Still, she’d likely be running away in panic if she knew what I really was.
“Ms. Adair.” Look at me, being cordial. Not an impossible feat. “We need to talk.”
“We are talking,” she points out, a smirk in her voice.
I fight the urge to grind my teeth. “About Thad.”
“What about Thad? Is he okay?” Her sugary hostility drops away at the mention of my pack mate, and the concern in her voice sets off a surprisingly uncomfortable curdling in my stomach.
Any other time, I might call the sensation jealousy.
But that can’t be right.
“He’s fine.” The answer comes out with more bite than I intended. Putting in effort to relax the annoyance from my words, I push on. “But he liked talking to you. He can’t with everyone. The language barrier.”
Juliet’s shoulders relax, and she nods, her mouth twisting. “People who can hear rarely bother to learn ASL.”
“Don’t stop talking to him.” The words are a gruff command instead of the request I meant it to be.
Her eyebrows pop up, and she leans back in her chair. “Of course I’ll keep talking to him. Thad is a good guy.”
There’s a subtle dig in there. An emphasis she puts on Thad’s name. I get that twisty feeling in my gut again.
My next words form without much thought. “Don’t pretend to be his friend.”
There’s a beat of silence between us, and the skin around her plump lips tightens.
“Why do you think I would be pretending?”
“I mean”—I cross my arms, knowing that the move makes my muscles bulge—“don’t get him to rely on you.”
Any potential truce between us burns away with the flames in her eyes.
“What is the matter with you?” she snaps. “You want me to talk to your buddy, but you don’t want me to be friends with him? You’re all over the place!”
“You can talk to him.,” I growl. “Don’t pretend to care. Not when you’re leaving.”
She’s not leaving.
“I’m not leaving!” she barks, as if hearing and agreeing with my wolf.
I grit my teeth. My point isn’t coming across, but I’m not about to let up. Not when I know I’m right and this’ll keep Thad safe.
“What is this convoluted idea you have of me? You know what?” She holds her hand up to cut off any reply I might make. “Just stop. I don’t care. If you came in here to make sure I’d still be nice to Thad despite the fact that he’s friends with a—” Juliet halts in the middle of what promised to be a scathing tirade, eyes flicking around, as if realizing she’s still in her place of work. Swallowing whatever insult she was about to spout, the librarian straightens her spine and smooths her hands over a creamy button-up shirt that fits along every one of her curves. “What I mean to say is, you didn’t need to bother coming here to tell me this. Thad has been kind to me, and I will be so in return. I treat people the way they treat me.” This last bit gets delivered with a disdainful curl of her lip.
Juliet Adair despises me.
That’s the way it should be.
Even so, my wolf silently whimpers in distress. The wolf wants her smile and her kind words.
But those are all lies, and I won’t be fooled by them.
“Good,” I say.
“Good,” she replies.
“Fine,” I respond.
