Page 25 of How to Flirt with a Hellhound
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” I said again. I wasn’t sure how to get him to share what had been going on, and I didn’t want to frighten him.
“It’s ok,” he mumbled, his head still down. He looked up then. “I just thought you were someone else, and it made me nervous.”
He had been afraid of someone else. Who was Toby scared of? He titled his head and I realized that I was growling almost subvocally. I cut it off and slowly blinked, making sure my eyes weren’t red. I was going to take care of Toby, but I needed to get my hellhound under control. I didn’t need him screaming and running from fear because I was being not-human.
“Who did you think I was?” I asked, my voice gravelly and low. “Is someone bothering you?”
“Oh man, you are totally MC material,” he muttered under his breath. I had no idea what “MC” was referring to, although I felt like I’d heard him use the term before when talking about his books.
“Toby, is someone threatening you?” I asked again.
Toby sighed and put his head down again. “Maybe I’m overreacting,” he mumbled. “It was just a couple of emails, and the one letter to my PO box, which anyone could look up because the stupid law requires an address on newsletters, but I just got in my head and sort of spiraled about it. I’m sure it’s nothing, and I really don’t think the guy even knows where I live, so I’m totally overreacting,” he said again.
I wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure himself or me.
“What emails?” I asked.
“Plus, the police said this thing happens all the time on the internet, and there’s really nothing they can do about it. They’ll file a report anyway so it’s on record, but they said although the emails are threatening in nature, there is no actual stated threat or anything illegal in them.” Toby giggled a little hysterically then. “Maybe if the guy had sent me a dick pic I could’ve complained about porn or something. Not that I want to see that,” he added, “but it’s just frustrating. But I knew there wasn’t going to be anything they could do.”
He’d filed a police report? Someone was sending him threatening emails? I growled again, and Toby tilted his head.
“And now I’m totally seeing things because I’m sleep deprived and anxious and I’m probably going slightly insane,” he mumbled to himself.
I closed my eyes and gripped his kitchen island with my hands, forcing myself to remain calm. My hellhound was apressure beneath my skin, burning to come out. I hadn’t taken my other form in far too long.
Soon. But not now. Must not scare the pretty human, I thought to myself.
I took a deep breath, flexing then loosening my hands on the counter. When I was sure I had myself under control, I opened my eyes and looked at Toby, who was looking at me with a fascinated stare.
At least he didn’t look scared.
“I don’t like that you’ve been threatened. Tell me what happened,” I ordered.
Ok, so maybe I wasn’t completely calm, but my order didn’t seem to scare Toby. If anything, I thought I saw a small smile on his face.
Then he told me all about the guy who had been stalking him. Toby didn’t use the word, but that’s what it was. Social media harassment, then threatening emails, and then an actual letter? The guy was escalating. I was thankful that Toby kept his real name and address private, but there were ways around that.
The guy could have followed him home from the post office, for fuck’s sake, keeping a look out on the PO box in order to find out Toby’s real address.
I mean, that’s what I would have done if I was hunting Toby.
Which I wasn’t. Of course. Because I didn’t have to. He lived right next door.
He could have put a tracker on the letter as well, although I figured Toby would have noticed that. Still…
“Let me see the letter,” I ground out.
He obediently got up and went into his pantry, bringing me a freezer ziplock bag with a letter and an envelope in it. He blushed adorably when I raised my eyebrows at the baggie.
“They bag it on television,” he murmured. “But when Amy, my personal assistant, talked to the police, they only wanted apicture of it for evidence. I didn’t even have to go down to the station.” He shrugged then, handing it over.
“Send me the emails, too,” I demanded.
If the police wouldn’t do anything about it, then I would. It might take getting Liam involved, but that was a price I would pay. I figured someone from the pack would probably descend on me soon anyway.
Toby got up, walked into the living room to grab his computer, and came back to the kitchen, dutifully opening it up. “Where should I send them?” he asked.
I spelled out my email address for him and he began the process of forwarding the emails.
