Everly carefully made her way down the stairs toward Jack’s living room, holding on tight to the railing. The heels she was wearing were a lot higher than what she was used to, but Alyson insisted she should wear them because they looked perfect with the sapphire blue dress she was wearing. While Everly loved the tight, strapless, sequined dress, she wasn’t sure that the silver heels looked all that great.They’d look a lot worse if she fell down the stairs and broke her neck because of them…. But then, she was a shifter now, so her coordination should be better.That didn’t make her feel any less shaky on the shoes.When she got about three-fourths of the way down, she heard a loud exhale and managed to pull her eyes away from the next step long enough to look at Jack.Her heart skipped a beat, seeing him standing there by the front door with a pink corsage in his hand, wearing a perfectly-fitted suit with a tie that matched her dress. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was slightly a
The musty scent of wood that had been sitting devoid of human contact hit Everly Harrison in the face as the front door creaked and then tapped the wall behind it. A quick scan around the living room didn’t reveal any lingering memories, but it did tell her that the cabin would need a good cleaning before she and her dad could move all of their stuff in.Maybe it was a blessing that the moving truck wouldn’t be there for a couple of more days.“Any critters in there?” her dad, Jim, called as he carried in their overnight bags. When he was trying to be funny, he’d use that fake southern accent, which was only funny to him. He’d never even been any further south than Colorado, as far as she knew.“No, nothing but some spiders,” Everly said, spying an eight-legged intruder scurrying up the wall as she flipped the light switch on. “Electricity works, though. That’s something.”“Yeah, I had Mark T
The drive into town only took a few minutes. When they were at the cabin, it seemed remote, like they were the only people in the state, maybe in the whole universe, but once they went down the windy gravel driveway to the asphalt road that ran into town, they were back to civilization pretty quickly.Well, one interpretation of civilization, anyway. Cook was nothing like Denver, that was for sure. The small town only had a population of a couple of thousand people. A lot fewer houses sprawled out from the center of town than what she was used to seeing in town, and hardly any stores or restaurants lined the main drag. Her dad had assured her it wasn’t that far of a drive to a bigger city where she could get whatever she needed that Cook didn’t have—and he’d also reminded her that Amazon was everywhere. It was still a bit of culture shock when they pulled into a spot at the little grocery store.Everly got out of the SUV and had a look around. T
The force of the collision knocked Everly back a few steps. She’d never been that coordinated, so she managed to trip over her own feet and almost fell on the floor. But she didn’t fall because the brick wall she’d just collided with happened to have arms and hands. “Whoa! Are you all right?” She looked up to see that the brick wall wasn’t a brick wall at all, but it was a guy. A hot guy. And his hand was around her elbow now, holding her up from hitting the linoleum. He wrapped his other hand around her waist and pulled her back up to standing. Everly’s feet were still tangled for a moment. By the time she got them sorted out, a good ten or fifteen seconds had passed since he’d asked the question, and she still hadn’t answered him. “Sorry,” Everly muttered. She wasn’t sure if she was all right or not. She’d hit her head on his chest—she thought. Maybe it was his shoulder? Either way, it had seriously felt like she’d ran into something solid and unfor
His motorcycle tore up the road as Jack Grey sped through town, winding his way over the asphalt roads that led back to his village in the woods. When he was obeying all of the traffic laws and going the speed limit, it would take ten minutes at best to get there; under these circumstances, he expected to make it in less than five.Assuming he didn’t run into Sheriff Meyer or any of his men. Jack didn’t need another citation for speeding.If they had any idea what his reflexes were capable of, they wouldn’t be worried about him crashing. It would be nearly impossible for him to collide with any other vehicle or lose control of his.But then… he shouldn’t have been involved in the collision in the grocery store either.He could’ve avoided it. Thinking back, he could’ve moved to the other side of the aisle or darted around her. But then, the girl would’ve likely noticed how quickly he had moved, and that woul
“Are you all right, Ev?” Jim asked as he set the bags of groceries and cleaning supplies down on the kitchen counter. “You’ve been acting a little strange since the cleaning aisle.”“I’m fine, Dad,” Everly assured him, even though it wasn’t quite true. Something about that guy at the grocery store had completely thrown her for a loop, and it wasn’t just hitting her head on his chest. There was something different about him, something… weird.“Do you want to eat first or start cleaning?” Jim held up the two deli sandwiches they’d stopped to get on the way out of town at the little shop on the corner of the main street. They’d also noted a coffee shop, a donut store, and a restaurant that looked like a pretty popular place, judging by the number of people going in and out. It was a Saturday afternoon, though. It might not be that busy on a weekday.Everly looked around. The
No matter how many blankets one put on a wooden floor, it was still much harder than a mattress. Even the mattress Everly had slept on the night before in the crappy little hotel her dad had pulled into for the night had been much more comfortable than this.It wasn’t helping that the moon was so bright. There were no curtains or blinds on the windows yet. Knowing her dad, there wouldn’t be either, not until Everly either bought some or learned how to sew. Guys just didn’t think about that sort of thing, did they? Would he hang any pictures up in any of the rooms? Probably not unless she asked him to.The moon was bright, that was for sure. She couldn’t really see it while she was lying on the floor of her old bedroom—now her current bedroom, she supposed—but when she sat up and looked out the window, she could see that it was full. For it being fall in the northwest, there sure weren’t a whole lot of clouds in the sky either.
Toby scratching at the door was nothing out of the ordinary. It was how Everly had woken up for the last few years, since he’d first learned not to tinkle on the carpet when he was about three months old. She hadn’t slept well, so it wasn’t easy to drag herself up off of the floor, throw on some clothes, find her shoes, and put his leash on him to take him out. Back home in Denver, they had a fence around the back yard, so all she’d have to do was open the door. Her dad had said he’d put one in here, but she doubted he’d get to that anytime soon.Jim was leaning against the counter in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee when she walked out into the living room area. She waved at him, leaning back so that he could see her through the doorway.“Mornin’, honey,” he said. “Where are you going?”“Toby has to pee,” she said, stifling a yawn.“Be careful.”“I&