Being(s) In Love 03 - A Beginner’s Guide to Wooing Your Mate (24 page)

“He isn’t going to want to see me.” Zeki knew it was untrue the moment it was out of his mouth. Theo was always happy to see him. Zeki’s heart always beat a little faster when he noticed. That wasn’t a reason to stay in town, but it felt like one.

Mr. Elliot didn’t say a word as Zeki was encircled by wolves and dragged to the patio. The entire town was matchmaking now. Zeki didn’t get it, but let himself be pushed into a chair, with their evil and secretly romantic leader at his side.

They were late. The doors across the street were starting to open as the last of them settled down. Zeki shivered and hunched down to avoid being noticed, only to straighten a second after that, scowling and scanning the group of firefighters.

Theo wasn’t there.

He could have been off shift that day. But Zeki’s stomach began to churn with espresso and worry. Maybe Theo had run off. Mr. Elliot said weres sometimes disappeared into the woods when upset, where they went slightly feral for a while. Zeki wasn’t a forest ranger or a were, but he could work a locating spell. He could find Theo if he needed to. He was probably attuned to Theo already. Zeki had been back in town for one day when he’d found him the first time, and it could not have been random chance. He sat bolt upright at the realization.

“Oh, he’s not here,” one of the werewolves around him whispered in disappointment, as if Zeki was ruining her show. Theo was not here for her entertainment. Zeki glared at her, then back across the street. He shouldn’t have left it like this. He had to find Theo and talk to him.

“Do you know where he is?” His new best friend turned to him with all apparent concern. “Do you need us to track him for you?”

“This is so romantic.” There was no end to the comments.

Zeki ignored the others and focused on the leader of the patio pack. “You seriously underestimate my power. I could find him if he was across the country. I could find Theo Greenleaf anywhere.” But he’d found him here, as if Theo had waited for him.

On that thought, as if they’d heard him, Theo and the woman firefighter from before came out together. She had her hand around his, and though she was clearly pulling him forward to participate in the tradition, Zeki’s stomach began to churn even more.

His fingers were tingling again. His lips moved. “Theo.”

It wasn’t more than a murmur, but Theo lifted his head. He searched until he saw Zeki, and even from across the street, Zeki could tell he went tense. Zeki did the same, frozen and unhappy when Theo turned and disappeared into the firehouse without any further ado.

Zeki sagged against his metal chair. His chest hurt, a rising ache that made him gulp down air in a fruitless effort to seem calm. The magic sparkling in his limbs disappeared, falling to the ground. This was Rejection. He couldn’t imagine how it would feel if he and Theo had known each other better.

“Oh.” The were sitting next to him exhaled in disappointment, or sympathy, and patted him. A bare second later, she perked up and began poking him in the arm. “Oh!” she repeated. This time her tone was entirely different.

Zeki glanced up and then stared at Theo reemerging from the firehouse with a foil-covered tray in his hands. Theo looked as incredible as ever, maybe a little tired, maybe there was flour in the hair already escaping from the bundle at the back of his neck, but still incredible. The rest of the firefighters stopped to watch him and then broke their own rule by turning en masse to look at Zeki.

Zeki ran his hands over his shirt, feeling exposed with his arms bare, and then noticed in surprise that he’d stood up and walked forward until he bumped into the hedge around the patio.

Theo grinned at him from across the street, and Zeki’s heart did a painful flip that he was too distracted to worry about. He put a hand out, too late, as Theo walked into the street, uncaring, or more likely, not noticing, the traffic in his excitement. Luckily the traffic noticed him, and the tourists on motorbikes swerved around him.

“Caution, Theo,” Zeki chided him, not bothering to raise his voice above the fond whisper. That was Theo, drawn forward by what he was feeling, without shame. It would take a lot to protect him, maybe an entire town and one world-class, highly trained wizard.

Theo was wearing the first pair of suspenders Zeki had worked a spell into. Zeki stared at the initials he’d sewn, enchanted with good wishes and strength and pride, some of the same initials tattooed into his own flesh, and swayed in surprise. Once again his instincts, for lack of a better word, had led him in the right direction. He had been acting like a mate before he’d known he was one.

