Page 38 of Hot Girls Date Shifters

You can survive having your heart broken.

But the thought of my fated mate looking at me with fear or disgust...

The thought of her rejecting me?

Fuck.

That might be the one thing I can't survive.

I glance toward Elsie's apartment one last time.

The curtains are still drawn.

She's still asleep.

Safe.

Mine.

“I'll figure this out,” I whisper to the quiet morning.

“Somehow.”

Six

Elsie

I wake before the alarm, long before the sun has fully climbed above the trees.

That's not unusual.

I've always been an early riser.

What is unusual is the warmth coiled low in my stomach.

It isn't painful.

It isn't the start of a fever.

It's a sort of restlessness.

Like every nerve ending beneath my skin has suddenly decided to wake up before the rest of me.

I lie still beneath the covers, listening to my own breathing.

In.

Out.

The cotton sheet feels strangely warm against my legs, and I push it away with an impatient sigh before immediately wishing I'd kept it.

A cool morning breeze slips through the open window, carrying the scent of pine and wildflowers from the woods.

Somehow, that only makes the strange ache inside me deepen.

“What on earth...”

My fingertips brush absentmindedly over the faint marks on my hand.