Page 1 of The Bookish Girl’s Guide to Mating with a Werewolf (Mate Hunted #1)

one

ABBY

I untucked my tangled, auburn hair from behind my shoulders before stepping through the grocery store’s sliding doors. The store had just opened a few minutes earlier, and there were enough cars in the parking lot that I hoped I could find what I was looking for.

A werewolf.

I knew it was insane to even be looking, but curiosity had finally gotten the best of me.

Werewolves were kind of an urban legend at the university where I taught English. Students, professors, and other people living in town all joked about the werewolves in Moon Ridge, the next town over. The drive wasn’t long—forty-five minutes to an hour, depending on your comfort with dirt roads.

It had taken me the full hour.

Not that I had anything against the forest. It was beautiful to look at.

Fall had hit full-force a few weeks ago, so there were orange and red leaves everywhere, making everything absolutely stunning.

I just wasn’t a huge fan of dirt.

Anyway, I’d made a truly questionable decision to stay up all night reading an extremely spicy werewolf book on my Kindle. After a full hour of sleep to recharge, I’d gotten in my car and taken the dirt roads all the way to Moon Ridge.

At twenty-eight years old, I really should’ve known better. I was a full-on grownup. I had the degrees. The career. The niceish apartment. The reliable little car. The friend group. The massive library both on my shelves and on my Kindle.

Life was good.

There was no reason for me to be searching for werewolves in a grocery store instead of sleeping in and meeting my friends for brunch at the pancake place we liked in town.

But I was there anyway.

Making questionable decisions.

I’d blame the smutty romance books, but I loved them too much.

My eyes swept the inside of the grocery store. My baggy sweats and loose tank top weren’t completely socially acceptable, but I was too tired to care. Mornings and I weren’t friends.

And hey, I put a bra on and ran my fingers through my hair before leaving my apartment. That was plenty of effort.

The store was emptier than I’d expected.

There was one cashier leaning against the edge of her checkout booth while scrolling on her phone. She didn’t look like a werewolf. Not that I knew what a werewolf looked like.

Otherwise, I only saw a few people spread out between the aisles I could see.

I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time.

9:09 AM.

Where was everyone?

The cashier glanced up from her phone. I quickly stepped toward the carts and pulled one out, so she wouldn’t be suspicious.

I started walking toward the produce section, my phone tucked awkwardly between my thumb and the forefinger I had wrapped around the cart’s handle. When I peeked over my shoulder, she was on her phone again.

Crisis averted.

Phew.

I only made it a few feet into the produce section before a couple rounded the corner of an aisle. They were holding hands while he pushed their cart, and looked adorable together. He was tan and had messy, golden hair cropped close to his head. She was a pale, pretty blonde.

I froze.

The woman was a normal size. Around my age, maybe. But her partner was gigantic. Built like a football player, or bigger.

If someone was going to be a werewolf, they would look like him.

The couple looked in my direction, and I looked down.

Don’t make eye contact.

Keep moving.

He could just be a football player. Or a gym rat. Or a construction worker. There was no reason he couldn’t. Right?

But if he was a werewolf, he probably wasn’t the only one.

Now that I was thinking about it, there was a possibility that they could be dangerous.

Maybe coming to Moon Ridge was an even worse idea than I’d realized.

I parked my cart next to the cucumbers and sent a quick text to my closest friend.

Our university was piloting a program where they hired a set number of younger-than-average professors, so the few of us who were women around thirty had been drawn to each other.

The majority of the other professors were much older than us, which made it a little harder to connect on a friendly level.

Anyway, we had a whole group chat going on, but I wasn’t about to tell all of them that I’d been insane enough to go hunting for a werewolf in my horny, sleep-deprived state.

That information was strictly for the friend I trusted and talked to the most.

Me

I did something stupid

Jade

You read another dark romance book?

Last time you did that, you were weird for like two days

Me

In my defense, books affect me very strongly

But no

This is stupider

Jade

***

Me

I was up all night reading about werewolves

Jade

Oh dear lord

The sexy kind?

Me

All werewolves are sexy

Jade

Only in your furry romances

Me

That’s an entirely different kink, and not what these books are about at all

Jade

But it WAS the sexy kind

Me

Yes

I had what seemed like a genius idea at 6 AM after finishing the book

Jade

Please no

Me

I took a power nap and drove out to Moon Ridge to find a werewolf of my own

Now I’m in the grocery store and I think I found one

Maybe

Jade

WTF ABBY

I thought you were going to say something that was actually serious

Moon Ridge isn’t actually full of werewolves. That’s just a joke

Me

Unless it’s not

Jade

It is

“Excuse me. I need to grab a cucumber,” a low, masculine voice said.

