Page 6 of The Bookish Girl’s Guide to Mating with a Werewolf (Mate Hunted #1)

five

ABBY

A wolf took over my body.

An actual freaking wolf.

I was officially living in a paranormal romance book, and I wasn’t sure I was entirely here for it.

I mean, minus the gorgeous giant with an oversized erection sitting beneath me. Err, beneath the wolf. I was here for that.

He was scratching my wolf’s fur, telling her she was beautiful and strong.

I probably shouldn’t have taken it like he was complimenting me , but I did.

I was the one who’d felt an insane amount of pain to get through the shift, after all.

Cucumber eventually turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. He dried my wolf—much to her excitement—before slinging a towel around his hips and leading her out of the bathroom.

Her jaws parted in a wide yawn as she followed him across the apartment and into the bedroom.

“Your human didn’t sleep last night,” Nico told the wolf. “Even if you don’t want to shift back yet, you should get some rest.”

He pulled the blankets back as he approached the mattress, and she hopped smoothly up onto the bed. When she plopped down where his wolf had slept earlier, she sniffed the blankets and made a sound that could only have been approval.

He did smell kind of nice.

I couldn’t smell him through the wolf that had possessed me, but I’d noticed it when I fell asleep with the furry beast the night before. I’d been pretty sure it was weird to think a wolf smelled good, so I hadn’t acknowledged it, but there was no way around noticing.

Rather than walking away or leaving the apartment, Cucumber remained standing next to my bed.

He almost looked uncertain.

I must’ve been imagining that, because there was no world in which a man that big, muscular, and attractive would’ve been unsure about anything.

The wolf noticed, and gestured with her head.

She wanted him to get under the blankets with her.

“I don’t know if your human will want me in her bed,” Nico explained. “I don’t want to make her any more uncomfortable.”

Well, that was sweet.

Or sweet ish , at least.

I kind of did want him in my bed. Purely for physical reasons. Not that I would’ve ever admitted it if I wasn’t covered in fur.

But maybe that was the sleep deprivation speaking too. Or the lingering horniness from sitting naked on his lap in the shower, only inches away from the world’s most perfect erection. I’d been in an extreme amount of pain, but even that hadn’t distracted me from the reality of my position.

I had never expected to end up in a situation like that.

Definitely not with a man who looked like him.

I’d always expected to end up with a cute nerd of some kind. I’d never really cared about muscles. Tall, Dark, and Sexy as Fuck wasn’t even a blip on the radar. I didn’t even look at guys like Nico, unless you counted looking at fanart from my favorite fantasy and paranormal romance books.

But after sitting on the nicest lap on the planet, I was rewriting my expectations.

Quickly.

My wolf snorted at the idea that I wouldn’t want him in my bed.

She was pretty spot on.

Cucumber still didn’t move, though. His expression was so neutral that I couldn’t see the indecision in his eyes or anything, but the vibes were definitely there.

He really was unsure.

Apparently men who looked like gods could still have self-doubt. Who knew?

My wolf growled at him. The sound was more cute than threatening.

“I’ll wash the sheets for her after you shift back, if she’s not comfortable with it,” Nico finally said. He reached for the towel wrapped around him, then hesitated again.

I would laugh if he climbed into my bed with a towel on. Legitimately, laugh. He couldn’t be that worried about making me uncomfortable. He’d probably hooked up with more women than I even wanted to know about, so there was no way he wasn’t used to sleeping in a stranger’s bed.

Instead of pulling the towel off, he rolled it tighter around his waist. Then lowered himself to the mattress.

My humor faded before disappearing entirely.

He really was worried about making me uncomfortable.

Why was he?

It obviously had to do with the mate thing… but in every werewolf book I’d read, having a soulmate guaranteed insta-love. I’d be obsessively in love with him by the morning, if those books were right.

Were they right?

He wasn’t acting like they were.

They didn’t seem like they were.

How was this entire situation going to go with him, if there was no guaranteed love?

We seriously needed to have a conversation.

I really needed him to get my wolf to shift back, too, because I was supposed to be at work in the morning. My early class was the worst possible timeslot the school offered—6:30 AM.

Which was the reason my hair was never done for work, and I wore the absolute minimum makeup.

Teaching online sounded better every freaking time I went to work. The semester had just started a few weeks ago, and I was already ready for it to be over.

Switching to online probably wasn’t the best thing for my career, but it would be good for my soul. And my sleep.

My wolf yawned again, then snuggled right up next to Cucumber. When she poked his chiseled arm with her nose, he lifted it for her, and she draped her head and chest over his body.

He scratched her fur lightly, and she fell asleep so quickly, I don’t think she even had the chance to enjoy being cuddled up with him.

That was probably my fault.

Or the werewolf book’s.

Yeah, I was totally blaming it on the book.