A Mate for The Werebear (A Billionaire Bear Shifter Menage Romance) (One Night Stand Book 3) by Sherry Wasson
Authors: Sherry Wasson
Ads: Link
Chapter One
Another night, another microwave dinner. Emily opened her fridge and selected a dish at random. Pasta with chicken that would taste like rubber and broccoli that tasted even worse. Yummy. She popped the plastic tray into the microwave and keyed in the time.
She hadn’t eaten a proper meal in over a year now. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when this down spiral had begun, but she’d given up on the idea that it was going to end sometime soon.
The truth was, she’d given up on everything. She didn’t have enough energy to hate her job at the DMV anymore. She was apathetic about her studio apartment and the food she ate.
She barely even knew why she was living anymore.
The microwave dinged and Emily pulled out her dinner. She peeled back the clear film on top and dug in with a plastic fork. No clean up this way.
The trick to keeping an apartment you’re apathetic about clean is to never make a mess in the first place.
Emily finished off her dinner and threw out the tray. She rinsed off her hands in the sink, dried them on a dish towel, and then walked the five steps between the kitchen and the window beside her bed.
The place wasn’t a home so much as a hotel room. Emily had moved into it after her parents had died and her sister had disappeared.
“Please, please, please,” she whispered to the night sky. “Give me something to live for.”
A star winked at her, then disappeared. Just an airplane. It would be difficult to see the stars past the gray concrete of the apartment block.
A shadow moved in the parking lot. Emily studied it. Someone from her building getting in late? Most of her neighbors were short, and whoever this was had height. He moved into the edge of the light from the streetlamp. Emily estimated him to be past six feet tall with a body made of muscle. Broad shoulders strained against the flannel shirt he was wearing. His face was too shadowed to make out.
He took another step and disappeared from the light. Emily shivered. For a second there, she could have sworn he was looking right at her. Emily drew the curtains closed. She had to let go of foolish notions. She was an adult, and she was alone. No one was coming to rescue her and the night sky wasn’t listening to her pleas for help.
The universe was empty, and she was little more than a ghost drifting through it these days.
Emily changed out of her work clothes slowly. She was too young to feel this old, and too tired to fix it. Tomorrow she’d go to work, and she’d find something to keep her going one more day. That was all she needed. Life, one day at a time.
#
She pulled the curtains closed and cut off his view of her. Anthony frowned in the darkness of the parking lot. The place smelled like old garbage made too hot by the July sun. He’d come here looking for her.
Anthony came to this city once a year after he woke up from his hibernation and sought out a mate to slack his lust before he made his way back to his tribe. Usually he found it easiest to pick up a willing woman in a bar and have done with it after a night of pleasure.
He didn’t know why he was following this woman. He’d seen her walking down the street on her way to lunch and her soul had called out to his. The pain she was in was crushing. It had drawn him in like a bug zapper.
That was the problem with his gift of empathy. It was impossible for him to turn away from the call of another’s pain. The call of her pain had been so loud Anthony had thought her mortally wounded. That she was still walking and acting like any other human being was miraculous to him.
He wanted to save her, but he didn’t have time. He needed to deal with his lust and then move on. The tribe would grow impatient if he made them wait for too long. He shouldn’t be dawdling outside the windows of strange women that he wanted to take into his arms and comfort.
He tried to take two steps back from her window. Her invisible keen of pain caught in him like a
Another night, another microwave dinner. Emily opened her fridge and selected a dish at random. Pasta with chicken that would taste like rubber and broccoli that tasted even worse. Yummy. She popped the plastic tray into the microwave and keyed in the time.
She hadn’t eaten a proper meal in over a year now. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when this down spiral had begun, but she’d given up on the idea that it was going to end sometime soon.
The truth was, she’d given up on everything. She didn’t have enough energy to hate her job at the DMV anymore. She was apathetic about her studio apartment and the food she ate.
She barely even knew why she was living anymore.
The microwave dinged and Emily pulled out her dinner. She peeled back the clear film on top and dug in with a plastic fork. No clean up this way.
The trick to keeping an apartment you’re apathetic about clean is to never make a mess in the first place.
Emily finished off her dinner and threw out the tray. She rinsed off her hands in the sink, dried them on a dish towel, and then walked the five steps between the kitchen and the window beside her bed.
The place wasn’t a home so much as a hotel room. Emily had moved into it after her parents had died and her sister had disappeared.
“Please, please, please,” she whispered to the night sky. “Give me something to live for.”
A star winked at her, then disappeared. Just an airplane. It would be difficult to see the stars past the gray concrete of the apartment block.
A shadow moved in the parking lot. Emily studied it. Someone from her building getting in late? Most of her neighbors were short, and whoever this was had height. He moved into the edge of the light from the streetlamp. Emily estimated him to be past six feet tall with a body made of muscle. Broad shoulders strained against the flannel shirt he was wearing. His face was too shadowed to make out.
He took another step and disappeared from the light. Emily shivered. For a second there, she could have sworn he was looking right at her. Emily drew the curtains closed. She had to let go of foolish notions. She was an adult, and she was alone. No one was coming to rescue her and the night sky wasn’t listening to her pleas for help.
The universe was empty, and she was little more than a ghost drifting through it these days.
Emily changed out of her work clothes slowly. She was too young to feel this old, and too tired to fix it. Tomorrow she’d go to work, and she’d find something to keep her going one more day. That was all she needed. Life, one day at a time.
#
She pulled the curtains closed and cut off his view of her. Anthony frowned in the darkness of the parking lot. The place smelled like old garbage made too hot by the July sun. He’d come here looking for her.
Anthony came to this city once a year after he woke up from his hibernation and sought out a mate to slack his lust before he made his way back to his tribe. Usually he found it easiest to pick up a willing woman in a bar and have done with it after a night of pleasure.
He didn’t know why he was following this woman. He’d seen her walking down the street on her way to lunch and her soul had called out to his. The pain she was in was crushing. It had drawn him in like a bug zapper.
That was the problem with his gift of empathy. It was impossible for him to turn away from the call of another’s pain. The call of her pain had been so loud Anthony had thought her mortally wounded. That she was still walking and acting like any other human being was miraculous to him.
He wanted to save her, but he didn’t have time. He needed to deal with his lust and then move on. The tribe would grow impatient if he made them wait for too long. He shouldn’t be dawdling outside the windows of strange women that he wanted to take into his arms and comfort.
He tried to take two steps back from her window. Her invisible keen of pain caught in him like a
Similar Books
