Page 29 of My Blind Date is a Werewolf

“If you’re old, then I must be ancient.” He tucked my hair behind my ear and wiped the sweat beading above my top lip with the pad of his thumb.

“Pfft!” I rested my head on his shoulder. The room was spinning around me, making my stomach roil. I needed those nachos, pronto! “Shifters are long-lived. You’re practically in your early twenties if we go by that logic.”

“And you don’t look a day over twenty-five yourself.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I melted against him, intending to rest my eyes for a moment, when I felt him go tense, his fingers digging into my waist.

“He’s here again!”

“What, who?” I jolted awake when Adrian suddenly stood up and started to make his way around the table.

“Dustin Rathinger. At this point, he’s stalking you. It ends tonight,” he bit out through clenched teeth.

After that day at the park, we’d seen him in two other places where Adrian and I also happened to be at the same time—that we knew of. Both times, we couldn’t say anything. One was at The Eat, where he was obviously having a business lunch meeting, and the other was at a boutique owned by Beverly’s granddaughter. Adrian and I spent the day at the beachfront after spending the morning at the market, and we’d even confronted Dustin about him following me around at the time. He had yet another plausible excuse for why he was there, enjoying his weekend and shopping for souvenirs, as evidenced by the shopping bags in his possession.

Chief Gleason at the police station said his hands were tied since Dustin hadn’t actually done anything wrong and we had no proof that he was the one who broke into my house, so there really wasn’t anything we could do until he made his move—if there was a move to be made.

Tonight, he was skulking alone near the short hallway that led to the bathrooms, beer bottle in hand, watching the stage as the band set up. Amongst the sea of people decked out in their Halloween best, he stood out in a sky-blue, button-down shirt, ripped designer jeans, polished black Oxford shoes, and a baseball cap pulled low on his face. He stood out like a sore thumb with his sour expression. It was hard to tell if he’d been watching us beforehand, but I wouldn’t rule that out. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. Anytime someone got too close, he shrunk away or sneered at them. The moment he saw Adrian’s big body stalking toward him, he stood up straighter, as if getting ready for a fight.

“Babe, wait! Adrian!” I snapped, putting myself in front of him, hands stretched out to prevent him from getting closer, although he could have plowed me down if he really wanted to.

“Olivia, why are you getting in my way? This punk needs to stop chasing after you like a mongrel that’s had its favorite toy taken away. It needs to stop, and someone needs to make him,” he snarled.

“I agree with you, but I can’t let you walk over there with murder in your eyes. Dustin is human, one who doesn’t know the secrets of this town. Pack Law or any of our other special rules don’t apply to him. If you hurt him, the cops will haul your butt to jail,” I tried to reason with him, but the killer glint in his eye did not fade. “Adrian!” I punched him in the chest, though it probably did more harm to my fist than Adrian’s rock-hard body.

“I don’t want to spend the remainder of the night explaining to Gleason why you punched the lights out of a dude who was just minding his business. Promise me you’re only going to talk to him and that’s it.”

Adrian’s jaw worked furiously, his nostrils flaring as he kept his eyes fixed over my head. Eventually, he closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders back, clenching and unclenching his hands. “Fine.” He opened his eyes. Although he still looked like he wanted to shove Dustin halfway through the wall, the violence in his eyes was tempered. “Talking and nothing more. But you stay here. I don’t want you anywhere near that freak.”

I didn’t want to be near him anyway, so I nodded and watched from afar as Adrian talked to him. I couldn’t see his expression since he had his back to me. To my surprise, Dustin did not cower away from Adrian even though the latter stood a head and some inches taller than him.

Dustin’s emotions were written plainly across his face as he replied to what Adrian said to him, nose in the air and a self-assured smirk in place. Adrian responded by placing his hand on Dustin’s shoulder and whispering something in his ear, and the smirk melted right off. He shoved Adrian’s off him and started to walk toward me. My heart kicked against my chest, thinking he would say something to me, but he simply brushed past and walked out of the bar.

“What did you say to him?” I asked when Adrian came back, his lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed.

“Just gave him a strongly worded warning. Let’s get back to our table before your cousin inhales all our nachos.”

***

The first week of November passed blessedly Dustin-free, although I couldn’t be sure if he was just laying low or his work had forced him to head out again. Adrian and I split time between my place and his, and I’d never felt more settled in my life. Like all the pieces were finally falling into place. I’d met even more of Adrian’s packmates and been invited to a cookout at Pam’s place, together with my mom and sister. It was as if we’d been adopted into this huge family. In spite of my initial misgivings, I found that I enjoyed having a dozen nosy aunts and all the little pups around that everyone treated as their own. It made me long for kids of my own, and if there was any shadow lurking over my relationship with Adrian—other than you-know-who—it was wondering if I could ever give him children of his own. I’d seen him with his baby nephew and all the young ones at the cookout. He was a natural—born to be a father. But could a shifter and mortal have a kid together? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to ask, not just yet.

I was getting ahead of myself; we’d only been dating for a month. It didn’t escape my notice, though, that everyone in his pack thought we were a done deal. I knew what that meant in wolf-speak, but it was something I tried not to think too much about because even though I longed for my forever person, being this close to having him was terrifying. Sometimes, I thought I would wake up and find out that it was all a dream.

***

“And that is that. We can finally say goodbye to this hellish day!” Lauren cried when I shut the doors to Jumpin’ Beans and turned the open sign to closed. Today’s workday had seemed longer than usual even though we closed a whole four hours earlier on Saturdays. It seemed as if the entire town was up and about this weekend. We’d been swarmed up to our eyeballs with customers—nary an empty table in sight since we opened. To make things worse, Wendy was down with food poisoning. Lauren, Peter, and I all had to work the counter and the kitchen at the same time during the day. I was now more determined than ever to bring in more staff. If the finances didn’t allow for that, well… I supposed I could take a pay cut for the next couple of months and live off of coffee and pastries alone.

“You can say that again,” I groaned, stretching my hands above my head and working out the tension in my head. “Pete, Lauren left some soup and salad for you to take your sister. We’re closed tomorrow, so make sure she rests up.”

“Thanks, Boss. She’ll appreciate it,” Peter answered, stepping behind the counter, his gaze darting to Lauren before looking elsewhere, the tips of his ears turning pink.

Well, now, I thought to myself. When did that happen?

“There are too many containers to carry safely on your bike. I can give you a ride home if you’d like,” Lauren offered sweetly. Peter’s face could have stopped traffic if he stepped outside from how red he was. He tried declining the offer, but Lauren wore him down. I waved at them from the side of the road as they drove away in her cute little mini cooper, laughing at Peter’s rigid posture.

The drive back to my place was uneventful, and I figured the rest of the night would be the same. Adrian was out of town on pack business and would be back Sunday evening at the latest. I’d planned on being a couch potato for the rest of the weekend before tackling the work week again on Monday. No cooking, no cleaning. At this point, even bathing seemed like an unnecessary chore.

***

I fell asleep mid-conversation on the phone with Adrian Saturday night, and even though I’d said I was going to be a couch potato, I spent a big portion of my Sunday morning doing laundry, tending to my flower beds, and mowing the backyard. I hated how empty and the quiet the house felt without Adrian or Jojo scurrying about. Adrian had left the lovable dog at his sister’s place before heading out of town, and I now sorely regretted not offering to babysit him for the weekend.

---