Vanessa considered the document in front of her. She was supposed to be writing an upbeat text on chainsaws that a woodworking company had hired her to do, but found herself distracted by the sight of Green striding back and forth outside the window as he talked into his phone and the wind pulled at his hair and clothes.
After breakfast they'd headed to a café out by the waterfront and she'd spent the morning working while Green had walked off far enough that she couldn't overhear the conversations he had on his phone, but not far enough that he couldn't still keep an eye on her .
It irked her that he felt the need to constantly have her in view, but when she'd told him that he'd pointed out that she'd been poisoned a little over a day ago and that someone should look after her. Vanessa didn't need looking after, but she knew telling him that would be pointless so unless she felt like sneaking off and spending the rest of the day staying downwind she was stuck with him.
Being stuck with him wasn't all bad, though, she thought as he walked back and forth outside the café. He improved the view tremendously.
With a last glance at him, she turned back to the document. Chainsaws. Right. The text should have words like "cutting" and "revving" and those words went together with stuff like "edge" and "engine". She checked the product information to find out exactly what edge and engine and wrote all of that down.
She read through the rest of the information. Time for some fuel and fumes. Vanessa tried to picture herself out in the woods, cutting down trees. It took quite a bit of imagination since she liked trees and would prefer that they were left standing. People on the other hand... What if she was writing this for the crazy guy in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? She let herself fall into the rabbit hole of the horror movies and in two minutes she had a rather gruesome text which involved not one word of trees and logs and rather a lot of blood and entrails.
"They want to put that in an advertisement?"
Vanessa jumped. She'd been so lost in her world of intestines and splatter that she hadn't noticed that Green had finished his call and returned to the café. He was leaning in, reading over her shoulder.
"Probably not," Vanessa admitted.
"I didn't know you liked horror movies," Green said, pulling out a chair to sit next to her.
"I'm a werewolf. I practically live in a horror movie. It's nice to watch horror movies happen to other people sometimes."
Green rolled his eyes. "You're not living in a horror movie."
"I am being stalked by a dude who turns into a bloodthirsty monster and yesterday I was poisoned by a giant, shapeshifting snake."
"I don't turn into a bloodthirsty monster!"
"Debatable," Vanessa muttered as she saved a version of the chainsaw advertisement in the file where she kept her fictive short stories and quickly exchanged all the words alluding to humans in the text to wood. It wasn't the best piece of writing she'd ever done, but it was good enough to go in an internet ad.
"I know exactly what I'm doing when I'm in... my other form."
"Sure you do."
She quickly copied her text and started making alterations to fit the different makes and models of saws. With a change of adjective there and a shift of the order of words there she soon had ten short texts that seemed original. Honestly, how original could they expect her to be when writing about chainsaws?
"I've never done anything during a full moon I wouldn't have done otherwise."
Vanessa attached the word document with the text to an email and sent it to the firm while congratulating herself on making an easy ten bucks. Hopefully, they'd like it enough to let her write more.
"It's not as if I become something else, I'm still me, just... furry."
She looked up at Green who was glaring at her as if he expected a response. Vanessa tried to think back to what he'd been saying, but came up blank. Why was he talking to her anyway? Couldn't he see that she was working?
"Whatever you say," she said. That was a phrase that should cover all her bases. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a thesis about the rule of law I'm supposed to do a language check on so if you would..."
"Do you think of me as a monster?" Green asked.
"Er..." Vanessa realized this wasn't a discussion she wanted to have. Especially not at this precise moment, but she didn't want to lie either. "I think we're all, in a way, monsters."
"I'm not a monster."
"Okay," Vanessa said. "Good for you. Can I get back to work now?"
"You shouldn't think of yourself as a monster either," Green said. "We are beings who are made a certain way. We don't go out of our way to hurt anyone."
"Of course not. Listen, I need to work so if you could go talk..."
"You wouldn't have to work if you stopped being ridiculous and just went home with me."
Vanessa took a deep breath and tried not to be insulted.
"I like my work," she said. "I would keep doing it even if I went home with you."
"Good. Then we leave today."
