“G’night,” Trevor mumbled, standing there like a dimwitted twit as she walked out of the bedroom and across the hallway into her own, leaving him to think about what had just happened even as his face tingled where she’d kissed him.
As kisses went, it had to be the most chaste one he’d ever gotten, but he found himself smiling all the same, deciding he’d never trade that simple touch on the cheek for anything in the world.
Jenna wasThe Onefor him. There was no doubt in his mind of that. Now, he had to figure out how to explain to her that she was his soul mate. Without making her think he was off his rocker.
He walked over to the door to turn off the light, resisting as his inner wolf urged him to keep moving right across that hallway and into Jenna’s room. Instead, he took a deep breath, breathing in her heavenly scent for a few seconds before heading back to his bed.
Sighing, he lay back on the soft mattress, listening to Jenna toss and turn across the hall. She seemed to find a comfortable position quickly enough, though, and within moments, he heard the rhythmic sounds of her even breathing as she fell asleep.
He stared up at the ceiling in the darkness, mind racing at the likelihood that he had truly found his soul mate. He’d been pretty sure even before coming out to California—hence the reason he’d come out here in the first place—but beingpretty surewas drastically different from knowing. And now that he was here and feeling more alive than he had in the weeks since they’d been separated, he knew for certain. Jenna wasThe Onefor him, the woman he’d been waiting a good portion of his adult life for, even if he’d never known it.
Part of him wanted to run over to Jenna’s room right this second and tell her the big news. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard to resist that psychotic idea. He could only imagine how she’d react if he suddenly started spouting off lines about werewolves, fated love, and destiny. It wasn’t a verypretty picture. No, he was going to have to take this slowly and let Jenna come to her own conclusions about the bond developing between the two of them.
Of course, there was one person who could screw up that extremely reasonable plan—Connor. His pack mate had damn near blown a gasket when Trevor had done nothing more than look at his sister. What would he do when he found out that she was Trevor’s soul mate?
Would he attempt to get between them after knowing they were destined to be together? Considering how overprotective Connor was when it came to his sister, almost certainly, even though he’d just found his own soul mate.
Would it come to a fight between him and Connor? Yeah, probably.
Trevor was still thinking about that when hefeltsomeone watching him. For half a second, he thought it was Jenna, but then he realized the sensation wasn’t coming from the doorway but inside the room. Somewhere close, too. He darted a quick look toward the window, not sure how someone could get up to the second floor, much less do so without him smelling them.
But no one was there.
And yet he continued to feel eyes on him.
Lots of eyes.
It only took a few more seconds to realize thatthe only things in the room with him were Jenna’s clay sculptures. He glanced at them to see that all the creatures were facing his direction. And with the way the glow of the streetlamps came through the window and bounced off their deep-set eyes, it was like they were staring at him.
He felt silly for even admitting it to himself, but the damn things were creepy as hell. It was like they were sizing him up to eat or something. He rolled over onto his side so his back was to them, telling himself to forget about the sculptures and to focus on thoughts of Jenna. He’d fall asleep soon enough anyway.
But ten minutes later, he was still wide awake, the back of his neck tingling uncomfortably at the sensation of being watched. With a growl, he got up and turned all the sculptures around to face the wall, then got back in bed. There was no way he’d ever be able to get any sleep with them staring at him all night.
CHAPTER 2
“You’re going to love this place,” Jenna said as Trevor held the door open for her and they walked into the downtown 1940s style diner. Decorated in cream and maroon, the old-fashioned counter and classic light fixtures gave it a vintage feel that made customers think they stepped back in time.
“I feel bad making you run around all over the place like this,” Trevor said as he and Jenna slid into a booth in the back. “I’m sure it must be boring as heck for you to be doing all this tourist stuff when you’ve lived in LA your whole life.”
She laughed. “Are you kidding me? I haven’t done any of this stuff since I was a kid. I had an amazing time. Though I think I might have scheduled too many attractions for us to do in one day. I’m exhausted.”
Trevor let out a deep chuckle, the sound making her feel warm all over. “Yeah. Visiting the Natural History Museum, Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles Zoo, and the Griffith Observatory all in one day might have been a bit ambitious.” He reached over to pluck two menus from the wire rack near the wall by theirbooth, holding one of them out to her. “Maybe tomorrow we should pick out one or two places to see.”
“Deal,” she agreed, taking the menu from him, even though she already knew what she was going to order.
She ate here on the reg, partly because the food was seriously ah-mazing, and partly because the diner was close to Skid Row with its maze of back alleys and the large number of unhoused people who frequented the area. But she couldn’t tell Trevor that.
“Well, if you’re looking for one big attraction that will keep us occupied all day tomorrow,” she said, setting the menu aside and looking across the table at the extraordinarily attractive man she’d been lucky enough to spend the whole day with, “then you’re talking either Universal Studios or Disneyland. Your choice.”
“Either of those sounds good to me.” Trevor placed his own menu on the table, then smiled and reached over to take her hand. “But honestly, it doesn’t matter where we go. I’m having fun simply hanging out with you.”
If they weren’t in a crowded diner, Jenna would have probably thrown herself across the table and hugged the stuffing out of him. And kissed him, too. Yeah, there’d be a lot of that. What else could you do when you found a guy so completely perfect?
When she’d met Trevor in Dallas, the first word that had popped into her head wasgorgeous. Tall and muscular with dark, silky hair, he had soulful brown eyes that pulled you in and a jawline perpetually roughened with sexy scruff. Seriously, Adonis would cry like a baby at the sight of this man.
It wasn’t until her jackass brother had opened his mouth and insulted her that Trevor had shown her what kind of man he truly was, however. He’d given her a place to stay, someone to rant to, even a shoulder to cry on. All without asking a single question. He hadn’t even inquired what her butt flake of a brother had said to make her so mad. He’d simply accepted that she needed his help and had provided it.
She’d be the first to admit that she developed a thing for Trevor incredibly fast. But she hadn’t realized how strong her feelings were until she’d come home. That was when she found herself thinking about him all the time, even dreaming about him at night. Worse, she sometimes got this ache in her chest when she thought about how much she missed him. To be honest, it scared her a little to think about how quickly he’d found a place in her heart.
