by Unknown
"You heard me." Helen said.
"I can do them tomorrow," Julia said. She gritted her teeth and tried to keep her tone civil. "I'll come in early—"
"They have to be shelved day-of-shipment," Helen said. "Not my rule. It's the college's rule. Do it tonight." Her head disappeared back into her office before Julia could speak another word of protest.
"This is crazy," Julia muttered, piling an armful of new books onto the top of the shelf.
"Excuse me? Did you say something?"
"Nothing!" Julia pushed the rolling rack away from Helen's office and heading around the corner to the book stacks. If she was going to get this done by midnight, she would have to get started. Thirty-four boxes of books to shelve—
"Hey, watch out!" The cart jerked to a stop, spilling books on the floor. One of the college students she'd run into dropped his notebook, and paper spilled everywhere. His friend laughed meanly.
"I'm sorry," she said automatically, bending down to clean up the mess. The college student yanked his papers out of her hand, not even meeting her eyes.
"Clumsy," he said, scoffing as he walked away.
"Weight equals momentum," his friend said as they turned away. "You didn't stand a chance against her!" Their laughter echoed in the hallway as they walked out of the library entrance. Julia bent down and shoved the books back onto the rolling rack roughly.
"Stupid boys," she said. "Don't know anything. They're mean anyway." She blinked fiercely to stop the tears that had pressed up against the backs of her eyes. She wished with all of her heart that she could be a college student like them, spending the day at class and studying in the library. All of the students that went to the college seemed to be young and beautiful, with bright futures ahead of them.
But no, not her. She didn't deserve it. The tears that had burned her eyes now spilled over her cheeks.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Julia whispered. "Dumbass jerks. Stupid frat boys." She knelt down to grab the last book off of the floor and a man's voice behind her startled her. The book tumbled from her fingers.
"Excuse me, can you show me where the audiobooks are?"
"We're closing," Julia snapped, wiping the tears from her eyes as she stood up. "I need to—"
She gasped as she looked up at the man in front of her. He was unlike any college student she'd ever seen, but he didn't look old enough to be a professor. She'd never seen him before. He was tall, with a shock of dark brown hair that tumbled over the dark glasses which concealed his eyes. His jawline was strong, his arms muscled, but his clean, crisp manner made it unlikely that he was one of the college jocks. In his hand was a polished wood cane with a red and white tip.
Julia felt a shock run through her body, a jolt of familiarity—from where?— accompanied by an intense desire that arced through her nerves at record speed. It startled her—the blind man standing in front of her was attractive, sure, but she had never fallen headlong for any boy just because of his handsomeness. This man, though, took her breath away as he stood in front of her, his expression polite and dignified, his features dark and masculine. The air between them crackled with electrical energy.
When Julia had been a little girl, her mother read her fairy tales. There were knights and wolves, and of course princesses. Princesses who fell asleep for ages or were poisoned to death, and woke up with a kiss once their Prince Charming had arrived. She had always imagined her very own Prince Charming. He would be tall, dark, and handsome, of course—all princes were—but he would also be smart. Daring. Intelligent. Ambitious. And kind. For years Julia had dreamed about her prince, but the time she had spent warding off advances from drunk college boys or too-old creepy professors had convinced her that such a man would never exist. Or if he did exist, she would never get to meet him. But at that moment when she looked up and saw the man's face, there was only one thought that ran through her mind.
That's him.
For one split second, she swore he had felt the same shock. His hands clenched at the top of his cane, and he raised both eyebrows in a look of surprise. But then he relaxed into a neutral expression, and she shook the thought of some kind of connection between them out of her head. There was no way.
"I'm so sorry to bother you," he said. The soft curve of his smile apologized a second time.
"I wouldn't ask if it weren't very important."
"Sure," she said. "I—I'm sorry for being so rude. I'll show them to you." She was glad that he couldn't see her face flushing. Her mom's Irish background had left her with auburn hair, emerald green eyes, and fair skin that blotched red if you so much as looked at it the wrong way in the mirror.
