Little Wolf (29 page)

“People usually compliment your body or your face, don’t they?” Tim was smug until he remembered doing exactly that, not that anyone could blame him; Nathaniel was as close to physical perfection as any nonfairy could get. “Why haven’t you…? I mean, those movies. You clearly want to have a One to chase after through a crowded airport or however that movie ended. You’ve never wanted to claim anyone?”

“I’ll get the creamer,” Nathaniel barked and went to the fridge. He was there for a minute before he spoke again. “You don’t just… walk up and claim a stranger,” he explained, no less angry about it for the pause.

“Blake did,” Tim butted in.

“Blake?” Nathaniel scowled, then seemed to understand. “From that soap opera? I’d appreciate that show a lot more if they took more time to focus on aspects of weres that aren’t related to our image as sexual fantasies. Representation matters. We still get tourists who think a bite is going to turn them into werewolves.”

“Says the man who runs a town that could be classified as a sex resort,” Tim butted in again.

Nathaniel snorted. “That’s us doing it, and we have our reasons. It’s not some person in Hollywood who doesn’t know anything. And as I said before, the festivals have a deeper meaning.”

“Carl said there are a few marriages each year too.” Tim nearly bit his lip as he thought it over. “Matings are like a marriage proposal?” he guessed.

Nathaniel slid a glare his way that was almost pissy. “Not the proposal. I tried to tell you before, and you wanted sex. Now you don’t.” He blew out a heavy breath. “I can already tell you have questions. Of course you do.”

“People throw themselves at you, and not one of them was good enough for a mate? There had to have been
some
good candidates for a partner over the years.” Tim was going to find and rip out the throat of each and every one of them.

Nathaniel was definitely pissy. “Not mates. But there have been a few I thought about settling down with.” He went back to the coffee. “They left. This is a small town, and there is a lot of pressure that comes with being with me. Aside from that….” His hesitation was startling. “Aside from that, they don’t have much reason to stay with me. There isn’t much about me to interest anyone after the first few weeks. I focus on the town more than myself, and others don’t, or they’re expecting me to be more exciting, a werewolf out of human film. I’m not exciting, as you’ve probably noticed by now. I work, I come home. A mate would want more, I imagine. They might not want to recognize me as theirs for anything other than sex.” His shoulders either had gone tense when Tim hadn’t been paying attention or they had been tense the entire time.

Nathaniel had actually been used as someone’s romance novel fantasy. He’d all but said it, his voice low with pain, and still he’d allowed the festival committees to hold him up as a potential summer romance every single year. Tim growled as he thought of what he was going to do to Jerry, and then he crept forward to put a hand on Nathaniel’s back. He spoke as gently as he knew how, because thinking of the things he’d said on the subject made him cringe. “So you never had a mate?”

Nathaniel looked at him, his expression and scent once again too complex for Tim to interpret. “If I had, my mate would be here right now.”

“Oh.” Tim took his hand away to rub at his chest. His ribcage felt oddly crushed. “Will that happen?”

“It doesn’t happen to everyone.” Nathaniel poured a cup for Tim and handed it over without meeting his eyes. “It’s why humans often hesitate to get seriously involved with a were. A mating isn’t always a blessing. It can break up marriages. Despite what certain movies for teenagers like to show—”

“You mean your favorite movies?” Tim interrupted, with false innocence. Nathaniel gave him the mildest reproachful look.

“It’s not some soft, happy thing. It can hurt.” Nathaniel poured so much creamer in his coffee that it probably went cold. He drank it in one gulp.

Tim liked the heat of his mug against his fingers. “So you spot each other across a crowded room and then what?”

“Hopefully they don’t shout in your face,” Nathaniel muttered as he went for cup number two. Then he looked over. “If you both recognized it, you’d claim each other. Or run. That happens too, on occasion. Ray… your friend Ray, he’s mated and settled now, but he fought it for a long time.”