Theo must have known, or suspected, when Zeki was sewing the mark onto him and casting the spell. That was why he’d been amazed, so confused. Zeki had let him trace his tattoos afterward, and Theo must have still been thinking of all of this. Zeki had gone out of his way to prove to Theo that he could take care of him. He’d gone out of his way to touch him and worry for him. Then he’d let Theo touch him. Of course Theo had thought of this, of markings, and matings, and the second chance he’d thought Zeki had been offering.

Zeki looked up into Theo’s face as Theo stopped in front of him. There was magic in that too. He’d looked into Theo’s face on his first day of school and had known it. “Teddy baby.” It slipped out, and Zeki did nothing to stop it. “Theo.” He was going to drape Theo in enchantments, every single one personally tailored to remind Theo to look before he crossed a street because he belonged safe and sound with Zeki. “I’ve never seen
The Golden Girls
.”

It
felt
like something he needed to say, which was confusing. But Zeki thought about it, about Theo watching it late at night to keep the silence away, and nodded. His feelings were right in this case. “I think I would like to watch an episode or two.”

“Yeah?” A werewolf as big as Theo shouldn’t be so adorable when surprised. But Theo flushed and ducked his head. “Yeah?” he asked again, peering at Zeki in uncertainty and wonder.

“Yeah.” Zeki wasn’t capable of eloquence at the moment. “Is that a good idea for a date, you think?” He thought of himself watching TV with Theo, then remembered Theo’s TV was in his bedroom. He wanted that, but also didn’t. At school, those were what dates had been like, hanging out in front of a TV for a while so they could pretend it wasn’t only about sex. This was Theo. This was… this was mating, maybe. Zeki could do better than that, especially with the town full of signs leading the way.

He swallowed. “Or we could go out.” The answer would be yes, he knew that, and yet he was still afraid. The whole mess was impossible and illogical, but Theo was as beaming and bright as the full moon in perigee, and that was reason enough to keep going. “We could do whatever you wanted. I don’t have much money, but I can take you somewhere. I can give you—” He stopped himself before he said “nourishment” out loud.

He didn’t need to. Theo was so very pretty as he held out the tray for Zeki to take. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want them. But I thought you should know, while you were thinking, about us and… everything, that I can give you those. And more.”

Zeki didn’t hesitate before ripping away the foil. The brownies. Those luscious, sexy, spicy brownies. He inhaled the warm chocolate scent. “Mine?”

“They were always for you.” Theo was the most powerful thing Zeki had ever laid eyes on.

“Theodore.” Zeki leaned toward him like he was a lodestar. “Theo,” he tried again, wondering if it was worth it to clear his thoughts or to trust in Theo and brownies. Someone, probably a nosy older were, poked him in the hip. But part of using magic was accepting powerful forces and moving with them instead of against them. Zeki could deal with that. It was just enough to make him act. “Theo, I was thinking.” Theo’s tiny, hopeful smile was his undoing. “No, I was feeling, and thinking, that we should definitely go out. On a real date. I was thinking, definitely thinking, that we should. I’ve been told I should go to Thaw as an adult, and I’d like it if you were with me. But I also want to sit across from you at a table. In a restaurant. So you can have that and I can… I can feel like this is real.” It would take all he had to sit still with Theo across from him, looking like that. “That’s… we’re supposed to be… courting.”

His palms were sweaty. Rejection remained a possibility, mate or no mate. Zeki had already messed this up so much. Theo deserved all the traditional courting he wanted.

Zeki glanced quickly around at the watching group, noting the misty smile on the face of his former nemesis. He turned back to face Theo.

Theo’s soft answer turned his knees to water. “Dinner sounds nice, if you don’t mind that I’ve never gone on a date before.”

Zeki had never gone on a date that wasn’t only a prelude to sex. He clutched at the tray. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he wouldn’t hurt Theo for the world. “I don’t mind if you don’t mind that I will probably make a few mistakes.”

“Was that a yes?” someone demanded from behind them.

“It was a yes, Aunt Ramona.” Theo kept his gaze on Zeki. Zeki, for his part, couldn’t take his eyes off him. It was the only sense he had for this moment, and he was making the most of it. If they were closer, he might have pulled Theo to him, pressed a kiss to Theo’s mouth.

He didn’t know if that was allowed in the Wolf’s Paw version of courtship, but Theo inhaled and then parted his lips. He breathed in again, sniffing Zeki as if he was fine with the idea of Zeki kissing him.

