Who did that? Touched someoneelse’sgirl like that.
Of course, she wasn’t really mine. Not yet.
Even though every fiber of my being was begging for it. But I couldn’ttouch. I needed to remember that. The implications were too high. What was at stake was too large to risk it all.
But then shesmiled at him.And my wolf was ready to fight to the death. Like he’d throw down over some invisible gauntlet, over the small witch who had the other half of my soul. She tucked a strand behind her ear, looking visibly annoyed as she typed back and forth with me.
Tell him to chill. It’s none of his business who asks me out.
I scowled again at Eryne’s text message. She said that like it was so easy to control myself around her. I tried to remind myself that she had no idea.
Fate was playing a cruel trick on me that she didn’t recognize what we were to each other. My growl rumbled deep in my chest,and I watched as the skinny guy leave with his coffee cup in hand.
That’s right,my wolf said.Leave our mate alone.
I rolled my eyes internally before returning to the task at hand. Since my phone had been dead when I’d gotten it, I’d had to charge it before I could call anyone back, and I had eighty seven missed calls. That didn’t even count all the unread texts.Fuck.I massaged my forehead, scrolling through the notifications on my phone.
After sending a quick text to my family, assuring them I was fine and had just been backpacking in the wilderness for two weeks without service, I dialed Ezra’s number.
He picked up on the second ring.
“It’s me,” I said without waiting for him to say hello, holding my phone up to my ear as I watched Eryne flitter around the coffee shop.
The entire place was decked out in halloween decor, from little black bats taped to the windows to small tissue paper ghosts hanging from the ceiling. Someone had clearly gone through the trouble of carving pumpkins and hanging lights for the coffee shop as well, giving it a cozy, warm vibe.
What must have been the entire town seemed to have stopped by this morning. I’d lost count of the amount of people that had asked for the famous pumpkin chocolate chip scones, or the sugar cookies that had me licking my lips.
And that didn’t even count the coffee that smelled absolutely divine.
I was only a little distracted taking it all in. It felt like I’d been coming here my whole life, instead of seeing it fully for the first time today.
“Oh, Lockwood.” Ezra’s voice, deep and slightly old-fashioned, came through the phone, bringing me back to theissue at hand. “I wasn’t sure you were even stillalive.Two weeks, and you failed check in once.”
“I was sort of… otherwise incapacitated.” I winced, thinking about how I’d been slowly bleeding out before Eryne had found me, and how long I’d been letting her take care of me without a worry for all the people I left behind. “Sorry. I didn’t have my phone back till this morning.”
He made a strangled sound, the one he gave when I knew he was frustrated. “What happened?”
“There’s something out there. Something big. I was tracking it, but?—”
Ezra cursed. “I told you not to go alone. I could have come down.”
“Dammit, I know. I made a rash decision, and I paid the price.”
“What happened?”
I hesitated, but I knew he needed the truth. “It almost tore me limb from limb. Took a few chunks out of my skin. Luckily, my wolf’s stronger than I am. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good look at it. All I know is that it’s massive, and those teeth…” I shuddered. And it had somehow knocked out my healing abilities.
“You’re damn lucky to even be alive. What the fuck were you thinking?”
My eyes drifted over to Eryne. “I have no clue. But that’s not all.”
“There’smore?”
I dropped my voice to a low whisper. She was far enough away that she couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t want anyone else in the coffee shop to be listening in, either. “I found my mate.”
Silence. Then, “Youwhat?”
“My mate. She’s here.” I rubbed my jaw, knowing I needed to shave. And maybe get a haircut. Both things were on myitinerary for tomorrow. “She was the one who found me. Nursed me back to health. I couldn’t shift back until this morning.”
