by Jae
Nyla unbuckled her seatbelt. The metallic click sounded much too loud in the silence between them. She glanced at Shelby, then at the passenger door.
In a second, she would leave. Everything in Shelby demanded she find a way to make Nyla stay, even though she knew there was no hope for them.
Nyla leaned to the side and opened the door.
“Wait!” Shelby nearly got tangled up in the seatbelt as she unfastened it. “I mean ... wait a minute. I’ll walk you to the door.” She finally managed to free herself of the seatbelt and hastened around the car. When she stood in front of Nyla, she didn’t know what to do. She stuffed her hands into her pants pockets and shuffled her feet while she studied the gravel in Nyla’s driveway.
Nyla closed the passenger door.
The loud sound made Shelby flinch. She followed Nyla to the house without saying anything.
Key in hand, Nyla paused in front of the door. The metal jingled as she spun the key between her fingers. “It was a really nice evening,” Nyla said.
Shelby stared at her in disbelief. She didn’t need to use her nose to know that Nyla was lying or at least not telling the whole truth. It hadn’t been the fun, relaxed evening she had hoped for.
“Okay,” Nyla said as Shelby continued to stare at her, “we had a few awkward moments. But I like you, Shelby. There’s no reason for you to be so nervous.”
What was she supposed to say to that? She couldn’t tell Nyla what had made her act like a criminal on the run all night.
“Maybe we can repeat it some time,” Nyla said. “This time without the nervousness.”
Shelby nodded, even knowing it was not a good idea. Something burned behind her breastbone. Did Wrasa suffer from heartburn after all?
“Good night, then,” Nyla said but made no move to unlock her front door.
“Good night.” Shelby didn’t move either. She stared at Nyla’s sensuous lips. Should she kiss Nyla? For the first and only time. Or would it just make things worse? Did Nyla even want to be kissed?
Her scent seemed to indicate that she was interested, but Shelby didn’t trust her senses. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.
Just do it. For once in her life, she would do something just because she wanted it instead of desperately fighting for the respect of her pack and her fellow Wrasa and never really getting it. She took a tiny step forward.
Did Nyla lean toward her?
Shelby wasn’t sure. She took another step.
Goliath started barking inside the house.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Mrs. Rozakis called.
The light on the porch flared.
Blinded, Shelby pulled back.
Nyla searched for the right key and pushed it into the keyhole. “We’ll see each other Monday, right?”
Shelby suppressed a sigh. “Sure. See you Monday.” When they would just be colleagues, nothing more. “I think we both have the early shift.” She fished her car key out of her pants pocket.
Nyla still hadn’t unlocked the door. She looked at Shelby. “See you Monday. And please drive carefully.”
“I will.” After a few more seconds of hesitation, Shelby gave herself a mental shove, turned, and walked toward her car.
After opening the car door, she turned once more.
Nyla stood in the doorway and lifted one hand to wave.
Shelby forced a smile and returned the gesture. She dropped into the driver’s seat. When she looked through the windshield, Nyla was gone. The door was closed and the light on the porch had been turned off. Only a tiny ray of light fell through the crack beneath the door.
Reproachfully, Shelby stared up at the waning moon. She wanted to lift her head and howl until every coyote in the neighborhood joined her lament. Instead she leaned her forehead against the steering wheel and closed her eyes.
A knock on the window next to her made her jump. Her head smashed against the steering wheel. “Ouch.” Rubbing her forehead, she looked up.
Nyla stood next to the car. Her face was pale in the moonlight and looked almost too beautiful to be real.
For a moment, Shelby thought she was dreaming. Then she hurriedly got out of the car. “Did you forget something?” She glanced at the passenger seat, searching for Nyla’s purse or another object Nyla might have left behind.
“No.” Nyla combed through her locks with both hands. “Yes. Shelby, I ...” She stopped and leaned toward Shelby.
Shelby’s breath caught. Had Nyla come back to ...?
Her soft lips brushed Shelby’s, then backed away.