"Thank you," the blind man said. She led him to the stairs, then stopped at the bottom.
"Oh! I'm sorry," she said. "Do you want to take the elevator?"
"The stairs will be fine. I'm blind, not crippled," the man said, a half-smile dimpling his cheek. He had not shaved in a few days, it looked like, and the dimple was dark with stubble. Julia swallowed.
"Sure, of course. I'm sorry," she said, cursing herself in her head. First she had snapped angrily at a handicapped man. Then she'd insulted him.
"Hey." His fingers touched her elbow, and she turned back in surprise, a streak of heat unconsciously racing from her arm down to her groin. Of course he would touch her—that was the main sense he had to navigate with. He wasn't touching her for that reason, certainly not!
"Yes?" she asked.
"Don't stress over it," he said. "No big deal. Thank you for helping me even though it's late."
Julia gulped and nodded, then felt stupid for nodding.
"This way," she said, in a voice that she pretended was more professional than shaky. It had been way too long of a day, She led him up the stairs and to the audiobook section.
"Do you have a particular book you're looking for?" she asked.
"Well, it would be helpful to not have to go through all of these in Braille," the man said. "I'm looking for the local wildlife guide and one other book." He held a paper out in front of him, and she took it.
"The head librarian wrote the authors' names down for me," the man said, grinning. "I don't think she realized I couldn't read it."
"That would be my boss," Julia sighed. "She's...she's the kind of person who yells at deaf people."
"I'm glad I found you," the man said, smiling broadly in a way that made Julia think he might be flirting. His dark hair fell over his glasses and Julia wanted to push the strands of hair back behind his ears, even though she knew it didn't matter to him. What was hair in your eyes when you're blind? He wasn't flirting with her, though; he couldn't be. He had just met her. He was just being friendly.
"Going to hike?" Julia asked, focusing her attention on flipping through the audiobooks to find the right one.
"Something like that," the man said. "What's your name?"
"Uh, Julia," she said, and immediately felt bad for hesitating. He probably thought she was stupid, or paranoid. "What's yours?"
"Damien," the man said. He held out his hand in front of him, and it was a half second before Julia realized that he wanted to shake hands. She reached out awkwardly, and his fingers wrapped around her palm. The firmness of the grip shocked her—she hadn't expected him to grasp her handshake so tightly. She reconsidered her earlier assessment.
"Are you on one of the sports teams here?" she asked, in what she hoped was an innocuous tone.
"No, no," the man said, laughing as though the idea was ridiculous. "What about you? What do you study?"
"I—I'm not in school here," Julia said. Her face burned hot. "I just work here."
"How old are you?" Damien asked. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking. You sound young."
"I'm twenty-two," Julia said. "I never went to college, though. Here's the wildlife guide you wanted." She handed him the audiobook, and he clasped it in one hand.
"Why not?" Damien cocked his head curiously.
"Why didn't I go to college? B
ecause it's too damn expensive." Julia blushed at using a curse word, and also at her confession. "I have to stay here, anyway. My grandmother lives here."
"You take care of her?"
"I help her take care of herself," Julia said. She smiled at the thought of taking care of Granny Dee: the last person to try to "take care" of her had been swatted with the end of her walking stick on the rear and told in no ambiguous terms what she would do to him if he dared to come back and "take care" of her again.
"That's very kind of you," Damien said.
"Oh, and here's the other book you wanted," Julia said, pulling the audiobook from where it hung on the rack. "Fairytale and Folklore of Rural California."
"Thank you," Damien said, tucking both books under one arm.
"So you're looking for all kinds of wildlife," Julia said, a question in her voice. "Including fairies?"
"Including fairies," Damien said, bowing his head a little and smirking to show that her question hadn't offended him. "But mostly I'm curious about your monsters."
"Monsters?" Julia raised her eyebrows. Maybe this guy was a little bit of a freak.
