Big Red and the Little Wolf

Chapter 12

Echo Pov

I forced myself to not react to his presence. There was no telling how the mate bond would be for a hunter, whether he would be just as drawn to my essence as I was to his. Instead of meeting his gaze like I so desperately wanted to, I kept my eyes on the table in front of me. When I pictured my first meeting with my mate after tracking him down, I didn't imagine that I would be scrubbing tables with a soppy wet rag at the same time.

It could be worse, I reminded myself. He could be aiming a gun at my furry hide in the woods.

As I finished wiping up the dirty table, I stepped away to walk back towards the bar. Not to pour drinks, of course. Since I had no prior experience, Mikey didn't want me handling the drinks just yet. If I were lucky, he would wait until Red was on a shift with me to teach me how. But for now, I was collecting empty glasses to clean in the back.

Without being too obvious, I took a peek at my mate from behind the bar. Sure enough, he was wearing the red hood that helped lead me to him. His back was to me as he sat with two other gentlemen around the same age as him. It didn't require my strong sense of smell to figure that they were the other hunters that infiltrated our woods with him.

My mouth soured at the thought. Seeing the other hunters reminded me that it wasn't long ago that one of them shot me. The thought reminded me of how the idea of a mate blinded me so much that I would travel out here and put myself in danger.

The fact that these hunters, potentially my own mate, had already tried to kill me made me uneasy, but I wouldn't turn back now. Derek and Violet were the only two who had accepted me as I am. A half-breed. Not as strong as a full-blooded werewolf, but not normal enough to be human. My mate, being a hunter, didn't exactly show a lot of promise when it came to acceptance, but I had to find out if I could find a place in this world with him, even if it killed me.

The rest of the shift consisted of me bent over the sink. Each time I was ready to drain the soapy water, Mikey would bring in more dishes and empty glasses to wash. My fingers had pruned up so much, I really considered shifting into my wolf inside the pub so my mate and his friends could take me out of my misery. If this job didn't get any better after day one, this would have been a grave mistake.

"Thanks for all your work, lass," Mikey said as soon as he walked into the back. I was finishing up drying the last few dishes that I had. With my luck, I would not be getting to actually meet my tonight as he was likely long gone by now. "If it were just me here tonight, all these dishes would've been piled up to take care of tomorrow. I'm finishing up with my last regulars. Once you wipe down the rest of the tables, you're free to go."

"Of course."

I grabbed a clean rag from the closet and went back to the main room to wash the tables. After a long night on my feet, I couldn't wait to lie down at the inn regardless of how stiff the mattress was there.

"I didn't realize Mikey was hiring."

His voice smoothed over me like satin draped over bare skin. It came from behind me, but the way my body felt pulled to his words gave away that the voice belonged to my mate.

I turned towards him, slow enough for me to mull over my response to him. "Someone needs to cover for when you'd rather be on the other side of the bar."

His deep amber eyes glinted like the freshly poured darker ales that had been served throughout the night. My comment sparked his intrigue, clear through the tilt at the corner of his mouth. "In my defense, I was a customer of Mikey's long before I started working for him. I see he has you doing all his dirty work."

I shrugged. "Not sure I should be serving drinks when I don't even drink myself."

"If you don't drink, that may explain why I haven't seen you around before. How did you end up here?" He put his hands in the pocket of his red hoodie as if his relaxed posture would make it feel less like an interrogation. I reminded myself that he had no reason to be suspicious of me. At least, not yet.

"My family and I haven't really been seeing eye to eye." This was as close to the truth as I could get. Afterall, I hadn't seen my mother in the last four years. "I've been giving the nomad life a shot, which has led me to this town, where I hear this pub is the place to be."

"Then you've been talking to the right sources."

I simply nodded, not wanting him to press my backstory any further. I turned to finish cleaning the last couple tables, but he didn't let the conversation end there.

"And I'm assuming Mikey has told you about me if you already know that I work here. I'm Kodi, but everybody calls me Red because of this hoodie right here."

"It's quite the fashion statement. Makes you easier to identify." I silently cursed myself. Why would I say something like that? I might as well have a neon sign above my head that said I had been tracking him up until this point.

"I guess so. But everyone in this town knows everyone anyway." He shrugged. "What about you?"

"What about me?" I furrowed my brows, not sure what he meant. I didn't have a piece of clothing that I wore everywhere. If people at the pack hadn't been so disgusted with my presence, I had a feeling none of them would've recognized who I was at all.

I set the rag down, finally finished with the tables. Then I pushed the front door open to exit the pub. As much as bantering with my mate for the first time awakened something inside of me, I was still terribly exhausted from working on my feet all night. The longer we talked, the more difficult it would certainly be to leave the pub.

Unsurprisingly, Kodi followed me out the door. He was still looking for his answer.

"Your name?"

I turned my face from the lights outside the pub, hoping he would miss the way my cheeks flushed in the dark. Of course he wanted to know my name. Talking to him had come as easily as if we had known each other forever. Introducing myself slipped past my mind.

"Echo."

His brow rose ever so slightly. "I've never met anyone named Echo before."

I lifted my shoulder in a lighthearted shrug. "Well now you have."

Just as I turned to begin walking down the path, he spoke again. "Do you have a car?"

I looked back at him. "No. I was just going to walk."

He shook his head, causing the dark brown strands of his hair to dance across his forehead. Though his hair was shorter at the sides, he had just enough hair at the top to have movement of its own.

"There is no way that I am going to let that happen. Letting a young lass walk home at this time of night, and alone at that, would never leave my conscience."

"You don't have to walk me back."

"I'm not. My truck is in the back of the lot over there, I'll drive you." He jerked his head to the few cars left towards the other side of the pub.

"I just met you," I blurted out. As much as I wanted to be closer to my mate, I still had yet to learn what he was capable of.

He began to walk backwards to his car as he warned, "Trust me, there are creatures far more threatening than me in those woods you were planning to walk alongside."

If only he knew the real danger he posed to my life, I thought to myself.

When he turned to walk to his truck, I followed a few steps behind him. A human girl would be afraid of walking home alone in the dark.