I’d make today count.
I got into the parking garage elevator and leaned against the back wall. A car pulled down the ramp, and I leaped toward the buttons, pushing the door closed again, again, again.
It was those same two guys from campus.
The doors slid closed, and I could breathe again. I leaned back again and closed my eyes.
This was just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. Life was full of them. It didn’t mean anything.
It didn’t mean anything.
I thought the words in my head, but there was some part of me that knew it had to mean something.
Those guys were following me.
But why?
Why would anyone care about a nobody like me?
Chapter Twenty-Two
DASTIEN
When I got back to the apartment, the security guy nodded at me and took a breath. For a second, I thought he might want to say something to me, so I waited. But he didn’t.
The sickly sweet stench of fear hit me, and when he still hadn’t said anything, I decided he didn’t really want to talk to me. He was just afraid of me.
Fine. I was used to that reaction from humans. I wasn’t offended by their fear, but I wasn’t about to stick around and taunt them. That wasn’t my bag at all.
I started toward the stairs, but the sound of him clearing his throat had me pausing.
I looked back at him, and he waved me over.
Okay. The guy did want to say something to me, but he was afraid of me. If he was pushing past his fear to talk to me, it must be important.
I let go of the stairwell door and strode to his built-in desk. The Art Deco style fit in with the newly remodeled building.
I rested my arms on the metal top. “Everything okay?” I asked softly, so I didn’t scare him more than I already had.
The balding man was incredibly fit for his age and smelled faintly of cigarettes. He was either quitting or sometimes around a smoker. The man kept his gaze firmly planted on the desk in front of him. “I wanted to give you a warning.” He met my gaze for less than a second before breaking it. “I know who you are.”
That wasn’t new. When humans found out about werewolves, I got recognized everywhere I went. We’d been off and on the news for months. Sometimes humans saw me and just remembered that I was a werewolf. Others would yell my name, and the really daring ones wanted a picture. Which was fine. Even before the new council took over, all the Alphas agreed that presenting a welcoming and safe front around humans would be in everyone’s best interest.
After Tessa was taken, I disappeared from the public eye. At first, because I had to. The media had gone crazy about Tessa’s kidnapping and the reward I was offering for any information about her. It had been necessary but also made it impossible for me to go anywhere. Not that I really wanted to go anywhere unless it was to find Tessa.
With no leads and no new developments, the story eventually faded away to nothing. By the time I finally ventured out again, I found out that most everyone had forgotten all about me. It was the only good thing to come from all of this.
I hadn’t been in the news for a long time. What did the guy remember about me? That I was a werewolf or that I was Dastien Laurent, the werewolf who lost his mate? “Do you know what I am or specifically who I am?”
“You’re Dastien Laurent. It’s been a couple years now—maybe more than—but I won’t forget you or any of your friends from the footage that day.”
The guy had a much longer memory than most humans, but that still didn’t explain the fear. “I’m not here to hurt you or anyone else.”
“No, I wouldn’t think that about you. But I’ve put together why you’re here. You must’ve found your missing mate. That’s what you call your wife, right? Your mate?”
This guy was smart and courageous for talking to me about this, even when he was afraid of me. “Yes.”
“She’s Cassie. Apartment 309. You haven’t officially moved in, but I know Steven moved into 512 overnight, and someone else moved in across the hall from her. You paid good money to make that happen. Must’ve cleared it with the owners because the leasing office doesn’t know anything about it.”