Page 28 of Cursed Wolf

“Fish and chips. Joey’s recommendation.”

“Also a good choice.”

“Cheers.” He touched his red plastic cup to mine. “Thanks for coming out with me, Emmaline.”

“Thanks for inviting me.” I swallowed a bite of my sandwich and added, “You can call me Emmy if you like.”

Tryn cocked his head as if thinking about it. “I like Emmaline, actually. It sounds musical.”

I hid my big, goofy grin behind a sip of beer. “Aw, thank you.”

“It’s way better than my name, which sounds like something stuck in your throat.”

“That is not true!” I laughed. “Although your name is really unique. Does it mean something?”

Tryn nodded. “It means bear in an ancient language almost no one speaks anymore.”

“Oh, like an indigenous language?”

“Something like that.”

“And why were you named bear?”

“Because I was born huge and hairy as fuck.” He grinned at my laughter. “Much as I am now.”

“You mean you came out of the womb looking like this?” I waved my hand over him.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“No way, I bet you were a cute baby.”

He shrugged. “In the same way bears are cute, I guess.”

“Bears are very cute! I bottle fed a cub at work a little while ago and it made my whole week. They have extremely sharp claws and teeth, though.”

Trynn finished chewing his food and smirked. “What’s better, bears or wolves?”

There was no question in my mind, but I pretended to think anyway. “It’s gotta be wolves.” I playfully nudged him with my elbow. “Sorry, bear.”

“That’s alright,” he said with a mock disappointed sigh.

“You’re my favorite bear, if it’s any consolation.” My pulse quickened. Shit, was that coming on too strong? The beer seemed to have loosened my tongue already. Or was I just that comfortable around Tryn?

“And you’re my favorite vet,” he answered with that slow smile. In a blink, his expression turned serious. “But you’re implying that you also have a favorite wolf. Should I be jealous?”

“Ah, you got me,” I admitted with a giggle.

“I’m hurt. Who is it?” Tryn frowned but amusement lit up his eyes.

“The wolf I told you about the first time we talked, remember?”

“Oh, the one you released?” His voice went soft.

“Yeah. I don’t know, there was something special about him. Like I knew releasing him was the right thing to do, but it still hurt to let him go. And he acted differently when I was around, it was so strange. Like he could flip the switch from wild animal in captivity to a friendly dog wanting to be petted.”

I shook my head, laughing sheepishly at Tryn’s intense look. “Sorry, don’t get me started on animal behavior, it’s a whole thing with me.”

“He probably knew that you wanted to help,” Tryn said. “That you were different from the others.”

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