Technical Threat (Westin Force #4) - Julie Trettel Page 0,33

and go hide in the kitchen. I was fully aware that the mysterious man in booth five was watching me. His intense scrutiny was unnerving, and yet, my fox was happy with the attention. It was an odd sensation.

Normally I didn’t feel or communicate a ton with my fox except when I needed to shift. It wasn’t something I did often. There were safe places in the area to go to for run, but it still made me feel vulnerable to do it. Living amongst so many humans made me skittish to spend time in my fur.

His laughter rang out across the room and while I’d tried desperately not to look at him or even look in his general direction, I turned to see what was so funny.

He was still sitting there with the older woman that I assumed was his grandmother. She was knitting and he had a laptop opened and appeared to be working, though I was acutely aware he had been doing more staring at me than actual work.

I wondered what he did, and where he came from. Why was he even here? It wasn’t like Womack was a big metropolis or even a common route for passing through this part of Idaho. What had brought him here?

I was still nervous and more than a little freaked out by Sage’s visions. “Your true mate,” she’d said. I didn’t think such a thing actually existed.

Mate, my fox wailed in my head not for the first time.

I gulped. Was that why she kept telling me that? It wasn’t like my mother had ever explained such things to me. I couldn’t deny my attraction and interest though. It was crazy.

I knew he would inevitably be leaving soon though and I’d never see him again, so there was no point in even entertaining the idea. He was nothing more than a blip in time, a distraction on a day I could use it the most. Nothing more.

He got up and stalked over to me. I felt like prey and he was the hunter. I was trapped by his stare.

“Hi. I’m Tarron,” he said, offering me his hand.

“Susan,” I managed in a breathy voice.

I took his hand, and a slight gasp left my lips. There was a warm shocking sensation that shot up my arm and straight to the juncture between my thighs at his touch.

His eyes widened and he gulped hard.

“You do know who I am, right?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to say no, but nothing came out.

The front door opened, and Sage walked in. She came up to us and stopped as she looked from me to Tarron and back again. Then she grinned.

“I knew it,” she blurted out breaking the spell he’d had me under.

I turned to her with a frown as I dropped his hand. I immediately missed the warmth and comfort of it.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Don’t harass my customers, Sage. Go home.”

“Mom’s back, so not a chance,” she said before turning her full attention to him. “So, you’re Susan’s true mate, huh?”

His face showed surprise and he looked at me with a hint of humor in his eyes.

I sucked in a breath and held it waiting to see if he responded. I didn’t even know if he was a shifter and she just blurted something like that out? I was going to kill her.

“I am. And you are?”

My mouth went dry, and my breath caught. I started coughing. “Water,” I managed.

Sapphire came running over with a glass. I took sips of it trying to regain some dignity. How could he just say that? We had just met. I didn’t even know him, only his name.

“Are you okay?” Sapphire asked.

I managed to nod.

“I saw you coming from a mile away, you know?” Sage told him.

“Sage, enough.”

He looked curious. “Are you a witch?” he asked.

“Can we take this conversation somewhere else?” Sapphire asked as she shooed us all out of the front door and around the corner of the building. “There are humans in there. You can’t just openly talk about something like that here,” she scolded Tarron before she stomped back into the café. “Fill me in later, some of us actually have work to do,” she said sarcastically.

“Sorry about that,” Tarron said. “I shouldn’t have been so blunt.”

“No, blunt’s good,” Sage assured him. “But I’m not a witch.”

“You said you saw me coming.”

Sage blushed. “It was just a figure of speech.”

“I don’t think so. You actually saw me coming, like in a vision or something,