Being(s) In Love 03 - A Beginner’s Guide to Wooing Your Mate (12 page)

Zeki hadn’t known how to answer. Everyone knew he could work magic. They should have known deep down what he was capable of. But Jason and Kevin hadn’t. Neither had Theo. “Yeah, so?” he’d challenged at last, raw with everything that had just happened and Theo so close.

Theo’s smile had been like salt in the wound. “That’s why I didn’t know before.”

“Who I was?” Zeki had wondered in confused irritation. Theo was tall and strong, towering easily over him without trying, but his gaze was soft, so soft Zeki could fall safely into it if he wanted. He might have if his body hadn’t been tense and hot with embarrassment.

“I know who you are now. But that’s all I know.” Theo had seemed sort of mesmerized. His words had emerged slowly. Then he’d stopped to breathe in deep. He hadn’t scratched his nose for Zeki’s “weird magic smell.” He hadn’t done anything for a while but pull in long, dragging breaths that made him frown, then smile. He’d been close enough to touch by then. Right as Zeki had thought it, Theo had reached out and placed a hand on his arm.

Almost immediately he’d yanked his hand away. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! I won’t again unless you say so.” The thrill of hearing Theo talk that much to him was nothing to the trembling excitement in Theo’s voice. “I wasn’t expecting this. I didn’t know you before.”

That statement, as much as Theo’s withdrawn hand, made Zeki scowl and straighten up. “I’ve been in your English class all year. All you had to do was turn around.” He gave too much away. Theo stopped breathing entirely, and Zeki took his gaze away to glare at the floor. “I didn’t mean for you to know.” He’d squirmed to know what Theo would think of him and his stupid crush.

But Theo’s silence had made him raise his head again. Theo had blinked, still dazed. “You… didn’t want me to know?” he echoed, sounding lost. “What about…?” He exhaled in something like worry. “We could… try it? We could go to Thaw. You should… you could ask. We haven’t even gotten to know each other.”

“What is this?” Zeki had glanced around for Jason and Kevin, expecting to find them lurking around a corner, laughing their asses off. “What did they tell you? Well, I don’t need this, even from you. No, especially from you.” His heart had been racing, making his words loud and bold. “No. I don’t want any of this, whatever you’re thinking. I have other things…. I’m not that….
No.
”

The second it was out of his mouth, it occurred to him that Theo Greenleaf didn’t have to pity date anyone. Theo was smart and gorgeous and practically werewolf royalty. He could date anyone he wanted, had probably made out with countless weres at The Meadows.

Zeki had flung his arm out as if that would bring his words back, and met Theo Greenleaf’s stricken gaze a final time.

“You’re right.” Theo immediately dropped his eyes to his feet while Zeki floundered. “I shouldn’t have asked or touched you. It was wrong of me. You already said you didn’t want me… you didn’t want me to know. I shouldn’t have done it. It’s no wonder you said no.” He’d been practically panting then, like a trapped animal. Zeki had hated himself for the thought but never got to apologize for it. Theo had tripped backward and then run off with all the speed werewolves were capable of.

Theo hadn’t come to class after that. Werewolves didn’t get sick, yet Theo hadn’t come in at all for the last week of school. He must have already had his credits. Zeki had hoped he’d show up despite that, maybe give him a chance to try again, if Theo had been serious about going to Thaw together. But he must not have been, or not that serious anyway.

He hadn’t been around that summer either. Zeki had gone to Thaw for the first time, alone, and walked around the booths and tents with sad hopes of seeing him there, but he’d never caught even a glimpse of Theo, not then, and not during the rest of the summer. Zeki had missed the Full Moon festival in August because he’d been off to college by then, but he didn’t think Theo had attended it. His family must have taken him out of school early for a vacation.

A knock at the door broke Zeki out of the memories, and he got up to answer it, expecting a friend of his dad’s or maybe a delivery. Instead, the most incredible werewolf he’d ever seen filled up the doorway, blocking Zeki’s view of the stairs.

Zeki blinked a few times, but the werewolf didn’t disappear like a sex fantasy or a dream should have. He stayed at the threshold, silently and politely waiting for Zeki to get a hold of himself.

Shocking people into silence with his looks must happen to him every day.

