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It was on the tip of my tongue to argue and say that Jack wasn’t my man, but God damn it, he was, and I wasn’t going to deny it. At least, I wanted him to be. It wasn’t just because I wanted to help. He hit the nail on the head when he said we clicked. We did. Things were just easy with him. The pull to him was undeniable, and it hurt to even think about rejecting that.

“Yes, I was.”

“Have you made plans to meet?”

“No, but he’s going to call me later, and I will bring it up then.” Maybe. If I was feeling brave. I probably wasn’t going to feel brave.

“Really? What if he’s some sort of old creep that is really weird and wants to wear your skin?”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s so cliché. What if he just wants to collect my toenail clippings to make a wish?”

“Exactly! That’s definitely more realistic. Either way, be careful.”

“I know. Thank you.” Jack wasn’t a creep. I knew it down to my bones.

“Just be careful, Connor. Not just because you’re giving out personal information to a person you don’t know, but also because you seem really into him and you haven’t even met yet.”

I bit back a groan. I hated that he was right. “I’m an adult, you know? Besides, people do online dating all the time. They get to know each other without meeting in person.”

“That’s true, but those people join dating sites. Where the expectation is that they are getting to know people as potential life partners. Jack called cause he needed his pension check deposited. It’s not quite the same.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as if he made some amazing point. I didn’t need his logic.

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. He was right and I knew it. I hated it, but I knew it.

“Noted,” I said.

I was going into this with eyes wide open and heart full of hope. And if that hope was dashed when Jack got tired of talking to me, or totally rejected me if I was ever brave enough to ask to meet him, then so be it.

Chapter 7

Jack

The ache in my bones throbbed with each passing second. From one moment to the next, I wasn’t sure if I was going to throw up, pass out, or let the change overtake me again. That’s how I’d been referring to it. The change. Something was happening to me, something not normal, and I was fighting it tooth and nail, or tooth and claw, I supposed. No, I didn’t mean to think like that. This was insanity. I had lost my grip on reality, that’s all.

There was no way what I thought was happening was actually happening to me. This was some sort of post-retirement psychotic break. A midlife crisis. Only instead of a flashy sports car, I got fangs and a tail.

I needed to get a handle on it soon, because I wasn’t going to be able to write off the questions from my daughter for much longer. She would either come home from her trip, or worse, send my ex-wife over here. Or the other insane scenario would be that Connor would track me down. I had stopped calling him two days ago, even though I ached to hear his voice, simply because I didn’t want to scare him away or drag him into the middle of whatever this was. I couldn’t explain what was happening to me. I still managed to answer some of his texts because I couldn’t sever that connection.

The only time I felt even a little bit normal was at night, when I would sit outside on the patio, letting myself soak in the moonlight. Was that what this was—some B-grade horror movie thing, me turning into a wolf howling at the moon? Was it food poisoning? Or maybe some exotic flu?

Either way, I couldn’t let anyone see me like this. Least of all Connor. As much as I wanted to meet him in person to see if he was as cute as his voice and if his smile really did brighten my whole world like his jokes did, I couldn’t.

I was just about to push myself to my feet and make my way outside because the moon was coming out when a knock sounded at the door.

The hair on my neck rose, and I flashed my teeth and growled toward the front door.

What the fuck? Was I a dog now, protective of my territory? I snuck a look through the side windows to try to see who was there. Never mind that I had a doorbell camera I could use my phone to see who was there. But if I had my phone, I’d be tempted to call Connor or answer the several text messages he had sent me.

I sniffed the air like I could maybe smell who was there.

The man on the other side smelled like lake water, like maybe he had recently gone fishing, or perhaps he lived by a lake. But how did I know that? Where did I get that idea? And how did I know it was a man?

The knock sounded again. I went to the door, straightened my shoulders, trying my best to appear normal, and opened it to find a man standing there. The scent of lake water was stronger now. No fishy smell, so he either lived near a lake or the fish weren’t biting. He tilted his head to the side, exposing his jugular, letting me know that he was safe, friendly, and that he recognized I was the more powerful one.

More powerful than what, and who?

“Hello,” I said.

“My name is Mason,” he said.