Page 9 of Broken Chains

Chapter 5

The diner was in full speed when I returned with my head still in the clouds. I was second-guessing everything, and my head was throbbing. He hadn't seemed affected by me at all. How was that even possible? I'd not just swooned, I literally passed out at the sight of him. My wolf had seemed so adamant that he was our mate, but I didn't even know if he was a wolf shifter or not. I thought there were only humans working at Powell's. Could my wolf mate a human?

I mean, I knew biologically, sure, but I'd never heard of a one true mate being a human. That would explain why he hadn't responded to me the way I had him.

It was so embarrassing. I wasn't sure I could ever show my face in that store again, and yet my wolf was screaming for me to turn the car around and drive straight back over there. I knew I would eventually anyway. I had to get to the bottom of it and find out just who he was.

Smith. Was that his first name or his last? I had so many questions I needed the answers to.

First things first, though, I had soups to cook. I pushed down my personal needs and buried myself in work. By the time the soups were ready for delivery, the lunch crowd had started to arrive. It was nonstop. Kate's mate, Wyatt, and his friend, Austin, came by to pick up the food. Kate sent Eddie with them and I was grateful for it. The day was crazy enough without having him under foot.

Kate looked exhausted and I knew she'd been on her feet even longer than I had, so I convinced her to go home and I stayed for the dinner crowd. Wyatt came by to relieve me around seven with strict orders to go home and rest as he promised to close up shop for the night. There was still a full crew; I was just working as supervisor to cover for Kate, so I thanked him and headed home.

I crashed into bed and was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

The next six days were a blur as I pitched in and helped from seven in the morning until seven at night. The guys had finally cleared and replaced the old stove and with some hard work everything was back to code by the end of the week. Kate pressured me to take a day off.

It had been exactly one week since the incident at Powell's and I wondered if the man with the delicious scent and strong arms would be working again. I put aside my embarrassment and drove over to the store.

It wasn't my usual shopping day and I figured that was why I had never seen the guy there. I strolled around looking at produce and picking up a few things for myself, while really looking for him.

"Hi, do you need any help finding something?" a boy working in produce asked. I had never seen him before, either. He looked too young to be working so early in the day.

"Last week when I was in here, there was a man working. He helped me a lot and I was wondering if he was around again today. I wanted to thank him, for all his help last week," I said, rambling and feeling like I was repeating myself. "I think they called him Smith."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Are you the lady that passed out in here?"

I blushed and wanted to crawl in a hole. "Yes, that was me."

"Yeah, I heard all about that," he said with a grin. "Smith doesn't work here anymore."

"Oh. It wasn't because of me, was it?"

The kid didn't look too pleased, but finally shrugged. "Not really my place to say, ma'am."

I took another hard look at him. "How old are you, anyway?"

"Sixteen, why?"

I checked my watch and found it was only ten after eleven. "Why aren't you in school?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Careful, you're going to start sounding like my brother. I'd rather pick up the extra hours. It's not that big a deal. I'll make up the work I missed."

Mr. Powell strolled out and went out of his way to fawn over me when he saw me. He demanded to know if I was okay and I assured him I was.

"Mr. Powell, you're aware this kid's only sixteen right?"

He looked around uncomfortably. "I'm aware."

"There are child labor laws in place for a reason. He should be in school."

"I've told him as much, but he shows up anyway looking for work."

The kid shrugged. "I need the money."

"Not good enough," I said. "What's your name?"

"Kenneth," he said with a sigh. "You're going to rat me out, aren't you?"

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