Page 54 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
He couldn’t pursue her. Not now. Not while she was still learning how to stand in his world.
He had to let her come to him.
If she ever wanted to.
Chapter 17 - Cassie
Cassie chewed on her lip, staring down at her toast, her foot tapping against the floor.
Felix still hadn’t said a word to her this morning.
She told herself it was nothing, told herself he was probably just tired. He did seem oddly withdrawn, his eyes vacant as he stared out the window, his chin resting on his hands, his eyebrow twitching now and again.
But still. He normally said good morning. Asked how she slept. But since he had gone to the Pine Shadow Club a few days ago…
It was like she didn’t even exist to him.
Her foot tapped faster against the floor, and she glanced at the clock. The boys would be up in about fifteen minutes, and she would be whirled into getting them ready for school. For now, it was just her and Felix, and the aching empty space between them.
She didn’t know what to do.
Something had changed between them; that much was clear. He had told her on that hike that he respected her, that he thought she was…beautiful. But then they got back, and the real world slammed into him. Maybe one of the other shifters had said something to him? She wouldn’t put it past Rick to badmouth her behind her back. His distaste for humans bordered on sociopathic.
Felix wasn’t like that, though. At least, she thought he wasn’t. She hoped he wasn’t. But based on his behavior the past few days, she didn’t really know what to think.
Maybe it was her. The fact that she was a human, the fact that she wasn’t some glamorous city girl, some worldly vixen who could keep him entertained. She was nothing more than West Coast trash who had fled her away across the continent, running from debts she had no way of settling. She was nothing.
And Felix…Felix waseverything.
He was the alpha of one of the most powerful packs in America. He had redefined shifter relationships with local communities. There were academic papers written about him, for God’s sake. She knew. She had spent one night spiraling and googling him into the wee hours of the morning.
The new face of shifter leadership.
He had his pack. He had his boys. He had a whole community, a family, to look after and to look after him. When she really thought about it, what on earth would he want with a scrappy little human like her? He could have anyone he wanted.
She thought after the woods, after their talk, things might change. The nature of their relationship might change. It had seemed like he was opening himself up to the possibility of…of something deeper.
But the opposite was true, it seemed. He was more closed off than ever. And Cassie had absolutely no idea what to do.
Perhaps she should leave. It was, after all, what she was best at. She could catch another bus and find herself another town to set up a life in. One without shifters.
There was, however, still the small matter of the debt collectors. Whatever confusion she had about Felix, whatever longing, whatever anger, she couldn’t deny how safe she felt in his presence. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to give that up just yet.
She couldn’t keep on living like this, however. Not talking to him, not even being acknowledged by him.
Taking in a deep breath, she reached for the pot of freshly brewed coffee steaming in the center of the table and cleared her throat.
“Would you like a refill?”
Her voice came out smaller than she intended. Too light. Too careful. She hated herself for how hopeful it sounded.
Felix blinked, as if only just remembering she was there. He looked at his mug, then at her, his expression unreadable.
“No, thank you.”
No smile. No warmth. Just those words, clipped and polite.
Cassie nodded, keeping her face neutral, though her stomach clenched tight. “Right. Of course.”
