Zale jerked away from me.
“I’ve been doing fine this whole time." His voice trembled. "You trusted me yesterday and last week. What changed?"
Everything and nothing. I didn't know anymore.
"This is exactly why I work alone." The words tasted bitter. "It’s why I stopped trying to make this work with anyone,because it’s the bakery that matters, not whatever this is between us."
Color blanched from his cheeks. "Right. Of course." There was no emotion in his voice. "We didn’t want to overcomplicate things. I remember."
He grabbed his coat from the hook.
"Where are you going?"
"Out!" His hands were shaking as he shoved his arms through the sleeves. "Since I can't help and apparently I'm just in the way, I'll get out of your space."
"Zale, no!"
His eyes were bright, either with anger or tears, I couldn't tell. "You want to work alone? Fine. You've made it very clear what your priorities are. I was an idiot to think..." He cut himself off. "It doesn't matter. You were right from the start. This was temporary and just a job. Nothing more."
He was out the back door before I could form a response. The door slammed and the sound echoed through the suddenly too-quiet bakery.
What had I just done?
I stared at the closed door. My chest hurt as I tried to get air in and out of my lungs. My wolf was snarling at me, asking how I could have pushed away the one person who'd made me feel less alone? He told me I was a coward.
We’d disagreed many times but not like this. My wolf was disgusted, saying he didn’t want to know me, which was kinda hard as he was integral part of me
"Well that was spectacularly foolish. I’d call it asshat behavior."
Mrs. Trent stood in the doorway sporting a sour expression.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to hear you being an absolute fool.” She walked behind the counter. "That boy has been here every day attwo-thirty in the morning without complaint. He works harder than anyone I've ever seen. He looks at you like you’re the sun, the moon and the stars. And you just told him he doesn't matter."
"That's not what I said."
"That's exactly what he heard." Mrs. Trent shook her head. "You need to go after him, Hawthorn. Right now."
"I have orders to fulfill." A bunch of school kids pushed open the door, traipsing snow into the bakery. "And customers."
"And we have hands." She gestured toward the street where Benjamin and Marg were peering in. "We'll handle things here. You go fix what you just broke."
I looked between her and the door. My wolf was already pushing at me, demanding I follow Zale's scent.
"Go," Mrs. Trent said firmly. "Before you lose him for good."
I grabbed my coat and ran.
Outside, the cold air hit me hard. Snow was falling in thick flakes, already covering Zale's footprints. But I didn't need to see them. His scent was strong and sharp with distress and anger. I’d caused that and I had to make it right, even if he never wanted to speak to me again.
The scent pulled me forward, and I followed it toward the edge of town and the woods. But what was I going to say when I caught up to him? How could I explain that I'd pushed him away because I was terrified of how much I wanted him to stay?
The footprints in the snow led into the tree line and revealed where he had stumbled. His clothes were tossed in a heap and the prints changed. Human footprints became pawprints. He'd shifted.
My wolf surged forward, howling. Our mate was running away and in pain. We had to follow him and fix this.
I looked around. The woods were empty. Most of the townspeople were human and I didn’t want their world tocollapse if I shifted in front of them. The cold bit at my skin as I stripped off but I barely felt it. My wolf was close to the surface, demanding to be let out.
