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I’ve been hiding in plain sight the whole time I’ve lived in Muncie. Aleks’s charmed fang kept me off the radar of the city’s top predators, and Roman’s blessing allowed me to coexist in peace regardless of me being a shifter or not. He hasn’t revoked it yet, not even after Aleks up and disappeared, and I don’t want to give the leader of the Cadre any reason to do so now.
I just hope that the Cadre’s patrollers are too busy walking the perimeter, keeping Muncie safe from any prospective threats—while also trying not to look too closely at how I feel about the biggest “threat” being the nearby presence of Ryker’s pack—to notice a lone wolf shifter tearing her way downtown, covered in a few lucky bites and more blood than I can explain away with an impish smile and a sassy attitude.
I get lucky. I don’t run across another soul as I head back to my apartment, and by the time I’m racing around the back, dashing up the fire escape (since using the elevator in my state is a no-go when all of my neighbors are vamps themselves), I’m starting to feel a little relieved.
Phew. I just about made it home.
Nineteen flights of rickety, steel stairs later, I let myself into the apartment, taking a deep breath as I do.
It’s habit. Can’t help it.
My stomach twinges, and not only because the tang of vampire blood clinging to me is enough to make the strongest shifter want to hurl. Because the apartment? Itonlysmells of me and Ryker and vampire blood.
No Aleks.
Again.
I bump my hip against the balcony door, closing it behind me as I move into the living room with a little less pep in my step than there had been a few seconds ago.
Every time I leave the apartment, I hope that he’ll be waiting for me when I return. For six weeks, I’ve gotten my hopes up only for them to be dashed as I approach the apartment. His scent has faded almost completely since he’s been gone, but I hold out stubbornly until I walk inside and realize—again—that he still hasn’t come back.
Part of me wants to go out there, hunt him down, and drag him home. Too bad I don’t have any clue where he’s disappeared off to. Based on my run-in with the vamp earlier, he’s not just staying out of my hair like I initially tried to believe. He’s totally abandoned Muncie and it’s all my fault.
Ugh.
As I head straight for my bedroom, desperate for a shower, I let my thoughts turn to my phone.
I don’t often carry the device around with me since it’s definitely more of a human thing and, most of the time, I forget I’m supposed to act like a human. I really only use it to keep in touch with my job, my co-workers, and my parents all the way in Lakeview. Most shifters don’t bother with human tech; it’s just not how we’re wired. Unless we’re in separate packs, we can communicate far more effectively with a well-struck howl than with words over a phone.
Aleks has been a vampire for more than two hundred years. In a lot of ways, he’s still stuck in the past, and it’s usually the same when it comes to his own device. Though he’s the one who insisted I get one when I first arrived in Muncie and accepted his offer to move into his apartment, he rarely uses his, either. Mainly to keep in touch with Roman, since he’s a trusted member of the Cadre and had a nightly patrol until he left, but I could always reach him if I needed to.
Earlier this afternoon, I forgot to grab my phone before I left for Charlie’s. I had left it in the middle of my bed, and there it is. Even though I want nothing more than a hot shower and a couple of hours to put tonight behind me, I snatch it, hoping that maybe there will be another message from Aleks.
Every week he makes sure to tell me that he’ll be back before I know it. I only heard from him three days ago, so it’s probably too soon to hear from him again.
Still, with the adrenaline from my fight rushing through me, and the weight of Ryker’s fang even heavier now that I’m alone in the apartment without him, I swipe my phone open and, with a quick jab, pull up the lopsided conversation I’ve been having with Aleks since he left.
I bite down on my bottom lip. I swear, I can taste Ryker there. It only goes to remind me just how much I love him, and how much I missed him while he was in the middle of the country for the latest Alpha meet.
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? He’s not the only one I wished would come back. And as happy as I am that Ryker did, that he made it a priority to see me first, to be with me, I don’t think I’ll get over my lingering guilt and regrets until I can finally make the whole thing right with my roommate.
Maybe then, when Ryker accuses me of sticking around Muncie because of Aleks, it won’t be a lie when I tell him no.
Before I lose my nerve, I quickly type out two words—miss you—and send the text to Aleks. It’s an oversimplification of how I feel, but for now? It’ll have to do.
Once I can’t take the message back, I toss the phone back on the bed and, stripping as I go, slog the rest of the way toward my bathroom.
Shower. A little breakfast. Some more sleep.
Oh, yeah.
Sounds good to me.
5
Things are so different nowadays. Even compared to six weeks ago, it seems like my whole world’s been turned upside down.
Case in point: my job slinging whiskeys and tending the bar at Charlie’s.
