“Well?” said the woman on the floor. “A little help?”

Dan nodded blankly, before lifting the stools up out of her way. Taking her hand, he helped her up, mumbling an apology.

“I’m so sorry,” he muttered, not quite able to look her full in the face. “I should have been watching where I was going.”

She lifted one eyebrow. “Yes, you should have.” Dusting herself down, she gave him a rueful smile as she tied her long, jet black hair, back into a ponytail. “But I’m sure it wasn’t done on purpose.”

"I was distracted by the guy outside," Dan tried to explain, aware that his cheeks were burning. "Some big guy. Anyway, I'm sorry. Can I buy you a drink to make up for knocking you over?" He tried his best winning smile, watching her dark blue eyes light up. Her smile took his breath away as her scent hit his nose full force. She smelled like cinnamon with a hint of vanilla, which just heightened his sudden attraction to her.

“Another time,” she promised. “I’d better get going.”

“Okay,” Dan replied, trying to hide his immediate disappointment with another quick smile. “I’ll see you another time, I hope.”

He watched her smile back at him, although her expression remained serious. “Maybe,” she murmured, turning away. “Not sure how long I’m here for.” She waved at him over her shoulder. “Bye.”

Dan watched her leave, muttering a ‘goodbye' a little too late. As the door swung closed behind her, he battled with a mad urge to run after her and beg for her phone number, but instead, he forced himself to go sit down at the bar. He didn't want to look desperate, not to mention she wasn’t going to be here long. It’d be best if he simply forgot about her.

“A beer,” he called, and the bartender nodded at once. Handing him a cool one, he wandered off to serve the other customers.

Dan sat in silence, drinking his beer. He was lonely, he admitted to himself, lonelier than he'd ever been. Perhaps seeing a stunning girl like that just made him realize how stupid he was. Groaning to himself, he dropped his head in his hands. The first thing he'd done, by way of introduction, was to knock her to the floor, followed by pushing down two bar stools on top of her. Not exactly a great first impression.

“Have another one,” came the bartender’s voice, pressing another beer into his hands. “On the house.”

Dan glanced up, surprised. “On the house? Why?”

The bartender - a slightly older man with a kind smile - shrugged. "You're new around these parts. Think it's about time we welcomed you. Even if you did knock down two of my bar stools."

“If anything’s broken, I’ll replace it,” Dan promised, but the bartender just shook his head.

“Don’t worry a bit about it,” he grinned. “I think you’ve been embarrassed enough!”

Appreciating the beer, as well as the gesture, Dan sat quietly in the bar for another half hour or so, just thinking things through. He was tired of being alone, but there didn't seem to be an easy way out of that for him. Given how he'd just managed to ruin his first impression with the only attractive girl he'd seen around these parts for some time, there wasn't a lot of hope for him. On top of that, he wasn't going to be going in for those quick relationships - the ones that started and ended in only a few days. He was looking for something permanent, and that wasn't going to happen with someone who wasn't sure whether she was going to even be staying in town or not. And then there was the problem of shifters. To have something long term, he needed to find a shifter for his mate. He didn’t even have a whiff of an impression that the girl with the jet black hair was a shifter.

After a couple more drinks, Dan sighed and himself away from the bar and got to his feet. “Thanks,” he muttered, paying for his drinks. “Think I’m going to head on home.”

“Good to see you,” the bartender replied. “You’re welcome here any time.”

Dan smiled, before leaving the bar. At least there was one thing going for this town, the people sure were friendly. Lucas used to want to keep the pack completely separate from humans. Something about them being weaker and not worth a shifter's time. When he'd heard that Nick had fallen in love with a human instead of a shifter, Lucas was pretty vocal about his disgust.

The Alliance pack sure were different, Dan thought to himself as he walked outside. There was a healthy respect between the pack members, and they certainly respected the humans in the town. That was one of the things Nick was worried about. When Lucas attacked, the last thing Nick wanted was to have any humans involved or hurt in any way. Dan grinned to himself as he remembered just how much Jo hated that she wasn't allowed to be involved in anything, even though she recognized that she wasn't a shifter.

His phone rang, and, as he flipped it open, he grinned at the caller I.d. “Hi, Jo. Something gone wrong with Nick’s amazing dinner?”

He heard Jo sigh, which made him laugh out loud. “What happened?”

“You don’t want to know,” Jo grumbled. “Let’s just say Nick isn’t allowed to cook again any time soon.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yup.”

Dan shook his head, struggling to be sympathetic in any way. He was already busy thinking of ways to poke fun at Nick when he saw him again.

“Listen, are you still at the bar?”

“Yeah, but I’m just about to head home.”

There was a slight pause. “Would you be able to pick us up some takeout?”

Dan chuckled. "All you guys eat is takeout! Aren't you getting bored of the same thing over and over?"

“We tried to eat a home-cooked meal tonight, didn’t we?” Jo replied, slightly defensively. “And look how that turned out!”

He had to admit she had a point. “Yeah, I guess so. Right, what can I get you?”

Listening carefully, he took Jo’s order, wandering along the street towards the Chinese takeout place. “And make sure to get something for yourself,” Jo finished. “You’re welcome to eat with us at the cabin.”

Dan screwed up his face. “So long as I’m not interrupting anything.”

“No, no,” Jo exclaimed. “Nothing like that. At least, not after the disaster that was meant to be our dinner!”

“I can almost smell the burnt food from here,” Dan joked, finally managing to get a slight chuckle from Jo. “I won’t be long.”

“Thank you, Dan,” Jo replied, sounding grateful. “I’ll see you soon.”