by Liv Rider
Once he had his breathing under control, he replayed the conversation with Thomas in his mind. He hadn’t said his name, and hadn’t said anything to confirm he knew about shifters. Thomas had asked how long he’d lived in Lewiston and when Joel had lied, Thomas had just asked him to be honest with him. He hadn’t thrown the truth in Joel’s face. Maybe Thomas only suspected Joel was the runaway from Barnhill, but wasn’t certain. After all, if he knew for sure who Joel was, why ask what was wrong?
That still niggled away at Joel. Why had Thomas asked him what was wrong?
The cynical side of him thought it was a ploy to get him to open up so Thomas could confirm his identity, but another part of him clung to the hope that Thomas’ concern had been genuine.
He shook his head. He wasn’t getting anywhere thinking in circles like this and he couldn’t stay in this cubicle forever.
He took another deep breath, letting it out slowly, and considered how he was going to handle the rest of the afternoon. Thomas was a Keeper of the Peace, and with this many shifters around, there would be plenty who wanted to talk to him. Even if Thomas could get away from that, he wouldn’t talk to Joel about shifter business while Claire was around.
The solution was simple. He would stick to Claire like glue and avoid being alone with Thomas. If Claire asked why Joel didn’t want to talk to Thomas, he could make something up about Thomas not being his type after all.
With his mind made up, he left the cubicle and was glad the bathroom was empty. He washed his hands and splashed some water in his face.
When he got back to Claire, he apologized for taking more than a few minutes.
“The talk went well, I take it?”
He shook his head at her teasing him. “Not really.” He sighed. “Turns out he’s a smoker.” It was the first turn-off that popped into his head.
“That’s a shame. Still, if he’s wonderful in every other way…”
“There’s other fish in the sea, right?” He smiled and hoped it didn’t look awkward.
“You’re right, and anyway, it’s none of my business! Forget I even asked.” She glanced down at the tables, which were emptier than when Joel had left. “Did he say anything about the food?”
Joel laughed, glad for the change of subject. “Yes, he said it was a great sandwich. I think he had the tuna.”
While Claire nodded and talked about how long they should wait before cleaning everything up, Joel felt himself relax a little.
It would be fine, he told himself. Once this afternoon was over, he would go back to avoiding shifters and it would be like nothing had ever happened.
4
Thomas
He had messed up. His mate had looked nervous when he’d stepped outside to talk to Thomas, which was only natural, but he’d looked terrified as soon as Thomas had brought up wolves.
His attempts to reassure his mate and find out what was wrong had only made things worse. Every fiber in his being told him to find his mate and not let him go until Thomas knew exactly why he was so upset and what he could do to fix it.
Of course, he couldn’t exactly do that at the welcoming event. The whole reason he was here was to talk to new shifters and make sure they felt welcome and knew who to turn to in case they ran into any problems.
We need to help our mate! His dragon urged, growing more impatient and angry with every second Thomas remained in the central hall, surrounded by shifters who all wanted to talk to him. Most of them just wanted to tell him they had enjoyed the event and hoped it’d be organized again next year. Thomas hoped they would be telling the council the same thing.
Thomas definitely wanted to help his mate, but he wasn’t sure how to do it. His mate had pretty much run away from him, making it obvious he didn’t want anything to do with Thomas, at least not right now. Whatever had him so upset, he didn’t want to talk about it.
He should never have brought up wolf shifters, not even in a roundabout way, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He could ask Louis about it, but it felt wrong to ask someone else. If his mate didn’t want to talk to him, it wasn’t right for Thomas to try and find out from someone else. Whatever was going on, it was his mate’s issue to share.
Slowly but surely, people started to leave. Thomas stayed until the end, when it was just him and the rest of the council.
“I take it we will do this again next year?” Scott looked around the empty hall.
“It did go better than expected,” Louis admitted.
“Oh please, it was a success and you know it. We’re definitely doing this again,” Theresa told him.
“We need to discuss that in a meeting!” Barry insisted. As usual, the owl shifter wanted to take decisions like this properly and officially. “After evaluating this event, of course.”
Alexandra nodded. “Along with how to handle the catering.”
“I should talk to them.” Thomas looked over at the classroom that had been used. “You know, let them know how much we enjoyed everything.” He was already walking away when Louis yelled after him that there hadn’t been nearly enough chocolate in the brownies. Leave it to the wolf shifter to find something to complain about.
When he entered the classroom, he looked around for his mate, but only the woman, Claire Hampton, was there. “Where is he?” Thomas walked over to her. She was already cleaning up.
“Who? Joel?”
So that was his name. Joel. It had been strange that he hadn’t introduced himself when Thomas had, but he hadn’t pushed. “Yes. I was—I wanted to talk to him.”
Mrs. Hampton was silent for a long moment as she looked at him. “I can give him a message if it’s important. I wanted to go over today with you anyway, and see if you and your guests have any feedback for us.”
She only wanted to talk business. Maybe that was for the best. He wanted to talk to Joel personally, not through someone else. “It’s fine. Everything was fine. Great sandwiches, great coffee… great everything, really.”
