A Girl and Her Wolf (Howl, #7) by Jody Morse, Jayme Morse Read Free Book Online

terms with why this had happened to her. For a long time, she’d been angry at Troy. How could she have had such strong feelings for someone who decided to ruin her life?
    “Maybe your life doesn’t have to be completely ruined,” Colby told her quietly, meeting her eyes. It was obvious he’d been listening in on her thoughts. “And maybe it would have been ruined otherwise. Maybe this was meant to be because you were going to get hit by a school bus or something and die. You might be an immortal for a reason.”
    She shrugged in response. “There’s no way we’ll ever really find out, I guess.” Glancing over at him, she asked, “So, now what?”
    Colby raised a blonde eyebrow at her. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, what happens with us being mates?” Emma questioned. “Where do we go from here?”
    He hesitated for a few moments. “Well, if you’re okay with it, maybe we could start dating.”
    “Dating? Hmm.” Now that she had gotten past the hardest part —telling him how she felt—his answer should have been obvious.
    The thing was . . . Emma wasn’t sure if she was fully ready for that yet. Even though she could no longer deny that she had feelings for him, there was still a part of her that wasn’t completely over Troy yet, either. She still didn’t understand why Troy had rejected her—why Jason had rejected her—but she worried that it all had to do with her . She didn’t deserve a good guy. Colby may have been a little dorky, but he was much, much too good for her.
    “We can always take things slow for now,” Colby said, seeming to sense her hesitation.
    She met his eyes, which were waiting expectantly for an answer. “I think I’d like that,” she agreed. “To take things slow . . . and just see what happens. Do you think that maybe we could keep this a secret, though?”
    His eyebrows knitted together. “Us dating, you mean?”
    She nodded. “It’s not that I want to keep you and me a secret, but I just want to keep things private for a while. I don’t think the whole pack needs to know our business, and if one of them finds out the truth, then the rest of them will, too.”
    “Okay,” Colby agreed with a nod. “That makes sense. It would probably be better if we don’t have outside influences when it comes to our relationship.”
    Emma narrowed her eyes at him. “If you’re going to date me, you need to stop talking like that.”
    “Like what?” His forehead wrinkled in confusion.
    “Like a smart person! ‘Outside influences’? Come on. Nobody actually talks like that,” she said.
    “I do,” Colby replied, seeming a little confused about why it bothered her. “Are you saying that you want me to dumb things down for you, Emma?”
    “Well, no . . .,” she stammered. “Maybe a little.”
    “I can do that, but . . .” He leaned over and, before she even realized what he was doing, felt his lips against hers.
    Her lip trembled, and as her knees buckled beneath her, she knew she wanted more. When she pulled away and looked into his eyes, she whispered, “Wow. No one’s ever kissed me like that before.”
    Colby grinned proudly, just as someone cackled in the corner of the room. A moment later, Bennett appeared in front of them.
    “What are you doing here?” Colby asked with raised eyebrows. “We didn’t use any white candles to conjure you.”
    Bennett shrugged. “It’s hit or miss. I seem to be able to come and go as I please a lot more lately than I used to be. I don’t need the same help appearing as I did back then, but perhaps it’s because this place is my home. In the future, I still might need to be conjured to protect you during a fight, especially if I’m in the company of others. Right now, however, I am happy to be here.” He floated across the room and tilted his head back with more laughter. “No one’s ever kissed me like that before,” he said in a girly voice, mocking Emma.
    She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest