Page 69 of Hot in Witch City
I didn’t. I wouldn’t.
While at the restaurant,I avoided my coworkers and focused on prepping meals.
“You’re unusually quiet tonight,” one of the servers noted.
That was true. I loved my job and often chatted with others while I worked. Tonight, I kept to myself so I wouldn’t lash out at some innocent bystander.
“I’m having a bad day,” I explained. Hopefully, that would give her the hint to tell everyone to stay far, far away.
While I cooked steaks and seafood, I reprimanded myself for being such a fool. I should have known this would happen. Gianna had made her feelings clear from the start. Yet, what did I do—pursued and wooed. For what? To convince her of what she told me straight out she didn’t want? Stupid. Foolish. I was an idiot and deserved exactly what I’d gotten.
If my pack could see me now, they’d laugh—even more so when I was the small, weak pup they’d picked on. Maybe they were right, I had nothing to offer anyone of value. I was a pathetic shifter pining after a woman who could never love me.
I was a joke.
No matter how far I ran and reinvented my life, the pack won in the end.
The hours until the restaurant closed dragged on, the din of people laughing and having fun grating. Once able to leave, I sped to the woods, searching for a secluded parking spot. After I parked and trudged into the woods, I shifted into wolf form and ran up the hill. My wolf ran with a restlessness, but this time it was different. He wasn’t eager to pursue our newly discovered mate but run from the anguish of losing her.
I was being punished for leaving my pack, that had to be it. Since I’d left, the universe decided to show me what rejection truly felt like, pairing me with a mate who’d reject me in turn.
My desperate wolf ran to the top of the hill and howled in anguish. This was fucking unbearable. The ache of loss vibrated deep into my soul.
Gianna
The morningafter I’d ended it with Sebastian, I woke up feeling weighed down with despair. Why couldn’t I have been able to reciprocate his feelings? We could have been happy, right?
Wrong. I was too different. Too screwed up.
After a cup of hot coffee, I called Nova to tell her what happened.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“Miserable.” I huffed. “Confused.”
“About?”
“Since New Year’s Eve, I’d say about everything.” All the chaos in my brain started when my mother had returned.
“Right, the night your mother returned.”
“That’s the thing. I think I should go stay with her for a bit. Find out who I truly am.”
“Gianna, you know who you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re part this or half that. You’re you, and that’s what makes you incredible.”
I smiled. “Thanks. I needed to hear that. Especially as I’m feeling like shit.” I took a deep breath and exhaled. “But I’m still going to stay with her and just—see.”
When I returned to the beach house, my mother opened the door, looking stunning in a red-flowered sarong. Her hair fell in loose waves over her shoulders as if sun-dried after a swim.
“Gianna, I’m so glad you decided to return.” She stepped aside so I could enter. “Come in.”
Once back in the family room that went overboard with the seaside decor, I babbled a condensed version to her. “This shifter I’ve been kind of seeing thinks I’m his mate—not just his wolf.” I exhaled and raised my chin. “But I’m not. I can’t be.” I peered at her. “Right?”
With a dismissive wave, she said, “Forget him. He’s not right for you, nor you for him.”
I bristled. Was that true? I shook my head. Of course it was.
Then why did hearing her say it bother me?
