Page 27 of Same Thing

She frowned at the screen.Yes. Send. She didn’t mean to sound so clipped, but she didn’t like the controlling stuff.

Sorry, I just worry. I want you to be safe.

That tracked. He really was a gentleman. At least he understood it was a bit much if he was apologizing.

She frowned and set the phone down on the coffee table, thinking. The screen lit up again.What are you wearing tonight?

Nory bent at the waist and picked the phone back up.A green dress.Send.

Send me a picture in it.

A few seconds passed as she read the text.

Please.

He would see it on her tonight, so why did he want a picture of it?

I want to make it my lockscreen. Please.

Okay, this felt weird. She set the phone back on the table and crossed her arms over her chest, staring at the screen asit faded to black. She didn’t recall Liam being pushy. Abrasive, perhaps, but not pushy.

He texted her again, and this time, it was an image. She opened it up and a wave of relief took her. It was a selfie of Liam out in some woods, giving the camera a smirk.

Okay. Okay. She could talk to him about the possessive werewolf behavior tonight, and the pushiness. None of this was a deal-breaker by any means.

You look very handsome today.She hovered her finger over the send button but chickened out and deleted it. She tried to think of something clever to say about his selfie, but nothing came to her frazzled mind, so she put a heart on the image instead.

A picture for a picture,he texted.I’ve missed seeing you.

I don’t send pictures like that to men.Send.

Come on. It’s just me. You’re mine. The faster you get comfortable with pictures, the better we will get along.

Okay, this slow anger was building inside of her and dredging up her stubborn side. She’d said no, so why was he pushing? And threatening that they wouldn’t get along if she didn’t send him pictures?

Liam was being mean. It was hurting her feelings that he wasn’t taking her boundaries seriously.

I’m going to hop in the shower now. She frowned at what she’d just written. He would probably say something inappropriate about that, so she deleted it, and set the phone down on the table again. She didn’t know why, but she wanted space from the conversation with him, so she left the phone in the living room while she went in to shower.

You’re mine.Those two words haunted her in the shower. He’d been so adamant about the werewolf rules, and how they couldn’t be anything but strangers, and now he was texting claiming words so flippantly?

She felt unsettled the entire time she was in the shower, and as she was rinsing conditioner out of her hair, something hit her.

Nory left the water running, left half the conditioner in her hair, and grabbed a towel, then dried her feet quickly on the bathmat and went straight for the phone. She poked the screen, and he had sent her a stack of messages.

Heart pounding, she opened her memory box and pulled out the coaster and flipped it over.

Her heart dropped to the floor. She checked the number just to make sure, but two of the numbers didn’t match.

Oh shit.

The room was spinning as so many things clicked into place that had bothered her.

This wasn’t Liam.

This wasn’t Liam at all.

This was someone pretending to be Liam.