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Ishould have stopped by my house sooner.

The mail had piled up to the point where the postman had apparently given up. Inside, most of my plants were dead, and my fridge smelled like the scene of a crime.

It was probably a good thing that Elias was going to Chicago before me, because otherwise I’d likely be dealing with a similar problem at his place, too.

After taking care of all the rotting and molding food, I thought about going grocery shopping, but even something as mundane as cooking felt pointless without Marlowe. She was my home, the one I wanted to provide for and take care of. Here in my old house, my former loneliness drifted in the air like a ghost refusing to move on, reminding me of what my life had been like before I’d met my sweet, fierce omega.

She had done her best to make sure we didn’t feel entirely abandoned during her impromptu trip, and I took a deep breath of her parting gift, transporting myself back to my bed, my knot locked inside her while we kissed and talked long into the night. She mostly liked to ask me about my research, as many people did when they found out I was a professor, but I never felt like she was asking to be polite. She genuinely lit up whenever we discussed the work I’ve published, asking pointed questions that showed she not only listened and understood, but wanted to know more.

Marlowe truly was an equal to all of us, a partner in all ways. Sighing, I grabbed my keys and headed to a nearby cafe with mycomputer. Her father’s house in Maiingan Hollow smelled too much like her, and my house smelled not enough like her, her presence and her absence both equally painful. I needed somewhere neutral and distracting.

The cafe was quite busy, owing to impending exams. Students covered nearly every inch of available space with their books and laptops. Normally I reveled in this energy, but today I just felt numb.

I snagged one of the few tables left, claiming my spot with my coat while I went up to the counter to order.

The girl at the register smiled in recognition when I approached. “Professor Lim, how are you? I don’t know if you remember me, I took your Biomaterials course last year.”

Her face finally clicked in my memory. “Right, yes, of course. Abigail, correct?”

“Yep, that’s me,” she said, her cheeks blushing. “What can I getcha?”

“Just an Americano, thanks.”

I paid for the drink and headed back to my table, carefully setting myself up for what would likely be a few hours. Grading the tests was taking longer than I’d hoped, and the sooner I got them done, the sooner I could meet up with Marlowe and Elias in Chicago.

Abigail delivered my drink personally, a folded piece of paper on the saucer. I raised my eyebrow as she walked away. “Abigail?” I asked. “What’s this?”

She stopped dead in her tracks, turning around slowly. “Um… my phone number?”

I sighed softly, picking it up and reaching towards her to hand it back. “Not only would it be wildly inappropriate for me to date a student…”

“I’m graduating this semester,” she interrupted, shrugging. “I just thought… you know, might as well shoot my shot.”

For as much as Marlowe complained about attention from alpha shifters, she had no idea of the effect alpha shifters had on human women. It sounded like the worst kind of bragging to complain about it, especially when the power dynamics were also wildly different, but I’d had women regularly “shooting their shot” since I’d left Maiingan Hollow at eighteen, to the point where sometimes it was annoying to leave the house.

She’d probably become aware of it soon enough with Elias, though.

“And,” I continued, my chest puffing with pride. “I have agirlfriend whom I love very much.”

“Oh,” she replied, looking at the floor. “Um, I’m sorry. Tell your girlfriend she’s a very lucky woman.”

She shuffled back behind the counter, her eyes avoiding my direction as she continued her shift.

I shook my head and was about to open my computer when someone else stopped by. “Archer, I thought you had some sort of family emergency! And yet here you are, breaking co-ed hearts.”

Perhaps I wasn’t going to be getting much work done here, either. I looked up at my colleague, Heather Jackson from the chemistry department, standing right in front of me.

Her glasses slid down her nose as she grinned, taking the empty chair across from me. “What’s this about a girlfriend?”

I gave her a blank stare. “Yes, please, go ahead and sit down. I wasn’t busy.”

A different barista came by and gave her her cappuccino, and watching her pour way too much sugar into the cup made me think of Marlowe, my heart constricting.

“Well?” she asked, tapping her spoon on the edge of her cup. “Is Eau Claire’s most eligible bachelor officially off the market?”

Heather was human, but her wife was a beta female, so she was familiar with my world and knew what I was.

I thought back to when Camden had suggested Marlowe find platonic companionship within Maiingan Hollow’s lesbian community. After a nasty encounter with a few jealous beta females, he had thought it was the perfect solution to help Marlowe make friends outside of our pack. Perhaps he was onto something —Heather and Julie were a little older than me, but they were kind and intelligent, if far too nosy about my love life. Julie had tried to set me up too many times to count, ambushing me into surprise double dates at their home every few months or so. Getting to finally bring Marlowe over to one of their dinners would be nice.