“I’m fine,” I growled, unsure why I was snapping at this guy for asking a sweet question.Probably because that’s what murderers do before they kidnap you.
His gaze narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak again when I cut him off.
“I had a long night. I just need sleep,” I assured him, wondering why I was even divulging so much to this dude, but the intensity of his gaze was a bit overwhelming.
He nodded, looking apprehensive. “Well, goodnight, Averly.”
The way he said my name was like he knew me. Like we’d been friends for years. And for some reason I liked it. The fact that I’d told him my name once three hours ago and he’d remembered it was impressive.
“Goodnight, Brayden.” I swallowed hard and watched him walk out of the bar.
That was the hottest, strangest, most intense guy I’d ever met. I should be super scared of him. He just told a group of guys that I was his… but I wasn’t scared. Maybe he’d done that to protect me. Maybe those guys were bad. My mind chewed on a hundred different explanations as he left the bar.
“Bye, beautiful!” Clara called after Brayden in the most annoying valley girl voice possible, and I chuckled when Brayden tensed, looking over his shoulder at her.
Brayden gave her a head nod and left.
“These tables won’t wipe themselves,” Ronan called out of the hallway to both of us, and then Clara and I started to wipe everything down in record speed.
* * *
By the timeI locked the bar door behind me and gave Clara a double cheek kiss, it was nearly three a.m. I’d texted Leah that I was too tired to after-party. Now my plan was to bike home and pass out for a week. I was hungry and my body felt ten times heavier than normal. It was as if I couldn’t even hold up the weight of my own head.
Maybe I should have gotten the rabies shot.
“Go away!” a familiar male voice snapped across the parking lot, and I froze with my hands on my bike lock. Craning my head, I followed the noise to peer under the streetlamp. Brayden was talking to some smoking hot blonde chick.
“You just going to follow her around to see if she changes?” the girl said.
“If I have to. She’smyresponsibility,” Brayden growled.
How could I hear them this far away? They were at least thirty feet away and it was like they might as well be right next to me for how clear their voices were coming in.
It sounded like Brayden had girl problems. I knew he was too good to be true. Unclicking the lock, I yanked my bike from the rack and pointed it home. I didn’t want anything more to do with this guy. When my gaze fell to the streetlamp, Brayden was watching me, sans the blonde.
My heart pounded in my chest under his gaze. It was rude, you didn’t just stare at people like that unless you were going to kill them. Or kiss them.
I’m outta here.
Other people were filtering out of bars nearby; the noises of drunk people trying to figure out their rides home filled the air. Pushing off my bike, I crossed the street and pedaled home. When I passed McDuff’s, Manwhore Nik was outside smoking a cigarette with a brunette sucking on his neck. “Hey, beautiful Averly. Good tips?”
I chuckled. “Not bad!”
He’d grown on me. What could I say? I was a creature of habit and there was something comforting about Nik constantly hitting on me.
Coming up to the hospital, I slowed, thoughts about last night rushing back to me. Pain pulsed in my arm at the mere memory of being bitten and I winced.
The last thing I remembered before I’d passed out was the honey-eyed stare of the grey wolf standing over me. Protecting me.
I suddenly felt a presence at my back and slammed on the brakes, turning in my bike seat while also reaching for my gun.
But no one was there.
I laughed to myself and then wondered if Ididhave rabies. I didn’t quite feel like myself, and clearly I was imagining things. I rode the rest of the way home lost in my thoughts, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being followed. I wondered then if my protector grey wolf was okay. The missing body of the black wolf I’d killed, and the blood Leah and I had found today, made me wonder what had become of the both of them.
Stumbling inside my house, I felt the fever searing my skin and I chugged down two more antibiotics, wondering if maybe they were expired.
I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow, I just need sleep,I told myself after I brushed my teeth and climbed into bed.
