Shiftr: Swipe Left for Love (Melissa) BBW Werewolf Romance (Hope Valley BBW online dating app romances Book 3) (7 page)

The next few hours passed slowly. Finally, at 10:30am, Melissa stood in front of her closet, sifting through her clothes. She wore an A-line mini-skirt more often than not, as it hid the bits she didn’t like and stopped her from looking too dumpy, but she didn’t want to give Harley the wrong signals. She hated wearing pants though; they didn’t flatter her shape
at all
. In the end, she picked black leggings and a sweater dress with a rolled neck. The dress was cut loose on her curves and finished half way down her thigh, while the high neck drew attention to her face. She felt a flicker of annoyance that her shape always necessitated such complicated clothing decisions. She picked out a new pair of knee-high brown leather boots and, before she left the apartment, she enveloped herself in a giant down coat. She thought she looked like caterpillar in it, but she didn’t care. Being warm outdoors was the most important thing. Then, she put on a dark brown knitted hat, which sat prettily on her curls, and she headed out to her car.

Chapter Four

Harley was already in the café. She could see him through the glass panel in the door. There was an open fire, and he was sitting in a nook right beside it. He looked great. A striped scarf was slung loosely around his neck, and his brown hair was tousled, as if he’d been running his hands through it repeatedly. Melissa had a fleeting urge to run her own hands through it. He smiled at her as she walked over to him.

“Thank you so much, again, for coming, Melissa,” he said. His voice was warm, but she detected an undercurrent of unease.

“I think I need to know the truth as much as you want me to hear it,” she replied, taking off her coat and hat. “I’ve tried so hard to forget about what happened, but I guess it was always going to come out someday.”

She ordered a mochaccino from the waitress. They were silent for a moment, neither of them sure how to begin. Melissa glanced around the café distractedly. It was a cozy place, with cherry-colored walls, and dark wood furnishings. It would be the perfect place for a winter date.
If the circumstances were different
, she reminded herself.

The waitress brought the coffee over.

“Tell me what happened, from the beginning,” Melissa said, once she’d gone. Harley cleared his throat.

“I was in math class, when I heard someone screaming from far away. I knew it was a sound of someone in pain and fear,” Harley said.

“But how could you tell from so far away?”

“Because I’m a wolf, Melissa,” he said, and the amber in his eyes became so bright that they were dazzling, and she had to look away. Fleetingly, she saw something of his wolf nature, and began to grasp that he wasn’t divided in two – half-human and half-animal – but his wolf was actually present all the time. It was unsettling and intriguing in equal measure.

“So I rushed out of the lesson and ran after the sound,” he continued. “I traced it to a door in the hallway that I’d never noticed before. And I picked up your scent immediately.”

“But how did you know my scent? You didn’t know me,” she said. He gazed deep into her eyes.

“I knew your smell because I liked you, Melissa,” he said. Her mouth fell open.

“But, why? No-one liked me. I was this chubby kid who everyone laughed at.” Harley broke into a smile.

“You were absolutely gorgeous. That curly blonde hair, those huge, innocent blue eyes. And those cute outfits you used to wear. You were every teenage werewolf’s fantasy.”

“But – ” Melissa faltered. This was too much to process. She’d think about it later, but first, she needed to hear the full story. “Anyway, so then what happened?”

“The door was locked, so I broke it down. I was horrified by what I saw. One of those kids was standing behind you, holding you down, while the other one was ripping your clothes off. They were laughing in a horrible, loserish way, like the nasty rednecks they were. You were barely conscious. Your head was lolling to the side. They must’ve drugged you or something. The room stank of alcohol. Well, I got them off you. I knocked one of them out, but, before I could get to the other one, he sliced my cheek open. I never even saw the knife. Then some kids came past, and it was all over. By the time they’d taken you to medical, it became obvious that the blame for the attack was going to be laid on me, and that those two dirtbags were going to get away with it. So, I ran, away from the town, and never came back again,” he finished. Melissa stared at his cheek openly.

“You had stitches.”

“Yes, 12. That thug cut me so badly that the bone was showing through. I was lucky I wasn’t blinded. Melissa looked at her nails again in disgust.

“My God. They said that I’d scratched you. Everyone colluded in it.” He shrugged.

