Page 10 of A Wolf's Wound
“Hannah,” he says again, and the quiet pain in his voice catches me off guard.He stares at me with those dark brown eyes, and I can’t help but gaze back for a few seconds.Then I catch myself and groan.
“Good night!”I repeat and slam the door, thankful that the damage looks worse than it actually is and the lock still works.
I walk back to the other room.April’s sitting on the couch, and I drop down near her.“Some night, huh?”I ask, trying to sound casual.
But April’s not buying it.“What’s going on?”she asks.
“What do you mean?”I respond, and she lets out an impatient huff.
“Come on, Hannah.We’re better friends than that.This guy, Ryder.”She manages to imbue the two syllables of his name with about five syllables of disgust.I’m impressed and almost laugh.“You want to know about our date?”
“Sure.”
“It was awful!He sits there like a rock for practically the entire night.I have to do all the talking.Otherwise, we just would’ve sat there in pathetic silence.I ask him about himself and it’s like I was torturing him.That’s not even the worst part, though.”
“Oh, yeah?”I’m trying to reconcile that version of Ryder with the man who burst into my apartment.Who saved me, I now realize.I shiver a little bit, just thinking about him pulling that man off me.I hope April didn’t notice.
“He freakin’ breaks a glass!”she says, oblivious to my distraction.“Just shatters it, right at the table.Then like two seconds later he runs out of the bar.”
“Whoa, that is weird,” I say, trying to sound sympathetic.“Maybe he hurt himself?”
“He said he was fine.That he just had to go,” she says, shaking her head.“And he was, like, talking through gritted teeth with his lips mostly closed.So incredibly weird.”April looks at me, her eyes narrowing.“And then I find him here.”
“I really don’t know how to explain that,” I say honestly.
“Did you let him in?”she asks.
I hesitate, not sure if I should get into everything with April.It’s not that I don’t trust her.I do, implicitly.But she doesn’t know everything I do about wolf shifters, and I haven’t even begun to process it.If I can’t explain to myself what happened, I don’t know how I’ll explain it to her.
But there’s another reason I don’t want to tell her.It’s because I can’t shake the conviction in Ryder’s voice when he said he wanted to stay, to protect me.I still don’t believe him, but somehow, I knowhebelieves it.
So, I lie.“Yeah,” I say.“He told me who he was and said he wanted to apologize to you.”
April wrinkles her nose in confusion.“Why didn’t he just come back to the bar, then?”
“I-I don’t know,” I stammer.“Maybe he thought you’d left too?”
“Okay,” she says doubtfully.“But I didn’t tell him where I lived, Hannah.So, how’d he know to come here?”
Her words make me sit up straight.I hadn’t thought about that until right now either.
April didn’t tell Ryder where she lived.Which meant he didn’t know where I lived.
April didn’t know I was in trouble.So, there was no way that she would have told Ryder I needed help.Yet somehow Ryder had shown up in my home at the exact moment I needed help.
How did he know where to find me?
A shiver runs down my body as his words echo in my head.I felt you.
Did he?Or is something more at play?
Chapter 5
Ryder
IstareatHannah’sclosed apartment door, wanting so badly to be back inside.I even raise my hand to knock but then remember the firm look on Hannah’s face and think better of it.
Still, I can’t leave yet.And not just because I’d give anything for another glimpse of Hannah tonight, despite not knowing a damn thing about her.
