“Sorry,” I say with a sincere smile. “Grey is my last name. I’m still not used to going by it, but Thane and Kole refuse to call me by my first name.”
“Assholes,” she says, clucking her tongue with a breath of laughter. She slowly makes her way into the room, as if she isn’t sure she’s welcome. “After last night, I wanted to check on you.”
“Oh,” I breathe, not hiding my shock. “I’m good, thanks to you. How did you know what to do?”
“I used to be a nurse,” she tells me, eyeing the walls of books.
“Why not a doctor?” I quickly realize that could come off as rude and try to backtrack. “I just mean, you’ve obviously had years of experience and time to do whatever—”
“It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean anything by it,” she interjects, before I keep rambling. “Honestly, I would’ve loved to have been a doctor, but it just wasn’t in the cards for me. Even though we werewolves could pass for human, we still had to take precautions. Being a black female doctor would draw too much attention.”
“I’m sorry. That’s actually really fucked up.”
She shrugs, but I can tell she agrees. “It’s okay. I enjoyed being a nurse.”
“Why? You guys hated the humans. Why would you have wanted to help them?”
Sophia crosses her toned arms, leaning up against one of the bookshelves. “I didn’t hate all humans. Just the ones who wished to hunt and kill us.” There’s a lull in conversation, neither of us quite knowing what to say next. “This is a prettycool room you got here,” she finally says, pushing herself off the bookshelf to take it all in.
“Thanks. Thane actually made it.”
“Thane?” She practically chokes on his name. “Like Alpha? The guy who kills someone for looking at him the wrong way, built all this for you?”
“Yeah. I was surprised too.”
She walks over, and I move my stack of books so that she can join me in the padded alcove.
“I’ve never seen him like this before,” she tells me, leaning her head back against the wall.
“Like what?”
“Like the whole world would crumble if something happened to you.”
I exhale a half-hearted laugh. “It’s just because he marked me.”
She shakes her head. “No, I’ve seen a couple of marked bonds, and none of them were this extreme. If anything, it’s the human that feels the effects more.”
“Well, maybe it’s different because he’s a hybrid. Or because he’s the Alpha?” I suggest.
“Maybe,” she sighs, like she doesn’t think that at all. “What are you reading?” I flip the cover over to show her. “Wait, where did you get this?”
She lunges forward and snatches the book out of my hands. “Thane’s library. He gave me a key so that I could grab a book, and when I saw this one, I couldn’t resist. My curiosity was piqued when I saw it on his desk a while ago.”
“He was reading this?” she asks, looking at me like that’s the craziest thing she’s ever heard.
“I guess,” I answer with a shrug. “It was open to this chapter.” I scoot over and show her what I had been reading.
“That’s weird,” she mutters, looking over the text.
“Why’s it weird?”
“Only those of the same species can be Fated. Thane’s the only one of his kind, so I don’t see why this would even interest him.”
“Oh. Well, maybe he was reading up on it for someone else.”
“Right…” She hands me the book and jumps up. “I’ll see you later.”
“Okay, bye,” I mumble, as she practically sprints out of the room.
