Page 3 of The Artsy Girl’s Guide to Mating with a Werewolf (Mate Hunted #2)

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STELLA

It took me less than an hour to realize that Graham was my ex’s polar opposite.

Where my ex was full of himself, Graham wasn’t afraid to admit that he had no idea what was going on, and he wasn’t trying to pretend he had his shit together.

He clearly didn’t.

The guy was kind of a mess.

Then again, it sounded like his first mate had rejected him because she was only attracted to women. That would’ve been rough for anyone. He had been expecting to have a second mate even less than I had, and now he was being hunted by a woman.

Given the situation, being a mess was actually kind of logical.

But the way he’d reached out to multiple different people in an attempt to figure out exactly how things were going to go between us seemed like a good sign. He wasn’t losing his shit, and he was clearly making my wolf all sorts of happy with how he was petting her.

She was so suspicious after everything with my ex that I’d figured her intensity would bug him. So far, he was just kind of rolling with it.

That was different.

Graham’s phone lit up with another message.

Nico:

Abby says Stella needs to be back at work by next Tuesday morning, so if you can, try to convince her wolf to hunt fast

My wolf growled at the device.

She was going to do whatever she wanted, consequences be damned.

Graham’s reply to the text calmed her down immediately.

Graham:

She’s a wolf. She’s going to take as long as she needs to decide. Is there anyone I can contact to try to protect her job?

Nico:

She’d need a doctor’s note to get more than a few extra days off

She teaches art classes at the university for the benefits, but she also sells paintings online. Abby’s not sure what will happen with Stella’s business if she disappears. She can call their friend Jade to see if she can help, but Jade doesn’t know about werewolves

Graham:

If telling her could save Stella’s job and business, I’ll do it

Nico:

Let’s see if she decides to bite you soon first.

Graham sent a thumbs-up.

My wolf—Furball—snuggled up to Graham a little more.

She’d come around way too fast, and didn’t seem to have any problem with being practically on top of the guy.

I didn’t think she was going to be in any hurry to bite him, though.

Not after what we’d been through with my ex.

Graham put his phone down again and sat on the floor, just petting my wolf, until someone knocked on his front door ten or fifteen minutes later.

“It’s one of the guys,” he told my wolf, when she growled at the door. “My packmates. They’re pains in my ass, but they’re decent guys.”

She huffed, rising on all fours and shaking out her fur. Graham’s lips curved slightly.

“You want to meet them? Their reactions will probably be even worse than mine.”

Furball nodded emphatically.

“Alright.” Graham stood up. His pajama pants were ridiculous, but he didn’t seem insecure about them.

That didn’t surprise me.

In general, werewolves were pretty confident. That probably came with knowing how attractive they were to human women.

My wolf walked to the door in front of him, wanting to be between him and whoever was outside. It seemed safe to guess that she was still being possessive of him, but I didn’t know why she’d be worried about his pack.

Graham pulled the door open for her, and she glared up at the dude on her mate’s doorstep.

His hair was golden, and his skin was too. He was just as big as Graham, but he was wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

His eyebrows shot upward when he saw me. “Fuck. Nico wasn’t kidding.”

“Does he ever?” Graham’s hand brushed my wolf’s side, and she leaned a little closer to him. “Furball, this is Ethan. Ethan, meet Stella’s wolf.”

“Can’t say I saw this coming.”

“I don’t think any of us did,” Graham agreed. “I’m going to head to Stella’s apartment to see what I can figure out about her business. Can you hold down the fort while I’m gone?”

“I do that anyway.” Ethan grinned, but the expression didn’t meet his eyes. “Good luck, Graham Cracker.”

“Thanks.”

He saluted my wolf before walking into the forest.

Graham closed the door, mussing the fur on my wolf’s head enough to make her snort. “Let me find some pants, and we’ll head out.”

She followed him into his room, then into his closet.

His expression was knowing when he looked over his shoulder after grabbing a pair of black sweats. “If you’re trying to make your human attracted to me, I can vouch that it won’t work unless she already is.”

My wolf snorted.

He dropped his pajama pants, revealing a perfect, bubble-shaped ass.

Furball didn’t have to do a damn thing to make me attracted to him. I already was, whether I liked it or not.

But… did he not sleep in underwear?

He stepped into a pair of boxers, followed by his sweats. A t-shirt went on afterward. The small selection of them that hung in the closet told me he didn’t wear them often.

Graham threw a few more pairs of clothes in a backpack, followed by another pair of pajamas—these ones had pizza slices on them—before he led my wolf out to my truck.

It was still sitting on the side of the road with the engine running and the keys in the ignition.

Graham opened the passenger door for Furball, waiting until she was inside the vehicle before closing it and walking around to the driver’s side. He seemed much more at ease now than he had been earlier, and turned up the music playing on the radio before he started to pull away.

My phone vibrated, temporarily quieting the music, and Graham shot Furball a curious look.

“Think your human would care if I snooped?”

She shook her head.

I rolled my eyes inwardly.

Of course I would care if he snooped.

He grabbed my phone, holding it low enough for me to read it through the wolf’s eyes.

Maya:

Hello? Are you still alive? Did the wolves eat you?

If I’d been human, I would’ve grimaced.

She was going to be pissed when she accidentally gave away what she was to someone in the feral pack.

Graham’s gaze was curious as he looked back at me. “Another one of your friends knows about werewolves?”

My wolf dropped her front legs over the middle console and rested her head on them, not answering.

At least she could respect that it was Maya’s secret to tell.

“Looks like you have another text. This one’s from Jade. She’s asking about hiking.” Graham gave Furball another look. “Should I pretend to be you and turn her down?”

Furball didn’t so much as blink in an attempt to help him.

He was on his own.

“I’ll just leave it.” He set my phone back down in the cup holder and pulled away from his house.

My friends were absolutely going to come to my place when I didn’t respond. Outside of Maya, I didn’t have a freaking clue how they were going to react upon finding me missing. Or to discovering a gorgeous, gigantic guy sitting in my house with an oversized wolf.