Zeki could believe it. He shut his mouth, then tilted his head back to look this were in the eye. Too late for his dignity, he noticed the tan uniform the werewolf was wearing, as well as the radio and belt and tight pants. The werewolf’s shirt had been unbuttoned at the top to expose a lethal amount of dark brown skin, and Zeki sighed a little.

There were scars, faint ones, curled around the back of the were’s neck, below his hairline. They were likely from a fight. Zeki was so grateful Theo wasn’t the kind of werewolf who was always ready to challenge someone, either for play or work. Theo might fight fires, but he didn’t put himself in danger the way this wolf did. Zeki had done a few pain rituals and didn’t like to think of Theo enduring anything like that, even with faster healing than a human.

Zeki met the were’s gaze once again. His staring had been pretty blatant, but even by the standards of werewolves, this man was a god—height and broad shoulders, thick muscle, graceful, economic motion, and a steady, beautifully fierce stare. Zeki waved his hand in a loose apology for his leering. Words weren’t quite available to him yet.

The werewolf raised an eyebrow. The gesture conveyed both sarcasm and a question, Zeki decided. He was getting back in the habit of reading werewolves’ body language, although he’d never be as good at it as they were.

He cleared his throat. “You have got to be the sheriff I keep hearing about.”

The sheriff regarded him without any change in expression. That level of control in a werewolf who, at this range, had to know everything Zeki was feeling, made Zeki sigh again, this time in envy. He’d trained for that kind of control. He wondered where the sheriff had learned it.

“Nathaniel Neri,” the sheriff introduced himself, his voice sparking primitive reactions in Zeki’s brain.

Zeki shivered despite himself.

Someone had rejected
this,
Zeki realized distantly. He didn’t gape, but his mouth must have softened with surprise or pity, and the sheriff must have been used to that response too, because he let out a small, tired breath.

Zeki straightened as if he’d been chastened for gossiping. “What can I do for you?” he inquired, all business. “Or did you need my dad for something?”

That earned him another eyebrow lift, both eyebrows this time. Sheriff Neri hadn’t expected Zeki to respond like that. But he carried on without addressing his surprise. “I have a personal matter to discuss with you, Wizard Janowitz.” Zeki was too startled at the formal use of the title to react to the idea of the sheriff’s “personal matter.” The sheriff inclined his head. “May I come in?” It was nicely put from someone who could probably do what he pleased in this town. The sheriff ran the wolves, and the wolves
were
the town. The town council just did the paperwork.

Zeki was once again shocked that someone had rejected the sheriff. Zeki wasn’t much for bottoming, but the sheriff was the kind he’d make exceptions for, if he were interested. Of course, dating the sheriff would be like dating the town, and Sheriff Neri definitely seemed like the take-charge type. Zeki didn’t need someone trying to take charge and messing up his work, and he didn’t want to date the town; he merely wanted to convince stupid, stubborn werewolves that magic could be okay.

But the sheriff was here on personal, magical business. That meant Zeki got to take the reins. He stepped aside for the sheriff to enter and shut the door behind him.

The apartment was suddenly very small. Zeki had the fleeting image of Theo in his dad’s living room, equally as tall, if not as imposing, and imagined Theo stooping to take up less space. He calmed a bit, even smiled at the thought, and went around the sheriff to offer him a place to sit, which of course the sheriff did not accept.

The sheriff sniffed the air in the direction of the kitchen and then drew his eyebrows together thoughtfully. Even that was intimidatingly sexy when he did it.

Zeki hadn’t asked for a visit from intimidatingly sexy Sheriff Neri. He made a face. “Have I done something wrong? Don’t tell me brownies are forbidden in Wolf’s Paw.”

The remark was mostly meant as sarcasm. Sheriff Neri focused on Zeki. His stare seemed to imply Zeki had in fact done something wrong. But when he spoke, his tone was mild. “I wanted to ask you some questions about magic.”

Magic was the only reason anyone in this town had to contact Zeki. Magic was also why many of them avoided him. He blinked. “Magic?” Perhaps his mind was still in a euphoric brownie fog.

“You are trained in working magic, aren’t you?” Sheriff Neri’s magnificent frown deepened.

Zeki fought hard not to roll his eyes. “You know I am. The gossip in this town—”

“Is detailed and thorough and, oddly enough, rarely wrong,” the sheriff interrupted, and then went on. “Even when we wish it was.” The joke, if it was a joke, was very dry.

