Queen of the Shifters

Chapter 3: Red Flags

TALLIA

“It's nice to meet you, Bryant. Sorry again for bumping into you," I said with a smile.

Bryant shook his head, then put out his hand.

I blinked at it before realizing he wanted to shake.

I extended my own and as we touched, there was a slight static shock that made me flinch and giggle before fully shaking his hand.

Bryant frowned down at our connection before he looked back at me. The green of his eyes kept fading from bright to normal as he stared.

My smile grew tight. He was so attractive it almost hurt to look at him. And something in him called out to my body. I ached to be closer. To hear his voice say my name.

But that was super weird.

I was pretty sure he wasn't human by the way his eyes kept acting and the way he kept sniffing the air like a weirdo, but I didn't know what exactly. Humans knew that we weren't alone. But besides the Supernatural Council, the other beings pretty much stuck to themselves. At least in this town they did. I'd heard in the bigger cities there were entire clubs designed to let humans and supernatural beings interact.

“It's fine. I should have stepped aside, but I got distracted." Bryant gave me a sharp smile, like I should know what he meant, but I didn't.

My eyes drifted back down to our still clasped hands, and I giggled before pulling free. Bryant's hand chased mine for a millisecond before he sucked in a deep breath and straightened.

Something inside of me screamed that I wanted to know everything about him, but the more rational part was wondering why the heck he made me feel that way. It didn't make sense. I'd never been interested in guys or dating before, so to have such a powerful reaction to a random stranger was completely out of the ordinary for me.

“Well, I better get home. It's getting late," I said, maintaining my smile.

Bryant's eyes narrowed in on me and my heart stuttered at the intensity of that look. Ever so slowly, he nodded. “Can I walk you part of the way? I'd like to get to know you better."

I should say no. Single women did not show strange men where they lived. Any i***t knew that. But the way he was looking at me pulled at my heartstrings. Like this mattered a whole heck of a lot to him. So I caved and nodded instead.

His eyes flared bright, and he pivoted so that he was beside me with his hand on my lower back. The heat that radiated off of this guy was intense. That ruled out vampire.

Something low in my stomach twinged at the contact and the meaning of it. It was dominant and possessive. The way his huge chest puffed out as he took my side practically screamed to everyone else that they needed to back off.

I never would have pegged something like that to be my thing, but suddenly it was. When he did it, it was super hot. I couldn't imagine allowing any other man to try to show me off as theirs like that, but Bryant seemed to be a different story.

The sun was in full setting mode as we started off down the sidewalk.

“What do you do around here?" he asked as we walked.

“I work at the grocery store." I shrugged and shot him a sheepish smile. “It doesn't pay much but it gets the job done."

“How old are you?"

“Twenty-one," I said. “You?"

He hesitated a beat. “I'm in my twenties as well."

I nodded. “What do you do for work?"

“I'm in charge of a lot of people."

I blinked at him, then twisted my lips into a frown. “You're being super vague and it's weirding me out."

Now it was his turn to blink at me. “You're very straightforward."

I shrugged and faced the sidewalk ahead of us. “Does that make you uncomfortable?" I was scared of his answer. For some reason, I really wanted him to like me.

He shook his head and faced forward, too. “No. I find it refreshing, actually."

My lips wanted to smile so badly, but I pressed them together as butterflies exploded in my stomach. One silly compliment shouldn't make me this happy.

He drew in a deep breath through his nose and his chest rumbled a little. My head whipped around so I could stare up at him.

His eyes stared down at me, glowing bright green.

“Should I be concerned about the way you're looking at me?" I asked.

Bryant shook his head, and his eyes faded back to a normal shade of green. Still brilliant, but less…other.

“No. You're the one person who never has to worry."

I couldn't decide if that was ominous or romantic. “Do you want to explain to me what's going on here?"

He sighed and shook his head again as we neared the front steps to my apartment building. “Not at this time." His tone left no room for argument, and he said it like someone who was used to getting his way.

I stopped and turned to face him, his hand falling away from my back and leaving the spot cold. “Look Bryant, you seem nice enough, but I'm not looking for anything at this moment and I'm really not interested in secrets. I'm a pretty straightforward person, so secrets and vague responses really don't work for me."

Bryant's eyes flared at my challenge, and he stepped closer into my space. “Are you turning me down before I even ask?"

I pressed my lips together to restrain my smile at his indignation. “I'm so sorry."

And I was. He seemed nice enough, and I was certainly attracted to him, but there was something off about him and I didn't like that he was hiding it. I really liked people to be upfront with me. I was like that with everyone, so I expected the same in return.

Which was probably why people called me gullible. I just expected honesty.

But Bryant was making it super obvious that something else was going on and if it was obvious to me, then it was clear as day to anyone else. I needed to put some space between us.

“I'll see you around town, Bryant. It was nice meeting you." I shot him one last smile and a wave before I turned and hurried into my building.

Once I was finally inside, I sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly as I made my way to my mailbox.

My body still hummed from being around Bryant, but I wasn't going to ignore the red flags he was throwing.