Over the last few hours, the coffee shop had gotten a lot quieter. Most of the people cleared out around dinnertime, and now it was nearly empty. The words on the page were blurring together, and I was certain my stomach was eating itself, yet I still had at least another hour of studying to do. They weren’t going to close until then anyway, which meant I could stay. I should stay.
I scooted my chair away from the table.
Georgine looked up at me as I stood. “Where are you going?”
Why did it matter? Why did she always ask me? Why did I even have to talk to her?
God. I was annoyed with her, but it was probably mostly hunger. Not the fact that Mother already called me to get the full details on who yelled at me, and the lectured me about being more careful and how it was my fault that the girl went nuts on me.
My patience was shot, but that didn’t excuse me from being an asshole. “I’m getting more food. Do you want anything?”
“More food?” She looked at me as if this wasn’t my normal. As if I was a disgusting creature because I was hungry. “You know you’re not supposed to eat that much. You don’t have the normal hunger signals that you’re supposed to have and—”
“Yeah. I know, but I’m hungry. I can’t study if I can’t focus beyond being hungry.” I bit the words out. Could she not tell that if she asked me one more question, I was going to lose my shit?
“But you just ate a muffin an hour ago.”
Okay. That wasn’t technically a question. I could do this. I could behave normally. “I only ate half a muffin an hour ago because you ate the rest, and now I need more food, or I won’t be able to concentrate.” I wasn’t about to defend my eating habits. I ate when I was hungry, and I was hungry. So, I was eating. Every time I sat down with food, I tried to eat a normal amount because she was right, I did lack the typical hunger cues. But this didn’t need to be a discussion.
No. It wasn’t a discussion. I could end this by walking away, and that’s exactly what I was going to do.
I grabbed my wallet and walked over to the line. When it was my turn, I ordered two sandwiches, a bag of chips, and a brownie.
Maybe I didn’t need the second sandwich, but Georgine ate half of my muffin. She did it with this evil look on her face as if she were egging me on to do something. What, I didn’t know. But something.
And now I was really, seriously hungry. Which meant I was dangerous.
I took the word “hangry” to a new, special, mostly evil place. It scared me sometimes.
I almost added a hot chocolate to my order, but I’d never hear the end of that. Georgine almost never ate more than once a day. And even when she did eat, it was always very little. I’d once made the mistake of asking her if she had a dieting problem, but that just turned into a tirade about how disgusting I was for eating meat.
Fine. Whatever. She had her very specific diet, and mine was more of an everything-in-sight kind of a thing.
When I sat down with my food, Georgine stared at it and then made a face at me as expected.
I took a giant bite of my first sandwich. “Problem?” I said around my mouthful of food.
“Is that cow?” Georgine’s tone was dripping with disgust.
“Yep.” I took a big bite. I didn’t care what she thought anymore. I was hungry, and I was eating. Why did she care what I ate? I didn’t care what she ate or didn’t as the case might be.
Ignoring her, I decided to study for one more hour, and then I was going home. I could study a little more at home without Georgine staring at me.
I crunched on a chip, and Georgine made a noise.
“If you’re not going to study anymore, you can go,” I said.
“Fine. I’m leaving.”
I crunched on another chip. “Really?” I tried not to sound too happy about it, but I wasn’t sure if I managed it.
“Yes.” She quickly shoved her books into her tote. “I’ve gone over everything enough. It’s more than enough to pass.”
Enough to pass. Right.
I wished I could be okay with that, but I wanted an A. Dr. Richmond’s tests were notoriously hard. He always threw in questions on things that he hadn’t even covered yet. He told us that on day one of our class. He liked to see who really made an effort and who was just skating by.
I wasn’t the kind of person that just skated by. So, I would stay and study.
“Will you be okay here by yourself?” Georgine asked. “What if that girl comes back?”
“She’s not coming back,” I said around another mouthful of food.
“Can you please swallow before you talk to me?”
I swallowed my bite and gave her a bitchy smile. “The girl isn’t coming back, so go.”
