Page 4 of A Wolf’s Wound

Hannah

The air in the closet is dense and warm.

I want to open the door, even just a tiny crack, but then I remember the look in Ryder’s eyes when he told me to get into the closet.

It was so serious, and a little bit alarmed.

Even though I don’t particularly like Ryder, I believe he thinks a threat lurks out there.

But still. He felt me? No way. No. Fucking. Way.

I relax my stance a little and lean against the soft coats at my back. I hear something coming my way. At first I think it’s just Ryder pacing around the room. But no, the sound is approaching the apartment. All of a sudden, nerves attack my stomach. What is out there?

Wait, this is a familiar noise. Tap-tap-tap… tap-tap-tap… I grin, recognizing April’s gait in those high heels she wore out tonight. Some threat!

I push open the closet door, but in my eagerness to get out of the small space I trip over a boot lying on the closet floor.

I stumble out into the room, straight into Ryder, who was mid shift but is still mostly in human form, though his clothes have ripped a little.

At the same time April steps into our apartment, past the battered door.

“Hannah!” she calls out. “What the hell happened here? Whatevs. Oh my god, girl, I have to tell you about my date.” Her voice is loud and irritated. “He was the most— oh !” She stops short as she comes into the room.

I can only imagine how this looks: me and Ryder (her date) together in our dimly lit apartment. His hands are on my shoulders, but she doesn’t know they’re only there to keep me from falling. At least he’s not in wolf form.

“What the hell?” April says sharply. I stand up straight and back away from Ryder. But she doesn’t seem to notice me. “Ryder? Why are you here?”

“Oh, um…” he fumbles. It’s a little bit amusing to see him so flustered.

“Seriously?” April says. “This night just keeps getting better. You’re not content to just be a crappy date in public. Instead, you somehow figure out where I live and decide to hook up with my roommate!”

“No!” I protest. “April, come on, you know me. I wouldn’t do that to you. And I don’t even like him.” Ryder shoots me a look that’s part wounded pride, part surprise.

“Well, that’s something,” she mutters.

“April, I’m sorry,” Ryder tries. “I’m sorry for being such a horrible date. You didn’t deserve the way I treated you, and I sincerely apologize.”

“Thank you,” April murmurs. “I appreciate that. But why are you in our apartment?”

Before Ryder can answer, I hear Shadow laughing from his bed on the floor. I roll my eyes as he chortles, not finding this nearly as amusing as the little beastie.

“He came here to apologize to you,” I explain, grabbing Ryder’s arm and pulling him toward the door. “And now that he has, he’s leaving.”

“Hannah, wait,” Ryder tries as we approach the door. He lowers his voice and steps closer to me. “We’re not finished.”

“Yes, we are,” I hiss just as quietly. “I’m not getting tangled up in any of this.”

“You already are! I can’t leave, not after you just got attacked. It’s not safe.”

“Can’t you just feel me if I need help?” I whisper sarcastically.

Ryder stiffens, scowling at me.

“It looks like my feelings aren’t the only thing influencing this situation,” Ryder bites back.

I shake my head, not wanting to admit to either of us that he’s right. “If I felt anything, it was fear from being attacked in my own apartment!” I shudder at the memory of that man on top of me.

“Which you should feel,” Ryder says. He reaches a hand out like he wants to touch me, and for a second I want him to. Even though I should know better. I take a half-step back, and he drops his hand. “But you know more’s going on here. I need to stay, to protect you. I want to.”

“No! Nothing’s going on here except a really weird night. Which I want to end as soon as possible. Okay?” I know I look pissed off right now, and I feel a little bit bad about that. For all I know Ryder is a decent guy.

He sighs and looks disappointed. “This isn’t a good idea, Hannah. You know that as well as I do.”

“Good night, Ryder,” I say, loudly enough for April to hear. “Get home safely.”

“Hannah,” he says again, and the quiet pain in his voice catches me off guard. He stares at me with those dark brown eyes, and I can’t help but gaze back for a few seconds. Then I catch myself and groan.

“Good night!” I repeat and slam the door, thankful that the damage looks worse than it actually is and the lock still works.

I walk back to the other room. April’s sitting on the couch, and I drop down near her. “Some night, huh?” I ask, trying to sound casual.

But April’s not buying it. “What’s going on?” she asks.

“What do you mean?” I respond, and she lets out an impatient huff.

“Come on, Hannah. We’re better friends than that. This guy, Ryder.” She manages to imbue the two syllables of his name with about five syllables of disgust. I’m impressed and almost laugh. “You want to know about our date?”

“Sure.”

“It was awful! He sits there like a rock for practically the entire night. I have to do all the talking. Otherwise, we just would’ve sat there in pathetic silence. I ask him about himself and it’s like I was torturing him. That’s not even the worst part, though.”

“Oh, yeah?” I’m trying to reconcile that version of Ryder with the man who burst into my apartment. Who saved me, I now realize. I shiver a little bit, just thinking about him pulling that man off me. I hope April didn’t notice.

“He freakin’ breaks a glass!” she says, oblivious to my distraction. “Just shatters it, right at the table. Then like two seconds later he runs out of the bar.”

“Whoa, that is weird,” I say, trying to sound sympathetic. “Maybe he hurt himself?”

“He said he was fine. That he just had to go,” she says, shaking her head. “And he was, like, talking through gritted teeth with his lips mostly closed. So incredibly weird.” April looks at me, her eyes narrowing. “And then I find him here.”

“I really don’t know how to explain that,” I say honestly.

“Did you let him in?” she asks.

I hesitate, not sure if I should get into everything with April. It’s not that I don’t trust her. I do, implicitly. But she doesn’t know everything I do about wolf shifters, and I haven’t even begun to process it. If I can’t explain to myself what happened, I don’t know how I’ll explain it to her.

But there’s another reason I don’t want to tell her. It’s because I can’t shake the conviction in Ryder’s voice when he said he wanted to stay, to protect me. I still don’t believe him, but somehow, I know he believes it.

So, I lie. “Yeah,” I say. “He told me who he was and said he wanted to apologize to you.”

April wrinkles her nose in confusion. “Why didn’t he just come back to the bar, then?”

“I-I don’t know,” I stammer. “Maybe he thought you’d left too?”

“Okay,” she says doubtfully. “But I didn’t tell him where I lived, Hannah. So, how’d he know to come here?”

Her words make me sit up straight. I hadn’t thought about that until right now either.

April didn’t tell Ryder where she lived. Which meant he didn’t know where I lived.

April didn’t know I was in trouble. So, there was no way that she would have told Ryder I needed help. Yet somehow Ryder had shown up in my home at the exact moment I needed help.

How did he know where to find me?

A shiver runs down my body as his words echo in my head. I felt you.

Did he? Or is something more at play?