Chapter Seven #2
“Liam?” she said in a small voice.
“Nory? What’s wrong?”
“I think…” Her heart was pounding so hard, and the room was spinning. “You wrote on the coaster to call you if I needed anything. I think I need you.”
She could hear the engine of his truck roar to life in the background. “Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Fifteen minutes. Are you okay for fifteen minutes?”
“Y-yes. I think I have to call the police.”
“Are you hurt?” he asked. The sound of his engine was so loud right now.
“No, no. It’s nothing like that. I thought I was talking to you all day and I think I haven’t been talking to you all day and something happened and I just…I just…”
“Slow down. Breathe. Tell me what happened.”
And she did. She rambled through the explanation while barely taking a break to breathe. Her mortification was eternal as she heard the words spilling from her mouth in that shaky, weak voice of hers. “I thought I was talking to you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that. This isn’t on you. Is your door locked?”
“Yes, of course.”
A long snarl rippled from him, and he muttered a curse. “You’re not staying there tonight. Pack a bag.”
“I can’t afford a hotel right now—”
“You’re with me until we figure out what this guy’s deal is.”
“Oh, you don’t have to trouble yourself.”
“It’s no trouble, Nory. You should’ve been talking to me.”
“What?” she asked, sure she’d heard him wrong.
“I said it should’ve been me you were talking to.
I wanted you to text me or call me or anything.
I didn’t want to just show up at your door again, but I should’ve.
I should’ve fucking asked for your number.
None of this would’ve happened, you would’ve had my number in your phone. Did you send him any pictures?”
She got quiet.
“Nory,” he murmured.
“I sent him a picture of two puppies I groomed today, but I thought I was sending it to you. I feel so gross right now.”
“That’s it? No nudes or anything?” he asked.
“I don’t do that!” A sob escaped her, and she closed her eyes against an oncoming panic attack. “I have to go.”
“Stay on the phone.”
“No, I really have to go. I don’t want…” She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t think straight. “I don’t want you to see me like this.
Or hear me. I’m…I’m…I have to go.” She hung up the phone, and hit the ground, curled in on herself as she remembered all the times she’d been vulnerable in those text messages today.
She felt so stupid. So na?ve. That’s what her dad had always told her.
She saw him every other weekend growing up, but he had pounded it into her head that she didn’t see the world right.
That it was a dangerous place. That she wasn’t safe, because she was just a na?ve little girl who believed in the good of monsters.
And she knew he was right, but how did a tiger change their stripes?
She was born na?ve, and would die na?ve, and there was nothing she could do about it.
This disgusting feeling that snaked around in her gut was all her fault. People like Jackson preyed on the weak, and she had always been weak.
Always had been, always would be.
She’d known it, but today was the first time it had felt utterly unacceptable.
She had talked all day to the person who unsettled her the most.
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe!
And then the door opened, and Liam was there, taking up all of the space in the room. And then he was scooping her up like she was a child, and his voice was steady against her ear. “Breathe. You’re okay. Everything is okay.”
“I’m too much,” she squeaked out as she fell apart against his chest.
“You are just right.” He eased back and brushed her hair out of her face. “You did nothing wrong. This was done to you.”
“It’s building,” she said between the hiccup breathes. “I can feel it. He’ll never stop.”
“He will.”
“He won’t. I talked to police already. They said I probably wouldn’t even be granted a restraining order. I have to move. I have to get away from here.”
“You aren’t moving—”
“But I—”
“Nory,” he said sternly, his blazing frost-blue eyes boring directly into her soul. “You shouldn’t run from him. That’s not what we do.”
“It’s what I do,” she said. “I’m not strong like you or Werewolf Barbie.”
“Werewolf Barbie?”
“Yes. The goddess with the model body and also incredible biceps.”
He rolled his eyes closed and huffed a laugh. “Good Lord. You’re talking about the Arrangement.”
“You make a very strong looking couple.”
“Well, you’re recovered enough to try and piss me off. Go pack a bag.” The humor was still in his voice.
“Can we never talk about what just happened again?”
“Your panic attack?”
She nodded.
A soft, understanding smile graced his lips. “Sure. It’s nothing to be ashamed of though.”
“Says you who are perfect in every way,” she muttered, staggering up to her feet. She wiped her eyes. “I can’t even physically imagine what my reflection looks like right now.”
“Well, it’s taught me something big.”
