Chosen By The Moon - First In The Red Wolf Series.

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 11

The next day, I received no signs of Henry. No phone calls, texts or even a letter.

Nothing.

Nada

Zilch.

I yawned for the umpteenth time and take a glance at the wall clock behind the counter. 6:50 pm. I was helping Emma with the register since she had an exam she had to prepare for and so far, it was as boring as hell.

The doorbell jingled, signalling the entry of a person. I blinked my eyes to remove the sleep from them and stifled another yawn. “Welcome to Expresso. What would you…like to order?” I felt my face falling asleep already and I couldn’t wait to go home.

“You,” a male voice replied.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. “Sorry, dude, not for sale. You’ve got to pick from the…” I lifted my face to stare at the person that dared to disturb my peace with a cocky remark and felt my mouth drop to the floor. “Menu.”

Henry stood in all his glory with side-swept hair, a black shirt that hugged his muscles, tan coloured jeans and a huge smile on his ridiculously handsome face. “Hello, milaya.”

At that moment we stared at each other without moving a muscle as many emotions washed down on me like a waterfall. Surprise, anger, happiness and shame. My Henry was back. My heart swelled up in joy and happy tears streamed down my face.

“Henry!” I all but jumped over the counter and flung myself at him. He chuckled, twirling me around in his arms. When we came to a stop, he tucked my hair behind my ear and kissed my forehead. “Oh my goodness, you’re back. When did you come back? God, I missed you,” I gushed.

“I missed you too. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about you.”

“I’m so sorry—”

“I’m so sorry—”

We apologized at the same time and laughed. “Henry, I’m so sorry for pushing you away like that. I should have listened to you when you tried to explain.”

“No, it’s my fault. I should have told you what I was instead of keeping it away from you.” He patted my hair and ran his nose along my jaw. I gripped his hair as tight as I could, not wanting to let go of him and grinned when he growled in approval.

A loud clearing of a throat brought us back to reality and ruined the moment. It was then that I realized that we were acting lovey-dovey in public and I let go of Henry and settled for leaning on his chest.

“Chloe, who is this?” Seth asked, staring at Henry like he interrupted his favourite TV show.

“Um, Henry meet Seth. Seth, meet Henry, my…” What were Henry and I supposed to be called? Friends? Were we even friends?

“Her boyfriend,” Henry chimed in with a subtle hint of possessiveness that I detected in his tone. I blinked in surprise and almost choked on my saliva. That jerk! Unfortunately, Seth choked on his. “Are you okay?” I asked Seth.

“You have a boyfriend?!” Seth gaped.

“Y…yes. Henry is my boyfriend.” I gripped Henry’s hand tighter than usual, to let him know that I wasn’t done with him and I felt him smile against my skin. “Why is that so surprising?”

“Well, duh! You don’t look like the type that goes bow-chicka-wow-wow. You look more like the badass one that no one should mess with.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. “Um…thank you?”

“And you snagged yourself a real man. Like the sexy version of Taylor Lautner.” He licked his lips as he stared at Henry like her was some piece of hot candy. Well, he was a piece of hot candy, but my piece of hot candy!

There, I said it.

“You sure he’s not taken?”

“Oh, he’s taken.” I turned to Henry, “And you and I need to talk,” I said and grabbed his hand, pulling him to the door. “Seth, can you cover for me?”

“Again? That’s the third time this week! I can’t do this alone,” he whined. “Besides, I’ll be so lonely and ill be left with no one to talk to except,” he stole a glance at Regina who was already staring at Henry and twirling her hair in her finger, “the blonde witch.”

‘The blonde witch’ was Seth’s nickname for Regina because he swore that she was a witch by nighttime that fed off the despair of innocent souls. Emma and I had a fit of laughter when he told us that he had a handful of garlic to keep Regina away.

“Seth, that’s for vampires,” I had told him.

“So? That doesn’t mean they’re not all evil,” he replied.

“Seth, you have like three other people to help you.” When he looked adamant, I pulled on my best babyface—the one that makes me look cute, not the one that makes me look like an idiot—for him. “Please, I promise it will be the last time.”

He groaned in frustration. “Fine, woman.” I smiled and opened the exit door. “But just so you know, you and Emma owe me!” he shouted.

“What was that?” I asked immediately we stepped outside.

“What was what?” he asked casually.

“The whole ‘boyfriend’ thing. How could you pull a stunt like that?” I raked my hands through my hair. “Couldn’t you have just said that we were friends or something?”

Apparently, I had said something wrong because the next thing I knew was that I was trapped between a Peugeot and Henry’s body. “Friends,” his voice was dangerously low, “is that what you think we are?”