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We locked eyes, silently studying each other.
“You know it’s not what I’d prefer,” he whispered.
“I know. I wish it were that easy, but I don’t want to mess up our friendship.”
“We’ve been together before and we’re still friends now. And we were younger then. I’ve vastly improved since.” His face lowered, and his lips were a breath away from mine when I heard my front door open.
“Em? Isaac? You guys in here?” Stella called from the living room.
“Damn, she really has fucked timing, doesn’t she?” Isaac said.
I didn’t respond because I was quietly thanking Stella for her interruption. And kicking myself for almost kissing Isaac. He’s tempting on a good day, but with me being in heat, he was damn near impossible to resist. But friendships rarely survive sex, and I wasn’t willing to lose one of my best friends for a roll in the hay. Even if I knew how good it’d be.
“Am I interrupting something?” Stella asked as she entered the kitchen.
Isaac was too close to me, and I took a few steps back as I shot Stella a smile. “No. Not at all. What’s up? You look upset.” Concern for her made me forget my near slip with Isaac.
“Chris called.”
“Yeah? He was on my property.” I said, but knew it wouldn’t matter to the Council. “Is he filing a complaint?”
“Yes. I have to finish it when I get back to the office,” she said with a shrug.
As a clerk for the Council, it’s Stella’s job to hear all complaints and fill out the paperwork to make them official. Every time a fellow shifter attacks me, and I win the fight—which happens often—they complain to the Council.
After she files the complaint, the Council calls me in to explain my actions. Since I’m the cursed abomination everyone hates, I’ve never won a case. But because everyone loves Isaac, and he’s the Alpha of my pack, I get community service at our local Season Shifters Academy instead of jail time. The joke is on them though because I love it there.
Stella shifted her feet and bit her lower lip. “Em, I need to ask you something. Please don’t get mad and please be honest.”
“I’m always honest,” I said without acknowledging the first part of her request.
“Are you, um, in some way… somehow… maybe without realizing it… starting these fights on purpose?”
I took a moment to let her question sink in. I had been a punching bag for my dad and the packs until, with Isaac’s help, I’d learned to fight well enough to protect myself. Even though my dad had named Isaac as his replacement, his Alpha power had passed onto me. After that, I was a real force to be reckoned with.
Maybe after years of having to defend myself I’d become programed to fight? Maybe on some level I enjoyed it? I could see how someone, even one of my oldest friends, might think that, but I knew myself and I knew that wasn’t it.
“No.”
She nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
“No, it’s not,” Isaac said. “If you thought that, you wouldn’t have asked. There’s a part of you that really believes it.”
“Screw you, Isaac,” Stella responded in a surprising moment of anger.
“Stell, he’s not wrong,” I said. “It’s okay, but if he’s wrong, and you really don’t believe it, why did you ask?”
She gave me a watery smile. “He’s not wrong. Part of me wondered. I mean, you seem to get into trouble no matter where you are or what you’re doing.”
“Um, yeah, because that’s the real curse of being me. Not this damn white streak in my hair. Being Ember Steele means fighting my way through life.”
“I know. I know that. It was shitty of me to think you’d want to fight. I’m sorry. You must hate me,” she said.
I leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Stella, you are the sweetest damn thing ever to cross my path. Maybe anyone’s path. I don’t think you could ever do anything to make me hate you.”
She slid her arms around my waist and pulled me close. “Do you mean that? Like really mean it?”
Her hold tightened, confusing me. “Yeah. I mean it.” I glanced at Isaac. Aside from the typical male response at seeing two women holding each other, I got nothing from him. Rolling my eyes at his lewd gesture, I turned back to Stella. “What’s going on, Stell?”
