Page 70 of Night Grove Falls, Midnight Haven Volume Two

I chew on my bottom lip. I don’t know the town that well. Taylor and I have been here twice to shop for clothes.

“How about there?” I ask, pointing at a diner across the street.

“Sounds good.”

We cross the street and enter the diner. I let Cooper choose where to sit, and we slide into a booth. I scan the menu he passes me, my stomach growling and my mouth watering as I look over the options.

“What looks good?”

“Everything,” I say honestly.

“We can get one of everything.”

I look up at him in shock. “What? No, that’s way too much food!”

He shrugs. “I’m hungry.”

I shake my head at him as the server comes to take our drink order.

“Just water for me,” Cooper says.

I nod. “Me too.”

I decide on the burger and fries, and Cooper orders the same. I slip the menu back behind the napkin holder and lean across the table toward him.

“Is she a shifter too?” I whisper.

He smiles, leaning closer to me. “Yeah.”

“What about them?” I ask, nodding to a couple across the diner.

Cooper turns to see who I’m looking at, then nods. “Yep.”

“Is there a way to tell?”

He shakes his head and stands, sliding into the booth next to me. “Easier to talk this way.”

I laugh. “You just like being next to me.”

“Yeah, there’s that too.”

“So, there’s no way to tell if someone is a shifter?”

“No, not unless they shift. Or if you have a good sense of smell. That’s how I can tell.”

“You can smell them? Their animal?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that weird?”

He lifts a shoulder. “I’ve never known any different.”

“What’s it like to shift? Does it hurt?”

“No. I mean, it’s a little uncomfortable, but it happens fast. The discomfort is there and gone in a second.”

“That’s cool. I wish I was a shifter.”