Well, that was because he wasn’t. He was a shifter… and I still loved him with my entire being.
I’d never stopped.
With my mind swirling in so many directions, I eventually drifted off to sleep and was embarrassed when a theater employee had to wake me up after the movie ended.
126
Holden
The look in Emory’s eyes as she’d left the clinic told me everything. That woman had never stopped loving me. She was still just as heartbroken over our breakup as I had been. I was kicking myself for not being more aggressive at trying to be around her these past months so I could read her emotions. Something I was very good at—my gift as a shifter. Her feelings had been pouring out of her in waves the second I entered that clinic and our eyes locked, and they’d gotten more intense when she left to go “think” and be alone. I had zero doubts that my queen was still completely in love with me, and that I would be able to win her back. For the first time in months, I felt hope and happiness. I felt relief, like a cloud had been lifted from above me.
“So… what are you going to do to win her back?” Nora quizzed me.
I grinned and slid my boots over my sockless feet. I was thankful I’d had the wherewithal to toe off my shoes before shifting in that medical room. No use in destroying a hundred-dollar pair of steel-toed boots just to prove a point. “I don’t need to do anything. She’ll come to me when she realizes she was wrong.”
Nora gasped but then bit back a smile. “Well, I guess you’re right… she shouldn’t have been so hasty as to leave and not hear you out.”
“And you should have let me talk to her when I came here all those times to try to explain myself.”
She smiled sheepishly at me and got up and flipped the sign to Open. Then she flicked open the blinds and looked at me. “Yeah… you’re right. I thought you’d cheated on her, though; she was so angry and hurt. I never could get her to tell me why y’all broke up.” She shook her head and walked over to the reception desk and leaned up against it. “Damn, what an easy fix that could have been if she would have. I could have just shown her that shifters were real.”
“Yeah, but… I have a feeling I’m not the only one she’s pissed at right now,” I commented, staring at the older woman.
“Oh, knowing Emory, she’s livid at me. But I know she’ll move past it. She’s a pretty forgiving person, for the most part.”
I snorted. “Coulda fooled me.”
She laughed. “True. Her grudge game has been pretty tight these past months.”
“And all for nothing.” I sighed. “So… what are you, anyway?”
Nora made a cat sound with her tongue and said, “Panther, of course.”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought for sure you were going to say cougar.”
“Nah, I like my men older.”
Drake and I burst out laughing. “You should stop by the club sometime. There are some single guys there who would love a panther like you.” I winked at her.
She wrinkled her nose. “Biker gangs? No thank you.”
I frowned. “We’re not a gang. We’re a club. A bunch of one-percenters.”
Nora rolled her eyes. “No. Now, git. I have work to do, and I don’t want you one-percenters scaring away any patients who come in here.”
“Hey, we’re not even wearing our cuts. We’re just a couple of electricians,” Drake commented.
“I know. Now go. I’ll keep you updated on Emory if she doesn’t contact you first—which I’m pretty sure won’t probably be the case.” Nora winked at me again as we left her clinic.
We got into my work truck and went back to the jobsite. After I cleaned the blood off the concrete where Drake had cut me with a box cutter to make me bleed for our trip to the clinic, the rest of the day went by quickly, and we got most of the wiring done. Drake, at one point, had to tell me to stop whistling—that it was annoying him. I had told him to fuck off. I was happy and he could kiss my ass.
Tired as hell, but still happy at the end of the day, I parked the truck in my driveway and grabbed my lunchbox from the passenger seat before exiting the vehicle. After I locked and armed the truck, I made my way up the walk and stopped short when I saw a gorgeous redhead standing at my front door.
From the tips of her sexy, red high-heels, up her creamy legs, to the jean miniskirt she wore and then to the black tank top that showed off the swell of her perfect breasts, I almost tripped as I stopped short in shock.
“Hi,” she said, looking coy and a little unsure.
I dropped my lunchbox and rushed over to the love of my life, taking her in my arms and crushing her to me. I wasted no time pressing my lips to hers, pushing all my emotions and hurt from the past few months into her mouth. She kissed me back, draping an arm around my neck and the other around my waist to pull me as close as I could be to her.
With my keys already in my hand, I unlocked my door and ushered us inside.
“Fuck, I’ve missed you so much,” I murmured against her lips as we broke our kiss.
“I’ve missed you more,” she replied, hopping up and wrapping her bare legs around my waist.
I was already hard as a rock, so I carried her to my bedroom, like the way I had the first time I’d