Page 26 of My Blind Date is a Werewolf

The next morning, there was still no word from Adrian, and his phone went to voicemail when I called. I went through the entire morning shift with one eye on my phone, but I was soon distracted from my worry by the alarming number of wolves that came into the shop to “chat and catch up with me.” Though how you can catch up with someone you’ve never spoken to was beyond me. Never mind all the knowing looks I kept getting from both my staff and the regular patrons. I guessed the cat was out of the bag. If I was ever in any doubt, the two texts I got from Angie and Eden in our group chat blasting me for not telling them about my hunky wolf—as they called him—drove the point home. I must have worked the counter with my face as red as a tomato the whole morning.

At lunchtime, my phone finally rang. I jumped to answer it when Adrian’s name popped up on the screen, earning myself snickers from Wendy and an amused smile from Peter.

“Hey!” I winced at the high-pitched sound that escaped my lips. Clearing my throat, I tried again in a more subdued voice and decided to go into my office for some privacy. “Hey, I tried reaching you earlier. Everything go okay with…you know…?” I whispered into the phone.

“Hey yourself, sweetness. Yeah, we managed to get the mangy mutts.” He let out a shaky breath. “It wasn’t pretty. I just needed to hear your voice before heading into work, something to wash the darkness away.” He sounded exhausted and defeated.

“I can do you one better than just hearing my voice. Where are you right now?” I asked him.

“Home. I stopped by to freshen up before showing my face at the office. Why?” he asked.

“Why don’t you meet me at the park in half an hour, the benches by the duck pond. That way you can fill me in on what happened and see my face—two birds, one stone. I’ll stop by The Eat and get us some lunch. What do you say?”

“I’d say you twisted my arm, beautiful. See you soon.”

“See you soon. Love you.” I cut the call off before my brain caught up to what I’d just said. When it did, I let out an embarrassing squeal, crouching down and internally screaming at myself.

Surely he hadn’t heard that last part, right? I said it so fast, he probably missed it, right? Right? And people often signed off that way. There was no reason for him to read more than necessary into it. Right?

Ugh! Who was I kidding?

***

Rachel at The Eat was just as smug and overly intrusive as the rest of her pack. The way they were acting you’d think that Adrian and I had just announced an engagement or something.

“Fair warning, the Alpha’s home is basically a community center for the pack, so I hope you’re prepared for entertaining guests who are prone to show up unannounced. You’ll have to feed them—” She held up fingers as she ticked off a list. “—sometimes act as a counselor or a mediator, and if Adrian is not around, you’re basically the de facto leader.”

I felt the blood drain from my face at her words and snatched the takeout bag from her as I dug around for some cash in my purse, trying to play it off as if I was in a hurry instead of freaking out at what she was implying.

“I’m just his girlfriend, Rachel, and I have my own house, so all those things you’re talking about?” I slammed some loose bills on the counter. “They have nothing to do with me.”

“Mmm-hmm. A hundred bucks says I’ll be seeing you at the Circle for this year’s pre-Thanksgiving pack dinner, seated at the head of the table with our Alpha.” She slid the money closer to her, gave me a wink, and handed me the receipt. “Welcome to the pack, Olivia Michaels.” And with that, she moved to the next customer, giving me no choice but to walk away if I didn’t want to hold up the takeout queue.

As I was leaving, I spotted a familiar figure darting out of the restaurant ahead of me and disappearing before I could think of following him.

“Dustin?” I muttered to myself. Seeing him just for that quick second rubbed me the wrong way. I could have sworn he said he would be around only for a few days. It had been two…going on three weeks since he showed up at Jumpin’ Beans. He’d stopped calling me incessantly, but was it possible that he was the one who broke into my home? Or was I looking for trouble where there was none?

The man was always coming to Mystic Cove on business. He could have left and come back again. I mean, he hadn’t even approached me in the restaurant even though I was sure he saw me. He surely had moved on.

I decided to walk toward the park instead of taking my car to burn some calories since I’d been skipping out on yoga and the gym a lot recently. Wouldn’t want my little pooch to turn into a full-blown muffin top. Especially not when I was dating a man who was built like a Greek statue and had washboard abs.

Spotting Adrian was easy. He stood head and shoulders above all the moms who’d brought their little ones to play on the swing sets and feed the ducks. Jealousy, understanding, and self-satisfaction warred within me when I noted the looks of admiration and appreciation other women were giving him.

Even dressed down as he was in worn jeans that hugged his butt and a long-sleeved Henley shirt that clung to the swells and dips of his muscle like a jealous lover, Adrian was as sexy as he was in a three-piece suit. A baseball cap sat snugly on his head, hiding his red curls from view except for the strands that kissed his jaw and the nape of his neck. He was in desperate need of a cut, but I quite liked his longish hair. I wondered if I could convince him to keep it that way.

He sensed me before I reached the spot where he was standing at the edge of the man-made lake built specifically for this park. Or maybe he smelled my scent; the wind was blowing from my direction to his.

His eyes were shadowed by the brim of his cap, hiding his expression, but I could tell from his strained smile that something was weighing on him heavily.

I placed our food on a stone picnic table under a sycamore tree about a foot and a half away from the pond and walked toward him. Adrian met me halfway and pulled me into a heated kiss before giving me a bone-crushing hug and burying his nose in my hair.

The antsy feelings that had been eating away at me all day subsided when I breathed his scent deep into my lungs. “I was worried about you.” My voice was muffled as I spoke into his chest.

“There was no reason to. I’m Alpha,” he said as if that was all the reassurance I needed. In a way, I guess it was. Adrian had said that there weren’t many other wolves ot shifters that could take him except other Alphas and maybe a rare few Betas.

“Yes, you are, but just because you were not physically hurt doesn’t mean that you came out of this ordeal mentally and emotionally fine. Talk to me.” I ran my hands down his hard body and went up on my tiptoes to take off his cap and push the hair out of his eyes so that I could see his expression.

“You said you love me over the phone,” he blurted out of nowhere, a cheesy smirk on his face.

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