Page 13 of Defeated

I thought I was doing the right thing, had been so sure Chris was up to no good.

Now Colton is coming back. If I could just speak to him for a couple of minutes. Maybe…

My footsteps, which had been slowing, speed up again. “Don’t be stupid, Zoe. Maybe what?” I mutter under my breath.

What exactly would Colton do?

He has a mate now. A life. Why would he care what happened to me?

He probably doesn’t give a shit. He saved me before, and not only did it nearly kill him in that alley, it caused him so much trouble, he had to leave town.

Staying away would be in his best interest.

He’s coming back to pack up his apartment, not to invite more trouble into his life, which is exactly what I am.

Trouble.

So I keep walking, head down, and hands stuffed into my front jeans pocket.

Before Colton stepped in to help me, I’d thought I’d found a place where I could build a new life for myself. Like always, I spent the first couple of days on high alert.

If I encountered so much as a sniff of another shifter, I was ready to bolt.

But I didn’t.

Not on that first day, or even the second. Staying in the motel was expensive, but I lucked out when I found a cleaning job and a dirt cheap studio apartment. The job cleaning offices was cash in hand, and more importantly, my boss didn’t ask for any ID. He wanted someone willing to work nights and who would quietly do the job without complaint.

That was me.

I could just about afford a tiny studio in a not so nice part of town with my pay. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted out of life, to be twenty-two, living in a tiny one room, cleaning an office building at night. But I was living life under my terms.

And I wasn’t crying myself to sleep the way I did back in Washington. I was free to do what I wanted and go where I wanted as long as it didn’t involve too much money.

Until I realized I wasn’t the only shifter in town.

The fact I’d chosen—or been forced to settle—in a not so nice part of town is the one smart thing I’d done when I’d arrived. They didn’t know I was there because they didn’t venture to the parts of town I lived and worked.

After I’d stupidly refused Colton’s offer to get out of town with him, I’d realized how stuck I was. My low-paying job meant I earned enough not to starve, but I didn’t have cash for bus or train tickets after using up everything I had to get here.

Once I left my pack, I soon realized how expensive simply existing is. Staying put somewhere is always cheaper, but dangerous.

I needed to leave, but I couldn’t. Not without cash.

Begging my boss for a short-term loan got me nowhere, so I skulked from my apartment to my cleaning job, hoping that I’d soon earn enough for the bus ticket and food.

I still don’t have enough.

Now Colton is on his way back to town to pack up his stuff and leave. And he has a mate. He was alone before. Had he always intended to meet with her, or is that something new?

Distracted by thoughts and fears of not knowing what to do, I skirt the busy main streets, keeping my eyes down and trying not to catch anyone’s gaze. The way I always walk.

Do I hope that I have enough cash tucked in my bag back in my apartment, or do I go ask Colton’s friend for help after I came within seconds of ripping his throat out?

The walk from Colton’s apartment to mine takes maybe twenty minutes.

I’m poised to cross the road when a red light stops me. Instead of sprinting across it the way I usually would, because this light always takes forever, I decide to wait. I’ll be hurrying back to an empty apartment with nothing else to do but think.

I’ve been living on borrowed time and the sparse contents of my kitchen cupboard. Soon, the landlord will stop by and ask me when I intend to pay next month’s rent. Again. And again, I won’t have an answer for him. At least, not one he will like.

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