Chapter 1 #2
I blinked at him, trying to find words. “Has a shifter ever damaged a plane?”
“No.” He adjusted his seatbelt over his lap, and my eyes were drawn to his hands. They were big too. “But as far as they’re concerned,” he gestured to one of the flight attendants giving a safety demonstration in the aisle, “I’m unpredictable. Dangerous.”
“Is that true?”
“I’m not as unpredictable as you.” He didn’t smile when he said it, and I didn’t know how to interpret his tone.
I shrugged, trying to diffuse my weird interpretation of the energy between us. It didn’t matter if he was straight-up flirting with me. I couldn’t accept that kind of attention, anyway. Not until I got to Alaska and finished this.
One thing at a time.
“I couldn’t afford to miss this flight. Sounds like you couldn’t either.” The plane started moving toward the runway and I gripped my knees. “Unless that story about your mom was for sympathy.” It wasn’t like I got onto this plane through honest means.
“Her birthday is in two days. I missed Christmas because I was doing work for my alpha in Seattle. I can’t miss her birthday too.” He stared past me, out the window, as we rolled away from the airport. “Her health is getting worse. I don’t know how much more time I have.”
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“Thank you.” He shook his head, the faraway expression fading from his face. “I’m Rhett, by the way. Rhett Maddox.” Rhett leaned his arm across his chest and offered me his hand.
“Angie Fletcher.” I took it, squeezing gently and startling as an odd hiccup sensation jolted in my chest. I rubbed it with my other hand, waiting for the next one. Instead, I found my heart racing, a fluttery feeling in my chest like an echo of my pulse.
I dug my fingers into my sternum. What was that?
Rhett stared at my fingers, and a subtle smile twisted his lips. He looked mystified.
I raised my eyebrows at his obvious perusal of my chest, and he cleared his throat. “I like your tattoos.”
“I think you confused the word tattoos with titties.”
His brows pinched together. “I meant this,” he said, pointing to the black moon phases decorating beneath my collarbones.
“Of course, you do.”
I glanced out the window, feeling the blood drain from my face as the plane picked up speed. My knuckles were white as I tried to hold myself steady through the bump as we left the ground.
“Planes never crash during takeoff.”
Rhett stretched his legs out further, our thighs brushing. Some of my anxiety ebbed, though my eyes were still glued to the window.
Until he reached across me and closed it.
“What are you doing? I need to see that we’re not crashing.” I scrambled to move his hand, but he blocked me, all his heat and scent tumbling over me as he crowded into my space.
His free hand scooped up mine, and I had another weird internal hiccup.
“Commercial flights never crash, during takeoff—or anytime,” he said softly.
The man was like a damn hypnotist. Eight simple words and my heart rate slowed, breathing settling despite the butterflies in my stomach as we spiraled higher into the air.
I didn’t answer him. All I could manage was holding his hand like a lifeline. Whatever he was doing, it worked.
The pilot was mumbling something about avoiding a winter storm and turbulence as Rhett murmured, “How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That I’m a wolf.”
A shiver ran down my spine. Holy shit, he could actually turn into a wolf. Did I just make a dumb mistake? Was I going to get eaten when we landed?
Those bright eyes flared, studying me with wild intensity. They should look out of place on a man’s face, but somehow, they suited him. Added to his features and made him sharper, more breathtaking.
I shrugged. “Wolf shifters are the only shifters I ever hear about. I figured you were the most common.”
“We’re just the most willing to integrate into human society.”
Human society? It hadn’t even occurred to me that they had their own society, away from ours.
“Is your mom a wolf too? Does she live in the woods? Why am I picturing her like some Red Riding Hood villain waiting for me in her nightgown?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?”
His tone was serious, eyes flinty as they returned to their regular brown color.
A cold feeling wrapped around my throat, trickling down into my chest and numbing me. I shuttered my expression, freeing my hand from his to rifle through my purse. The chewable motion sickness tablets smelled like cheap orange candy as I popped them into my mouth.
“You don’t have to worry about me and my yapping, babe. I’ll be out like a baby in ten minutes, and you can enjoy your silent flight.”
It wasn’t really fair to take that out on him, but I didn’t care. For a minute there, I actually felt like things were going to be okay.
But they weren’t because I was the problem, and this trip wasn’t going to fix me.
I twisted in my seat, resting my head against the closed window and tucking my legs into my lap. I was cold, inside and out, as I squeezed my eyes shut and willed the Dramamine drowsiness to take me away.