“Are you done wasting my time?” she asked.
She couldn’t even find the energy to fake a smile. It was just a little too much for her. She wanted him gone and out of thecoffee shop, so she could sob some more. Lisa didn’t know how she could have been so stupid.
“I want us to talk,” he said.
“And I want to take your order. We don’t get everything we want, Shadow. Now, what can I get you? Or leave,” she said.
There was no point in threatening him. There weren’t police at No Wolves Road. It was understood that the surrounding packs would do whatever necessary to protect them. Lisa had lost faith in all of them.
Shadow cleared his throat. “A plain black coffee, no sugar.”
She rung him up and got him his coffee.
****
Shadow had known Lisa was hurt and that she was pissed, but she was also human. They were weak, and he was under the belief that most humans got over their problems quickly.
It had been two weeks since Lisa heard him talking about her to a few of the guys at the bar. He’d only said the shit so they would shut the fuck up and leave him alone. Part of it was technically true, he had no interest in mating for life with Lisa, but she didn’t need to know that. He’d never mate with any human, because he was a wolf, which meant his mate was going to be a wolf.
Still, ever since he had first seen Lisa, he’d not been able to get her out of his mind. He’d wanted her, and that hadn’t stopped for a moment. He knew it was wrong to have pursued her.
From the very beginning, she had always said she wasn’t interested in being a notch on his bedpost. He hated that statement, it was so outdated and fucking lame, but he’d found it charming coming from her, especially the blush she had aftershe said it. There was a lot of shit she’d said and done that he’d enjoyed.
He enjoyed Lisa’s company, which was a fucking miracle. All his life he had not been one for company, which was hilarious as he was a member of a freaking pack. Not just the member, but the fucking Alpha. Storm’s pack.
His pack was named after the generation of Storm men. His dad, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, each man passing down the line, the pack. They were taught from a young age what was expected of them.
This was his whole life. The whole pack was his life.
No Wolves Road had been nothing short of a distraction. But, it wasn’t the only distraction.
He’d never gone to town to pick up women. Sure, he’d been hit on many times, but he’d also avoided screwing them. There had been one or two temptations, but he’d also witnessed thescenesthat happened with fellow wolves, when the human male or female found out they were nothing more than an easy fuck.
He wasn’t interested in drama. He wasn’t interested in stringing along a woman who didn’t deserve it.
Then there was Lisa.
Sweet, sexy, fucking beautiful Lisa Bennett, alone in No Wolves Road after her parents had passed. Some distant relative, which is how they came to know about wolves, or something like that. Either way, she had caught his attention.
He didn’t even like coffee. Lisa didn’t know that the first time he’d seen her was not actually inside the coffee shop, it had been when she was walking toward the place. The scent of her had literally stopped him in his path. She smelled like chocolate and vanilla, which happened to be his favorite combination of sweet food. He was a sucker for a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, or even chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. He lovedboth. It didn’t even have to be cake. He was all for doughnuts, candy, anything with chocolate and vanilla.
And Lisa smelled like it. His favorite craving come to life.
He’d been unable to look away.
She’d called to him. He’d watched her go into the coffee shop, and that was when he first entered.
Shadow didn’t like coffee. The scent of it was a little too bitter for his taste. He carried his black coffee out of the shop, and like so many times before, he fed it to the small potted plant by the side of the road.
He’d expected her to have gotten over him. Not once had he promised her forever, and yet she was behaving like he had. They never talked about the future. He never told her his plans with the pack, how he needed to have a child, an heir to pass down the pack line.
His father and grandfather before they passed had told him it was important to do that. They had not pressured him about it, though. They had known how important it was to him to find the right woman to have a child, to mate and spend his life with. He couldn’t help but wonder what his father and grandfather would think of him dating Lisa.
This was not going the way he wanted it to go.
Shadow glanced back at the coffee shop and was tempted to go back inside and drag her out, forcing her to talk to him. Their last conversation didn’t go well. He’d not known that she’d snuck into the bar and heard him talking with some of the other wolf guys. Everything had messed up.
He shouldn’t have gone to the bar, but he’d been waiting for Lisa to finish her shift. Time had gotten away from him, and now he didn’t know what the fuck to do.