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SIXTEEN
I screamed and skidded backward,toward the stairs.
Through the glass door, I watched as a human body came running toward us, from off to the side of the wolf. It was a guy—his hands in the air, his body completely naked.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I recognized Elliot—Smiley.
"It's Ford," he yelled through the door. "The wolf is Ford." He pointed over his shoulder. "We shift at night a lot. Lock your doors and Jesse will calm down!"
I let out a shaky breath and nodded.
Ford had warned me to lock the doors at night... I guess that was why. I couldn't remember unlocking most of them, but knew one or two were open.
I checked the back door as Elliot ran off into the darkness again. That one was already locked.
Making my way around the townhouse, I locked every damn door. When the lock clicked on the garage door, the last one, and the only one that hadn’t already been locked, Jesse relaxed instantly.
How the hell had he known the garage door wasn’t locked?
And why did he care?
Sure, he wanted to protect me, but he had to have realized that the guys outside were his buddies. And it wasn't like they were attacking his house or anything.
"Werewolves are so weird," I mumbled, making my way back to the couch. I needed to study, but I really needed to sleep and heal too. My test the next day would be a rough one, but it wasn’t for one of my hardest classes, so I hoped I’d do okay enough.
Too tired for my responsible side to win out, I curled back up on the couch and fell asleep in seconds.
The next fewweeks passed by quickly, with me and Jesse falling into a pattern.
He growled at me for not eating on the way to school, and I ignored him in favor of saving money. I avoided attractive men or men who seemed attracted to me like they were the damn coronavirus, and he didn’t attack anyone. We studied together, slept cuddled together, and even bathed together when he started to smell and I threatened to get him neutered if he didn't.
He really did start to feel like a pet wolf.
...A really possessive pet wolf.
Honestly, he was the perfect companion. I wasn't someone who required much social interaction to get by, and I got what I needed at school and then had a buddy to hang with at home.
After a month, I decided I was tired of sleeping on the couch.
I was going to move in. Since we couldn't be apart after I became a werewolf (which I'd decided unfortunately did have to happen, since I wasn't ready to die) I dragged a chair to the fridge and grabbed Jesse's envelope of cash.
"I'm only spending this money on the bare minimum furniture," I warned Jesse the wolf. He was used to me talking to him like he was a person, and to responding like he was a person.
He tilted his head at me, his version of a shrug. He didn't care what I did with Human Jesse's cash.
"Seriously. This is Jesse's money, not mine. But I need a bed, and I'm not sleeping in Jesse's," I continued. "Even if I wash the sheets, that'll feel like accepting this prisoner-bride thing we've got going on. And I am not a prisoner bride."
The wolf snorted.
He didn't understand.
"Bare minimum, I swear." I wagged a finger at him. "Come on. I bet this town has a thrift shop."
I looked up directions, and found out it did.
But... I'd need a truck.
I glanced over at Jesse's phone, sitting on the kitchen counter where it had been since I'd last used it to call Rocco with another wolf question the week before.