“What can I say? The herd instinct can be lethal. And, unfortunately it tends to be a feature of small communities. Not Hope Valley, of course. There are good small towns and bad small towns.”

“And there are towns that are practically owned by Billy-Joe’s father. Do you know that Billy-Joe is in jail right now, for rape?” Melissa said. Harley’s eyes burned with anger.

“Maybe if everyone hadn’t been so gutless, he could have been stopped before that happened,” he said.

“I know. I feel so sorry for that girl, whoever she is.”

“I never forgot you, Melissa,” Harley said. “I put you to the back of my mind though. I didn’t expect to ever see you again. I also assumed that you had been indoctrinated into believing that it was I who attacked you. That was such a sickening thought to me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had to stay away from you. I had no idea you’d moved to Hope Valley, of course, so when I saw you at Connor and Lauren’s place, I was stunned.” Melissa laughed.

“You didn’t give any sign of it,” she said.

“I was desperately hoping that you wouldn’t recognize me. And you didn’t. But when I discovered that you were on Shiftr too, and that you were open to dating shape shifters, I started to wonder if there was a possibility that I’d be able to speak to you and explain that I was trying to help you that day, and that I’d never hurt you.”

“What did you do after you left the school?” Melisa asked gently.

“I’d joined the school because I wanted to get a formal education, much to my parents’ horror. Werewolves don’t usually mix and study with humans. We live in our packs and learn about pack politics, and that’s it. But I had a real thirst for knowledge, especially science. After I left the school, I spent two years teaching myself and managed to get myself a scholarship at Duke. I quickly figured out that I wanted to train as a doctor. The flip side of that is that my parents have banished me from the pack. I’m the son of the pack’s alpha – that means the leader – and my father said that no son of his is going to slave away like a human. So they kicked me out. I hope that may change in the future, but that’s the situation for now.”

“I’m so sorry,” Melissa said. “That must be really hard.”

“It is sometimes.” He shrugged. “But luckily other shifters have been really accepting of me, and I’ve made some great friends in Hope Valley. I’m the doctor for pretty much all the shifters here too.”

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“Melissa, I know there’s a lot to think about,” he said. “I feel that you’re beginning to trust me, but I want you to be 100% assured of my part in what happened. If there’s anything else I can do to help prove my innocence, can you please let me know?”

Melissa stared into her mochaccino while she gathered her thoughts.

“What you’ve said to me just now has reassured me a lot,” she said slowly. “Nothing in your account has jarred with my experience of what happened to me. What I can remember of it anyway. There’s just one more thing I need to do though, to set my mind at rest.”

“Of course. Please take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere. And when you’re sure about me, I’ll be waiting.” His eyes sparkled with emotion. “My feelings haven’t changed. You’re the girl I’ve always wanted to be with, ever since I was a kid. I’ve spent years thinking about you, hating the fact that you’ve probably been thinking about me too, but for entirely different reasons. I’ve felt so privileged to be able to get to know you over the past few days, and to discover that you have a personality every bit as lovely as I imagined. When I saw that Shiftr had identified us as a perfect match, I was so, so happy, and it gave me a glimmer of hope that one day, you’d be mine.” Melissa was stuck for words. No-one had said anything like that to her before. She’d never thought of herself as the kind of girl who aroused passionate feeling in men. Even when her husband had proposed to her, he’d used phrases like ‘
we work well together’, ‘I think you’d be a great mother to my children’.
Harley had been thinking about her ever since high school. Even though rescuing her had left him scarred for life.  

“I don’t think I need long,” she said. “Maybe only half an hour. I’m not sure. Is that ok?”

“Of course,” he said.

When Melissa stood up and left the cafe, she felt like she was tearing herself away from him. She walked quickly across the town square and returned to her car. Closing herself in, she dialed her mom’s number again. Her mom answered immediately.

“What’s going on, baby? Are you ok?” she said, her voice full of anxiety.

“Yes, I’m fine, mom,” she said. “But I need to ask you to do something for me.”

“Of course. What is it?”

“Do you remember my high school math teacher – Miss Henson?”

“Yes I do. She’s retired now, of course. She’s a little frail these days, but she still has all her mental faculties.”