More, more! Shelby wrapped both arms around Nyla and pulled her closer to kiss her again. The touch of Nyla’s lips made her whole body tingle in a way that she normally only experienced in the seconds before a transformation. Her nostrils quivered as she greedily sucked in Nyla’s scent. She kissed Nyla’s full lower lip, breathed kisses along the heart-shaped line of her upper lip, and nibbled gently on the corner of her mouth.
Warm breath washed over Shelby’s lips, and then Nyla’s tongue teased her mouth.
With one hand on Nyla’s neck, Shelby pulled her closer and opened her mouth.
Yapping sounds made them jerk back.
“Goliath, be quiet!” Nyla wagged her index finger at the dog.
It took a few moments before Shelby’s vision cleared. Everything around her felt strange and surreal. Everything but Nyla’s taste on her lips. Growling almost inaudibly, she stared down at the dog.
Goliath bared his teeth as if he wanted to rip Shelby’s throat out.
Shelby fixed him with a warning glare. You better watch out, rat. If I manage to shift into a coyote for a change, I’ll eat a little thing like you as an appetizer.
Nyla picked up the dog. From his elevated position in her arms, he continued barking at Shelby.
“Goliath, sssh.” Nyla lifted the tiny dog until she could look into his eyes. “What’s wrong with you? Shelby isn’t hurting me. We just …” In the moonlight, her face turned a bright pink color.
Despite her growling rival, Shelby had to smile. We just kissed.
Nyla finally ignored the dog and glanced at Shelby.
They stared at each other without saying a word.
Every single cell in Shelby’s body screamed at her to pull Nyla into her arms again, to breathe in her jasmine scent, and—
“Nyla?” Mrs. Rozakis called from the porch. “What are you doing out there?”
Nyla groaned. “As if one chaperone weren’t enough,” she murmured. Then she called toward the house: “I’m saying good night to Shelby.”
With her sensitive Wrasa hearing, Shelby heard Mrs. Rozakis mumble, “That’s what they call it nowadays.”
“So,” Nyla said and looked into Shelby’s eyes. “Good night, then.” She caressed Shelby’s hand with two of her fingers.
Only now did Shelby realize that she was clutching the frame of the open car door. She let go and touched Nyla’s fingertips with her own. “Good night.”
Nyla hesitated, then leaned forward and brushed her lips against Shelby’s in a quick kiss. Before Shelby could return the kiss, Nyla turned and walked away.
Shelby watched her until she reached the house. Long after the door had closed behind Nyla and the lights in the house had gone out, she stood in Nyla’s driveway and traced her lips with trembling fingers. What in the Great Hunter’s name am I supposed to do now?
Chapter 3
“Doc? Hey, Doctor Carson!” One of the nurses waved a sheet of paper in front of Shelby’s nose.
“Hmm?” Shelby wrenched her gaze away from the triage desk.
“Here are the lab results you were waiting for.”
It took some effort for Shelby to focus on the lab results. “Hmm. The patient is totally clean. Not one hint of drugs. Who would’ve thought?”
“Well, some people don’t need drugs to have their heads in the clouds.” The nurse winked at her and walked away.
Shelby narrowed her eyes. What is he saying? Had he noti
ced that Shelby had some trouble focusing on work today? During the whole weekend, she hadn’t been able to think of anything but Nyla. Nyla and the kiss they’d shared in the driveway. But sometimes the endless loop of pleasant memories got interrupted by doubts and pangs of conscience. Getting involved with a human was crazy. She was tempting fate and calling down the Saru, the council’s soldiers, on her and Nyla.
But then she remembered the soft touch of their fingertips as they said good night. Never had a simple touch like that made her feel so much. Was she really prepared to live without that?
She sighed and tried to focus on the chart before her. But that wasn’t so easy when Nyla’s lovely jasmine scent seemed to be everywhere.
“Hi, Doctor Carson,” Nyla said directly next to her.
Doctor Carson. Shelby nearly melted into a puddle. How did Nyla manage to make her title sound like a pet name? She shook herself. Pull yourself together and stop acting like a love-sick coyote. You’ve got work to do.
“Is that Mr. Lessing’s lab results?” Nyla asked and leaned against the desk next to Shelby.