Mrs. Hampton smiled at him, looking relieved and satisfied. “Wonderful! We’ll be cleaning up now. If there is anything you want to tell us, or if there was anything you were unhappy with, please let me know. You can email or call me, or drop by the café if you’d like.”
The café. Of course, he could go there and talk to Joel again. “Thanks, I might do that. Not to tell you about things I’m unhappy with,” he added quickly, smiling. “But in case I want another tuna sandwich like that.”
He thanked her again, then left her to clean up. Maybe Joel was still around to help her. His scent was still fresh in the classroom. He could track it, he supposed. Maybe Joel was outside, loading everything up into a van, but what good would that do right now? Whatever had upset him, he could use some time to unwind.
We could help him unwind.
Thomas did not need his dragon giving him suggestions.
He did, however, need suggestions from someone.
When he met Mitchell and Parker for drinks that evening, Thomas didn’t get very far before his friends started asking questions. They were opposites in a lot of ways. Parker wore suits, even right now while he was out with his friends. His light brown hair was kept short and he didn’t go more than a couple of weeks without getting it trimmed. Mitchell, meanwhile, was dressed casually in jeans and a dark sweater. His black hair brushed the tips of his ears. It could be weeks before Mitchell got it cut, or tomorrow. He was more interested in comfort and convenience than style.
But when it came to Thomas talking about his day, neither of them had the patience to let him finish.
“And he’s human?” Parker frowned. “Human? Your mate is a human? Are you sure?”
“Did you try their raspberry muffins?” Mitchell sighed happily. “I know I said Hampton’s didn’t do anything amazing, but their raspberry muffins are pretty good.”
Thomas tried not to feel impatient. “That’s not the point.” He took a sip from his beer.
Parker raised one eyebrow as
his brown eyes bored into Thomas’. “Then what is the point?”
“I’ll get to that if the two of you would stop asking questions for a minute.”
The bar they were in was in Mitchell’s district. It was a small place run by a bear shifter couple and only frequented by fellow shifters. It was a good place to talk about shifter matters without having to watch every word.
Still, Thomas glanced around to see if anyone could overhear them. What he wanted to talk about was personal. He would’ve preferred doing this at home, but they had planned to go for drinks tonight a few weeks ago. It had been Thomas’ idea to meet up with Parker and Mitchell after the welcoming event. Thomas had figured that if things went well, he would want to celebrate, and if things went badly, he would want to drown his sorrows. He hadn’t expected to need advice on talking to his mate.
“Yes, he’s human, or at least, I’m pretty sure he is.” He lowered his voice. “He smelled like wolf shifter, but kind of… not.”
“He has wolf shifter friends.” Parker shrugged. “Happens to the best of us.”
Mitchell snorted at that. “I think Thomas can smell if someone is just hanging around wolf shifters a lot.”
“No, it’s not the scent from some other wolf shifter, but that still isn’t the point.”
Parker was starting to look impatient. “Then what is?”
“It’s how he reacted,” Thomas explained, thinking about the conversation he’d had with Joel only that afternoon. “I mentioned wolves and he panicked.”
“You mentioned wolves?” Mitchell asked. “To a human? Out of nowhere?”
“A human he’d just met,” Parker added, then looked at Thomas. “It’s not the opening line I would’ve gone for myself.”
“It wasn’t a line. I wanted to know what was going on!” Thomas realized he’d raised his voice, then looked around. A couple of other shifters looked in their direction. He leaned closer to his friends. “You don’t think it’s weird that he panicked?”
“I think it’s weird that your mate is a human.” Parker sat back as he drank his beer.
“When you say ‘panicked’, what do you mean?” Mitchell asked, his green eyes curious.
“I mean he panicked. He got scared. He lied to me about how long he’d lived in Lewiston, and couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
Parker and Mitchell exchanged a look, and Mitchell was starting to look very pleased with himself. Thomas sighed, preparing for Mitchell telling him exactly what he should’ve done differently. He liked his friend and valued his advice, but sometimes Mitchell could be a little too smug when giving it.
“What you’re saying is that you’ve just met this man, the first thing you want to talk about is wolves, and you’re surprised he wants to get away from you?” Mitchell shook his head. “Thomas, you came across like a lunatic. You should’ve talked about normal, human things, like the weather.”
“Or sports,” Parker added, nodding along. “Humans love talking about sports, especially football. You should’ve talked about football.”
“You don’t talk to a lot of humans more than once, do you?” Mitchell laughed.
“It puts them at ease!” Parker insisted. “You ask ‘what did you think of the game?’ and then they’ll talk about the game, and you just have to nod along and comment here and there. Once you’ve done that, you can talk about important things. It’s a great trick when you have to deal with humans.”
“That’s small talk, Parker! It’s not a trick. It’s a part of social interaction! When’s the last time you had a meeting with your council that didn’t start with small talk?” Mitchell asked.
Parker shook his head. “That’s different. I don’t ask them about sports.”
Thomas had his head buried in his hands while Mitchell and Parker continued to argue about small talk and how to talk to humans. They were getting further and further away from what Thomas wanted them to talk about, namely how he was going to fix things with Joel. Then again, Parker wasn’t going to be of much use. He was still stuck on Thomas’ mate being a human. He sighed, then decided to try again.
