Same One (Same #5)

Chapter One

Tabian Garr rubbed the back of his neck and slid a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder. The coffee shop was crowded, and no one was looking directly at him right now, but he could feel it—eyes had been on him since he’d walked in.

He should be used to this. He was a werewolf in a coffee shop filled with humans. He’d been through a thousand awkward encounters with the other species. But something kept lifting chills on the back of his neck, and inside of him, the wolf kept whispering, Look.

Look at what?

He turned back toward his laptop and tried to ignore the sensation of being watched.

If the Pack found out what he did for a living now, they would never let him live it down.

His house was being delivered tomorrow, so this was the last time he would have to work on the marketing part of his job outside of Rogue Pack territory.

The room he rented from Nate and Delta meant he didn’t have a lot of privacy. Plus, he needed the Wi-Fi here.

He cropped the video, removed the background sound, and added it to his file. Editing the videos was the biggest time-suck of his job, but it was necessary, and it was how he kept up rapport with his audience. Without the videos, there would be no income.

So, edit he did. He spent hours on it every day. Today’s video was a long one, so already he’d been here for three hours.

The unsettling sensation crept up the back of his spine again, and he turned fast to find a woman across the coffee shop looking at him over the top of the paperback she was reading. Her blue eyes went wide, and she dipped her gaze fast to her book again.

Tabian scented the air. Was she a werewolf? Was she one of Eden’s people? Did she work for the Elders? He’d been waiting for the next wave of retaliation.

He didn’t smell any werewolves in here though. The woman glanced up at him again, and then back to her book, turned away from him in her seat and pretended to read. Her eyes weren’t lowering to the next line. She seemed to be reading the same line over and over again.

He did a quick glance around, and saved his file, then clapped his laptop shut and shoved it into his backpack. He stood and made his way directly to her, pulled out the chair across from her with a loud screeching sound against the tile floor, and sat down.

“Do you have a problem with me?” he asked.

Her eyes were wide as saucers, and she’d frozen into place.

“N-no?” she whispered. She cleared her throat and said it louder. “No. I don’t have a problem with you.”

Tabian narrowed his eyes at her and then read the title of her book. Aloud he read, “Gray Back Broken Bear.”

She inhaled sharply and clapped the small paperback closed and then set it onto the table, face down. He’d already seen the shirtless model with the six pack abs though.

“Let me guess,” he muttered. “Shifter romance?”

“Uhhh.” She cleared her throat again. “Hi. How are you?”

“I’d be doing better if I didn’t have a spy watching me. Who sent you?”

“Who sent me?” she asked dumbly. “No one sent me.” There was a lie in her voice though.

Gah, so irritating. And of-freaking-course whoever sent her had picked a pretty one.

She had brunette hair with blond highlights pulled back into a ponytail.

She wore a forest green short-sleeved, button-up t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans tucked into a pair of comfortable looking wool-lined snow boots.

She had dangly earrings and a little pixie nose, and cheekbones for days.

“What’s your name?” he asked her.

“I don’t—”

“Name,” he interrupted her denial.

“Tru. It’s short for Trudy, but everyone has always called me Tru.”

“Tru what?” he asked.

She pursed her lips into a thin line and frowned. “I don’t have to tell you.”

He leaned in closer. “You clearly already know who I am, so fair is fair. What is your last name.”

“Well, that’s complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“Uhhh—”

“Complicated how?” he growled again.

She looked startled and fear washed through her eyes in a wave. “B-because I am in the middle of changing my name back to my maiden name.”

Whatever he’d expected her to say, it hadn’t been that. His face relaxed in surprise, and he leaned back in the chair and cocked his head. “You’re going through a divorce?”

“Oh, that happened two years ago, and technically I was never married.”

He squinted. The sunlight was streaming through the window and hurting his eyes. “Why would you take a man’s last name if you weren’t married?”

“That’s…” Tru squared her shoulders. “That’s none of your business.”

“Why are you here?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but my stepson just got his driver’s license yesterday, and he borrowed my car for school, and I’m stuck here for another half an hour until he picks me up.”

Okay, usually if a decoy was sent to infiltrate a Pack, they didn’t have offspring.

“So, when your boy goes to school, you just wait here all day?”

“Just today.” She slipped her book into her backpack and shouldered it.

“He just turned sixteen yesterday and wanted to drive to school. I have the day off work and didn’t need the car.

Figured I would get some reading done here and get out of the house, so I had him drop me off, and why am I explaining any of this to you?

