Chapter Two
Tru couldn’t take her eyes off Tabian.
She’d done a deep dive researching the werewolf Packs around here, but from what she could find online, part of the Pack had split off and hadn’t re-registered.
Tabian used to be a part of the Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack, but was now listed as a Rogue, and very little information remained online about him.
The fact that he was even still in the area was news to her.
Maybe that meant Liam and Nate and Vic and the others were still hanging around too.
She huffed a sigh as she watched him take a sharp right and disappear around a house.
He was the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on, but here was the problem—she had the worst taste in men, so clearly something was very wrong with Tabian Garr. Her being attracted to him proved it.
That man was tall, and tan, and muscled. She could tell even through the black hoodie he was wearing. Under his black baseball cap, his blue eyes had blazed so brightly, it was hard to look away.
She should’ve felt scared at the unnatural set of his facial features, but she had been around this before, after all.
Nothing scared her anymore.
Her phone buzzed with a text message. It was from Bayen.
Hey, do you still want me to pick you up at the coffee shop?
Oh shoot, she’d forgotten to text him. She’d been distracted by a werewolf.
I would be too weird to ask him to meet Tabian at the coffee shop.
I’m walking home. I’ll see you there. Send.
She started walking, but just a few minutes later, when she turned onto their street, her car pulled up alongside her and Bayen rolled down the driver’s side window. “Are you okay?”
His eyes were blazing bright gold, and her instincts wrenched up. “Are you?” she asked, stepping off the curb to come closer.
“Yeah, I just got worried. Something didn’t feel right.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “My whole last period at school, I felt like something was wrong.”
Tru sighed and let her shoulders slump in relief. Bayen’s instincts were insane, thanks to the wolf he was trying desperately to manage. No kid should have to deal with what he did.
She scrunched up her nose. “Want to get burgers for dinner? I’m wiped tonight and I don’t want to cook.”
“Do we have the money?” he asked.
“I got paid today.”
He grinned. “Then yes.”
She laughed and shook her head as she walked around the car and got into the passenger’s side. Keeping a teenage werewolf fed was the focus of her life most days.
“Your eyes are pretty bright today, kiddo.”
“I was excited about driving, and then this kid, Mario, was messing with me. My teacher took me out of class.”
“Were you popping at him?”
“No, I didn’t say anything back. I did as you asked. The teacher said it looked like I was going to eat him though, so I had to do most of my classes in the solitary room again.”
She hated this. Most of his days were spent alone now that the wolf was pushing for time so much.
“We’ll go and Change tonight, okay?”
He nodded. “My body hurts.”
Fuck, her heart hurt over it. “Aching?”
He nodded. “It’s okay though. I’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t have to do that, you know?” she said.
“Do what?” Bayen asked as he turned on his blinker and took a right at a stop sign.
“Throw away your feelings. I don’t mind talking about what you’re going through.”
He gave her a pitying smile. “Trudy, I don’t want to be mean, but you can’t understand.”
Tru pursed her lips and nodded. “I can try though.”
“Did dad call?” he asked, and the hope in his voice broke her heart as it did every day for the last year.
“No. I’m sorry.”
“I hate him,” he said, but there was a sudden growl to his voice.
“Bayen—”
“No!” His temper spiked.
“Pull over,” she directed him, pointing to the shoulder of the road. “Driving pissed is dangerous.”
He jerked the wheel, slammed on the brakes, and threw the car into park.
“Breathe,” she murmured.
His breath shook as his chest rose and fell, and his face couldn’t even pass for human right now.
This was probably the look that got him sent to the solitary room again.
The school would kick him out soon. They weren’t equipped to deal with werewolves.
The principal had been pulling her in every Friday to talk about alternative education, but Bayen wanted to learn to be around people.
He didn’t have a Pack. His asshole dad had stolen that away from him.
“He just left me,” he gritted out. “He left you!”
Tru shook her head and hated the burning sensation in her eyes. She had her own feelings on it all, but she put Bayen’s above hers. It was right. He was just a kid who had been abandoned to the care of a stepmom he had barely known.
“What was the point of going after you so hard?” he asked. “I don’t understand. He needed you. Said you were his mate, and that his wolf needed you to stay steady. You put up with all his shit!”
“Language,” she murmured.
“You put up with all of it, and you stayed, and he just pushed me onto you and then left. And never looked back, never called. No letter, no happy birthday text, nothing. Why?”
