But as she watched his dragon disappear into the atmosphere, she had to come to terms with something big…he was not like her.
He was capable of killing. He was capable of damage she couldn’t even begin to imagine.
She’d never before felt so utterly…human.
So different.
Hanging out with Harley and Wreck’s Crew, they were just friends with glowing eyes, but they weren’t only that. They weresomething different. They only pretended to be normal around her. That thought felt so right.
She’d had no idea the friends she was keeping, and at this moment right here, as she watched the dragon disappear into the night, she realized how very different shifters were from her.
She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t pursue him.
She shouldn’t have slept with him.
A tear streaked to her cheek, and in a rush, she wiped it away with the back of her hand. A soft sob escaped her as she went back to sweeping glass.
“Miss, are you okay?” one of the neighbors asked from a couple houses down.
“Oh yeah. Just cleaning up a busted window. I don’t want anyone to get a flat tire,” she said in the steadiest voice she could manage.
“Do you need help cleaning it?” he asked as he walked closer. He was a nice older gentleman who had introduced himself the first week she’d moved into her rental house.
“Oh, I’m almost done. Thank you though.”
“I heard a big boom,” he called, approaching, but stopped in front of her house with a frown etched onto his face. “Or maybe I felt it?”
“Oh yeah, it’s all okay though.” She wasn’t about to try and explain a dragon’s Change.
He canted his head. “You’re okay, miss? Really?”
She forced a smile and leaned onto the handle of the broom. Time to lie. “Never been better.”
She’s just my neighbor.
Before he could see the tremble of her lips, she dipped her gaze and went back to cleaning the street.
“You ask if you need anything. I got a daughter about your age. You remind me of her,” he said, walking away.
She allowed a tiny, emotional smile. She appreciated the check-in from another human who would definitely be just as confused as her if he’d just witnessed what she had witnessed.
Tammy swept the piles of glass into the dustpan Tawk had shoved into the bucket, and when it was cleaned as much as she could get, she made her way back into his rental. She really was his neighbor now.
He’d left the door wide open, and inside, she set the bucket down and looked around. He’d set a couple of duffle bags on the floor, and there were grocery bags still on the kitchen counter. When he’d said he had errands to run earlier, he’d been truthful. He’d been moving in. Why hadn’t he told her?
“Because he doesn’t owe you explanations,” she said into the quiet living room.
She was just a neighbor. Just a dumb neighbor who had pretended she could do a one-night stand, and it wouldn’t mean anything. Now, her silly heart was so confused.
She shouldn’t have slept with a shifter before she’d known what they were capable of.
She was sure she’d only seen a fraction of the destruction he could cause.
The sheer violence and fury of him fighting that polar bear flitted across her mind, and she squeezed her eyes tightly closed. She’d slapped him three times across the face, and she could still feel the still form of the bear under her as she’d tried to bring Tawk back. He was going to kill it with his bare hands, right in front of her.
She shook her head, trying to banish the memory.
Tammy backed out of the house and closed the door behind her, then made her way across the yard to her own home. When she was inside, she locked the door and turned, pressed her shoulder blades against it and slid down until she was sitting.
