Page 4 of Wolf's Chance

So what the heck was I drawn to her for?

She was good-looking—I wasn’t blind—she wasn’t hurting in the looks department at all. Her skin was clear, and her hair smelled of honey and magnolia. She wore no perfume. Only the soft smell of soap lingered on her skin.

I liked that. As a shifter, my nose was extra sensitive, even in human form, and some of the perfumes and colognes that people wore were so overpowering they made me nauseous. Yet Willow had nothing to enhance her natural scent.

Her face had been clear of makeup too. The number of times she pushed her hair away from her face, I doubted she used any product on her hair.

She was all natural.

My wolf snorted, echoing my thoughts that the pull to herwasn’tnatural. I almost looked over my shoulder, but I already knew she had gone inside the store. There wasn’t much I couldn’t hear, and I had heard her whispered shushing of her friend as they went into the art studio.

Looking at my watch, I checked the time. How long did an art class take? An hour? Two? Was it enough time?

Aware of my surroundings, ensuring no one paid any heed to me, I headed to the end of town. Traffic was quiet here; I was more conspicuous. A six-three shifter found it hard to blend sometimes. Luckily, the streets were relatively quiet, but I knew that the few people I did pass would know me again.

At my height, there’s not much of me that is hard to miss.

Because of that, I looped the neatly laid out rows of houses twice, appearing as if I was mindlessly wandering, caught up in the scenery, when in fact I was circling back to my target. When it was quiet, I quickly jumped the fence, scurried across the backyard, and pressed myself flat against Willow’s rear wall.

Her house faced the pine trees. Having spent the last two nights watching her house, I was familiar. Thanks to the neighbor’s son, I also knew where the spare key was hidden. Theylived two doors down, and the young teenage boy unknowingly showed me the hiding place when he broke in yesterday.

I’d watched him as he let himself in, helped himself to a soda and some chips, and watched TV for an hour before leaving, taking his trash with him and returning home.

Was Willow so absentminded she wouldn’t notice her soda and snacks were missing?

If I were a better man, I’d maybe find some way to let Willow know. Or let the kid know I knew and make him stop. But I wasn’t a better man.

If she was stupid enough to leave a key under a plant pot, then I’d be stupid not to use it.

Which sounded like good enough reasoning as I slipped the key into the back lock and let myself into Willow Harper’s home.

TWO

Willow

“So? Who is he?”

I was still hovering at the entrance, something pulling at me to go back outside and demand answers from the man who had just completely scrambled my brain. Lily’s sharp jab in my ribs made me flinch and grunt at the same time.

“Ow!”

“You’re completely drooling here,” she said with glee. “Who is Mr. Hottie?” She frowned as soon as she gave him the nickname. “No, not Hottie. Hotcakes.”

“Hotcakes?” I grumbled with an eye roll as I moved past her and headed to my easel. “Aren’t we too old to be calling guys nicknames?”

“We’re twenty-six, not old.” Lily’s eye roll was far more dramatic than mine, but then she always did manage extra emphasis on most things. I was quiet and subdued, and Lily Summers was the exact opposite. It’s why we made such good friends.

Her reasoning, not mine.

I didn’t think it matteredwhatmade us friends other than the fact that wewerefriends. I’d earned another eye roll the day I said that too. Lily was the queen of the eye roll. Until I met her, I’d never known there were so many interpretations of a simple roll of the eyes.

“So?” She looked at me expectantly as I pulled out my tin of pencils. “Who is he?”

Trying to be casual, I shrugged. “I don’t know.” Keeping my head down so she couldn’t read me too well, I knew I hadn’t fooled her when I felt her move closer.

“You don’t know?” Her voice dropped into a whisper. “I saw you walk to him.”

“Yeah, I did that.”

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