"You know," he said, leaning forward toward her so that their faces were only a foot or so apart. "Bigfoot. Chupacabras. Werewolves. You never get any of those around here?" He tilted his head meaningfully, as though he expected a real answer.
"Not much," Julia said breezily. "Not unless you count that one time I was abducted by aliens. Or the time the Loch Ness monster poked its head out of the library toilet. But you know, there was that one instance when we saw a horde of trolls stampeding through downtown. Is that the kind of thing you're talking about?"
"Exactly," Damien said, laughing. Julia sensed that he was uncertain about something, she didn't know what.
"Sorry, no monsters around here," Julia said, a bit regretfully. "Anything else I can do for you?" she asked. Show you around town? And maybe into my bedroom? She shook the lascivious thoughts from her brain.
"That's it for today," Damien said. He had a look of disappointment on his face, and Julia didn't know why. "Thanks."
"No problem," she said. "Do you need me to, um, show you out?"
"I'll manage," he said, lifting the wood cane in front of him. "This got me in the library, it'll get me out."
"Oh, of course," Julia said, blushing again. "Sure."
"Thanks for your help," Damien said. "Julia, right?"
"Yes," she said. He offered a hand in front of her, and she took it timidly. His large fingers enveloped her palm and squeezed tightly. The warmth seemed to burn her skin, and he held on for a moment too long.
"It was nice to meet you, Julia," the man said. He walked off, his cane sweeping the ground in front of him. Julia's eyes tracked him to the end of the hallway...where a tall, slim blonde girl stood, leaning against the wall. She looked a few years younger than Julia, maybe a freshman here at the college. Damien stumbled as he walked toward her, but she didn't so much bother as uncross her arms.
"There you are!" she said, grinning at him. "Took you long enough!"
"I've got the books," Julia heard Damien say. Her heart tore apart as he held out his arm and the girl latched onto him. She tossed her hair and looked back at Julia, her eyes narrowing as she led Damien away.
He was out of your league, anyway, Julia thought. But the idea didn't help stop the tears from brimming over her eyelashes. She couldn't help but feel that her Prince Charming was walking out of her life, maybe forever, on the arm of a gorgeous, thin princess. Blinking hard, she turned back to her work and tried to forget the face of the blind man who had smiled at her so charmingly.
CHAPTER TWO
Damien
Damien felt her presence before he heard her. At first he thought that he was going crazy or having some kind of mental hallucination. He felt her frustration like an aura of emotion swirling around his own heart, and when she collided with the two college boys in the hallway he felt a jolt of embarrassment, as surely as if he had been embarrassed himself. By the time he realized what was happening, he had already swiveled his body around to listen better. Her voice. He needed to hear her voice. If she was who he thought she was—
"...stop feeling sorry for yourself..."
He heard the words resonate inside of his brain, echoing almost. It made him dizzy. He could picture her mouth in his mind, her full lips shaping the words. She sounded young, certainly younger than him. She sounded beautiful. In his mind an image swirled in his brain—fuzzy around the edges, but with a general outline of her long-lashed eyes, her flowing hair.
His nostrils flared slightly at her anger, and as he stepped forward to talk to her he suddenly found himself growing nervous. Was this the Calling that he felt? If so, that meant that this town was already occupied by wolves, and his pack would likely have to move on. But if it was the Calling—if he had found his mate—then she might come with him. The echoing sound of her voice and the emotive awareness gave him courage. Surely she would feel the same towards him, at least at first. Once she saw his face and knew about his deformity, she might very well decide that it was not worth it. She might choose another mate, one that was stronger, whole, if not emotionally as connected to her. But he had a shot.
As he spoke to her he felt her emotions shift rapidly. Anger, shame, a stifled desire. He could smell her perfume, a lovely violet scent, but underneath that was the scent of lust, a deeper, earthier smell that called to him and made his body react in response to hers. He suppressed his mounting desire and tried to make small talk, but it seemed that she did not share the connection with him. He found an excuse to touch her elbow and it shocked him. Her emotions, once they were in contact, were as clear as day to him. All of her feelings overlaid his own, separate but joined. She did not feel it, though, or perhaps she was ignoring her feelings because of his disability.
