Page 17 of Same One
She shrugged. “When we moved here last year, I didn’t know anyone, and we moved here unprepared, and I was trying to remember the stuff I needed on night one. I remember I had Bay with me, and Zane had disappeared and left us to figure out how to blow up some air mattresses, and Bay was starving, but we didn’t have two dimes to rub together at the time, because we’d spent all of my money on first and last month’s rent and all the deposit and fees. We heated pizza rolls in the microwave that night, but Bay was so hungry that I told him I wasn’t hungry and I just ate five and gave him all the rest. We had no plasticware or plates, or napkins or anything. Nothing to dry our hands on. No hand soap. Figured you could use some necessities.”
It meant more than he could express.
He twitched his head toward the front door, and she twisted around to see the bottle of red wine and plastic cups. She looked touched when she turned back to him. “How did you track those down so fast? You’re fifteen minutes from the nearest convenience store.”
“I asked a couple of my Packmates. Delta brought it over.”
“Delta is a pretty name,” she said, but the smile had faded from her eyes. “Are there a lot of females in your Pack?”
He didn’t understand the somber tone. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. I understand if you have to be quiet about your Pack.”
But there was something heavy in the air now, and he’d watched her wilt.
Confused, he pulled his phone from his pocket and connected a call to Nory.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Hey, are you free to come over here for a minute?”
“Yeah, are you okay?”
“Yep. Can you get Delta too? Are Lyric and Destiny home yet?”
“Yeah, I’ll wrangle them. Are you doing a home tour?”
“Sure,” he said, and hung up.
“Who was that?”
“My Alpha’s mate. She’s bringing the girls over.”
Tru’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what?”
Tabian shrugged. “To meet you.”
“Wait.” There was a note of panic to her voice. “Is this okay? Is it allowed?”
Tabian frowned, thoroughly confused. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Because humans aren’t allowed to meet Packs.”
“Says who? Nory is human.”
Tru’s mouth fell open. “But…but…look, I don’t want to feel jealous or overthink anything when I leave here. I think I should go. It was fun to see you for a few minutes, but I really should get back in case Bay texts me.”
“You can hear the text from here. Where is he camping?” he asked, baffled.
“I just have to go,” she sputtered out, heading for the door.
“Why would you have to be jealous or overthink?” he asked, following her. “I’m so confused.”
“It’s nothing,” she called over her shoulder without turning around. She yanked the door of her car open, but he grabbed it and held it open before she could slam it.
“Please explain.”
“It’s just something that happened before that I don’t like thinking about—”
