How to Survive a Werewolf Romance

Ch 1: Extraordinarily Ordinary

The sun was streaming in my bedroom window as I woke from a wonderful sleep. I stretched and pondered what I could remember of my dream, it had been about meeting my mate. His features were fuzzy to me, but I just knew that he was undeniably gorgeous.

Most of my dreams about finding my mate ended up as disturbing nightmares, so this one was a nice change.

Of course, it hadn't all been sunshine and roses. I had been forced to contend with his pregnant ex-girlfriend who was seriously mean to me. Luckily it turned out the baby was not actually his, but rather his best friend's, who was really the bad guy in disguise.

Even more fortunately, it turned out that for my entire life I had suppressed my powers and they came out at exactly the right moment. Apparently my father carried medusa genes, who could have guessed? And conveniently I had perfect control of my abilities from the moment I discovered them, so I only turned the villains to stone. All the likeable people in my dream were unharmed.

The absurdity of my imagination amused me.

Shaking off my sleep, I got up, showered, and ate breakfast at the kitchen island even though it was my day off. Since I had nothing exciting planned, Mom sent me to the store to buy sugar since she ran out while baking cookies.

As it was a beautiful mid-morning, I decided to walk. Strolling down the side of the road, I passed a few of our neighbours' houses before I made my way into the town proper, which was not saying much.

I have personally seen tumbleweed rolling down Main Street, so you can imagine how busy it was likely to be.

The grocery store was only another couple blocks away when the most amazing scent hit my nose.

I could not place what it was exactly. The scent was not food, nor drink, nor a bouquet of flowers, nor a scent of nature. It was something I had never smelled before, but was achingly familiar all at the same time. It made me want to find the source and lick whatever it was—probably the influence of my wolf, Maria, who was stirring in the back of my mind.

My eyes followed the direction of the wind, an unusually strong gust from the north-west, and found the town's lone gas station. It was definitely was not gasoline I could smell.

A trio of men on motorbikes were refuelling their machines. They all looked delightfully fit and my brain went into overdrive.

That smell was my mate. It had to be.

<YES!!! Finally!> my wolf howled.

Oh no. This had the potential to go so terribly wrong.

<Oh yes!> she trilled, completely ignoring my misgivings.

My stomach sunk. Every girl dreamed of her mate, and I was not entirely immune to those flights of fancy. But I couldn't ignore the truth. For every happily-ever-after, there was a story of two mismatched people who kept hurting each other with their terrible ridiculous choices.

Because the wind was blowing towards me, he had not detected me yet. It was simple. I could just walk away and whichever one of the helmeted riders was the source of the tantalizing scent, he would never know I had even been there.

But then, I would never know.

My wolf whined in the back of my head at my thought. She wanted to take control of our physical form.

It was a terrible idea. If I handed control over to her I would probably already be sitting on his lap on his bike making out. That was not going to happen.

Still, I could not just walk away.

Darn it, I thought, as I walked forward, unable to resist the urge of the pull.