suggested. “Maybe offer to strike a deal since they keep selling knock offs?”
“No,” Frances replied. “She’s just a worker there, I think. They’d probably send someone from their head office.”
“Thoughts?” I asked, and then Johnathan spoke up.
“You guys down with stalking?” he asked.
“Sure,” I replied like it was a casual decision. He did have a good point when it came to protecting the rest of the shifters. If he abused her and she had a reason to complain, it could spell trouble for all shifters. The news would start in town, which was our territory, and would, therefore, affect us first. After that, it would spread, and everyone in the world would be affected. “I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Frances said with a grin. He finished his beer and settled back. I signaled for the check and started to formulate a plan in my mind. I didn’t know how this was going to turn out, but I was interested to see where it went. There was something about the way she looked at me that made me want to know more about her. How had this woman been hiding under my nose this whole time? Who was she? Was she in love with him? Was she married to him?
The actual question I was interested in answering was whether she would be interested in me.
Chapter Five
Jenny
I knew I was in trouble. I could see the way Matthew was glaring at me, and I could see the anger boiling up inside of him.
“Don’t think about those guys anymore,” I said. “They don’t matter.”
“Do you know who they were?” he asked, and I shook my head. I was pretty sure that he did not want to know that I thought they were incredibly hot.
“Nope,” I replied when he stared at me and wanted a more verbal answer. Sometimes, a head shake was not enough. I wondered if that was the wolf in him, unable to understand things that he could not hear. “Who were they?”
“They were those asshole bear brothers who own the Ursa Ranch,” he said. “Can you believe how they were acting? I swear, if I ever see them again, I’m going to rip them from limb to limb. And I bet you thought they were so hot, didn’t you?”
“I, uh…” I paused. “No. No, I didn’t. Of course not.”
He stared me down, and I hoped that I had a good poker face.
“Babe, I’m all yours,” I said, and he growled at me.
“You can sleep on the couch tonight,” he said and stormed off towards the bedroom. I’m sure other women would have thought that was terrible treatment, but I was just glad that he hadn’t hit me or worse.
If I were a normal woman, I would have had a friend I could text or something. I would have been crying to my best friend while continuing to fake a smile for my boyfriend.
There was no friend. There was no best friend. I was completely alone.
I counted myself lucky that Matthew basically left me alone for the night. I had no idea what he found in the bedroom, but I was just glad that he didn’t talk to me. When I went into work the next morning, though, I must have looked like a train wreck.
“You OK?” one of my colleagues, Sarah, asked me. Sarah and I had never spoken outside of work, but she was probably the closest thing I had to a friend.
“Oh yeah,” I replied with a shrug. “Totally fine.”
She gave me an odd look.
“You look like you didn’t sleep much,” she replied. “Did you have a fight with your boyfriend or something?”
“No,” I said, even though that was completely true. I wished that I could break down and tell her everything, but I was paranoid that Matthew had spies everywhere. “No, everything is great.”
“OK,” she said as I took my place behind the cash register. “Just let me know if you want to talk.”
I wished that I could talk. I wished that I could tell her that I was in a terrible relationship with a wolf shifter and I wanted to get out, but I didn’t know how. She probably didn’t know what a wolf shifter was, and if she did, she would be horrified. I couldn’t tell her, even if I wanted to, because there was also the wolf council to consider.
I wished someone had told me how isolated this life would be when I hooked up with Matthew. If