didn’t know why I lied about Kit, but it felt weird telling her about my failed attempt at a one-night stand. Not because it was embarrassing, though. Just because I didn’t want her to think I was the kind of guy who had had them in the first place.
Which was stupid. Why should she or I care?
“Damn, that sucks. I’d hired a guy to help me finish the coding, but I guess I should have made sure I was untraceable, too.”
I looked at her again in the mirror. “If you manage to escape again, look me up. I’ll get you in touch with my elf, Arlen.”
She dissolved into a fit of laughter, and I waited to find out what was so funny. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she finally replied, “Arlen is your guy, too?”
Son of a…
Fucking elves.
“Oh man,” she continued, giggles still bubbling from her chest. “How much did you end up paying him? Must have been more than me if he ratted me out.”
I gripped the steering wheel tightly, my knuckles turning white as I spoke through gritted teeth. “Too much, probably.”
And probably, I was making a trip to Elmaris on my way home from Noctis.
“Well, what did you think of it? My app?”
“Hm? Oh, I thought it was great. It was easy to use, and the suppressant I bought worked okay for a bit, but didn’t last very long, unfortunately. I guess I should have asked for more doses or something stronger. It was definitely better than the elf-made crap, though.”
When I caught her skeptical gaze, my cheeks began to heat. I was oversharing. “Sorry, I’m sure you don’t want to hear about all that. Especially after, well… I’m really sorry for how I touched you in the woods.”
Chasing down bounties, I always ended up getting my hands on them, and sometimes needed to rough them up a bit.
But I’d never…
I was still appalled.
She looked down, chewing her lip in thought. “So your rut broke through all that magic?”
“Yeah. Crazy, right?”
“That’s one word for it.”
I grunted, scratching my face. I hadn’t shaved since I couldn’t remember when. Probably Tideholm. And it was getting a little itchy.
“It suits you.”
I looked in the mirror. “What was that?”
“The beard,” she said. “I had a werewolf friend, Conan, who’d always scratch his face like that right before he’d give up and shave. But you should keep yours.”
My heart lodged all the way in my throat, and I found it difficult to get a word out as my cheeks flamed red. “Oh, um. Thanks. Maybe I will.”
She looked out the window for a bit, and her stomach rumbled.
“Getting hungry?” I asked. It was an easy question, but once it left my lips, I suddenly had no greater desire than to feed her.
She looked so thin, so tired. A meal would perk her right back up.
The alpha in me was already purring at the idea of providing for her.
“There’s a diner about twenty miles from here, if I remember correctly. ”
Her eyes moved towards mine in the mirror. “As long as you’re paying. I’d consider it the very least you could do, given the circumstances.”
“If there’s one thing my bounties always say, it’s that I’m very generous.”
She gave me a curt nod, and a hint of a smile grew on her lips. “Then I accept.”
We started talking about books and movies, joking about how terrible most reality TV was, and arrived at the restaurant outside of Elmaris just as the sun set.
The building, wrapped in vines, squatted low beside the thick, towering trees it was nestled beneath, a neon sign reading The Redwood Diner flickering like a beacon in the growing darkness.
Inside, the evening rush was only just starting, and we were able to snag one of the last open booths. The air smelled like hot grease and coffee, and the sharp tang of pine-scented cleaner wafted from the sticky table.
An omega elf in a baby blue uniform dropped off our menus and took the order for our two drinks before heading off to tend to her other customers, and I began to look over the dinner options.
“I think I’ve been here before,” Sage said quietly, sticking to the all-day breakfast section.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah…” She didn’t look up, her eyes still scanning. “I came to Elmaris a lot as a kid.”
“Orithiel Blessed Hospital, I know.”
She stopped looking at the menu, her eyes narrowing as her gaze rose to meet mine. “How?”
“I found your purse at Sable Mansion. You left a hospital bracelet inside.”
She rubbed her hand on her chest, her expression sad for a moment before returning to her previous playful annoyance. “Wow. Do you have any idea how weird it is for a stranger to tell you point-blank they stalked you like it’s no big deal?”
“I didn’t stalk you,” I scoffed. “That would imply I was watching you from a distance or something. I tracked you. There’s a difference.”
She shivered, going back to the menu. “Still super creepy. I insist you let me snoop through your phone so I can drop some random, unshared fact about you into the conversation. Seems only fair.”
I unlocked my phone and slid it across the table. “Knock yourself out.”
Her face lit up. “Wait, really?”
“Sure. I’ll give you one minute of complete, unfettered access to my personal life.”
Sage gave me a suspicious glare. “What’s the catch? Aren’t you afraid I’ll call someone to save me?”
“However I answer that, I’ll probably sound like a real asshole. Let’s just go with a simple ‘no’ for now.”
Reasons being there were no higher authorities for her to get in contact with since I was legally allowed to have her in my custody, Morgana could still be sleeping off her attempt to stop me, and everyone else she used to know was, well…
So yeah, pointing all that out was just salt on an open wound.
She stuck out her bottom lip and shrugged, grabbing my phone and instantly tapping and scrolling away.
The waitress came back with her coffee and my tea, and I dipped the bag slowly while I watched her face grow more and more frustrated by the second.
“What the hell? Is this like a work phone or something? Do you keep a personal one at home?”
“Nope,” I replied, taking a sip of my drink.
“You have like, ten photos on here, and they’re all of cats and birds… and me, creepily enough.”
The waitress came back to take our orders, and Sage’s minute was up. She gave a frustrated groan as she handed my phone back. “I’d like the garden omelet, thank you.”
“And I’ll have the blue moon burger with a side salad instead of fries, please.”
As soon as she disappeared, Sage gave me a pitying look. “Do you even have a life outside of work? Any friends?”
“Not really. I’d like to, trust me. It’s just hard when I’m barely around.”
“Hm,” she said, her voice melodic as she thought. “I guess I can’t judge too much. I spent a lot of my days either working or studying in the ‘before-times.’”
“Before-times?” I asked.
She wrapped both her hands around her cup of coffee, and I frowned when I considered that she might be cold. I started to shrug off my jacket to pass to her when she held out her hand to stop me. “Yes, that’s how I refer to my life before the Premier found me.”
Her hurt and despair were palpable, consuming me from the inside out. It was like every negative emotion compounded inside me, and I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around her, telling her everything would be alright.
But that would be a pointless lie.
Instead, I reached over, taking her hand in mine. She startled from my touch, but didn’t pull away. “Why can’t you tell me what happened? Or why it happened?”