Page 14 of A Wolf’s Wound

Hannah

“April?” I call out tentatively, closing the apartment door behind Shadow and me.

“In here,” she returns and I walk into her bedroom and see a half-filled suitcase on her unmade bed.

“Are you going somewhere?” I hesitate in the doorway.

“Yeah. I need to get out of Stonehaven for a while. Out of this apartment ,” she says pointedly, tossing a stack of shirts in the suitcase.

“April, please don’t leave,” I beg. “Not because of me. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Hannah, I don’t care how many times you apologize.” She turns to face me and crosses her arms. “I’m not going to accept.”

“But please let me explain!” I cry. Shadow curls around my feet and looks at me with kind eyes. I pick him up, needing the comfort of him in my arms as he clings to me.

“Explain what? That you decided to hook up with my date? My horrible, rude, boorish date?”

“I didn’t know he was your date when I met him!” I burst out.

April looks at me in surprise. “You didn’t?”

“ No! ”

“But you said he came here to apologize.” April frowns.

“I know. I lied. It was stupid.”

“It was,” she agrees, but in a nicer tone. “Why did you?”

“Before you came home from the bar that night, I was attacked in the apartment,” I begin.

April gasps. “Oh, Hannah! Why didn’t you tell me? Are you okay?”

“I am,” I assure her. “Because of Ryder. And I didn’t tell you because it’s all so confusing, April.

This guy I’d never met before…” I don’t need to go into all the politics of how I recognized a local councilman and that he’s a shifter.

“Comes barging into our apartment saying I’ve made a grave mistake and should have stayed home.

I tried to get him to leave, but he wouldn’t go.

And then Ryder just bursts in and pulls him off me and gets him out of here. ”

“Whoa,” April breathes. “That’s so messed up!”

“I know.” I nod. “But I don’t know why that happened.”

“How did Ryder know what to do?” April asks. “Or even what was happening?” Her eyes widen. “Oh! Maybe that’s why he ran out on our date? Like he somehow knew you were in trouble?”

“Maybe,” I say, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

She joins me. “Like I said, I don’t know how to explain any of it.

But even after the councilman left, Ryder was afraid he’d come back.

He had me hide in the closet when he heard someone approaching.

But it turned out it was just you coming home. ”

In my lap, Shadow is nodding and squeaking furiously. I know he’s doing his best in his way to back up everything I’ve said, and I love him for it.

“Oh!” April says, putting the pieces together. “Oh, Hannah, I wish you’d just told me the truth when it happened.”

“I’m so sorry,” I say sincerely. “But please believe me, April. I wasn’t trying to go after Ryder. I really don’t even like him. And I’d never try to date the same man as you.”

“I know,” April says. “And you don’t need to keep apologizing. I get it now.” She shrugs and looks embarrassed. “To be honest, I know Ryder’s not my type. The date was a bust even before he ran out. I guess my ego was just bruised.”

“Trust me, you can do a lot better than him,” I say. But my heart isn’t in it.

“Hell yeah! We both can,” she says and then looks at me more closely. “Wait. Hannah. I know that look in your eyes.”

“What look?” I ask, blushing yet again.

“The look that says I want to see this man naked .” She laughs. “You like him!”

“Do not!”

“Hannah, please. I saw that kiss today. I’m not blind or an idiot. There was so much heat I’m surprised the lobby wasn’t in flames,” she jokes with me, and I sigh.

“I know,” I admit. “You’re right, okay?”

“Knew it!” she squeals happily. “You guys look good together, for whatever it’s worth.”

“Thanks, I think.” I sigh. Again. Ugh.

“Wait, why are you so down? You’ve got scorching chemistry with a scorching guy. You should be dancing on the table in happiness! Or, you know, fucking his brains out,” she adds casually.

I didn’t know I could blush any deeper than I already have, but I can feel my face turning red. “We are so not going to do that .”

“Sure, whatever.” April stands and begins emptying her suitcase. “Why not just admit you like him and see what happens?”

“Honestly?”

“No, lie to me again.” April rolls her eyes.

“Okay, fine. The truth is, I feel this, like, pull toward him. Like it’s not even a conscious thought but something deep within me going: This is the guy .”

“That’s called lust, honey.”

“No, it’s not just that. It’s more a sense that I couldn’t just ‘see what happens’ with Ryder. My feelings are too intense for that. It’s like a part of me has decided that he’s it, The One,” I say, imbuing those last two words with enough meaning that she can hear the capital T and O.

“Oh, wow,” April says, sinking back down to the bed. “That’s major, Hannah.”

“I know! Hence the freaking out.”

“I get it,” she says softly. “I’d probably freak out too if I thought I’d met the guy I was going to spend the rest of my life with.”

“I know. It’s a real mind-fuck.” I grin ruefully. “Plus, this is all crazy. Right?” I ask hopefully. “I hardly know the guy. We’ve talked, what, a handful of times? Kissed once? That’s nothing. It makes no sense that I’d feel so strongly about him.”

“I mean, that was a pretty hot kiss,” April interjects.

“Not helping!”

“Sorry, just being honest.” She pets Shadow’s head and stands again. “I’m starving. Want me to pick up some takeout? Dinner’s on me for being such a bee-yatch earlier.”

“You weren’t, and you don’t have to buy me dinner,” I protest, but she shakes her head.

“Just promise me I won’t have to wear an ugly bridesmaid’s dress when you and Ryder get hitched!” April calls as she leaves the apartment.

I grin and then sigh. I’m glad April isn’t mad at me anymore, and it felt good to talk to her about my confusion. But I wish I felt less confused, and not just as lost as before.

Why do I feel this way? Does my subconscious know something I don’t? I’ve taken enough science and healing classes to know the mind works in strange ways, but this feels epically weird.

This entire situation has been insanely odd, though, starting with how Ryder knew I was in trouble.

Now that I know he realized I needed him in the middle of his date with April, I’m even more shaken up.

Before I’d just assumed that maybe he happened to be walking by our building when the councilman came in and sensed something was wrong. But no, he was blocks away.

And speaking of the councilman, what was up with him?

And where is he now? I’ve been so relieved he hasn’t come back that it hasn’t even occurred to me to wonder why he was here in the first place.

I wonder if maybe I should try to find him—ideally in a public, well-lit place with April next to me—and ask what he meant.

Ryder might know what happened. I could start by asking him. At that thought, I can’t help but grin. An excuse to see Ryder again… This could get interesting.

In fact, I know it’s about to.