Sixteen

I screamed and skidded backward, toward the stairs.

Through the glass door, I watched as a human body came running toward us, from off to the side of the wolf. It was a guy his hands in the air, his body completely naked.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I recognized Elliot Smiley.

"It's Ford," he yelled through the door. "The wolf is Ford." He pointed over his shoulder. "We shift at night a lot. Lock your doors and Jesse will calm down!"

I let out a shaky breath and nodded.

Ford had warned me to lock the doors at night... I guess that was why. I couldn't remember unlocking most of them, but knew one or two were open.

I checked the back door as Elliot ran off into the darkness again. That one was already locked.

Making my way around the townhouse, I locked every damn door. When the lock clicked on the garage door, the last one, and the only one that hadn’t already been locked, Jesse relaxed instantly.

How the hell had he known the garage door wasn’t locked?

And why did he care?

Sure, he wanted to protect me, but he had to have realized that the guys outside were his buddies. And it wasn't like they were attacking his house or anything.

"Werewolves are so weird," I mumbled, making my way back to the couch. I needed to study, but I needed to sleep and heal too. My test the next day would be a rough one, but it wasn’t for one of my hardest classes, so I hoped I’d do okay enough.

Too tired for my responsible side to win out, I curled back up on the couch and fell asleep in seconds.

The next few weeks passed by quickly, with me and Jesse falling into a pattern.

He growled at me for not eating on the way to school, and I ignored him in favor of saving money. I avoided attractive men or men who seemed attracted to me like they were the damn coronavirus, and he didn’t attack anyone. We studied together, slept cuddled together, and even bathed together when he started to smell and I threatened to get him neutered if he didn't.

He did start to feel like a pet wolf.

...A possessive pet wolf.

Honestly, he was the perfect companion. I wasn't someone who required much social interaction to get by, and I got what I needed at school and then had a buddy to hang with at home.

After a month, I decided I was tired of sleeping on the couch.

I was going to move in. Since we couldn't be apart after I became a werewolf (which I'd decided unfortunately did have to happen, since I wasn't ready to die) I dragged a chair to the fridge and grabbed Jesse's envelope of cash.

"I'm only spending this money on the bare minimum furniture," I warned Jesse the wolf. He was used to me talking to him like he was a person, and responding like he was a person.

He tilted his head at me, his version of a shrug. He didn't care what I did with Human Jesse's cash.

"Seriously. This is Jesse's money, not mine. But I need a bed, and I'm not sleeping in Jesse's," I continued. "Even if I wash the sheets, that'll feel like accepting this prisoner-bride thing we've got going on. And I am not a prisoner bride."

The wolf snorted.

He didn't understand.

"Bare minimum, I swear." I wagged a finger at him. "Come on. I bet this town has a thrift shop."

I looked up directions and found out it did.

But... I'd need a truck.

I glanced over at Jesse's phone, sitting on the kitchen counter where it had been since I'd last used it to call Rocco with another wolf question the week before.

With a sigh, I walked over to it. Rocco was the easiest of the pack members to deal with, as far as I'd learned, though Ford was a close second. But I still hadn't gone over to eat dinner with them, despite their many invitations, so I didn't know them.

Rocco answered on the first ring. "Jesse?"

"Nope, still Tea. The wolf and I have an agreement, remember?" My hip rested against the kitchen counter.

"No one thinks he's going to stick to that. It's not much of a hunt if you set the terms," he reminded me.

"Well, you're not him. Anyway, do you have a truck?"

There was a long pause.

"I'm going to take that as a yes," I said. "Can I borrow it, or can you take me to the thrift store over on..." I glanced down at the location on my phone. "Grape Street? Seriously? Who names a street 'Grape'?"

Rocco let out a long sigh. "I don't know about that."

"Come on. I'll bring you..." I glanced at my fridge. The freezer was still fairly full, but I was on careful rations which meant I often skipped meals, much to Wolf Jesse’s anger. I was still surviving, though. "A happy wolf friend."

A happy wolf friend? Seriously? That was what I came up with.

Rocco barked out a laugh. "If I come, I'll have to bring one of the other guys with me."

"I know because you're afraid of my sexy lips and boobs. I'm quite seductive," I drawled.

"Not afraid, per se..."

"Bring whoever you want. I'm just tired of sleeping on a couch, so I need to buy a bed."

Rocco made a noise of disagreement. "You can't buy a mattress from a secondhand store, Tea. That's disgusting."

"Says the guy who turns into a wolf and has probably eaten poor innocent squirrels," I shot back.

"That's different.”

Squirrel eating: another thing to add to the list of cons of becoming a werewolf.

"Is it, though?" I countered.

"It is. I'll take you wherever you want to go, but I'm not hauling a thrift store bed back to Jesse's place for you. He’d skin me alive."

