Page 24 of Little Etheldreda Riding Hood

“Spinsterhood, Zach. That’s the era I’m in right now. Cats–I’d be collecting them if Darla didn’t already have so many.”

He nods. “Spinsterhood. Cats. Got it. I’m tracking.”

He smiles to himself as he continues down the road. Just being friendly, my ass. If I had to guess, he’s plotting as we speak.

But I’m not a wolf, I’m just a regular, boring human. Nothing special.

I know how this goes. He’s just thinking with his little brain at the moment. I’d be his lover until something better comes along, and then I’ll be right back where I started, left alone once again to pick up the pieces and pretend like my whole life wasn’t blown up.

I can’t do that again. I refuse to be surrounded by people who only have pity in their eyes for me. And I absolutely will not find myself staring into the hard eyes of a man I once thought was my forever.

Zach’s beautiful face passes from light to shadow and back again as his fancy truck passes under the lights of the highway. He catches me looking at him and grins, but I don’t smile back.

Chapter Ten

In Which Red Must Deal with Dr. Zach and Mr. Lamar

With the fire damage still being cleaned up at the Wild Hare, there aren’t any half-drunk bros or exhausted dancers and bouncers to serve, so the night is slow. It turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Soojin walks me through cooking everything on the overnight menu. There’s no way what I’ve made is half as good as hers, but it looks edible.

“What are we going to do with all this food?” I ask her, surveying the styrofoam trays of eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

“What, you can’t eat an entire tray of bacon on your own?” she teases. She starts to close the trays and sets them in paper shopping bags, then hands me two of the four.

“C’mon,” she says, heading to the back exit.

“Where are we going?”

“To be good neighbors,” she says with a smile.

“What about the restaurant?”

She shrugs. “The pigs are out front. They like to come by for snacks. They’ll watch it for us until I get back to feed them.”

I give her a look. “But I thought you weren’t Randy’s biggest fan.” I start, thinking of how grumpy she was with Randy last night.

She clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes. “Ugh. He’s handsome enough, but something I’ve learned in my life is that a chased man is not a serious man. Men are either all in or they’re not. There is really no in-between if you’re looking to have a relationship. Randy can have a crush on me all he wants, but he doesn’t act on it, so I’m not going to help him out. I’ll just end up hurt in the end.”

None of the exterior lights of the Wild Hare are on, but the parking lot lights are enough to illuminate our path. The snow Darla warned us about has yet to materialize, but the wind blows cold, cutting through my warmest clothes.

The red-skinned bouncer with all the jokes leans against the front door of the club, eerily still and unmoving as we make our way to him.

Soojin is not disturbed at all by his otherworldliness. “Hungry, Eddie?” Soojin asks him. “We brought y’all food.”

“Is that a serious question?” he asks, huffing a laugh.

He opens the door for us and follows us in, shutting and locking the door behind him. Inside, several shirtless men in partial shift are working on cleaning up, the smell of smoke strong, even from the doors.

“Soojin and Red brought food!” the bouncer calls out as we move to the bar to set out the mini-feast.

“Red, what the hell?”

The grumpy voice, of course, is that of my “friend”, Zach Lamar. He’s in partial shift again, in just jeans this time, because of course, who doesn’t walk around half-naked in the middle of the winter?

He’s underwear model material, the well-defined muscles in his arms and shoulders evident even through the hair that covers him in partial shift. I meet his eyes so he doesn’t catch me staring at his mouth-watering chest. He may be hot, but I refuse to give in to the wolf in him.

“Nice to see you, too, Zach. We made y’all food. You’re welcome.” I shove the bags at him, hitting him hard in the chest, already done with this nonsense. What right does he have to be so hot?

At this point in my life, I’ve lived with wolves for longer than I haven’t, but even I haven’t experienced wolves in partial shift–and their vastly different moods–as much as I have in the two days I’ve been here. It’s so rare where I’m from.

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