CHAPTER EIGHT

I do not want to be here.

I want to be curled up in bed, replaying my run with James from a week ago. Instead, I’m at Sharon’s for a “girls’ night.” Which is supposed to include gossiping about boys. But the boy I want to gossip about has to be kept a secret.

Ugh.

“Can you get me some mugs from the cabinet?” Sharon asks.

I reach up and grab three from the shelf in front of me and hand them to Sharon. Just as she starts to pour the spiced hot cider she’s made, I hear the front door open.

“It’s me! And I have cake!”

The voice belongs to Lisa, a waitress Sharon and I used to work with at the diner until she left to start her own bakery.

She races into the kitchen and wraps me in a hug before doing the same with Sharon.

“It’s so good to see you both! I feel like it’s been forever since we last hung out,” she says as she takes off her jacket and throws it on a nearby chair.

“I know! We’ve all been working so much,” Sharon says as she hands me a mug of cider and shepherds us to the table at the back of the kitchen.

“Ugh, I know. I’ve actually slept at the bakery twice this month to make sure the bread orders got out on time. So, tell me what’s new!”

Well, I met my mate, and he’s beautiful and silent and makes me feel seen in a way no one ever has. Oh yeah, and he’s the clan’s new Beta.

I can’t tell them that, of course. Sharon and Lisa don’t even know I’m a shifter. Neither of them is but they’ve lived in town long enough to understand the dynamics of the local clans. And they know what being a rogue means. So, I can’t tell them, or else they’ll look at me differently.

Like I’m a charity case, a pathetic loner.

James doesn’t make me feel that way, though. With him, I feel whole.

“Well, Greg and I are thinking of getting a dog! We’ve started looking at the local shelters, but I can’t pick just one. Every time we go, I end up wanting to take every single one home,” Sharon tells us with a laugh.

“A dog! That’s a big commitment. You know what they say. First comes dog, then comes baby.” Lisa wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and I can’t help but start laughing.

“How about you, Isabel?” Lisa asks as she swipes her finger through the icing on the piece of cake in front of her.

“Nothing. Same old, same old,” I lie. My stomach lurches and my mouth strains to spill my secret, but I swallow it down along with a big gulp of cider and an unreasonably large forkful of cake.

“Oh, come on, that’s not true!” Sharon says. “You’ve been blushing and smiling like a goon since last week. Remember when you nearly dropped that container of maple syrup when I interrupted you daydreaming the other day?”

“I’m always spacing out when the diner gets quiet. That’s nothing new,” I say, trying to keep the defensiveness out of my voice.

“But you never grin like that when you’re daydreaming. You looked like a heroine out of a Jane Austen novel, staring off into the distance and smiling about a man.”

“Oooh, has Isabel met a boy?!” Lisa asks with a squeal. “Who is it? Do we know him? I bet he’s the strong, silent type. That seems like your kind of guy.”

James is strong and silent, so she’s not wrong.

“Sorry to disappoint, but there is no boy. This town is depressingly lacking in dating options,” I tell them with a shake of my head, hoping I look convincing. “You’re lucky you found Greg, Sharon.”

Sharon smiles a goofy grin and nods. “I know! He’s so wonderful.”

Sharon spends a few minutes gushing about how in love they are, and I congratulate myself on successfully diverting the attention away from me. Bringing up Greg is always a safe bet. They’re so in love it’s a little vomit-inducing, and she can’t help but talk about him.

“How about you, Lisa? Anything new with you?” Sharon asks after she’s finished her story about their latest date night, which involved a romantic meal for two and a dozen roses. Barf.

“Yes! One of the clan’s fighters came into the bakery to order a few dozen cupcakes for some celebration they’re having, and there was a new guy with him. I didn’t recognize him. I feel like I know all their faces by now—the werewolves in this town have a surprisingly strong sweet tooth.”

Is she talking about James?

“What’d he look like?” Sharon asks as she refills our mugs with more hot cider.

“Tall, dark and handsome,” Lisa says, her voice dipping low in a purr. “He was really quiet, too. Didn’t say a word the whole time they were in the bakery. He let the fighter do the order, but I got the feeling he was in charge. He had a really commanding presence.”

That’s definitely James.

I haven’t seen him since our run, and it’s killing me. I’ve made up a million scenarios in my head for why he hasn’t dropped me another note or come to my backyard, but hearing he’s been seen out with clan members boils my blood.

If he can go to the bakery, why can’t he come see me? Does he not want to?

All the certainty I had the night of our run has long since fled and I’m back to feeling insecure about our…relationship? Mateship? Whatever this is.

“Did he have broad shoulders? Brown hair and almost black eyes?” Sharon asks.

Lisa nods her head. “Yup. Do you know him?”

“I think I saw him at the diner last week. He was sitting with that douchey Gamma and his fighters. You waited on him, didn’t you Isabel?”

Crap.

“Oh yeah. He was a total jerk. Wouldn’t even look me in the eye. He’s just like the rest of them,” I tell them with a roll of my eyes.

“Well, screw him then. I hate the Gamma and his cronies. They’re such dicks. It sucks to hear they have a new member of their crew. It’s hard enough waiting on them already!” Sharon says, and then she and Lisa go off on a tangent about difficult customers.

While they talk, I start to wonder if maybe that last lie has a kernel of truth in it.

What if he is just like the rest of them?