When she told him her name, he rolled the syllables around on his tongue as though tasting them. Julia. She had to be the one, he knew it. Yet she talked to him like he was a human, like she couldn't sense the intricate connection that had already started to grow and tangle between them. And then, after teasing her about werewolves and getting nothing in response, he realized what was wrong. It wasn't that she thought he was human at all.
She was human.
The Calling was wrong. The thought ran through his mind and was abandoned just as quickly. It couldn't be. Sure, sometimes couples would have different intensities of Calling, and sometimes wolves would settle for someone they weren't mates with at all for practical reasons, but he had always heard that once you found your true mate, it was obvious on both sides that it was a perfect match.
And there was never, never a Calling that would match a wolf and a human as mates. It was simply impossible.
Yet there she was.
He turned away from her reluctantly, feeling the connection between them stretch and untangle as he walked down the hallway. He heard Katherine's heels clicking on the tile floor long before the human girl saw her. As soon as Julia noticed who was picking him up, he felt a shock wave of sorrow from her, so strong that even at a distance it hit him hard in the chest. He gasped, stumbling forward. How could she not feel this connection?
Even though he knew his eyes were blind, he could not help but ache to turn and look at Julia one last time. To picture the image floating in his mind of what she was like. To reach out to her heart. She was hurting, and there was nothing he could do to stop that pain.
She was human, after all. And humans and wolves never mixed.
"What are you so lost in thought about?" Katherine said, opening the car door for him. He got in and set his cane down between his legs, leaning his head back against the seat. Dull twinges of pain were all that remained of Julia's hurt and anger. Already the encounter seemed like a dream. He had met his mate, and she was human.
"Nothing," he said. "Just wondering if this is the right town for us."
"Jordan thinks it's a good area," Katherine said. "It's a bad e
conomy, so lots of the houses are for sale cheap. And a college town is perfect. With so many people coming and going, nobody will pay any attention to us."
"Hmm, maybe," Damien said. "Let's see if the wildlife is anything to be reckoned with." He opened the audiobook and popped the CD into the car stereo. Werewolves didn't need to eat other animals, but fresh meat was definitely a plus. Damien really just wanted to make sure there weren't any other packs that would come through the area. Bears and wolves both would pose a problem, whether they were shifter packs or not.
"It's fine. Jordan smelled deer in the forest when he went out scouting today. And no other wolves, not a single one," Katherine said, driving quickly down the streets and making a sharp turn. Damien hated being in the passenger seat when she was driving, not knowing when the next turn would throw him up against the window made him irritable.
"He can't smell migratory patterns," Damien said, fast-forwarding the audiobook to the Chapter on large predators in the wild. "Who's to say that there aren't other packs coming through in the winter? Their smells would be gone by now."
"You don't want to settle anywhere," Katherine said.
"I want to settle," Damien growled. "For two years I've been trying to find the pack a place to settle. But you of all people should know that we need to find a place without other wolves."
Katherine shut up at that. Damien could hear her manicured fingernails scratching at the scar that ran across her entire stomach. She'd been left for dead, and she was well aware of the dangers of other packs. But occasionally she could be overconfident. Damien frowned, thinking about how he had connected with the human girl. He had to rewind the audiobook three times before he could focus enough to find out the important facts: that this area was clear of wolves for miles, and that the town that Jordan and Katherine had apparently fallen in love with was the perfect spot to live in. Except for one thing.
She lived here too.
CHAPTER THREE
Julia
Julia got back to the house just as the sun was starting to set. The dim rays seemed to set the branches of the pines on fire, the red and orange light casting halos on the trees. The river through the mountains shone red, too, and Julia paused on the porch, looking out onto the wide field of her grandmother's property. Her eye caught the sign that the bank had stuck in the front of their yard: Foreclosure. She frowned and went into the house as the sun dipped down lower and lower behind the darkened trees.