That was new to Tim, but it might explain the sweet tinge to Ray’s scent. Weres, as a rule, did not smell like sugar. Maybe Ray’s mate was a baker. Tim had a scalding sip, but it didn’t distract from the pain in his chest. “Los Cerros is Ray’s city.” The city might not know it, but it was. “So his mate is probably an alpha too, right? You’d need some other badass who wouldn’t be afraid of you.”

Tim wasn’t looking to be someone’s mate, not even Nathaniel’s. He had no need to be this upset about a simple fact of life. Nathaniel was probably going to meet some hardcore son of a bitch were someday to help him with the town; meanwhile Tim was going to, maybe, sleep with Nathaniel a few times before getting on that bus out of town. So he was Nurse Valerie in this scenario. That wasn’t sad or anything.

“Your instinct never picks someone who would be bad for you?” He kept the hope out of his voice but couldn’t stop his head from coming up. “You just trust it?” He didn’t wait for the nod to confirm it. This town and its fucking instinct. “You seem like you know an awful lot about it. You sure you’d claim your mate if you found them?”

“If I could, I would.” Nathaniel gave the stove a furious glare. “If they were ready. If they wanted me. But they would have to know it too. I should go check the—I should go for a run.”

“There’s bacon if you don’t want fish!” Tim blurted to keep him there, redefining idiot. But Nathaniel stopped on his way to the door. “I bought more bacon. The other day. A ton of it. You guys really need a bulk store in town. Households of weres, it makes sense. You need a Costco. Anyway. I felt like I should provide something.” He should not have said provide. He wasn’t courting Nathaniel. “Chip in, I mean. I thought I’d chip in. Unless you want some lube or keychains with my store discount.” Nathaniel would know what he meant. Bacon was hardly a dead rabbit, something Tim would never have been able to provide anyway.

Nathaniel studied him.

Tim moved his feet. “If you go for your run, maybe I’ll make that and leave the fish to defrost for tonight. I could go into work early and get a ride home with the babies maybe. Or Albert.”

“You should do that.” Nathaniel said it the way he always said it, like Tim spending time with Albert was the worst idea he’d ever heard of but he was agreeing to be polite. “Take your time if you want to get ready for him—for them.” The fact that Nathaniel was so terrible at faking enthusiasm said a lot about his ability to negotiate. No wonder he’d been glad Tim had done it for him.

“Yeah, I’ll make myself pretty.” Tim forced out a small laugh. “They’re all tall and gorgeous like you, and I’m little and okay…. No, nope. Let’s not think about that.”

“Are you worried about your control or your appearance?” In a bad mood or not, Nathaniel came closer. “If you want, I can take you out to the Meadows first. Let your wolf romp under supervision. You might need someone to call you back to yourself if it’s really been that long.”

“Romp?” The word made Tim squirm. “I’m not twelve,” he murmured, then tossed his head. Was he worried about his appearance or his control? “Kind of both. There’s a lot of opportunity for humiliation here. But I think the possibilities for personal shame are equal.”

“Your appearance won’t be an issue. For one thing, we aren’t humans and our senses aren’t so limited. For another, I find you attractive.” Nathaniel paused. “And I’m not the only one. But you said you hadn’t shifted in years. I can help with that, if you would allow it.”

“I’m
scrawny
.” Tim put his head down but scowled. “It’s not my fault, but there it is. I’m going to look stupid, and I’m going to act stupid. I won’t blame you for laughing.”

“Tim.” Nathaniel’s voice had that buried rumble in it again. Tim raised his head, and Nathaniel reached out. “May I touch you again?” He hadn’t asked before squashing Tim against Zoe last night, but maybe that was different. That had been friendly. This wasn’t. Tim choked on a breath but nodded, and Nathaniel hauled him forward by his arm. Tim barely kept from spilling the cup of coffee over Nathaniel’s stomach. Tim was still aroused, but he could tell from the way Nathaniel was holding him that it wasn’t about sex. He exhaled in surprise against Nathaniel’s shoulder and realized if he turned his head to the side, he had his face at Nathaniel’s throat.

