Page 1 of Same One
Chapter One
Tabian Garr rubbed the back of his neck and slid a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder. The coffee shop was crowded, and no one was looking directly at him right now, but he could feel it—eyes had been on him since he’d walked in.
He should be used to this. He was a werewolf in a coffee shop filled with humans. He’d been through a thousand awkward encounters with the other species. But something kept lifting chills on the back of his neck, and inside of him, the wolf kept whispering,Look.
Look at what?
He turned back toward his laptop and tried to ignore the sensation of being watched.
If the Pack found out what he did for a living now, they would never let him live it down. His house was being delivered tomorrow, so this was the last time he would have to work on the marketing part of his job outside of Rogue Pack territory. The room he rented from Nate and Delta meant he didn’t have a lot of privacy. Plus, he needed the Wi-Fi here.
He cropped the video, removed the background sound, and added it to his file. Editing the videos was the biggest time-suck of his job, but it was necessary, and it was how he kept up rapport with his audience. Without the videos, there would be no income.
So, edit he did. He spent hours on it every day. Today’s video was a long one, so already he’d been here for three hours.
The unsettling sensation crept up the back of his spine again, and he turned fast to find a woman across the coffee shop looking at him over the top of the paperback she was reading. Her blue eyes went wide, and she dipped her gaze fast to her book again.
Tabian scented the air. Was she a werewolf? Was she one of Eden’s people? Did she work for the Elders? He’d been waiting for the next wave of retaliation.
He didn’t smell any werewolves in here though. The woman glanced up at him again, and then back to her book, turned away from him in her seat and pretended to read. Her eyes weren’t lowering to the next line. She seemed to be reading the same line over and over again.
He did a quick glance around, and saved his file, then clapped his laptop shut and shoved it into his backpack. He stood and made his way directly to her, pulled out the chair across from her with a loud screeching sound against the tile floor, and sat down.
“Do you have a problem with me?” he asked.
Her eyes were wide as saucers, and she’d frozen into place.
“N-no?” she whispered. She cleared her throat and said it louder. “No. I don’t have a problem with you.”
Tabian narrowed his eyes at her and then read the title of her book. Aloud he read, “Gray Back Broken Bear.”
She inhaled sharply and clapped the small paperback closed and then set it onto the table, face down. He’d already seen the shirtless model with the six pack abs though.
“Let me guess,” he muttered. “Shifter romance?”
“Uhhh.” She cleared her throat again. “Hi. How are you?”
“I’d be doing better if I didn’t have a spy watching me. Who sent you?”
“Who sent me?” she asked dumbly. “No one sent me.” There was a lie in her voice though.
Gah, so irritating. And of-freaking-course whoever sent her had picked a pretty one. She had brunette hair with blond highlights pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a forest green short-sleeved, button-up t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans tucked into a pair of comfortable looking wool-lined snow boots.She had dangly earrings and a little pixie nose, and cheekbones for days.
“What’s your name?” he asked her.
“I don’t—”
“Name,” he interrupted her denial.
“Tru. It’s short for Trudy, but everyone has always called me Tru.”
“Tru what?” he asked.
She pursed her lips into a thin line and frowned. “I don’t have to tell you.”
He leaned in closer. “You clearly already know who I am, so fair is fair. What is your last name.”
“Well, that’s complicated.”
