Page 28
Story: May the Wolf Die
Marlowe’s cheeks blushed the cutest shade of pink. “Cam andNolan were in the room when we wereFaceTiming.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. I flashed Esther my friendliest smile and extended my hand, turning on the charm. “Hi, I’m Elias, Marlowe’s boyfriend.”
I could tell Marlowe was annoyed, bordering on pissed, by me using the boyfriend title. I had effectively claimed the role as her public-facing partner, at least with her friends. She’d just spent the past hour trying to smooth things over with the pack after the vamp attack, so this wasn’t going to go over very well. But her friend had seen my arm around her—what else could I say to explain the intimacy?
Esther gave Marlowe a knowing look and then took my hand. “Nice to meet you, Elias. I’m Marlowe’s friend from grad school. So… these other guys are your friends, too?”
“Yes, I was her father’s attorney and Cam used to work with him, so we kind of took Marlowe under our wing when she came into town.”
A sly smile spread across her face. “Is that right? Well, I’m assuming you’re here to help Marlowe move out, then? Did you run into Mike? How’s the breakup going?”
“Oh, um…” she averted her eyes, looking at the pastries. “I haven’t seen him yet, I asked him to give me some space. Do you recommend any of these? I haven’t tried any of their seasonal flavors yet.”
“Oh yeah, the chestnut scones are really good…”
Watching her talk with her friend made me so happy for my little omega. I knew she’d been disappointed by her difficulties in finding a place for herself outside our pack in Maiingan Hollow. Although that alpha female detective had been an unexpected surprise, and Marlowe seemed genuinely interested in reaching out.
She finally settled on a gingerbread loaf to go with her sugary latte, and I got myself a black coffee.
“Do you want to sit with me?” Esther asked. “I would love to get to know this guy better.” She gestured towards me with her thumb and grinned in an overtly suggestive manner, making Marlowe laugh.
“Sure, I’m sorry I didn’t call to let you know I was in town. We’re only here til Monday, and then we need to go to Chicago…”
The two talked nonstop, and I merely listened, my hand gently resting on Marlowe’s knee. From Esther’s boyfriend and job, to Marlowe dealing with the loss of her father, the topics were wide and varied, the mood never getting too heavy as Esther always found a way to wring a smile back out of her friend.
“Oof, I need to go to the little girl’s room, I’ll be right back,” Marlowe announced, getting up from the table.
“You need to ask for a key!” Esther yelled, and Marlowe pivoted towards the cashier.
Her smile suddenly vanished and she turned towards me with all the calculated precision of a wolf. “What is she hiding from me?”
I nearly spit out my coffee. Did Esther have some shifter in her line, too? “Excuse me?” I asked.
She leaned forward slowly, tilting her head as she inspected me. “Something about the two of you feels… off. She’s barely been gone for three weeks, and not only has she broken up with her fiancé, but she’s quit her job, she’s moving to bumblefuck Wisconsin, and is suddenly best friends with a group of guys who are all suspiciously good-looking. It’s weird. Like,cultishlyweird.”
I gave her a thoughtful frown and shrugged. “I see your point. If she were my friend, I’d be feeling protective of her as well. She’s gone through a lot in the past few months, and these are big decisions to make while still in the throes of grief.”
She pointed her finger in my face. “And that answer seems far too perfect and considerate.”
I snorted a reply. Apparently, this human woman was more perceptive than I was giving her credit for, so I decided to let some of the “nice new boyfriend” veneer slip to comfort her with normalcy. “Esther, I’m a lawyer. Perfect and considerate responses are my specialty.”
Esther withdrew and crossed her arms. “Alright, touché. But my earlier comments still stand. You’re hiding something.”
She was sharp. “Well, we certainly aren’t in a cult, if that’s your main concern. I’ve known my friends since high school. Me and the guys you met are more like brothers than anything else. Maiingan Hollow is a small town, and we all knew her father in various capacities. We got to know Marlowe as we grieved our loss, and then talked her through her breakup. And as for our relationship—I was desperately in love with Marlowe from the moment I’d laid eyes on her, and was fully prepared to pine for her from a distance until she recently told me she wanted to be with me, too.”
Esther still wasn’t quite convinced. “Aren’t you worried you’re just a rebound?”
Ouch, straight to the point.
I looked down at my hands, finding a speck of blood I had missed after the fight with the vampyr. “Of course. I worry constantlythat she’ll think her feelings are just a result of some trauma-based connection. But my feelings for her are real, I know that.”
Her fingers drummed along her forearm, and she looked out the window at the fading daylight. “I’d always had a bad feeling about Mike, you know. I never said anything to Marlowe about it, but I noticed the way he’d look at her like she was a piece of meat sometimes, or the way he’d evaluate every other woman in the room with him like he was constantly shopping around. He creeped me out whenever I was alone with him.”
I leaned forward. “Do I creep you out, too?”
Her eyes turned back towards me. “Not really. But still… I can tell something is off with Marlowe.”
I took a sip of my coffee. “You obviously know her much better than I do, so I don’t know how to relieve your worry. I have a feeling only Marlowe can do that, but as far as I know, she’s been perfectly forthcoming.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28 (Reading here)
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191