Tru shook her head and stared at a woman walking a little dachshund on the sidewalk up ahead. “I can’t figure that part out either.”
“I know you’re trying, but you’re human,” he said, easing his grip on the steering wheel. “Werewolves aren’t supposed to be raised by humans.” He inhaled deeply and rested his head back on the seat. “What if I hurt you?”
Her phone vibrated with a text, and tiredly, she checked it.
Tabian had messaged her. Tru sat up straighter and opened up the text in a rush. She hadn’t realized he’d texted himself from her number so he had access to messaging her.
It was nice to meet you today.
It was a simple text. Polite. Formal. But the butterflies it caused in her chest were overwhelming.
“Who is that?” Bayen asked, staring at her phone.
“You’ll never believe what happened today,” she said, an undercurrent of excitement zinging through her.
Bayen frowned. “What?”
“I met a werewolf.”
Bayen’s eyes blazed brighter. “Where?”
“In the coffee shop.”
“One of the Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack?” he asked low.
“No. Not a current one. A Rogue.”
The disappointment in Bayen showed in the way his shoulders slumped and the light faded from his eyes. “No thanks.” He put the car in drive and pressed his foot onto the gas, aiming them for McDonalds.
“Bayen—”
“Trudy, come on. Dad was a Rogue pretending to be worth a shit for long enough to drain a Pack and then get kicked out. Repeat dozens of times. We both know how Rogues are. They’re dead-end wolves. I don’t want to learn from a dead-end wolf.”
Fair. His dad had put him through some trauma with all of this. She understood.
“So, you really don’t want to meet this one? Do you want me to tell you which Rogue it is?”
“No. I don’t care.”
She puffed air out of her cheeks and relaxed back against the seat. “Okay, okay,” she grumbled.
“You gave him your number?” he asked protectively.
“Not like that.”
“I know your type. Yes, like that.”
“No, I’m serious! He’s young.”
“How young? My age?”
“No, thirty-one.”
He scrunched up his face in a look at her and then hit the gas through a green light. “He’s fuckin’ old.”
“Hey, language! I meant too young for me.”
“Whatever. Delete his number. You’re only dating humans from here on out.”
“Oh, you’re okay with me dating again?”
“No. You can try and we both know I’ll chase them off. I’m too hard to handle, bla bla.”
“I’m not interested in dating anytime soon anyway. Maybe when you are independent and moved out. My focus is on you until then.”
Bayen was quiet for a minute, and then as he pulled up to the drive through line at the McDonalds, he said, “That’s kind of sad.”
“What is?” she asked, fiddling on her phone. She’d forgotten what they were talking about.
“It’s kind of sad that your life revolves around raising a kid that isn’t even yours.”
She shrugged. “I probably won’t have kids of my own, Bayen. This is my shot. You’re my shot, you know?”
He sighed and nodded. “Whatever you say.”
“So try not to get kicked out of school, will you? I want to go to your graduation and get those silly Congratulations to my Senior signs for the front yard and throw you a celebration party.”
“Party for two. Dad chased off all your friends.”
Geez, that one stung a little. “That he did,” she said softly. Zane had torn through her life like wildfire. “Maybe I’ll make more friends by the time you graduate. I still have a year and a half. Maybe you’ll make friends too.”
“Everyone at school is scared of me. I sit alone at lunch. Humans suck. No offense.”
She huffed a laugh. “None taken. I don’t like the way you’re treated either.
” She crossed her legs as he moved up in the drive through line.
“Hey, today when I saw that werewolf? He was just sitting in a coffee shop. No one was messing with him. He was working on something on his laptop, but he seemed comfortable.”
“Was anyone sitting at his table with him?”
Tru pursed her lips. Touché. “No.”
“Exactly.”
Shoot. This was her fear for his life, that he would be alone, and not find his place. Not find a spot where he felt he belonged.
He might not want to meet Tabian, but she still wanted to keep the line of communication open just in case Bayen changed his mind.
It was very nice to meet you too, she typed out. She hesitated, her finger hovering over the send button.
“Rogues are nothing but trouble,” Bayen reminded her, frowning at her texting. He pulled forward and started ordering at the drive through for them. He had all of her orders at every restaurant memorized. Werewolves just had heightened everything.
She deleted the text without sending it and put her phone into her purse to avoid the temptation.
Bayen was right.
Rogues were nothing but trouble, and a Rogue had absolutely destroyed her life and her stepson’s future.
Tabian was a walking red flag that she needed to avoid.