Zeki found himself pausing to try to find traces of epic sadness in the sheriff. According to some of those other weres, the sheriff was broken, or would be soon. They’d also said Theo was broken, which was patently untrue. Theo might have some issues, but he was not broken. He was alive and interested and trying, and that did not equal broken in Zeki’s mind.

The sheriff was trying too. Zeki couldn’t have said how he knew, or how he could tell the gossip about the sheriff being rejected was true, but he nodded in understanding anyway. For a were, the sheriff looked tired, slightly worn at the edges. That meant he wasn’t sleeping, and if he wasn’t sleeping, he wouldn’t heal and keep his perfect werewolf health.

So mating had a direct effect on a were’s physical state. Zeki hadn’t expected that, although the line between mind and body was often blurry or nonexistent.

He was staring. “Sorry.” Zeki didn’t know if he was apologizing for staring or for why he was staring. But the sheriff gave him a long, careful study before bringing up the broken-hearted werewolf in the room.

“You didn’t reject me.” Sheriff Neri paused after he said it, as if waiting for Zeki to confess to something. When Zeki only stared at him, he went on. “And if you had, that would be your business, your reasons, and you’d owe them to no one.” His voice was a rumble, like Theo’s when suppressing a strong emotion.

“Okay.” Though he couldn’t see why the sheriff was making that point, Zeki liked that he’d made it. Weres could be pushy about their instinct and their feelings. The sheriff wanted Zeki to know he wasn’t. If Zeki ever rejected a were, he’d remember that. For now Zeki left that subject alone and returned to business. “That is good to know. In the same spirit, before we go any further into this discussion, I need to know if this is about your Re… if this is about your situation. Because I don’t do love spells. In fact I break them when I find them. No apologies.” Love spells were compulsion spells, and not only illegal in most states, but plain wrong.

Sheriff Neri gave him a full, surprised smile, as if he thought the same thing. But then, people probably tried to pour love potions into his coffee. “You can break another’s spells? That takes power.”

Zeki favored him with a confident smile in return. “I’m very good.”

“Then I’ve come to the right place.” Apparently decided, the sheriff went to the front windows to look down at the street. “I don’t want a love spell. What I want is information. I need to know what certain charms mean and if I should be worried about whatever they are trying to ward off.” He turned enough to give Zeki a dimmer smile. “Someone I know doesn’t want to be found. He also does not trust me to help him.”

It took a considerable amount of Zeki’s control to keep his expression smooth. His curiosity, however, could not be denied. At heart he was as bad as every gossipy werewolf in town. “Is it true he’s afraid of other weres?” Zeki snapped his mouth shut at his own question, but the sheriff sighed. Zeki cleared his throat. “So… you can’t ask him what the charms mean. But you want to know anyway?”

“So I can protect him, yes.” The statement was simple, but the sheriff’s dark, serious stare flashed to gold. Weres did that too when they were trying to keep their feelings in check.

This
werewolf was afraid for someone who had rejected him, someone who, in all likelihood, would leave him broken. Sheriff Neri was the epitome of a werewolf, a king almost, if a king of a small town, and yet he was here, dealing with magic, for some little wolf who hated him.

Zeki jerked into action. “Sorry,” he said again. “I… I wasn’t expecting any of this. Of course I can help with that. Give me a second.” He went to the kitchen to get some water to wash the distracting taste of Theo’s brownies out of his mouth. The sheriff followed but stopped in the doorway.

“Brownies smell good.” The remark did not seem idle.

“Theo Greenleaf’s,” Zeki answered slowly, shivering a bit at the name.

He had the sheriff’s full attention again. “Made for you personally?” This time Zeki wasn’t skilled enough to read the unspoken commentary in the sheriff’s expression.

“I’m tasting them for him,” Zeki lied, pointlessly. He didn’t want Theo being the subject of more talk because he’d made Zeki some dessert. He pulled down his dad’s notepad for things he needed at the store and flipped it to a clean page. Then he handed it to the sheriff. “Draw the shapes of the charms and any symbols they’re decorated with, since I assume you can’t ask to borrow them.”

The sheriff surprised him by obeying easily. He sketched for a few minutes, letting the silence wear thin before he spoke again. “You know Theo’s baking?” He didn’t look up. “He’s very talented.”

“Yes, he is.” Zeki really, really wanted another brownie. He seemed to have lost his discipline when it came to Theo’s baked goods.