The Unlikely Mate

Chapter 14

Lennox rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath before standing up. He walked across the room and began to clean out the day old coffee grounds from the filter, and reset the coffee pot to brew a full pot. He knew he had a lot to figure out and planned to be awake for quite some time.

As the coffee was brewing he went into the back room of the office and sat behind the desk. He began to shuffle through various items until he found what he was looking for, and he pulled the book toward him and thumbed through the pages until he found the entry he was looking for.

"Werewolves Among Men" he read aloud, and then continued to read through the chapters that followed. As he read, he made new notes in the margins and highlighted new things that he hadn't marked down, the previous several times he had read the manuscript in front of him.

A few years ago, he never would have believed such a sill fairytale about werewolves and monsters, but after he and Amy had been attacked that day in the woods, he had devoted himself to finding out more about the men who had turned into wolves before his eyes, and dragged his bride-to-be into the woods with them.

Lennox had studied everything he could fins about werewolves, most of which he had determined to be made up rubbish, but the book he had now, along with a few others had proven to have a significant about of information he had discovered to be true.

The book he was reading was written by someone referring to themselves as a "Hunter" who made it a way of life to track down werewolves to kill them. The author's goal was to eradicate the world of the wolf menace he blamed for a multitude of deaths and disappearances. Much of what he detailed in his book lined up with what Lennox had experienced that day in the woods, when his fiancée was taken. Lennox had been using this book as a guide for his own efforts of hunting down those who had attacked them, and had successfully killed two of the three werewolves who had been there that day.

The feelings from yesterday that had distracted him from his cause, almost feeling like he was ready to give up on them for the sake of the beautiful woman at the restaurant had begun to fade, and he was ready to once again dive into his work and finish what he had started.

*****

Jennifer sighed in relief, when she recognized Cameron and Tommy outside her door. She was afraid it was William, and she knew she wasn't ready to see him yet, so she welcomed the sight of her two co-workers as she opened her door.

"Hey guys" she said to them as she opened her door, an obvious note of relief in her voice.

"Are you ok?" Tommy asked, "We were out there knocking for a few minutes and we heard something. Sounded like a crash, or something breaking" he said as he tried to look past her into her living room to see if she was alone.

"Oh, yeah" she said, and opened the door for them to see. "I was asleep on the couch and fell on the coffee table when you knocked. It must have startled me or something." She knew they were all concerned about her and didn't want to raise further alarm, so she had quickly decided that it might be better to seem completely straightforward, and provide answers for them, rather than be secretive and let them speculate and get even more curious.

"You fell and broke your coffee table?" Cameron asked her skeptically, looking past her at the pieces of table that were on the floor.

"It was pretty feeble" Jennifer defended herself as she held the door open for them to enter.

The two men entered her apartment and stood awkwardly inside her door, looking around the room and noticing the broken furniture, but also how beautiful Jennifer was at that moment. The sleep she had gotten, although restless had helped to restore her after the happenings of earlier, and she was a little flushed from having just shifted, which brought a beautiful shade of pink to her cheeks and her hair was loosely flowing around her shoulders.

"We, umm... yeah, Katie wanted us to check on you... make sure you were alright" Tommy finally stammered out after a long few moments of the three of them just looking at each other and around the room.

"Yeah, you sure you're ok? That was weird today." Cameron said. "And that guy was weird. Have you met him before? He seemed really interested in you, even after you threw up on him. And then he stayed for a few more hours and just kept drinking and staring into space."

Jennifer's heart fluttered at the mention of 'that guy' she threw up on. She had no idea what to say about him to her co-workers.

"Yeah" she finally said, "that was weird. I don't know what happened, I think I just ate something bad."

"Are you feeling ok now?" Tommy asked her. "Will you be at work in the morning, or should we let the boss know you're sick."

"Oh, I'm fine" she reassured them quickly. "I'll be there for sure. Slept most of the afternoon and definitely won't need to take time off. I'm good to go."

"Alright," Cameron followed up. "We're going to go, but text Katie. She said you haven't responded to any of her texts and she wants to hear from you."

"I will" Jennifer responded, as the men left her apartment. "Thanks for checking on me."

"We'll see you tomorrow" Tommy said.

"Ok, bye" Jennifer said and the two men got into their car and drove away.

Jennifer closed her door and then walked over to where she had tossed her phone several hours before. She was afraid to see the messages it held, but she knew she had to face what was ahead. She had several texts from Katie, which she checked first.

Just checking in, seeing how you're doing.

Haven't heard from you, hope you're feeling better and getting some rest.

Ok, it's been several hours and you have responded. Let me know you're ok.

Hey, it's me. If I don't hear from you soon, I'm sending the guys to come check on you.

You should really give me some contact info for your family or something. What if something has happened to you, who am I going to get a hold of and how?

Ok, that's it, the guys are on their way. Please let me know you're ok.

Jennifer was a little annoyed at her friend's persistence, but was also grateful for it. It has been a long time since she felt like anyone really cared, and Katie didn't really know her, and seemed to be genuinely concerned. It was nice for Jennifer to feel like maybe she had a new friend, so she responded to let her friend know she was ok.

I'm fine, just fell asleep all afternoon. The guys just left, checked on me to make sure I was ok. I'm going to go to bed, but I'll see you at work tomorrow. Thanks for checking on me.

It's about time, I was worried sick! I'm glad you're ok, see you tomorrow. Rest up! Katie responded, almost immediately.

Jennifer then took a deep breath before she opened the text messages from William.

Author's Note - This story is scheduled for Publication at the end of February! 

Thank you for reading, please find the completed option on Amazon - Paperpack/Kindle soon!