Chapter 2
two
EMMY
Well, the werewolf thing was a lot more awkward than I originally thought.
A lot less romantic, too.
I watched the wolf for another minute.
He watched me.
My ass really hurt.
“I’m just going to sit down on the couch.” I watched his response, to make sure he wasn’t going to get more pissed off.
He didn’t move.
I took two small steps backward, wincing with both of them.
He snarled at me.
I stopped, and waited.
When he quit snarling, I took another step, biting back a groan of pain.
He snarled again, stopping abruptly when I was no longer moving.
Guess he didn’t want me to sit on the couch after all.
“Are you going to eat me?” I asked. “In the not fun way? I’m all for the fun way.
Err, I would be. If you were in your other form.
I don’t think I’m kinky enough for it in this form.
Probably won’t ever be, unfortunately. I’m usually on board with trying everything, but some things are just a hard no. You know?”
He continued glaring.
Maybe that was a hard requirement for him.
Yikes.
“Did I do something to make you angry?” I asked.
He glared.
“I’m not sure why you wanted me in here if it makes you so unhappy.”
He still glared.
“But if you—” I started.
A loud knock on the door cut me off.
“Are you expecting company?” I asked the wolf.
His glare heated.
I was going to take that as a no.
The person at the door knocked again.
I took a few tentative steps closer.
“Emmy?” a familiar voice yelled, the sound muffled by the wood between us.
“Abby?” I called back.
“Can you open the door?” Abby shouted.
I stepped closer, eyeing the wolf.
He let me.
Until I reached for the doorknob. Then, he snarled and snapped his teeth.
I jumped backward with yet another squeak.
At this point, he was absolutely considering eating me. I sounded like a freaking mouse.
“Nope!” I yelled to Abby.
My phone started ringing.
When I realized she was the one calling me, I lifted it to my ear with a shaky hand and tried to sound calm. “Hey.”
“What happened?”
“Um, I brought Jade a cake.” I clutched the dome a little closer to my chest. “The guy who answered wasn’t her, uh, boyfriend? He was pretty unhappy to see me. His eyes went red and he shifted into a wolf. I fell off the porch, and Jade’s cake was ruined. Then he kind of abducted me.”
“He called you mate?”
“I think so. He could’ve called me Kate, though.”
There was a beat of silence. “Why would he call you Kate, Emmy?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe I look like an ex or something?”
The wolf snarled at me.
I winced. “Yeah, it has to be Kate. His ex seems like a sensitive subject. The wolf definitely wants to eat me for trespassing. And not in the fun way.”
The wolf snarled again.
Another beat of silence passed.
“Has he tried to bite you?” Abby finally asked.
“Kind of?”
Abby let out a harsh breath. “Alright, Em. Here’s the deal. Werewolves are real. The first time the guy looks his mate in the eyes, he shifts and gets trapped in his wolf form until he bites his mate.”
I blinked. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I mean, it was pretty obvious that werewolves were real when you showed up with a big-ass dog named Nico one day, and a big-ass dude named Nico the next.”
There was another pause before she said, “That’s fair.”
“I didn’t know about the mate thing, though. We weren’t sure how that worked, or if werewolf books were accurate.”
“We, meaning…”
“Me and Zoe.”
“Well, the books are right about some things.”
“Apparently.”
“So, he’ll shift back after he bites you,” Abby said. “But when he bites you, you’re going to turn into a werewolf too. It’ll hurt like a bitch.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Is that all?”
“Not quite. Your wolf will be trying to decide whether or not to bite him back afterward, probably for at least a few days or weeks. When she does, you’ll be permanently mated. After it happens, you’ll have lots of sex.”
“Well, I’m not opposed to that last part.” The pissed werewolf guy had been crazy hot, after all.
“Who would be?”
“Good point.”
“Has he calmed down enough to let you open the door?” Abby checked.
I eyed him. “No. Are you sure he didn’t say Kate, though? It really seems like he hates me.”
“I’m positive, Em.”
“Okay.” I bit my lip. “How long do you think he’ll make me stand here? He got mad when I tried to walk to the couch, but I think I might’ve seriously injured my tailbone.”
“When you fell off the porch?”
“Yeah.”
“Why doesn’t he want you to sit on the couch?”
“I don’t know. He’s just… pissed. What’s his name?”
“Finn.”
“Any idea why he’s so mad?”
Abby’s hesitation told me she did, in fact, have an idea.
Someone murmured something on the other end of the line. I wondered if it was Nico, telling her to keep her mouth quiet about whatever she knew.
“I’m putting you on speaker,” Abby said.
“Hi, Emmy. This is Nico,” a low, masculine voice said quietly. “Don’t say my name aloud. Finn’s wolf won’t like the idea of you talking to me. Werewolves are extremely possessive.”
“Okay. Lovely night, huh?”
He chuckled. “Sure. If you’re his mate, you should know that Finn was mated before, to a woman named Jo. He was much younger than her, and she was abusive. Her wolf rejected him rather than sealing the mate bond, and it nearly killed him. He’s stayed away from women since then.”
My eyes widened more with every new fact he added. “What should I do?”
“It’s up to you. I don’t know how his wolf is going to handle this.”
“Fabulous,” I said weakly.
So the pissed human was now a pissed wolf. And even his friends didn’t know how to fix that.
My ass ached, and I was clutching a ruined cake like it was a lifeline. I kind of regretted not staying in to grade things with Zoe.
“If you’re worried about being alone with him, we can break in,” Abby promised.
“What are the odds that he hurts me?” I asked.
The wolf basically roared.
“Zero, Em. Even if Finn hadn’t been through hell with his last mate, he’s not that kind of guy. He loves to read romance books, and helps people for a living.”
Oh.
Well, that was sweet.
My gaze softened toward him. “Alright, I’ll figure it out. You can go home, Abby.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m going to tell Zoe about werewolves, though.”
“You might as well. I don’t think fate is going to chill until all of our friends have hooked up at this point. Let me know if you need anything, but I’ll call in the morning to check on you if I haven’t heard from you by then.”
“Mmkay. Thanks.”
We hung up.
I wanted to call Zoe right away, but it was going to have to wait.
The kitchen counter was nearby, so I set my phone down. After a beat of hesitation, my makeup remover wipe, too.
My other arm was wrapped around my cake dome too tightly to add that to the pile.
I took a step toward Finn the Wolf.
He glared at me, but didn’t snap his teeth or growl again.
So I took another step.
And another.
I probably shouldn’t have just blindly trusted Abby that the wolf wouldn’t hurt me, but he had sniffed me and poked me to make sure I wasn’t hurt after I fell. So he cared about my well-being, at least a little.
Sinking down to my knees, I studied the wolf.
His glare was losing heat.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Emmy. My parents are really wealthy and really into education, so I started college when I was sixteen, and graduated with a degree in early childhood education stupidly fast. I taught kindergarten grade for eight years before I got burned out and took a year off.
My friend Zoe found us jobs as professors at the end of that year.
Now I teach people how to teach kids.” I watched him closely.
The wolf relaxed a little more.
“Here are some facts about me, in case that helps you feel better. I’m twenty-nine.
My car is full of sticky notes and markers.
I keep a box full of little gifts and trinkets from my students in my closet because I remember them and miss them desperately.
I haven’t signed a contract to keep my current job next semester because I miss teaching kids.
I’ve never had a boyfriend before, because I never met a guy I liked enough to want to trade my free time for,” I went on.
“I like making cakes, and doing Pilates. I don’t like neutral colors because I think they’re super boring, so I told my best friend your house was Cabin Chic, but now that I’m actually inside, I’m thinking it could really use some colorful rugs and yellow paint,” I finished.
“Or pink. Actually, yeah, just pink. I love pink.”
Finn’s wolf stared at me.
I stared back. “In the spirit of honesty, our friends told me about your last mate, and I’m sorry. No one should have to deal with that. I’m glad you survived.”
He scowled.
“I really am. And I’m not like her. I couldn’t hurt someone if I tried. I don’t even kill spiders, and I’m terrified of them. It feels too cruel. If you want to just go ahead and bite me to get the mate thing over with, I understand.”
His scowl started to fade.
Slowly.
There was a solid two minutes of silence while he stared at me.
I slipped my fuzzy, light pink sleeve off one of my shoulders and slid my hand free. Holding it out, I offered him my wrist.
“Here, bite me. I really don’t mind.”
I hadn’t thought it through, but I’d never had a problem just rolling with whatever life threw at me. If life threw me a werewolf, I would catch it.
The wolf watched me. He didn’t look angry anymore. He didn’t even look wary.
His gaze lowered to my wrist, then back to my face.
I gave him a small smile. The soft kind I had used on my kindergartners when they were angry or sad.
“I’m not going to change my mind,” I said.
The wolf shook his fur lightly. I wasn’t sure why.
Then, he leaned in and licked my wrist once.
A second time.
A third.
His bite was quick. Gentle. The smallest pierce of just his sharpest fangs, leaving two small wounds on the top and underside of my wrist.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment.
Until a cry escaped me as my body arched and something snapped.
It sounded like a bone.