In a few seconds, Tim’s body was going to remember how Nathaniel’s body had pressed him against the truck, and things were probably going to get a lot messier. He groaned. “What are you doing to me?”

“It’s called a hug. You might have heard of them.” Nathaniel stroked the line of Tim’s throat. It would have been soothing if Tim hadn’t been so horny.

“You are such an asshole,” Tim announced with his face to the side of Nathaniel’s neck and Nathaniel all but asking him to lean into the embrace. If only Tim were a captured princess in a romance novel. “Stupid hot man-wolf with a smart mouth. Perfect son of a bitch.” Tim put his hand on Nathaniel’s chest where it belonged and swore at him in an embarrassingly soft voice. “You going to laugh if I go wild in front of you?” He noticed his hand was stroking Nathaniel’s collar.

“Only if you do something funny.” Nathaniel was evil, but honest.

Tim smiled where Nathaniel couldn’t see. There was a name for what he was doing—mooning. He wondered if weres had coined the term. “Then, fine, okay. You can take me to the Meadows,” he allowed, in the most begrudging, Carl-before-breakfast tone he could manage.

Nathaniel snorted. Tim sighed against him, then took the longest, deepest breath he could until he was swimming in that happy, complete scent. The smile was back on his face.

“So that’s a hug,” he made himself say in an almost steady voice. Nathaniel heaved a disappointed breath but pulled away. Tim raised his head. “Go do your perimeter check or whatever it is you do when you say you’re ‘running,’” he instructed in a joking tone. Nathaniel stopped as if caught, and Tim suddenly understood what Nathaniel, and likely Zoe, had been doing this whole time. He’d thought they were letting their wolves run and looking over the immediate area in a territorial sort of way, but they really had been checking for threats on Tim’s behalf, and neither of them had said a word.

He opened his mouth, then closed it. “I’m off on Friday,” he said at last. “If you still want to… if you wouldn’t mind….” His brain had shut off. “The Meadows thing. You don’t have to—”

“Friday it is.” Nathaniel flashed a wide, excited smile that Tim had no idea how to respond to, then inclined his head. He was the leader of a town again. “I’ll return shortly.”

“You really don’t have to do that,” Tim answered, keeping his voice down. He meant the patrols, but maybe he meant the other thing too. He didn’t know what he meant anymore. He didn’t know anything except that it was difficult to think of something snappish and mean to say with Nathaniel staring at him like he
did
have to do everything Tim wanted him to, like he didn’t even mind. His smile was so boyish. Nathaniel wasn’t all that much older than Tim. In important ways he was, but he’d also ended up a pack leader at a young age, around twenty-five. Tim hadn’t thought about that before.

Tim finally swallowed and nodded back at him. “I’ll have something ready to eat,” he agreed, then bit his lip and flushed hot as he watched Nathaniel go out the door.

T
HE
M
EADOWS
turned out to be an astonishing sea of tall grass and newly bloomed wildflowers that covered several low slopes leading down from the foothills. The foothills were covered in pine and redwood trees, and at the other side of the vast meadow itself were more trees, smaller and different from the ones nearer the mountains. Tim couldn’t tell where the county ended and where the park began. He wasn’t sure the distinction mattered anywhere but on some long-forgotten map.

The mountains and the trees were pretty too, of course, but distant. The Meadows was like a postcard, where Tim wouldn’t have to survive or hunt or hopefully encounter any threats.

“Do bears come into the Meadows?” It was a legitimate question and not just Tim throwing out a distraction to avoid the moment when he was going to have to take his clothes off in front of Nathaniel.

It was midmorning, and the air still had a hint of snow in it. In honor of the day, an actual day off, Nathaniel was not wearing his uniform. Tim was so used to the tan khaki, the buttoned shirt and jeans seemed unnatural. Although, since Nathaniel was going to take them off any moment now, Tim supposed it didn’t matter. Tim could tell Nathaniel wasn’t used to being out of uniform either. Nathaniel should get more days off, enough that he could remember what it was like to wear jeans.

Or nothing at all, as he would be in a few minutes. Tim might prefer facing a bear.