Chapter One
Steam curled from the black pavement outside, burning away the early morning dew. The plants shriveled away from the intense sun, and anybody in their right mind was tucked away for the day. The only people out and about were the farmers, ranchers, and the students that thought they were too good for school.
Even the birds were quiet, hushed by the intense heat as they rested in the sparsely-leaved trees. The only sound was the rumble of big trucks as they whirred by, kicking up loose dust and litter that accumulated on the sides of the streets.
April Marino stared at her reflection in the mirror, smoothing down her apron for the hundredth time. She licked her fingers and pressed them against a few stray golden-blonde baby hairs that always sprung up when she least wanted them to. They stood up most often when she was at work, trying her best to get as many tips as she could. After the move, money was tight. She had to do what she could.
She flicked on the tap, scrubbing her hands until they were as clean as they were going to be. One last hand over her apron to keep it straight and April snatched up her coffee pot. She stopped behind the counter, away from customers, to fill up the pot.
Lisa, a friend, and coworker, leaned against the counter as her coffee brewed. If there was one thing that people went to the Jesse’s Diner for, it was coffee. In all of Aconitum, they were known for having the best coffee around. It wasn’t hard to get that reputation when it was the only diner for seventy miles.
“How’s it been today?” April asked. She started the drip on the coffee, letting the burbling water calm her before a long shift.
“Slow,” Lisa answered. She snapped her bright pink bubblegum, a knowing smirk on her face. “James is back again,” she said, as nonchalant as possible.
“Really?” April asked, sort of breathlessly. Her eyes darted around slightly, as she lowered her voice, hoping he wasn’t a table away. She could swear that the man had the ears of a dog; the type of person that could hear his name from a mile away.
“He hasn’t wanted anythin’ all morning except coffee,” she said, her lovely Southern drawl becoming more evident when she was excited about something. “Betcha’ you could change that real quick.”
April made a face, unsure how to feel about Lisa’s insistence. The coffee maker beeped at her, and she took the pot. Still, a little unnerved, April left Lisa leaning against the counter.
April walked around the counter, a bit of a swing to her hips and stopped by an older man’s table first. When she was turned to him, she tried to scan the other customers for James. In the back corner of the diner, she spotted a man wearing a brown, worn Stetson. April brushed it off; it wasn’t strange to see men wearing wide-brimmed cowboy hats in Aconitum.
“Here you go, Bill.” April greeted him with a grin, as she refilled his cup.
Bill glanced up, startled but pleased to have more coffee. He took the mug, raising it in thanks. “Thanks, darlin,’” he replied, a crooked smile spread across his lips.
April smiled back, tucking a loose lock of blonde hair behind her ear. “Is there something else I can get you?” she asked.
“That’ll be it, sugar.”
April nodded to him, making sure to keep a smile in place. She knew the people around here were just polite, but she would never get used to all the nicknames and endearments everyone used. Coming from a place like New York, she was entirely unused to it. There, being called sugar could be considered rude or derogatory in some cases. Men only called women that when they were being obnoxious. She would turn her head and try to ignore it. Here, strangers were friendly when they held open doors and called her darling.
She moved on from Bill, refilling coffee cups that had emptied in Lisa’s absence from the floor.
April paused just behind the man wearing the Stetson hat. Something similar to nervousness coursed through her blood, making her shiver. Even from the short distance, April could see the muscles pressing almost too-tightly against his faded, red flannel. He struck an imposing figure despite sitting forward with his elbows resting on the table. April steeled herself and took the last few steps until she was beside the man’s table.
She filled his cup, and the man immediately reached for a small plastic cup of vanilla creamer.
“Is there anything else I can get you?” she asked, the rehearsed line easily falling from her lips.
The man turned to face April, and her stomach broke out in its usual jittery summersaults around this man. James Sullivan gazed up at her, his chestnut eyes glinting even in the dingy, dirty lights of the diner. He gave April a once-over like he always did, his eyes resting for a long time on hers, neither daring to break their staring contest. April’s eyes flickered of their own accord across James’s face. She couldn’t be certain, but she thought she caught James doing the same.
The shadow cast by the brim of his Stetson could never hide the proud, strong features he was made of. Thick brows, high cheekbones, and a jawline carved from marble. The only marred feature was his nose that was slightly crooked, probably broken at one point or another in his life, though April couldn’t guess what happened.
After what felt like forever, James looked away. He set down the plastic menu; April knew he wasn’t reading it in the first place. Everyone that came through Jesse’s Diner already knew what they were going to get. With his other hand, he reached for his coffee mug and took a long, slow gulp.
April’s pulse raced, unable to tear her eyes away from the way his Adam’s apple bobbed with the mouthful of coffee. If she weren’t expected to be professional, she might have left to fan herself.
Everything about James was almost too good to be true. Heat coiled deep in her gut in a feeling that toed the line between kindergarten, nervous crush, and full-blown desire.
“Eggs and bacon hash,” James replied.
James’s voice startled April from her thoughts. Heat flooded her face as she internally scolded herself. What was she thinking eyeing James up while she was at work? April cleared her throat to try and cover up for her absent-mindedness. James gave her a little smile; one that tugged at the very corner of his full lips but nothing else.
