Hungry Like a Wolf (Claws Clause 1)

At first, she suspected he was doing all of that because he wanted her to sleep with him. After dating exclusively for more than a month now, Adam hadn’t spent the night yet. He never even pushed for her to do more than kiss him. And when he sensed that she was hesitant to do even that, he backed off.

He didn’t need to touch her to show Evangeline how much he cared. He did so in a million other ways.

Due to his hectic work schedule, they saw each other maybe three times a week. Adam still made sure he spoke to her at least twice every day, more when his fourteen-hour-long shifts at the Cage allowed him to use the phone. He brought her dinner when she admitted she hadn’t eaten, and he liked to shower her with gifts. The perfume was only the beginning. And, sure, it kind of seemed like he was buying her affection.

Oh, well. It was working.

It warmed Evangeline how Adam followed her lead when it came to their relationship. The slow pace didn’t frustrate him; he seemed happy

and content that she was willing to continue to see him romantically. She had to admit that Adam Wright might have grown up after all.

Evangeline remembered her tantrum and grimaced. At least one of them had.

“I’m sorry if I worried you. I must’ve slept through my alarm clock and”—she pulled her phone away from her ear, pressed a button, and checked her missed calls. Wincing, she said—“and your seven phone calls.”

Adam groaned. “That many? Shit. Sorry, babe. I’m at the window again, so I was dialing in between visitors, hoping to get you on the line. I didn’t mean to be so obnoxious.”

“Hey. Don’t worry about it.” Seven was nothing. When she first moved out, she would sometimes wake up to twelve missed calls from her mother. “I’m glad you did. Sleeping in wasn’t on my agenda today. I guess I was more tired than I thought.”

“I should’ve known better. It took you… what? Three days to crank out the edits on that last manuscript? I’m surprised your eyes aren’t bleeding by now.”

It was her first big test, a massive editing project that had a turnaround of only three days. Three days since she left her cramped apartment. She ordered in meals when she could take a break from her work, and went without when she couldn’t. Adam came over last night with take-out from the Chinese place down the street. She’d barely been able to eat half of her sweet and sour chicken before he was tucking her into bed, risking a chaste kiss to her forehead, and replacing her wards on his way out of her apartment.

She winced when she remembered how hard she had crashed. “I wasn’t much company last night, was I?”

“It was nice. Quiet, but nice—just what I needed after a long day in the Cage. I’d love to do it again the next time they give me a night free. Sometimes I feel like I’m locked up with those animals, the hours they want me to work. Crazy, right?”

There was a sneer in Adam’s voice whenever he mentioned working at the paranormal-only prison that she couldn’t ignore; he never brought it up and she never mentioned it, but Evangeline got the vibe that he wasn’t a fan of the paranormal part of the population. She knew he was counting the days until his year was up and he could rejoin the ranks of the Grayson PD.

Even though he didn’t live in town himself, Grayson was his home precinct. Evangeline thought that was strangely suspicious until Naomi admitted that part of the reason she didn’t fight the move was because Adam’s mother, Fiona, had recommended Grayson as a predominantly human city with a low crime rate and no real need to drive.

Perfect for Evangeline.

Just the thought of riding in a car again made her panic; it had gotten so bad that her mother gave her a sleeping pill before her father drove the moving van into Grayson. She refused to risk the chance of another car crash. Right after they finally let her out of the hospital, she sold her car and took her old six-speed bicycle out of the garage. The fact that she didn’t remember anything leading right up to the crash, but had no problem riding a bike, told her that the damage to her memory was only short-term. She might be missing almost a year of her life, but she could still pop a mean wheelie.

Adam cleared his throat, reminding Evangeline that it was her turn to say something. Too bad she had no idea what the last thing Adam had said was.

Something about work, maybe?

“Are you gonna be working all night?” she asked. “I only have a couple of pages to proof today. I can cook something to make up for conking out on you yesterday. You could come over again.”

“I wish I could, but they have me pulling an all-nighter. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, though.”

Tomorrow? Evangeline racked her brains, trying to remember what tomorrow was. That was the biggest problem with always suffering from the sensation that she forgot something: so consumed with remembering to remember, she tended to forget even the littlest things.

“Um… tomorrow?”

“Yeah. You remember, Eva. It’s date night.”

She managed to bite back her groan in time. “It’s Friday already?”

Date night was Adam’s genius idea. After she agreed to the first dinner, he asked her to lunch. Then another dinner. A movie that Friday. By the afternoon walk around Grayson on Saturday, Evangeline had to admit that she was dating Adam Wright. It just sort of happened.

The next Friday, Adam proclaimed it date night. It was the one night of the week that he was always free and he wanted to spend it with her despite their busy schedules. So far there had been three date nights. She hadn’t been able to dissuade him from any of the nights out yet, though she always tried.

Evangeline knew she was being ungrateful. She genuinely liked Adam and enjoyed spending time with him—when they stayed in for the evening before Adam went home. The anxious feeling that something wasn’t right nagged her whenever she left the apartment on one of their special ‘dates’. But she didn’t dare tell him—or, God forbid, her mother—that being seen with the handsome cop in public left her feeling short of breath. Both of them treated her fragile enough already. If she admitted that she was only getting worse, the next thing she knew she would be cocooned in bubblewrap.

For her own safety, of course.