“Could you find her number in the directory for me, please?”

“Sure, honey, but why?”

“I just have something important to ask her.” Melissa’s mom laid the phone down while she searched for it, and Melissa smiled to herself as she listened to things being moved around. The farmhouse kitchen always accumulated a lot of stuff, and finding anything took a lot of dedication. There was a rustle as the phone was picked up again.

“Ok, it’s 975-8845.”

“Thanks, mom.”

“You’re welcome. But please tell me what’s going on as soon as you can, ok?”

“I will,” Melissa promised, and they ended the call. 

Melissa’s hand trembled a little as she dialed Miss Henson’s number. It took a long time before a soft, quavery voice answered. Melissa realized that her old math teacher was now a really old lady. She’d seemed ancient at the time, although all adults did when you were a teen. But she was likely in her mid-eighties now.

“Hello, Miss Henson,” she said. “My name is Melissa Ericson. You used to be my math teacher. I’m not sure if you remember me?” Miss Henson made a polite sound of uncertainty. “I was blonde, short, and kind of chubby. The other kids used to tease me quite a lot.”

“I’m sorry, dear. I’ve just taught so many children over the years. It’s hard to remember,” the old lady said. Melissa wasn’t surprised; she had never excelled at math, or been one of the disruptive kids that teachers remembered.

“It’s ok, don’t worry. But maybe you remember James Thomson? He was tall and well built, and he always used to wear a leather jacket. He wasn’t in the school for very long though.”

“Oh, yes, James. I do remember that young man,” Miss Henson said, her voice brightening. “He was the most talented mathematician I ever had the pleasure of teaching. He left one day, quite suddenly though, and I never saw him again. I was very sorry to lose him.” Melissa’s heart began to beat fast.

“Miss Henson, I know it’s been a really long time, but can you think back to the day that he left?”

“Why, yes I can dear. I remember it well, as a matter of fact. I was teaching my standard lesson to the class. I’d left them with some problems to solve and I was sitting next to James, helping him with advanced calculus, when he suddenly sat up straight and said
‘what’s that noise?’
I couldn’t hear any noise, and I told him so. Well, the old don’t hear as well as the young.
‘There’s someone screaming – a girl,’
he said. Then he leapt out of his seat and hightailed it out of the room, as if someone had lit a fire underneath him. And that was it. I never saw him again. It was the same day that poor little girl was attacked. Everyone blamed James for the attack, but I didn’t think it was his fault. I tried to tell the police that he’d been in my math class at the time of the attack, and that he’d left suddenly. It was as if he knew something was going on. But no-one wanted to listen to me. I was dismissed as a silly old lady. It never felt right that those two kids – what were their names? – ended up being hailed as heroes, while poor James was cast out. But I guess these things happen from time to time.”

“Thank you, Miss Henson, you’ve been a huge help,” Melissa said.

“Of course, dear, but I don’t think I did anything?” the old lady said.

“You’ve done more than you could ever realize,” Melissa replied.

When she’d ended the call, Melissa lolled back in the car seat with her eyes closed. A single tear ran down her cheek. This was the proof she needed. Poor Harley. He’d saved her and he’d ended up suffering for it. He’d been scapegoated by everybody. Even her own parents had tacitly participated in it, convincing themselves that their daughter had been harmed by something outside of their community.

Melissa got out of the car and walked back to the café as fast as she could without slipping in the snow.
Will he still be there?
She didn’t even know how long she’d been gone.
Was it 20 minutes, or more like 45?
Her heart was hammering in her chest. She arrived at the café and hauled the door open. He was there. Exactly as she’d left him. He looked at her searchingly and she smiled at him, before striding across the room and joining him. She launched into the conversation without any preliminaries.

“I spoke to our old math teacher,” she said. “She remembers you well. And she remembers the day you told her that you could hear someone screaming and ran out of her lesson. She was sure that you didn’t attack me, and she told the police at the time, but no-one listened to her.” Harley’s face lit up.

“That’s great!” he exclaimed. “Does this mean that – ?”

“Yes,” Melissa interrupted, unable to contain herself. “It was the final bit of proof that I needed.” His hand was resting on the tabletop, and she laid her hand on top of it. “Harley, I owe you so much for protecting me that day.”