“And what’s that?” she whispered.
He sighed. “That even when you cry, you still look pretty.”
She blinked twice. Perhaps this was a dream. “Flatterer.”
“Not my style. I’m telling the truth.”
“Where have you been the last two days?” she asked.
His eyes went dead. “Moving.”
“Moving? But you just got here.”
“Yeah, well the office manager came banging on my door in the middle of the night and said someone turned me in.”
“Oh my gosh. For being a werewolf?”
He nodded.
“Who knew?” And then it hit her. “Jackson did this, didn’t he?”
“He needed to get rid of me. Jackson already had it coming. But this?” he gestured to her face. “Making you feel scared?” He shook his head, and didn’t fill the space with threats, but the look on his face lifted the fine hairs on her forearms.
Liam really was dangerous.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To my side of town. Jackson can’t reach you there. Can I see the messages?”
Nory wrung her hands nervously. “It’s embarrassing.”
“I won’t judge.”
“He pretended to be you. You’ll be angry.”
“I need to know what’s happening,” he rumbled, and right now, his voice barely passed for human.
She swallowed hard and unlocked her phone, then opened it on the text thread, and handed it to him. “I don’t want to talk about it after you read it. I’m hurt. I don’t want to replay it.”
He nodded, and she left him there reading the texts between her and Jackson, while she packed an overnight bag, and clothes for work tomorrow.
An overnight bag…and work clothes for tomorrow.
Nory froze on shoving her work uniform into her duffel bag.
What was she doing? She didn’t even know where they were going to stay the night.
Liam didn’t have a place here anymore. He’d said they were going to stay on his side of town, but that sounded dangerous.
She’d never even met another werewolf besides Liam.
“Liam,” she called softly, knowing dang-well his wolf ears would hear her just fine.
He didn’t answer.
She padded out to the hallway, where she could see him sitting on the couch, elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of him, and he was staring down at his knuckles. Her phone lay on the table, face down.
“He shouldn’t have said that.”
She hadn’t a guess what part of the messages he was referring to, so she perched on the arm of the loveseat. “Said what?”
His glowing blue eyes lifted to hers, and her heart beat faster at how different he looked. His cheek bones were sharper, his jawline more defined. His eyes had a slight tilt to them. Red had crept up his neck, and landed in his ears, and there was a heaviness in the air around him.
“He used my words.” Woo, his voice was gravel and velvet right now.
“Which words.”
“You’re mine,” he gritted out. “I told him that the other day. I told him to leave you alone because you’re mine. And he said those words to you. He shouldn’t have done that.”
“I’m a stranger though. Remember? I’m a stranger today and I’ll have to be a stranger tomorrow?”
He shook his head slowly. “That doesn’t work anymore.” He inhaled deeply and stood. “Where is your bag. I’ll carry it down for you.”
“Liam, will I be safe?” she asked.
He turned at the mouth of the hallway, a frown etched onto his face. “What do you mean?”
“I mean if you take me to your territory? Will I be safe? Everyone’s heard the horror stories.”
He huffed a laugh, and his smile softened his face. He approached her slowly and pulled her in, held her against his chest. “Who do you think started those rumors?”
“I don’t know. People who accidentally got lost in your territory? And almost died?”
He chuckled. “We started them. We don’t want a bunch of humans hanging out in our woods, making fuckin’ s’mores and leaving their trash piles around.
Makes it too tempting for us to make mistakes and go after one.
It is safest to keep separate, but you won’t be in any danger.
You’ll be with me.” He eased back and searched her eyes.
She felt raw and vulnerable under his gaze but so be it. He’d already seen her at her worst, in a panic attack. She hadn’t had one in months. “I hate that you saw me like that,” she whispered.
“I don’t. I liked being here. Hate that you went through it but liked seeing you pull out of it.”
She held on to his wrist as he slid his hand to her cheek, and she leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. “When I panic like that…it’s a part of my life that I like to keep a secret. I don’t like talking about it and I don’t like other people knowing.”
“Okay, but it’s really not something to be ashamed of, Nory.”
“Thank you for being here,” she told him, changing the subject.
“I know what will make you feel better.”
“A Blizzard from Dairy Queen?”
A smile cracked his face. “Sure. We can get one on the way.”
“On the way to the werewolf woods.”
“I think it’ll be different than you imagine. You’ll be perfectly safe. You have my word.”