“You should get going,” he said.
Those four words shattered the tiny amount of hope. I could feel my face go slack as I stared at him, gathering the sheets tighter around me.
“Oh,” I said, even as I could feel the heat rushing up my face.
He raised an eyebrow, tilting his head. “What? I’ve got things to do, and I’m sure you do, too.”
“Sure,” I said, brow furrowing. “But I wasn’t expecting this frosty of a send-off.”
Shrugging, he said, “I mean, last night was fun, but that’s really about it.”
“That’s it?” I parroted, my mouth dry as I felt myself sinking further into the earth.
Elias laughed, and it made my stomach sink. “Emma, you couldn’t have thought that anything would come from any of this, could you? It was a drunken mistake. You and I were never going to be able to be anything.”
The words rattled and echoed in my head, making my stomach sink in dread as I tried to wrap my mind around them. My world seemed to be crumbling all around me.
Oh my God. I was such an idiot.
“I’m the next alpha,” he said. “You and I wouldn’t have worked out. It was a fun night. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Right.” I could barely breathe. Heat flooded my face as I scrambled out of bed. I flung my clothes on as he watched, foot tapping as if he were impatient. I couldn’t look at him.
As I ran out the door, I could feel my world crash around me. I forced myself to keep moving, to not look back at that house, to not think about Elias or last night.
As I walked back to my house, I made a vow: that I would never have anything to do with Elias Thorn ever again.
Chapter 1 - Emma
I pushed back into the kitchen with a load of dirty plates, my notepad tucked beneath my chin.
“It’s packed out there,” I told Alexis as I dropped the plates next to the sink.
“I know,” Alexis grumbled as she kicked the pipes beneath the sink, glowering. “And the hot water is on the fritz again.”
“Again?” I asked. “I thought they fixed them.”
“You would have thought,” Alexis said. “But you know how cheap Leonard is. Otherwise, he would have fixed the damn dishwasher instead of making us do it by hand.”
“Cheap, among other things,” I mumbled.
Alexis snorted in agreement.
I looked at the sink, filled with soapy, dirty dishes in lukewarm water. Dishes that wouldn’t get cleaned until tomorrow that we desperately needed right now. I wrestled internally before coming to a decision.
“If you wouldn’t mind taking care of my tables for a few minutes, I’ll see if there’s anything I can do,” I said. At Alexis’s surprised, dubious expression, I shrugged. “I’m good with these sorts of things. You know that.”
“All right,” Alexis said. “I’ll come check on you once I’ve gotten rid of some of the rush.”
The instant the door closed and I was alone, I got to work. Checking to make sure no one was coming in, I dipped my hand in the grimy, gray water and closed my eyes. At first, nothing happened. Then, I felt wet heat press against my face. I openedmy eyes to see steam rising from the water. My still-submerged hand should have been boiled red from being in it, but instead, it felt pleasantly warm, as if I had been in the pool on a hot summer day.
I started scrubbing the dishes, moving quickly but meticulously as I cleaned plate after plate.
I had never known where these powers came from, and it wasn’t as though they were particularly impressive to begin with. The most I could do was make large splashes and heat up water, neither of which was particularly useful, except in situations like this. I had kept it a secret even when growing up. My pack had hated magic. Though I wasn’t in the pack any longer, I still had to keep it secret because I was surrounded by humans who didn’t even know the supernatural world existed. If it weren’t for how desperate we were for clean plates or for how cheap the diner owner was when it came to maintenance, I wouldn’t have even risked showing them here. At least my powers were subtle and weak enough to explain away.
Alexis’s eyes went wide as she stepped back inside, just as I was finishing up the last plate, sticking it on the drying rack.
“Wow,” she said. “How did you manage to get it so hot?” She tapped the surface of the water and hissed as she shook her hand.
