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“You might have scared her off.” Jude could smell the plastic on his hands, and it drove him crazy.
“I did what I could in the moment, man,” Graham assured him. “You’d have done the same.”
Graham didn’t usually like how candid Jude was with him, and he made that clear often. He could tell in Graham’s voice that he wished Jude would dial it back a bit. After all, Graham was the alpha, and Jude was only his beta—second-in-command.
“What’s this girl look like? You said she ran out of the grocery store?”
“Yeah,” Graham answered. “I watched her run out, and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t driving. So, she’s going to be on foot. She’s fast.”
Graham took a second and then spoke as if loading her appearance from memory. “She had long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. She was pretty tall, maybe five-nine. She was wearing a pink cardigan.”
“Can I meet up with you somewhere?” Jude wondered. “Or should we split up and look?”
“I’m still at the grocery store,” Graham informed him. “Not that she’s likely to be anywhere near now. All I can say,” Graham continued, accompanied by the sounds of a loud rattling cart. “Check crowds. If we can find her at all, she’ll be hiding in plain sight.”
“Got it.” Jude nodded. “I’m just gonna keep you on speaker, so you might keep the cart noises to a minimum.” A pause. Jude realized the ridiculousness of this request, and decided if it came to it, he’d just mute Graham instead.
The description was just vague enough to not be useful. So many blonde women in pink shirts were walking along the pavement. This felt like an impossible task, and finding anybody in the city was like finding a needle in a haystack. Still, he could somewhat follow his nose, and maybe he’d find her that way.
He was about to give up and began heading back to the pack sector of the city. That’s when he saw her, golden hair and the brightest, deepest blue eyes he’d ever seen. She waited at the traffic lights, a folded newspaper sticking out of the periwinkle travel bag on her arm.
“I’m gonna put you on mute,” Jude announced.
“Wait, what?”
“I found her. She looks really jittery.”
“Be careful. She’s probably going to dash as soon as she finds out what you are.”
Jude pressed the microphone button on his phone, cutting off the scraping, rolling noises of the shopping cart. He was thankful for the long traffic lights at this intersection and approached from the side, careful not to catch her off guard. He wanted to make sure he was well within her peripheral vision.
She looked up at his face as he stoically looked ahead and then looked down at his bags. To not intimidate her, which would be fairly difficult because of how imposing he looked, he was going to be passive and let her come to him.
“Jesus,” she murmured. “Got pipes?”
Jude moved all his bags to one hand, despite the searing, cutting pain, and pressed his palm to his face, trying to convey mock frustration. “Crap!” he teased back. “No. I forgot to get them. Stupid,stupid.”
The woman laughed.
“Haven’t seen you around,” Jude tried breaking the ice. “You new?”
“Town full of six million people, and you know every one of them?” She grinned. “That’s an impressive skill. How do you manage that?”
This was his chance. She didn’t suspect anything. If he was going to build rapport with her, he was going to have to be honest and establish common ground. “Well, you’re a little different than most. Aren’t you?” Jude hoped to drive the point across subtly while they were in public with humans all around.
He watched as realization crossed her face. She sniffed the air and her eyes widened. He hoped for a brief moment that his pleasant demeanor would convince her not to run.
“Oh come on!” she cried. “Not you too!” She bolted across the street before Jude could react. Her speed was ungodly. Jude was fast, but he wasn’tthatfast.
“Well, okay,” Jude muttered under his breath. “That went well.” He watched her disappear out of sight, heading east, and then he took the phone out of his pocket. Pressing it to his ear, he unmuted Graham.
“I lost her,” Jude told his alpha.
“I heard. You didn’t even try to pursue her on foot. Did you?”
Jude considered how to answer. He didn’t want to disappoint Graham, but he was acting out of desperation, not strategy. This was so uncharacteristic for him, usually able to manipulate people and situations to his every advantage.
“She was terrified, and I didn’t see it working out. If I caught her, then what? I grab her by the arm and force her to come along with me?”