Shelby tried to keep breathing normally. She was talking to Nyla Rozakis, a nurse, not to Nyla, the woman she had kissed on Saturday. “Yes. I didn’t expect it, but he’s clean.”
“Hmm.” Nyla tapped a pen against her lower lip while she studied the lab report.
The gesture made Shelby’s heartbeat speed up.
“Weird,” Nyla said. “I could have sworn he’s high like a kite.”
“Me too. But the standard tox screen doesn’t check for every drug. I’ll order more tests, just to make sure we’re not missing something.” Proud that she had gotten back some control and behaved like a professional, Shelby scribbled down instructions for the lab and handed Nyla the piece of paper. “Would you take this to the lab for me?”
“Sure, but ...” Nyla stared at the note. “Isn’t the patient’s name Lessing?”
“Yes. L-e-s-s-i-n-g.”
“Um, but you wrote kissing.”
“What?” That couldn’t be true. Shelby jumped up and reached for the note.
Nyla was right. Next to “patient’s name,” she had written in big blue letters: kissing. She wanted to dig a hole and hide there forever.
Nyla laughed and gently touched her elbow. “Good to know that I’m not the only one who can’t stop thinking of Saturday,” she whispered.
For a moment, Shelby wanted to protest and say that only her typical doctor scrawl made “Lessing” look like “kissing,” but then she shook her head. Why should she lie to Nyla? At least in this one thing she could be honest. “Good thing I’m not pulling a double shift. I’m not thinking straight right now.”
Still leaning against the desk, Nyla hesitated. Then she leaned forward so that her enchanting scent surrounded Shelby. “Do you want to come over to my place after work?” she asked in a low voice. “My grandmother is making souvlaki. Knowing her, she’s making enough for a pack of hungry wolves.”
The last sentence made Shelby flinch. She wasn’t a wolf shifter, but if Nyla knew whom she was inviting for dinner ...
“You don’t have to come if you have other plans. I just thought ...” Nyla trailed off and stared at the desk’s corner.
“Of course I’ll come over,” Shelby said before she became aware of her lips moving. Not one second later, she regretted her spontaneous words. Did you catch rabies? You said one date. Not two. You’re only getting Nyla’s hopes up if you don’t end it now. She opened her mouth to do exactly that, but she just couldn’t get her mouth to form the words.
“Great,” Nyla said with a smile that seemed to light up the whole psych ER. “How about six?”
Shelby could only nod.
Nyla fleetingly touched her shoulder. “See you later. I’m heading to the lab to order the tests for Mr. Kissing.” She winked at Shelby and walked away.
For a second, Shelby stared at her retreating back. Then she put her head in her hands and groaned into her palms.
“You all right?” someone asked behind her. “Can I help you somehow? Some Aspirin?”
Shelby turned. The colleague who would take over for her in an hour stood in front of her. “A blow to the head might be more helpful,” she mumbled.
“Excuse me?”
“Never mind. But since you are here already, could you take over early today?” Shelby asked. “I have some errands to run.” If she went on a second date with Nyla, at least she wanted to show up prepared.
* * *
At exactly six o’clock, Shelby drove down Nyla’s street, parked a few houses away, and got out of the car.
A man whose scent identified him as a tiger-shifter crossed the street. He glanced at Shelby with an appraising look as if he knew that she was far from her own den and didn’t have any business being here.
Shelby hunched her shoulders and hurried down the street. She pretended to head toward the butcher at the end of the street. In front of the store, she paused and looked around.
The tiger shifter had disappeared into one of the buildings.
After one more glance to make sure that no other Wrasa was watching her, she walked toward Nyla’s house.
Nyla’s old Ford wasn’t in the driveway.
Shelby climbed the two steps to the porch and breathed in through her nose. The scent of Mrs. Rozakis’s souvlaki made her mouth water. The house smelled of meat, garlic, and lemon. Nyla’s jasmine scent surrounded the house, but it was fading, as if she hadn’t been home since leaving for work in the morning.
Weird. Shelby fished her cell phone out of her pocket. Then she remembered that she didn’t have Nyla’s number. Instead she called the psych ER.