I sighed. "Fine. We'll stop at a mattress store too."

I'd seen new mattresses at some thrift stores before, so I was crossing my fingers that the one in Moon Ridge sold them too. If I was going to spend Jesse's money, I was going to spend as little of it as possible.

"Alright. I'll grab one of the other guys and meet you in front of your place in ten minutes."

Well, that was service at its best and fastest.

I hung up, glancing down at my outfit. Shorts and a three-quarter sleeve top... not too sexy. I didn't want to scare my ride off, so that would do.

Putting on my shoes, I opened the cash envelope and stared inside.

So much money.

I pulled out two hundred-dollar bills and then put the envelope back. Taking Jesse's cash made me feel like shit, but I didn't have another option since I wasn't going to share a bed with him after he shifted back to human form.

Grabbing my bag, I headed outside as Rocco pulled his truck up in front of Jesse's house. I opened the door for my wolf, then followed him up onto the bench-style back seat after I tugged the door open for him.

I buckled myself in, and then Jesse's head landed right on my thigh just like usual.

"Hey," Rocco turned to shoot me a grin. "It's been a minute."

"Or a month.”

"You sure do like to argue," he remarked.

"It's one of my best qualities," I agreed. "Hopefully I'm skilled enough at it to keep your friend away when he's back in human form and horny as shit."

Both guys laughed. I couldn't remember the second guy's name, but he had longish blond hair and light skin, like Rocco. Their faces were different, so despite their similar coloring, I didn't think they were blood-related.

"Good luck with that. Jesse's sweet-talked his way out of two dozen speeding tickets since we were sixteen."

"Two dozen? How fast does he drive?" I shot an alarmed look at the wolf on my leg. He lifted his wolfy lips, flashing me a toothy grin. "And how old are you guys?"

"We're all twenty-two. Packs are put together based on when babies are born, so we've all got birthdays within three months," Rocco explained.

So twenty-four speeding tickets in six years? He was never driving me anywhere.

"What was your name again?" I asked the new guy.

"Dax." He nodded my way. "You should join us for dinner sometime. We'd all like to get to know you."

"And we're all missing Jesse," Rocco added.

"I'll try to send him over for dinner, then," I said, though I doubted I'd talk him into it. And I still wasn't sure I was ready for socializing with Jesse's kidnapping werewolf buds.

"He won't leave you," Dax warned me.

"Probably not," I agreed.

Rocco turned the radio on, so there was no awkward silence. My fingers stroked Jesse's ears. I'd gotten used to touching him; too used to it. I was going to go into withdrawal when I didn't have someone to cuddle with all the time.

And no, Jesse the man was not going to make my cuddle list. Currently, the only people on said list were Jesse the wolf, and my mom when she and I were both tipsy.

As far as my mom went, I’d told her that I adopted a dog and moved to a rental house. She thought I had a roommate to help me afford the place, and she thought I'd been promoted at the sandwich shop so I had the money.

I felt bad about lying to her, but I couldn't exactly tell her I was being hunted by a werewolf.

Rocco parked in front of the thrift store and glanced back at me. "What are we looking for?"

"Hopefully, a cheap mattress, dresser, and desk. I've got two hundred bucks to spend, so if I can't find a cheap enough mattress, I'll just keep living out of my suitcases and buy the cheapest thing the mattress store has."

Both guys turned to look at me.

"You found Jesse's cash stash, right?" Dax looked concerned. "If money's a problem, we can—"

"I found his cash. I'm not going to spend it unless I don't have another option. Two hundred is plenty." My voice was firm.

Rocco's eyebrows knitted together. "He wants you to spend the money, Tea. That's why it's there. Giving our mates something makes us feel less shitty about ruining their lives."

"Well if he wants to feel less shitty about that, he'll have to find some other way to make it up to me." I reached for the door.

Rocco hit the button to lock it. "That's not gonna fly." He hit a button on his phone and lifted it to his ear. I frowned when there was a short pause, but then he spoke into the phone. "Hey, Mama Yates.” Another pause. “No, Jesse's fine. Yep, he and Teagan are right here." He glanced at me.

Mama Yates? That wasn't Rocco's mom, but it couldn't be Jesse's...

Could it?

I looked at the wolf. His ears were perked up, listening.

"Do you still have Jesse's old mattress? Tea's been sleeping on a couch, and she's not willing to spend Jesse's cash or sleep in his current bed."

Shit.

It was Jesse's mom.

Rocco chuckled. "Yep. We'll be right over. Thanks." He hung up and looked at me. "It's your lucky day. We found you a bed, and it’s free."

"You are not taking me to Jesse's mother's house," I warned.

"Yes, I am." He pulled out of the thrift store's parking lot and pulled back onto Grape Road.