My attention jerked away from my phone, and over to the produce next to me.

I was blocking the cucumbers.

Right.

Crap.

“Sorry.” I moved my cart hastily.

“No worries,” the guy said. His voice was smooth.

When I looked up at him, I found a gorgeous man with insanely thick muscles and dark brown skin.

He was just as big as the dude half of the couple I’d seen earlier.

His curls were smooth on top of his head, his hair shaved on the sides, and his eyes were on the cucumbers.

Not me. He’d barely noticed my presence.

“Are you texting your mate or something?” he asked.

“My what ?”

He’d said mate. That had to be short for soulmate, right?

Just like the werewolf book.

Just like every werewolf book.

HOLY SHIT.

His forehead creased, and his nostrils flared.

His eyes changed, just slightly. “Never mind. Excuse me.” He grabbed a cucumber—which wasn’t a suggestive action, even though my sleep deprived brain tried to spin it that way—and strode away.

His legs were so long.

Stupidly long.

I could see the actual muscles in his thighs and ass flex as he walked deeper into the produce section.

My phone vibrated in my hand again, and I looked down.

Jade

I’ve worked with a bunch of guys in Moon Ridge before. There’s something in the water making them all bigger and stronger than most dudes, but they’re not werewolves

Me

One of them just asked if I was texting my mate

They’re totally shifters

Should I run?

I should, right?

Jade

He was messing with you

Me

He was serious!

Jade

You need to sleep

Go take a nap in your car or something

Me

I’m not joking

Jade

Neither am I

Me

I’ll get proof

Jade

OMG you’re insane

I tucked my phone into the pocket of my sweats and grabbed a cucumber of my own.

If I was going to find more proof to clear my name, I needed to act normal. Blend in. Be one of the pack or whatever.

A few more people moved around me in the produce section. Most of them were couples.

The pair that really caught my attention was a gigantic guy covered in ink who was shopping with a tiny woman who had unnaturally orange hair, and two kids.

One was a boy, probably around nine or ten.

The other was a little girl who looked half his age and was riding in the big part of the cart, surrounded by their groceries.

I listened closely as the family chatted while they walked, but none of them said anything about wolves.

No one else talked to me, not that I expected them to. Even in human stores, people mostly minded their own business.

I spent more than my fair share of time inspecting the fruit and vegetables I was going to buy, slowly choosing them at random.

Eventually, I accepted that I was going to have to go to the next aisle before someone grew suspicious.

My phone vibrated in my pocket as I pushed my cart around the corner. My attention went to the screen, just before my cart slammed into my ribs and a loud crashing noise echoed through the grocery store.

A pained groan escaped me. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve—” I began, but cut myself off when my gaze met a man’s.

The man from earlier.

With the giant muscles and the cucumber.

The moment his dark brown eyes met mine, his turned red .

I froze, my lips parting.

The man’s grip tightened on his shopping cart. His entire body tensed, all of his huge muscles flexing visibly.

His jaw clenched.

Every other part of him did too.

“Is everything okay over here?” an unfamiliar male voice asked.

My attention jerked to the man who was now beside the guy I ran into. He was almost as pale as I was, with dark hair that looked like he’d attempted to gel it into submission and failed.

He was looking between us, but the red-eyed man was laser-focused on me.

A sound tore through the air viciously.

It almost sounded like an animal.

Like a growl.

Holy shit.

I had actually found a werewolf.

My eyes went back to the cucumber guy.

He was gripping the shopping cart so hard, it almost looked like the metal was bending. His expression was neutral, but deadly.

“Wait, are you…” The guy next to the werewolf trailed off. He leaned over, like he was trying to look at Cucumber’s eyes. “Oh, fuck.”

He must’ve been a werewolf too.

Or at least he knew what was going on.

I looked at him again, and another sound tore through the air.

It was angrier. More savage. Almost like a snarl.

“Look at Nico,” the newcomer barked.

My gaze jerked back to the red-eyed wolf dude. He was still staring at me, and the shopping cart’s handle was definitely a little bent. His muscles looked even bigger somehow.

Nico must’ve been Cucumber Guy’s name.