An out of breath Nyla answered.
“Hi, Nyla. It’s Shelby. Seems you’re still at work.”
Nyla groaned. “Yes, I am. We had three new admissions just as I was about to leave, and one of them snapped and punched out Barbara. I probably won’t get out of here anytime soon. Where are you?”
“On your porch.”
“Oh, Shelby, I’m so sorry.”
Shelby imagined Nyla leaning against the triage desk with a guilty frown on her face. “You don’t have to be sorry. It’s not your fault.”
For a moment, only the background noises of the ER filtered through the phone line. A patient was screaming and cursing. Paper rustled. Somewhere, a phone rang.
Finally, Nyla asked, “Do you want to postpone dinner, or do you want to go on in and wait for me with my grandmother?”
Shelby hesitated. Hanging out on Nyla’s porch was a risk. She had to make a decision. Now. Maybe it was a sign. Maybe dating a human wasn’t meant to be. “You know, I really think I should—”
Steps approached the front door.
Before Shelby could flee, the door opened. Aggressive yapping greeted her. “Oh, hello,” Mrs. Rozakis said. She held Goliath’s leash in one hand while her other hand ran through her dyed black hair as if Shelby was her admirer and not Nyla’s.
“Is that my grandmother?” Shelby asked through the cell phone that Shelby still held to her ear.
“Um, yes.”
“Let me talk to her, please.”
Shelby held out the phone to the old lady. “Um, hi. Your granddaughter wants to talk to you.”
Mrs. Rozakis handed her the leash and took the cell phone.
Baffled, Shelby stared down at the growling dog. Then she lifted her head and listened attentively. Even in her human form, her hearing was good enough that she could hear every word Nyla said.
“Hi, Yiayia. I’ll be home late. All hell is breaking loose here,” Nyla said. “Can you ask Shelby to come in and let her wait for me inside? I’m coming home as soon as I can.”
“Of course.” With her free hand, Mrs. Rozakis patted Shelby’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We will find something do to until you come home.”
Butterflies took flight in the pit of Shelby’s stomach, and they weren’t the pleasant kind. Maybe a Greek grandmother wa
sn’t any more harmless than the pack of a female Wrasa.
“No interrogating her about her income, sexual preferences, or genetic disorders in her family, okay?” Nyla said, obviously thinking Shelby couldn’t hear her.
Mrs. Rozakis gave Shelby a smile that was as sweet as sugar.
It was beginning to look like the toothy grin of a wolf to Shelby.
“I love you too,” Mrs. Rozakis said to Nyla. “See you later.” Before Nyla could say anything else, she ended the call and handed back the cell phone. She held open the front door and made a gesture of invitation.
“Oh ... um ... I think you were about to walk Goliath. I can do that for you if you want.” Even walking the yapping rat seemed like a relaxing activity compared to the interrogation Mrs. Rozakis would start as soon as they were inside.
“That would be so lovely of you. If you don’t mind, I could put the finishing touches to my souvlaki.”
“You do that. No problem. I’m great with dogs,” Shelby said, ignoring Goliath’s growling.
Mrs. Rozakis bent down and patted Goliath’s head. “Did you hear that? The nice young lady will walk you.”
Goliath whimpered and tugged on the leash, trying to flee through the open door and into the house.
“Cute. The little one’s so shy,” Shelby said.
“Shy? Goliath?” Mrs. Rozakis laughed. “He’s about as shy as my Giorgos, God have mercy on his soul, after half a dozen ouzos.”
Like every Wrasa, Shelby had no personal knowledge whatsoever about the effects of ouzo or any other alcohol, so she just nodded. “Okay. We’ll go for our walk, then.”
“Just ring the bell when you return.” Mrs. Rozakis stepped inside the house and closed the door behind her.
Goliath’s claws scratched over the porch. He howled like a coyote whose pack had left him behind.
“Don’t panic. I’m not gonna hurt you,” Shelby said in her most soothing tone.
Goliath didn’t seem convinced. He pulled on the leash as if his life depended on it.
A neighbor who was wheeling the trash can toward the curb looked over at them.