“All right. Sunny-side up?” April guessed, collecting herself once again. James was the type of guy that always got the same thing.
He nodded.
April scurried away to the kitchen, glad to be away from James’s piercing stare.
“The usual for James,” she said to Jesse, the cook, and owner of the diner.
He flipped the eggs he was already working on without a spatula. April didn’t know how he pulled it off; the man must have been a magician. A flick of his wrist later, and he had two eggs cracked into another pan, letting them bubble away in bacon grease.
“He’s been around here a lot lately,” Jesse muttered. “Normally he keeps to himself.”
“Maybe he can’t cook?” April suggested. Even Lisa had noticed the difference in the town’s biggest celebrity.
Lisa, nosy as ever, leaned into the kitchen from her perch on the other side. She let out another loud crack of her bubblegum. “Or maybe he found a mate,” she giggled.
“What?” April asked. Her eyebrows furrowed as she made a face. “What are you talking about?”
“Ooh,” Lisa teased, a wide grin splitting her cheeks. “Haven’t you heard the rumors?”
“Get in here if you’re going to start talking about him,” Jesse scolded. “I don’t want to get on his bad side when he’s got the most money in this stinkin’ town.”
Lisa rolled her green eyes but followed Jesse’s orders. She slinked into the kitchen, one hand on her hip as Jesse began to turn over slices of bacon for James’s breakfast.
“You really haven’t heard?” Lisa repeated, standing closer to April than was necessary and lowering her voice. “There’s a lot that people say about the Sullivan family.”
“I haven’t been here for long,” April pointed out. She grabbed a plate for Jesse, offering it to him when he made a motion with his wrist. Delicately, he dumped two perfectly sunny-side up eggs onto James’s plate. “Besides, news about Aconitum doesn’t quite make it to New York.”
“Figures you big city girls wouldn’t know any of the fun stories,” Lisa jibed. “Sullivan’s started this town. They got their orchard going, and the town came up with it. Others moved in, settlers and cattlemen mostly,” she began, throwing an arm around April’s shoulders and drawing her in. “The Sullivan’s have been around since the beginning. And rumor has it that they’re a family of shifters,” she whispered.
April’s eyebrows furrowed once more. “A family of shifters?” she balked. Lisa was quick to shoot her a sharp shushing. April lowered her voice before continuing “That sounds ridiculous. He seems normal enough to me.” When was the last time April had heard something about shifters? Probably when she was still a child, and it was a term thrown around the playground.
“It sounds ridiculous, sure, but everyone in this town’ll swear by seeing a huge dog—wolf even—that looks real familiar. One with red fur and brown eyes. Know anyone by that description?” Lisa asked, waggling her eyebrows at April.
“James,” April whispered. She held her arm out, accepting the bacon and roasted potatoes from Jesse as he dumped them on the plate. “But I heard he was the only Sullivan out here? Bill told me the others died.”
“Bill told you they died but not how?” Jesse gaped. It was the first he was contributing to the conversation. “I’m surprised.”
“Did something bad happen?” April asked. Her head swiveled between the two, oblivious of the food on her plate growing colder.
“They disappeared,” Jesse said, leaving an air of mystery to his words.
“But if they disappeared, they might not be dead,” argued April.
“If you ask James, he’ll just tell you that they all got sick and died, but there was never a doctor out at their mansion that can confirm the story. Suspicious, isn’t it?” Jesse said, nudging his potatoes around a second pan.
April was unsure. Was it suspicious? Or was it simply a small town making up stories about a family that kept to themselves?
Lisa coughed, pulling attention back to herself. “Before they all got sick, there were more of those ‘dogs,’” she said, making sure to emphasize her words by making air quotes with her fingers. “All of them had red fur and brown eyes, just like all the Sullivan’s.”
“Twenty years ago,” Jesse continued.
“Thirty,” Lisa corrected. “It’s important that it’s thirty.”
Jesse made a face but shrugged. “Thirty years ago the town fell on hard times. Prices went up; people couldn’t afford food. Then, one day, the cattle and horses started disappearing. Men found their animals’ bodies, stripped to the bone. Some of the bones were cracked, with the marrow sucked right out of them.”
April shivered.
“Those men say they saw bloody, massive dogs fleeing the scene more than once,” Lisa assured. “And somehow, no one in the Sullivan family got any skinnier. They stayed the way they were.”
“One night,” Jesse said, picking up whenever Lisa left off, “the men decided to hunt down the dogs that’d been plaguing their livestock. Trapped a few, shot a few others. Bill was one of them. He’s got some of the red fur they pulled off those ‘dogs.’”
“He says they left one wolf alive, to spite it,” Lisa whispered. “A puppy. They wanted it to starve as retribution for its family killing their livestock.”
“What’s this matter?” April asked. “It sounds like an urban legend to me.”
“Think about it, April,” Lisa urged. “There’s no more wolves in Aconitum. There’s no more Sullivan’s, either. Just one, and he’s about thirty-years-old.”