“Fine. God. You annoy me sometimes.”
I literally wasn’t doing anything but sitting here and eating. “Same.”
She grabbed up her designer tote of the day. “I’ll see you tomorrow in class,” she said, and then she did the best thing ever. She walked out.
I waited for a second, and then lifted my feet onto the chair across the table from me. Finally, I could relax.
But then someone pulled out a chair next to me.
“Hello?” The voice was tentative, but deep and had the kind of rumble that got under my skin.
I swallowed my food and set down my sandwich. Something about his voice made my hands shake, and I wasn’t sure it was a good thing.
Who was sitting beside me? Why? There were plenty of other tables.
It took me a second to build up the courage, but I finally looked over.
God. He was handsome. His dark hair curled a bit around his ears. He had a scruffy beard, but his smile…his smile was amazing. His eyes were glowing a little, and I blinked a few times, trying to see if it was an illusion or something, but they didn’t change. They were glowing amber.
Oh shit. I knew what that meant. I’d seen it on TV. Werewolves had glowing eyes when their wolf was close. My mother warned me to stay away from them. They were too volatile and couldn’t be trusted not to kill you if you breathed wrong.
I scooted my chair away a little. “What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything.” He leaned toward me, voice soft. “Please. Don’t be afraid. I just want to talk to you.” His overly calm voice sounded like he didn’t want to freak me out, but he was failing. Everyone knew that werewolves were dangerous.
I looked around the room to see if anyone else was seeing this—seeing him, seeing us—and my gaze found the girl from earlier. The one who freaked me out. She was standing with another short girl with dark hair in braids, and a guy that was nearly as hot at the one next to me. His chin-length straight black hair was neatly tucked behind his ears. He was tall and muscular and his eyes…
Werewolf. He was a werewolf, too.
“Is she your friend?” I pointed to the girl from earlier.
He didn’t look away, but he nodded. “I know this sounds crazy, but can I touch you?”
My fear kicked up a notch. “What? Why?” Wait. No. That wasn’t important. “No! You can’t touch me.” What an insane thing to ask a stranger. Who were these people?
“I just…I need to touch you.”
Was he insane? Who asked questions like that?
I shook my head, standing up and backing away, but he stood faster than I could track and reached out, gripping my arm.
His eyes flashed brighter, and I tried to grab my arm away, but his grip was too strong.
“Help!” I screamed, not caring if I made a scene. A few people were wandering around the bookstore, but no one was left in the coffee shop. I needed to make a scene if I was going to get this werewolf away from me. “Someone help—”
He pulled me close, grabbed my other arm, and gave me a shake. He was too tall. Too big. If he wanted to, he could rip my arm off with a flick of his wrist.
“Tessa. Tessa, please! It’s me. You have to remember. You have to wake up from this spell.”
Tessa? That wasn’t me. I wasn’t who he thought I was. There was a mistake.
I shook my head. “I’m not who you think I am. I don’t know you. I—”
“Yes, you do. Think back. Try. Please. We’re married. You’re my wife. You’re my mate.” His hands were gentle on me, but he had enough strength to hurt me.
He wasn’t hurting me, though. He was confusing me. And the way he said the words wife and mate made me wish what he was saying was true.
How could I instantly want that from a stranger?
“I know something happened to you, and that you don’t remember anything from before—”
Wait. “How do you know that?” How could he possibly know that I didn’t remember anything?
There was a shout and more voices, but I couldn’t look away from this man. From the way he was holding me. From the way he was talking to me, like I meant everything to him.
I’d never felt like that. Not with my mother. Certainly not with Georgine. And they were all I had.
“Please. You have to believe me. You have to try to remember. You have to fight.”
Fight what? “I can’t. I can’t remember. I wish I knew who you were, but I don’t know you. I’m sorry. I’m not your wife. I’m not your mate. I’m not Tessa—”
Pain split my brain in two, and I felt my body stiffen.
And then I felt like I was falling.
Falling.
And I wasn’t sure anyone would catch me.