We walked for a while in silence. Eli had made some valid points. A lot of them, actually.
“What do I do now?”
“You got his number, right?”
I nodded “You could either text him first and apologize for freaking the fuck out or…” We shared a laugh at that. I kind of did freak the fuck out.
“Or you could wait for him to text you.”
“What makes you think he’s going to text me after I acted like that?”
“From what you’ve told me, that alpha is invested. And your wolf calling him mate? That tells me one thing.”
“What one thing?”
“If your wolf is calling him mate, then that means his is calling you mate as well and I’ve yet to meet an alpha who gives up on his omega. Ever.”
We got off the treadmill, and Eli checked in some more people as they came in. He said there was always a one a.m. rush. People working out at one in the morning seemed wild to me but he was right. Once the rush died down, I realized how tired I was.
“I’m going to go,” I said. “Thanks for the talk.”
“No problem but you have another issue now.”
My chest constricted a little bit. “What’s that?”
He laughed. “Now I know how well you do on the treadmill, I expect to see you here more often. It was good to talk to you, more than passing between shifts.”
“It was. I should get a membership.”
Eli shrugged. “I have a guest pass you can use anytime. Have you decided what you’re going to do about Wulf?”
I sighed. “No. But I’ll keep you updated. Thanks, Eli. You’re a good friend.”
“I try. Have a good night.”
Chapter Eleven
Wulf
After the disaster of our conversation at the club, I wasn’t sure if I should even try to contact the omega. He’d left in quite a huff and I didn’t want to do anything to make him feel uncomfortable or stalked.
But I hadn’t had a chance to really explain my proposition or tell him how I felt, he’d left. No matter how often I ran over our conversation in my mind, I could not make sense of what happened. We were just talking and I suggested my clinic, only to be quickly shut down, and then he told me about his inability to shift, stared at me, and ran away. Had he seen something in my face that repulsed him?
Had I seemed to judge him?
I hadn’t been. Rather, I’d immediately recognized how he’d had such a hard time healing. There was a lot we could do here at the clinic, but nothing could replace shifting to repair damage.
Sitting at my desk, I picked up the phone and typed,Come and meet with one of the physical therapists. I have a plan.Come anytime.He didn’t reply instantly, and my anxiety level started to rise. If he didn’t answer, I would have to let it go. Stop bothering him.
I had back-to-back patients to occupy my mind, and when I finally emerged from the treatment room and escorted the last patient through the empty waiting room to the locked door. Once again, I’d managed to be the last therapist, the last employee in the building. Yawning, I turned around to go in and turn off the rest of the lights, when a voice said,
“You told me to come anytime.”
I froze midstep before pivoting to see Striker sitting on one of the waiting-room chairs with a magazine older than thepractice on his lap. I never knew how those old magazines managed to show up in our office, especially considering most of the patients scrolled on their phone if they had to wait a few minutes. “Hey, nice to see you. Yes, this is anytime. Want to come back into my office?” It seemed we were always finding a cozy place to talk. Maybe this was our “thing.”
“All right.” He set the magazine down on the table next to him. “I hear 2017 is going to be a big year for sit-coms.”
“What?”