April rolled her eyes, but there was a niggling at the back of her head. “I’m not falling for it,” she said. “I gotta get James his food before he comes back here. The last thing we want is for him to find out you two are telling stories about him.”
“They’re not stories!” Lisa insisted as the swinging door flipped shut behind April.
April walked briskly to James’s table, sliding the plate of food down in front of him. “Sorry about the wait,” April apologized, smiling at James kindly.
“Thank you,” James muttered.
Glad that James didn’t have a complaint, April turned on her heel to leave him be. She nearly yelped when a strong, warm hand closed around her wrist. She whipped around to James, who was once again staring at her with those gorgeous, golden eyes. April was taken aback. Golden?
James blinked, and his eyes were back to caramel brown. April pursed her lips. It must have been a trick of the light that made his eyes look so different.
“Do you believe those stories they told you?” he asked.
April bit down hard on her lower lip. Of course he heard us. He had supersonic hearing. The niggling thought in her head wormed its way forward, whispering something about having the hearing of a dog.
“I think they’re just stories,” April replied, hoping it was a good answer for him.
April’s heart thumped frantically against her chest, and her pulse was running at a hundred miles an hour. James’s fingers brushed over the pulse point on her wrist, and she could only hope he didn’t feel just how strongly his touch affected her body.
James kept his eyes on April for a long minute before finally letting go of her wrist. April snatched her arm back to her side, but she couldn’t help the feeling that she wanted James to keep touching her, even if it was only a brush against her arm. April’s thoughts trailed deeper, wondering how those big, strong hands would feel elsewhere on her body.
April had to scold herself again. James was a customer.
James reached up and tipped his hat to April in true gentlemanly fashion. April took her cue and left James to eat his breakfast. She walked back to the counter.
Lisa was at April’s side in a heartbeat, nudging April with her elbow.
“Did you get a good look at him? What’d I tell you?” she urged. “Those stories are true, April. Even if you don’t believe them.”
“Lisa, you should be quieter,” April whispered. “James heard us from back there.” She flushed thinking about the inquisitive look he’d given her, asking if she believed Jesse and Lisa. “It’s embarrassing, being asked if I believe some story about him and his family being shifters.”
Lisa tapped her temple and then pointed at April. “Think about it, sugar. How is it that James always hears us? He’s probably listenin’ in right now.”
“Some people have good hearing,” April argued.
Lisa raised her eyebrow so high it could have sprung right off her face. “Good enough hearing to hear us whispering in the kitchen with all the food cooking and Jesse bangin’ around pans?”
April pursed her lips. Lisa had her there. It did seem strange that no matter what they did, James always seemed to know about everything they said. It almost seemed inhuman. April scratched the thought from her mind and suppressed the image of an auburn-furred wolf.
“You’re just being silly,” April countered. “Don’t you think that if shifters were real, they would be on every news channel in the world? Studied by humans?”
“Maybe that’s why they keep to themselves,” Lisa said. She snapped her gum five times in quick succession. “I’m out for the afternoon. Think you can handle this craziness on your own?” Lisa asked, her voice laden and dripping with sarcasm.
April cracked a smile, glad to finally be away from talking about James and his family. “Yeah, I think I got this,” she agreed.
Lisa smiled back at April, quick to set down her empty coffee pot and strip off her apron. She called out a quick goodbye to Jesse then trotted out the front door with a wave to April. April didn’t miss the way Lisa’s head tracked pointedly in James’s direction before she left.
Time slowed to a crawl after that. April went about filling coffee cups and taking orders. Bill was the first to get up and leave, smiling and leaving April a small tip.
An hour passed. April was certain that James had gone through at least five cups of coffee before he finally got up and walked to the counter. He leaned heavily against it, waiting for April to go over to him.
“Was your breakfast good?” she asked, with a shy smile. She rang up James’s order in the older-style cash register, totaling the numbers for him. “Twelve dollars and sixteen cents,” she rattled off.
James handed over a few bills. April went through the motions, sorting the bills. She only stopped when she looked down at the money in her hands, counting it over again.
“James,” she said and chuckled, turning to him to hand back an extra twenty that managed to slip from his wallet. “I said twelve dollars, not thirty-five.”
April offered the bill to James, but his hand closed over hers. April’s heart leaped into her throat.
“Keep it,” James said. His voice was soft, the deep timber pouring from his lips. “For being so kind.”
“James, I can’t,” April whispered. “This is too much.”
James smiled at April. Not the kind of smile she’d received before; normally closed-off and fleeting. This one was broad, straight, white teeth gleaming at her. The smile stretched from ear to ear and even reached his brown eyes that glimmered in a way April didn’t think the man was capable of.
“I want you to have it,” he insisted. James pulled his hand away from April’s and turned to leave the small diner before she could protest again.
He walked through the door without looking back. April stared as he left. The doorway wasn’t at all narrow, but he had to duck to get through it without bumping the hat off his head. April’s mouth dropped open as he turned to the right to angle his broad shoulders through the frame.
With James gone, April stood dumbly behind the counter, a twenty-dollar bill crumpled in her hand and James’s change in the other hand. From the kitchen, Jesse let out a cartoonish howl and then burst into raucous laughter.