“I’m sure you did, but I don’t know what to do.” My eyes welled with tears, and I blinked fast, trying to hold them back. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“Aww, don’t cry. I can’t stand female tears. I tell you what. I can go to the scrapyard and see what I can salvage. That will really cut back on the parts costs, and as to labor, I’ll keep it as low as possible. We’ll make it work.”
“You’re very kind,” I sniffled, embarrassed at this show of emotion.
“Just don’t be telling anyone that, or they’ll all be trying to get a deal out of me.”
“Not a word, I promise.” And I still didn’t know what I could do, but my growling stomach drew the man’s attention.
“You’d better head over to the diner and get something to eat. You look like you’re about to keel over, and I don’t need an unconscious female getting all greasy on my floor.”
“I’m fine.” I’d eaten breakfast the day before and had a few of those delicious cookies at the motel the night before. And coffee this morning.
“You go and eat something, or I will raise my price.”
“No, please. I’ll go now.” I couldn’t go without eating forever after all, so I hurried down the block to the storefront that housed the town diner. Approaching, I breathed in the scents of bacon and pancakes and other breakfast delights. Maybe toast and another coffee wouldn’t set me back too much. Then, passing the front window, I saw a sign.Help Wanted.Maybe I could earn the money I needed to pay for my car repairs? Taking the sign, I carried it inside and waited for someone to notice me.
A few moments later, I was sitting at a table with a mile-high stack of pancakes and a side of sizzling sausage in front of me. Juice and coffee. All “on the house” as part of my pay for my new job. Even though I was only going to be here for a week or so, I’d been hired to wait tables. All meals during my shifts included. Hope flickered inside me.
Chapter Four
Vaughn
Once Poe drifted into his office for the day and Holt left to work in the garden, I cleaned up the kitchen and decided on a run.
My wolf was antsy. A rarity since I’d made the decision to stay at home most of the time and avoid town. Not that our town was anything but charming and lovely.
The problem was me. Or perhaps people in general. I’d been betrayed by friends and relations so many times that I now stayed near my pack and our home. With our gardens and chickens and things to run around the house, I had plenty to do and being at home made me happy.
“Okay, okay,” I spoke out loud to my wolf. His restlessness caused a panic attack to begin to bubble, so there was no choice but to let him run.
At the edge of the forest that surrounded our land, I stripped myself of clothes and let him loose.
Being a wolf shifter was the best. Yes, there were other shifters, but the wolf was the fastest, at least around here.
He loved to run in the forest. Visit the waterfall and clear waters of a stream. Maybe fish. Maybe hunt. Most definitely stir up trouble. We ran our regular paths but this time, once we neared the woods that butted up to the north side of the main part of Pleasant, he stopped, his paws skidding in the dirt.
He raised his nose and inhaled deeply. The scent he picked up managed to bolt straight though our veins and give rise to every instinct shifter and human.
An omega.
An omega who was very close.
Her honey and vanilla scent ignited something in me. This was no ordinary omega.
My wolf crouched down and crawled closer to town, into the alley between the diner and the general store.
He waited for her. Waited for some sign that she was near.
But after hours, he picked up nothing new. No omega had passed on the street. The scent was almost stale now. It barely hung on the breeze blowing between the new buildings.
Once, so powerful it almost knocked me on my ass, now, I could scarcely detect it.
It took all my will and control to force my wolf to go back home.
We’d missed her.
My wolf had never been so devastated.
