3
NESS
Ihadn’t told my friends about what’d happened earlier today. Visions of the hunky man at the edge of the road rolled through my mind over and over. Cerri had to call my name four times to snap me out of my haze.
Addie, who was on sandwiches today, gave me a look with her head tilted to the side like that might enable her to peer past my façade. The fourth employee at Bad Moon Café kept a lot of secrets from us. She was quiet except when she wanted to tell us about her recent hikes. Today, she wore her long, dark hair in a braid that ran down her back. She’d knotted the front of her flannel shirt to crop it and allow a thin slice of skin to peek through between her shirt and the waistband of her leggings. I stuck my tongue out at Addie, snatched the paper cup from Cerri’s outstretched hand, and got to work on the new order.
Cerri’s potion shimmered with her arcana. Most of the time, arcana ran in the family. It was magic that manifested in the blood passed down from generation to generation. Cerri’s arcana was unique to her. No one could stir magic into drinks the way she could. Though she was pack, no shifter could do what she did. I stole a glance in her direction and felt my stomach slap the floor.
Beyond her, on the other side of the counter, stood Tall, Dark, and Stormy from earlier. My breath hitched as I spun back around. The coffee I’d been pouring spilled over the cup’s brim and seared my skin. I hissed and jerked back, spilling more coffee over myself.
Great, I thought. I was covered in coffee and potion.
I could feel several people watching me, their gazes burning the back of my neck. I fought the urge to rub it and focused on fitting a lid onto the coffee cup. Okay, now I had to give it to Tall, Dark, and Stormy.
I balked. My feet refused to move. How had he found me so quickly? If he wanted to talk, he did a horrible job initiating conversation. He stared at me from his position near the order counter. I knew because I could still feel his gaze hot on my skin. His attention made my heartrate skyrocket, which had more to do with how he’d caught me that morning than to do with how hot he was.
Yeah, that was it. It had nothing to do with his broad shoulders barely contained by his threadbare t-shirt. It wasn’t his pale eyes, bright even though they were trapped behind shadows that seemed to plague him with guilt.
My hound wanted to nudge him and see if she could draw a smile out of him. I told my hound that I would throw myself off a cliff before I allowed her to approach him. The hound growled in warning.
She’d never growled at me like that before. It left me stunned. What was it with this guy? Why did he leave me so thoroughly inside-out?
I swallowed and turned, my motions mechanical because I had to force myself to move. Tall, Dark, and Stormy appeared at the end counter before I could set his cup down. He reached to take it from me, and a bright spark leapt between our hands.
Now, I’m not talkingwe had sparksin a figurative sense. This spark was very real. It let out a crack as it jumped from my fingers to his. He stopped and scowled at our hands while I held my breath.
Just take it,I thought, desperate to flee from this interaction. If he figured out that I was the hound he’d seen, then I could get in big trouble. My friends at Bad Moon wouldn’t rat me out to Alvin, but I couldn’t trust this stranger to keep his mouth shut. For all I knew, this mystery shifter was a stickler for pack rules and would run back to Alvin the moment he put all the pieces together.
I didn’t need this today. I was tired of having to prostrate myself before Alvin, tired of having to bear the weight of this damned prophecy that I never had any intention of seeing through.
Tall, Dark, and Stormy took his cup finally. No more sparks appeared between us. I breathed a sigh of relief and booked it into the back room where I could breathe again. When I peeked out, Cerri and Addie gave me inquisitive glances. I ducked back into the back room before they could figure out what had me so shaken.
Why didn’t I want to talk to my friends about Tall, Dark, and Stormy? What about him made me want to keep our interaction all to myself? I rolled my eyes at my own behavior. I wasn’t acting rationally. While no one had ever called me rational, I wasn’t a fool, either.
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I tried to gather myself. My thoughts were scrambled from the spark between TDS and myself. If only I had a name to call him rather than Tall, Dark, and Stormy or TDS. The first was long winded, and the second seemed impersonal. Perhaps I needed to stay impersonal so that he wouldn’t draw me in and make a fool out of me.
I had no idea how this outsider would react if he knew about me or how I’d broken the rules this morning. I rubbed the back of my neck. Now that no one was staring, I could feel Alvin’s teeth on my scruff again. Alvin could have done so much more damage this morning. He would have if he’d known that I’d been spotted.
I pressed my back to the wall and sighed. I rubbed my face with my hands to see if I could wipe away any of the anxiety still gripping me. When I pulled my hands away, I saw that Cerri had joined me.
She put her hands on her hips, leaned forward, and studied me. I did my best to give her a reassuring smile, but it seemed tight and forced, even to me.
“What is it about that guy that has you so shaken?” she asked. “It’s more thanoh, man! He’s so hot!So, spill. What’s up?”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing. I had a stressful morning with the pack. That’s all.”
Addie poked her head into the doorway and pinned me with her dark stare. “Stop lying.”
“Go back to the counter before someone walks in,” I hissed, eager to escape this interrogation.
Okay, so it wasn’t an interrogation, but it sure felt like it when I had a pack mate in front of me and Addie to my left. We didn’t really know what Addie was, only that she was a supernatural who didn’t like to use her arcana. She seemed afraid of herself, which was honestly kind of intimidating.
“It’s nothing. I shifted without pack permission this morning, and that guy might have seen me. That’s it. He didn’t even see me shift. For all he knows, he saw a black dog in a field.” I shrugged, trying to play this off.
Cerri’s eyes widened. She swore under her breath, which amounted to a softdangbecause Cerri never actually swore.
Addie nodded. “You stay back here, then. I’ll let you know when the coast is clear. You don’t have to interact with him at all.”