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“H-hi, miss. How can I help you?”
“You can call me Ember,” I said. “And I’d like my usual.”
“Your usual?” Carl asked, his cheeks turning red. “Banana bread?”
“You know it already,” I hummed, leaning forward slightly in a measly attempt to flirt. Sure, it might’ve been wrong because I had no intentions of dating anyone right now. There was no point in it anyway. But I enjoyed the attention. “Two slices of banana bread, and let’s do … a Caramel Craze too.”
“For here?” he asked, eyeing my stuff at the table.
“Yep. Gonna spend the whole day with you. You’ll be sick of me by the time I’m gone.”
Carl gave a small laugh, but I could tell he didn’t really get my joke.
After he made my drink and handed me my bread on a tray, I returned to the table and began to paint my pain away. I hated thinking about death and dying, but Pavel was basically shoving it down my throat at this point by moving us here.
My brush danced along the canvas, the strokes lighter than the tears in my eyes. Halfway into drawing the wolf I had seen in my dreams last night, I blinked my tears away and opened my laptop to see if anyone had commissioned any custom artwork on my website.
I broke away a piece of banana bread and popped it into my mouth. I didn’t get many orders, but I loved seeing people’s reactions when they received my paintings in the mail. It was the only thing keeping me going some days.
“Wow,” someone whispered behind me.
I jerked up in surprise, spattering some black paint across the canvas, and looked over my shoulder to see a girl about my age with shoulder-length brown hair standing over me and staring at the painting I had just screwed up.
“It’s so pretty.”
After giving her a half smile because I had just ruined it, I nodded. “Thank you.”
She placed her coffee across from me and sat down without me giving her permission. But I guessed this was a public coffee shop, so I couldn’t really complain about it. I set down my brush and sipped the Caramel Craze, looking at her.
Wasn’t she with Mr. Drama Queen yesterday? Maybe she’s a wolf too.
I shook my head and stifled a laugh. A wolf?! That was a hallucination.
There were no such things as men or women turning into wolves. The brute strength, the mating, the claws and teeth and marking. Those were all things of horny women’s fantasies. Not real life, and I would stand by that.
“I’m Hazel.” She extended her hand. “What’s your name?”
“Ember,” I said, glancing around to see people looking over at us now.
“Wanna hang out?”
“What?” I asked, surely having heard her wrong.
“It’ll be fun!” she exclaimed with a grin. “So many people are wondering about you.”
My eyes widened. “About me?”
“The new pretty girl in the neighborhood.”
Cheeks now burning, I stifled another laugh. “Oh, I’m sure …”
She giggled and leaned across the table. “My brother thinks so.”
“Your brother?” I asked.
“You know that big, scary guy from yesterday? The one with the mood swings.”
I shot my brows up. “He’s your brother?” And he’s been thinking about me?