“Come and see me later when your shift is over?” Zeki asked him, uncaring that his voice was husky and inviting. Werewolves knew everything. Let them hear it.

Theo’s eyes widened, but he nodded, then stepped into the street.

Zeki made his tone as calm as he could. “Caution, Theo. For me.” And this time Theo paused as he turned around, letting the delivery van pass before he headed to the firehouse. Zeki hated to see him go but took a moment to admire the view just the same.

When Theo was across the street, getting slapped on the shoulders by his friends and smiling with enough bashful charm to win over every single member of the patio audience—if they hadn’t loved him already—Zeki finally gave in and collapsed into the nearest chair.

He peeled back the foil over his brownies again, studying the caramel no doubt laced with Theo’s every question and insecurity and shy hope. There were probably rules, unofficial rules, but nonetheless rules, for this. Unprecedented though a magical werewolf baker might be in Wolf’s Paw, a tradition about accepting and eating an offering from a mate during the courtship stage likely existed.

Zeki considered researching, or simply asking the were next to him, but she was on her phone, calling someone to tell them that everything was settled with her baby, and anyway, the chocolate and longing smell were too much to ignore. Zeki scooped out a piece and took a bite.

The urge to claim Theo, for his brownies alone, made him go still. The thought wasn’t one Zeki could say he’d ever had before.

A shiver traveled down his spine, because claiming Theo
felt
entirely too reasonable and he didn’t know what to do about it. He barely knew how to date, much less anything else.

But he licked cocoa and hints of coffee from the corner of his mouth and watched Theo join the other firefighters in washing the trucks. Theo didn’t look over, but he didn’t have to. His friend, the were firefighter who had dragged him out in the first place, tugged at his shirt and then whispered in his ear. A moment later Theo ducked his head but pulled his T-shirt up and off.

Zeki straightened, the muscles in his stomach quivering. The wind picked up around him, tingling like a storm was near. His skin burned. Theo continued to work without glancing in his direction, but he slid his suspenders into place once again, his hand lingering over the embroidery, over Zeki’s mark.

Zeki’s heart sped up, sending blood pounding through him. This was… this was were flirting, but all for him. The others were watching too, appreciating the view, but tactful enough not to say anything. Zeki didn’t care; he kept his gaze on Theo. If he went through with all this the way he was currently burning to do, then Theo would be his. His
what
was difficult to say, literally. To say it was to make it so. Theo had been his crush for so long. Now he’d be… a boyfriend. A lover. More than that. Theo would be his mate. Eventually. Possibly. Probably.

He wondered what his heart and scent were doing to make the woman next to him, Ramona Greenleaf, in the flesh, end her call and turn to him. He imagined he was somewhere between full arousal and a heart attack. Her sharp smile didn’t help, although it did make him tilt his chin up in defiance of whatever she was about to say.

“Nervous?” Ramona Greenleaf considered him—and the brownies.

Zeki held them to his chest. Then he nodded.

She nodded in return. “Good. If you weren’t worried, then you wouldn’t care.”

Zeki met her stare, but he wasn’t going to argue with Theo’s aunt. He lowered his eyes, then directed his attention back across the street. He would have to get used to what his heart did when he looked at Theo. Probably a werewolf would know what to do. How to flirt back, how to woo.

Zeki wasn’t going to show her fear. Theo laughed quietly and allowed his coworkers to splash him with bubbles, but when they came to dry him off, he shook his head and did it himself. Zeki let out a happy sigh.

“It will have to be after the full moon,” he remarked at last. Theo would probably be on edge, and they didn’t need any more nerves on their first official date.

“Of course,” Ramona agreed. Her tone grew decidedly fangy. “If you can wait that long.”

Zeki briefly tore his gaze away from Theo and the damp little towel Theo was dragging over his chest. “I have excellent control,” he informed her, though the last words were nearly punched out of him when some smartass were across the street decided to test him and squeezed out a sponge over Theo’s back.

Soapy rivulets trailed down Theo’s shoulder blades and followed the curves of muscles to his spine. Theo shivered as if the water was cold, then carefully angled his head as if sneaking a glance at Zeki. His smile when he saw Zeki watching him was wide and surprised and beautiful.