“But what do I do now?” he asked, when there was a brief break in the argument.
Mitchell and Parker both looked at him. “About your mate?” Mitchell asked.
“Obviously,” Thomas replied tersely. He was usually a lot more easy-going about his friends’ habit to go off on a tangent, but this was serious.
“Well, you talk to him again.” Mitchell shrugged as if that was obvious. “And this time, you don’t bring up wolves or any other kind of animal.”
“Ask him if he likes sports,” Parker advised, and Mitchell elbowed him sharply. “Hey! His mate might like sports, you don’t know.”
Mitchell was silent for a moment. “…I suppose he might like sports.”
Parker looked pleased, and even Thomas had to smile at Mitchell’s reluctance to admit that Parker’s advice wasn’t completely terrible. “All I know is that he works at Hampton’s Café.”
“Oh, great, an excuse to visit! I’ll come with you and—”
“No,” Thomas immediately said. There was no way he was going to let Mitchell witness any further awkwardness between him and his mate. “I should do it alone. I don’t want him to feel overwhelmed.”
Mitchell sat back in his chair, radiating disappointment. “Good point. But you have to promise me that when you go, you try their raspberry muffin.”
He laughed at that. “Any other great suggestions?”
“If you really want to know, I suggest you take it slow. If he’s human, he won’t know you’re meant to be together. Go on a couple of dates and get to know him. Let him get to know you. Give it time.”
That was the last thing Thomas wanted to hear, although he knew Mitchell was right. “What do humans even do on dates? I’ve only ever dated other shifters and you know what that’s like for us.”
Dating amongst shifters could be tricky enough, but it was even more difficult for dragon shifters. With their natural dominance, it was possible for them to force their partners into doing something they didn’t want to do. It made a lot of other shifters reluctant to go out with dragons, and those who did were always a little wary. Thomas’ few relationships hadn’t lasted long. It was hard to relax around someone if you knew you had to be careful. That left dating other dragon shifters, Thomas supposed, but he’d never felt attracted to his friends.
Dating a human was an alternative he’d never considered, but now that he thought about it, it did solve the problem.
“Huh, I think your mate being a human might be good after all,” Parker said, who was clearly thinking along the same lines. “They’re insensitive to our powers, aren’t they?”
“They are, yes.”
“That is convenient,” Mitchell agreed.
“Still doesn’t tell me what I should do on a date, though,” Thomas pointed out.
“Take him to a football game?”
Mitchell shook his head. “Not all humans care about football, Parker. We’ve been over this.”
“A lot of them do. It’s a safe choice.”
“No, everyone has to eat, so taking him out for lunch or dinner is the safe choice.”
“That’s actually good advice.” Thomas started to smile. He could let Joel choose the time and place and Joel would feel more at ease.
Mitchell narrowed his eyes at him. “You sound surprised by me giving good advice.”
Parker moved his chair away from the table and picked up his beer. “Well done.”
Thomas shook his head. He knew how much Mitchell prided himself on his ability to help and advise, and how insulted he must feel at Thomas’ careless remark. A dragon’s honor was quickly wounded. “I meant because I should’ve thought of it myself. It’s obvious.”
“The best advice usually is,” Mitchell replied, calmer now. “But it often takes someone else to point out the obvious. You’re focused on your mate, so you can’t think of anything else.”
“Tell me about it.” He hadn’t been able to go five minutes without wondering about Joel. Where was he? What was he doing? Was he still upset over this afternoon?
“It’s important to keep a clear head,” Mitchell said, “especially since he’s human. You have to be extra careful. Even if you think he smells like wolf shifters, that doesn’t mean he knows about shifters. You can’t dump all of that on him immediately. You have to give him time to get to know you.”
“And then dump everything on him?” Parker asked, sounding incredulous.
“I’d take it step by step,” Mitchell suggested. “Tell him about shifters first. He’ll probably want a demonstration. Once he’s given time to deal with that, you can tell him about being true mates.”
It sounded so obvious when Mitchell said it that Thomas wanted to hit himself for being so stupid earlier. “At least I know what step one is now. I have to go to Hampton’s and convince Joel to even talk to me.”
It couldn’t be harder than persuading his council to organize that welcoming event, could it?
He walked past Hampton’s Café the next day, but didn’t see Joel in there. He tried again on Monday at two in the afternoon, figuring the lunch hour rush would be over.
His heart leapt in his chest when Joel stood behind the counter. He was talking to woman who looked to be in her forties and was nodding along to whatever it was Joel was saying.
Thomas opened the door. The place was quiet. One man was sitting at the window with a cup of coffee and there were two young women hunched behind a laptop together at one of the tables, two big glasses of mint tea by their side.
Joel turned away from his colleague, a polite smile already on his face before he’d even seen Thomas. “Good morning, can I help…” His helpful tone died away when they locked eyes.
Thomas walked over to the counter. “Good morning.” The woman, Nancy according to her name tag, took a few steps away from Joel, but he could feel her watching him. It didn’t help with his nerves.
