AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s wanted to be a chef since we were kids.” Rocco shrugged. “Started convincing the restaurant to let him work for free, bussing tables and doing dishes and shit when he was twelve. He worked his ass off and did some kind of online culinary school in his free time, and was the obvious choice when the old chef moved states and went to another restaurant.”
I hated that I was interested in his story. I wanted to see him as the monster who’d followed me around the whole damned country, as terrible as that was.
Hearing about the ways he was as human as me did not make that any easier.
“Well, I guess we’ll see about the meals. Thanks for the key.” I lifted it awkwardly, as we stopped on the porch. “And for cheering me up a bit.”
“Any time.” Del winked at me. “Come over whenever you want; I’m off work for the next week or two, until the baby comes, so I’ve got nothing to do.”
“You’ve been making more music,” Rocco pointed out to her, as they started on their not-so-quick walk back to their place.
As awkward as it was, I watched them like a damned creep.
Honestly, I was fascinated by their relationship. By the way they talked not just like lovers, but like friends.
And even in that moment, he was reminding her how valid her music was, and telling her how incredible she was. Not because they thought I was listening; because they loved each other.
I had never seen a relationship like that.
Never.
And… I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
Or what to do about it.
For the moment, I supposed, all there really was to do was go inside and cry in the bathtub while choking down five-star-restaurant food that my asshole soulmate had made.
As far as I’d seen, all men did to the women in their lives was hurt them physically, mentally, and emotionally before abandoning them altogether. Theoretically, I knew that every single man on the planet likely wasn’t a complete dick. But since I’d seen no evidence of that in my life, I had a hard time believing it.
I stuck the key in the lock with shaky fingers, and stepped inside. My truck was still in front of Del’s place, but I’d move it the next day, and grab clothes then too.
Opening the door, I peeked around before stepping inside. I was no stranger to random houses and hotel rooms, given all of the traveling I’d done, but this was different.
This was more… final.
My eyes watered again, and I wiped at the damned tears angrily.
Why wouldn’t my emotions just chill for a minute?
There was a clicking noise, and I spun around, finding an extremely familiar wolf stepping through the door and then shutting it with a paw.
Dammit.
“You’re just thrilled about this, aren’t you,” I drawled at the wolf, trying to stop the damned crying.
The wolf’s expression didn’t look happy, though.
If anything, he looked sad.
I’d seen him every day for a whole damned year, and he had never looked happy to be chasing me. He had looked… patient.
“You should just bite me,” I told him, wiping angrily at more tears. “Get this shit over with so we can move on. It’s not like I have any other options, now. It’s either turn into a wolf, or continue wasting my life away and missing all of Del’s while I run from you. This is all I have left.”
My legs folded, and I fell toward the ground.
The wolf surged toward me, catching me before I landed hard. He lowered me to the cold floor as I shook with sobs.
Rather than biting me, he stepped away from me.
