Graham opened the passenger door for Furball, waiting until she was inside the vehicle before closing it and walking around to the driver’s side. He seemed much more at ease now than he had been earlier, and turned up the music playing on the radio before he started to pull away.
My phone vibrated, temporarily quieting the music, and Graham shot Furball a curious look.
“Think your human would care if I snooped?”
She shook her head.
I rolled my eyes inwardly.
Of course I would care if he snooped.
He grabbed my phone, holding it low enough for me to read it through the wolf’s eyes.
Maya:
Hello? Are you still alive? Did the wolves eat you?
If I’d been human, I would’ve grimaced.
She was going to be pissed when she accidentally gave away what she was to someone in the feral pack.
Graham’s gaze was curious as he looked back at me. “Another one of your friends knows about werewolves?”
My wolf dropped her front legs over the middle console and rested her head on them, not answering.
At least she could respect that it was Maya’s secret to tell.
“Looks like you have another text. This one’s from Jade. She’s asking about hiking.” Graham gave Furball another look. “Should I pretend to be you and turn her down?”
Furball didn’t so much as blink in an attempt to help him.
He was on his own.
“I’ll just leave it.” He set my phone back down in the cup holder and pulled away from his house.
My friends were absolutely going to come to my place when I didn’t respond. Outside of Maya, I didn’t have a freaking clue how they were going to react upon finding me missing. Or todiscovering a gorgeous, gigantic guy sitting in my house with an oversized wolf.
four
STELLA
Graham seemed morecomfortable with the situation by the minute. He tapped his hand on the steering wheel and bobbed his head to my music, rubbing Furball’s head every now and then.
She was absolutely loving the way he touched her, and I couldn’t blame her for that.
I didn’t know if it would translate to our human forms quite as easily, because neither of us wanted a mate.
The guy on the phone hadn’t exactly made it sound like we had a choice in the matter, but surely there would be some way out of the situation. Maybe his wolf would reject me or something.
Granted, rejection had been painful even when I was the rejector. It killed the person being rejected more often than not. If my options were sealing a bond with Teddy Graham or dying, I was obviously going to take the mate bond. I could do worse. Andhaddone worse.
The drive went by fairly quickly, though my wolf didn’t so much as doze for a few minutes. She was wide awake and alert. I’dbeen told years ago that hunting werewolves didn’t sleep, so I guess that was to be expected.
Graham used the address I had saved ashometo find my place, and soon enough, he’d parked in front of the duplex I lived in. It was on the edge of the forest, and the closeness to the trees kept my wolf a little more settled.
Maya lived next door too, which we both appreciated. Being the only unmated female werewolves on this side of the country wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
The loneliness sucked more than anything. Not being alone made life significantly better.
