I forced myself to stand still and take a deep breath. Only then did I realize that wasn’t my only option. Fingers sweaty and fumbling, I grabbed the empty box from the floor and scrutinized the writing on the back. It said the pills worked up to five days later. Relief washed over me, at least enough to sate my blinding anxiety.
I still have time to buy more and take them,I thought.
Lilith meowed. Her tail swished, like my total meltdown was amusing to her.
“This is all your fault,” I grumbled. “If we hadn’t got the call about you, I could have gone to the store and bought more pills andtakenthem by now.”
She stared back at me relentlessly. Almost like she was judging me. It made me strangely uncomfortable, and I looked away.
Still in a mild panic, I threw on an outfit to get ready to run to the nearest drug store.
One way or another, I was going to fix this.
* * *
“Are youfuckingkidding me!?”
My voice rang out in the pharmacy so loud that multiple people turned to stare at me. But I didn’t care. I waswaybeyond caring at this point.
“Sir, please understand,” the pharmacist said, as gently as possible, “this is a busy time of year for that product, with Valentine’s Day coming up next week.”
“I don’t give a shit about Valentine’s Day!” I cried. “How can apharmacyrun out of pills?”
“We’re a store that runs of out stock, just like every other store,” she said with a tight-lipped smile. I could tell her patience with me was wearing thin. Too bad mine was already completely gone. “You could always try another pharmacy.”
“It’s Sunday,” I snapped. “This is the only one that’s open today.”
“Sir,” she said tersely, “the product you need will be available at any other pharmacy tomorrow morning. And it will still be safe to take it by then, even though you’re really supposed to take them as soon as possible.”
I resisted the urge to slap all the painfully ironic safe-sex pamphlets off the counter. Without another word to her, I turned and stormed away, blind with rage and panic. I didn’t see the man behind me until I’d literally run into him.
I snarled and snapped, “Watch where you’re going!”
The tall alpha blinked in confusion, then grew annoyed. “Hey, you’re the one who ran intome!”
I noticed the multiple boxes of condoms in his arms, as if he was trying and failing to make a decision on which brand to pick, which infuriated me even more for some reason - like the universe was punishing me fornotusing a condom that night.
Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to let an alpha push me around, even if a tiny voice in the back of my mind reminded me that itwasmy fault for running into him. Right now, I was too upset to care. I wanted to lash out at anything in my path.
“Fucking - move!” I growled.
The alpha furrowed his brows, looking more confused than angry. “What is your problem, man?”
“I said,move!”
People gasped around me as I slammed my hands into the alpha’s chest in a desperate attempt to move him. He barely stumbled back, but as I lashed out, my phone flew out of my pocket and landed face-up on the floor. At the same moment, the screen lit up and my ringtone began to play. Someone was calling me, but I was too upset to care.
“Sir!” the pharmacist cried, sounding truly frightened now. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, and if you don’t, I will call security!”
I glared at the alpha, still waiting for him to get out of my way. But he was staring down at the ground curiously.
“Griffin?” he asked. “Huh?”
I didn’t know what he was talking about until I saw the name and face pop up on my phone. Griffin was calling me, and judging by the sound of this alpha’s voice, he seemed to know Griffin.
I snatched the phone and stuffed it into my pocket.
“Wait, that’s my friend,” the alpha said. “How do you know him? Uh. And aren’t you gonna pick up?”
