Page 4 of Heat Lightning

TWO

MAX

Someone was watching me.

I’d never been a paranoid person, but for the last week, I swore I felt eyes on me everywhere I went. Work, the grocery store, coming in and out of my shitty apartment—it didn’t matter.

He was always there.

Yes, I knew my stalker was a he. I also knew he was an alpha, because I’d scented him. Just once, when I stepped out the back door of the restaurant for some fresh air a week or so ago.

A gentle breeze had cooled the sweat on my brow, and I’d sighed, thankful for a break from the claustrophobically hot and loud kitchen.

I might’ve also had a case of the butterflies at the very unexpected chance to talk to Joey.

I certainly hadn’t followed him outside on purpose.

Okay, fine. I totally had. But come on—the guy actually listened to me when I said something and looked like a young Mark Wahlberg in Fear.

Before he did the thing to the dog, obviously.

Yeah, let’s think some more about the psycho stalker boyfriend. That’ll really help you sleep at night with Michael Myers lurking around everywhere you go.

I shuddered. Back to the guy who wasn’t a total creep.

I’d only started working at The Copper Kettle a few months before, and my cheeks heated when I remembered the way the cute line cook immediately began flirting with me. He seemed nice, and asked questions like he was genuinely interested in knowing me.

I hadn’t had a romantic interest in anyone since Mom died, and having a crush felt like waking up.

The smoking had to go, though. It wreaked havoc on a refined palate.

But then Joey had gone back inside, and a heady, dark scent of ozone and copper wrapped around me, carried on the wind like a macabre greeting.

Or a warning, more like.

My heart had immediately begun to pitter-patter, and I felt like a cornered deer realizing the forest had gone unnaturally still.

The wolf approached, and I was caught unaware.

I’d looked up, searching the shadows, just in time to catch the broad silhouette of… something melt away into the dark alley across the street.

Fear had frozen my feet to the sticky concrete. What was that? A man?

Yes. Surely. Probably. The outline of him had been distinctly person-shaped. Plus, we were in the middle of town. No animal that big would lurk in a back alley of a residential area.

Right?

An aluminum can had rattled across the ground down the street, jarring me out of my frozen terror. With a sharp inhale, I’d darted back inside, slamming the door shut.

Holy fuck.

My pulse had pounded in my ears. It was definitely an alpha. It had to be. But something about him had felt predatory in a way no human should. It was probably my imagination, but I almost thought I’d seen a flash of gleaming teeth in the night, like he beckoned me closer just so I could see those sharp canines clearly before he tore into me.

Even his scent had drawn me in. It was overwhelming—too much.

It’d called to the primal omega in me in a way I couldn’t shake, like a foreboding threat I knew I should run from but would never be able to escape.

I’d been unable to calm down for the rest of the night. Setting aside the strange way he’d brushed up against my baser instincts, I still couldn’t shake the fear that a man had been standing there, watching us—watching me—that entire time.