” She leaned closer. “Is this a power you get at a certain age? Or a certain phase of maturity? You just bedazzle women into talking to you?”

“That’s not a thing, and now I know you know what I am.”

“Everyone in here knows what you are,” she whisper-screamed. “Your eyes are the color of a bug light, and you’ve been growling this whole damn time. Excuse me,” she murmured, standing.

“I thought your kid was picking you up.”

“I live close enough to walk. You know what?” she asked, rounding on him. “You stop asking me questions. You have me all in a…a…tither!”

“What on earth is a tither?”

“Oh, of course you don’t know proper English you child. Gas me up. What’s your drip? That’s so sus. I’m about to crash out. Yuh. Let’s post it to the Gram, bruuuuh. You have too much rizz—”

“I don’t know proper English? I have no idea what you just freakin’ said, lady. What the hell is a rizz?”

She frowned and looked around. Yep, everyone in here was staring at them now. “It’s teenager talk.”

He blinked hard. “You think I’m a teenager?”

“Or a twenty-something. Twenty-three? Twenty-four? Gah, don’t tell me! I don’t want to know what a cougar I am.” She placed her hands in front of her, palm up and encouraged herself to, “Stop. Talking! I’m leaving now. Never to return!” she called behind her as she left the coffee shop.

“What the hell does a cougar have to do with any of this?” he asked the stunned lady beside him. She looked just as baffled as he felt.

“A cougar is an older woman who finds a younger man attractive,” she explained.

Tabian’s mouth fell open and he jerked his attention to the window. He could see the woman—Tru—making her way across the street and taking a left. She shook her head and seemed to be talking to herself.

She found him attractive?

Wait.

“What do I do with this?” he asked.

“I’m not your friggin’ therapist,” the woman snapped. “Figure your life out.”

God humans were so rude sometimes. Tabian grabbed his backpack and stood so fast, his chair fell backwards.

He rushed to catch it and yanked it up just before the back hit the floor.

He heard a few gasps. “Oh, you all know what I am,” he snapped, and glared at a dour faced trio that sat near the door, staring at him.

He shoved the door open and jogged across the sidewalk. A car honked and slammed on their brakes as he hit the street, and he cursed and waved an apology. What was his problem today?

He waited for the car to pass and then loped across the street to find Tru had disappeared. Up ahead was a street called Turtle River Road, and he bolted to the corner and looked down it. Tru was already a block away. Good grief, this little human had a motor on her.

“Hey, wait up,” he called, jogging to catch up. Her ass was perfect in her jeans.

She looked over her shoulder and grabbed her purse tighter, then pushed her legs into a faster walk. Crap.

“Tru!”

She started to jog, and great, now his wolf was in chase mode. Oh God.

“Stop,” he muttered to himself as he kicked up to a run without telling his body to do so. “You’re going to scare her.”

I need to catch her! The wolf’s voice echoed through his mind. She’s trying to get away.

“I have pepper spray!” Tru yelled, rounding on him, and sure enough, she had a little purple tube of the eye-poison pointed directly at him. “Oooh, give me a reason,” she said, advancing on him.

He stopped in his tracks. She had her little chin jutted out in anger, and pretty blue eyes flashed with rage. He sensed anger off her, but no fear. Huh. Interesting.

Tabian held his hands up and backed off a few steps. “I was going to offer you a ride home.”

“You chased me down like I’m prey to offer me a ride home?” she barked out.

“Yes.”

She stood there frozen, glaring at him.

Tabian stood there frozen with his arms up in surrender.

Tru’s eyes narrowed. “I’m having a bad morning.”

“I could sense that,” he grumbled. “Could you put the pepper spray away? I promise I’m not trying to hurt you.”

“Well, who says I’m not the one trying to hurt you?” she asked and aimed it closer to him.

An accidental smile took his lips, and he ducked his gaze so she wouldn’t see it. He liked her spunk. He liked her bravery. Right now, his eyes were probably glowing and his face was sharper, and she was looking him dead in the eyes and thinking she could best him. Okay.

“You said you don’t want to be a cougar.”

“I’m not. I’m not a cougar. I don’t like boys.”

“I’m no boy.”

“I don’t like boy werewolves either.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. Tru was fun, and interesting.

“Maybe I like older women,” Tabian said.

Tru parted her lips to say something and then changed her mind. “I have a long walk. It was strange to meet you…”

“Tabian.”