"You're free to leave anytime you want," Vanessa said.
Green slammed his fist on the table hard enough to rattle their cups and plates. The other people in the café looked over at them and Vanessa had to close her eyes and count to ten to keep herself calm. She could feel her teeth elongating and her nails lengthening in preparation for her to shift.
Putting her hand in the pocket of her jeans she touched the necklace and felt her body return to its human form.
"What. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing," she ground out.
"I've been away from my pack for a week because of you and I have duties," Green growled.
Vanessa realized this must have something to do with the phone call he'd been on and tried to muster up some patience.
"Has something happened?" she asked.
"Like you care," Green snapped.
"I care that you're being a jerk," Vanessa snapped back.
"Oh, that's nice. First I'm a bloodthirsty monster, now I'm a jerk," he said, leaning in. "Tell me, am I moving in the right direction?"
"Like you care," Vanessa mimicked.
Green looked like he was going to explode. Vanessa had seen him angry before, but she'd never seen his face turn this exact shade of purple. Without saying another word, he stood up and walked out. Vanessa, along with the rest of the people in the café, heaved a sigh of relief. Still, she couldn't help feeling a twinge of disappointment and, damn it all, she was curious too.
Curious about what had set him off and curious about what it would have been like if he lost control and... she looked around at the other people in the café. Yes, it was definitely a good thing that he hadn't lost control. The consequences of him turning into a wolf in front of this many eyewitnesses would have been catastrophic. And yet... Vanessa shook herself and opened the file with the thesis she was supposed to be reading.
After ten minutes she looked out through the window. Green hadn't returned yet. She supposed he'd needed a long walk to cool down. Or maybe he was already on his way home. She felt an undeniable stab of pain at the thought of him leaving and berated herself for it. There were only ever two possible outcomes of this. One was her spending the rest of her life with Green and the other was Green leaving. Since she'd long ago decided never to mate with another wolf he was always going to leave in the end.
Annoyingly enough, her sound logic didn't make the hurt go away. Vanessa shook her head. She had no business feeling hurt and she definitely had no business wondering about where he'd gone off to.
Gathering up every bit of discipline she possessed, she turned back to the essay. Normally she liked philosophy and she had been looking forward to reading this. Damn Green for ruining this for her. He annoyed her when he was present and he annoyed her when he went away. She rubbed at her temples. Was she going to feel this way for the rest of her life?
With another glare out the empty window she tried to concentrate on the words she was supposed to be checking for errors. She might as well have been looking at runes for all the sense the text made to her.
"Focus, Vanessa, focus," she told herself. "He'll be back before you know it and then you'll be too busy yelling at him to read."
She really ought to take advantage of his absence. As soon as he returned, if he did return, they would have an argument and she wouldn't get anything more done today. The thought of all the things she was going to tell him, at the top of her lungs, when he came back gave her the energy to power through the abstract, background and methodology of the thesis.
Vanessa checked the time. It had been half an hour since he stormed out. She looked out through the window. Nothing but random pedestrians, traffic and the ocean. So much for keeping an eye out for her after her recent poisoning. It just went to show, didn't it, how much he actually cared?
She glared at the view and turned back to the document. At least she didn't... An unfamiliar melody rang through the air. Vanessa frowned. Why couldn't people keep their phones on silent? Or at least pick up when it rang?
She looked around the café, but no one was reaching for a phone. Typical. At least it stopped ringing after another minute. She'd double checked the hypothesis of the thesis and moved on to the discussion when the same phone went off again. Honestly!
Vanessa tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. It was really close and... she looked over at Green's chair. There it was. It must have fallen out of his pocket. She knew she should leave it there. She had no business getting involved with Green's business. No matter how curious she was. On the other hand it might be important. The display told her "Ted" was ringing. The phone stopped ringing before she'd made up her mind.
Just as well, she told herself. She wasn't his assistant. If he wanted his phone answered he should have taken it with him. He shouldn't have left it here for... the ringing started again. That was it, Vanessa thought and picked the phone up. She couldn't sit here listening to it all day. She pressed accept call and raised the phone to her ear.