The Contrary Mate

Well, that had not gone at all as planned.

Instead of ending this thing once and for all, I somehow ended up following Jack while he showed me a few things around his place. His home was very nice in a visual sort of way. Very pleasing to the eye.

And it was awful and I hated it. The building was cold and stifling, the natural world so far away as if kept out by a barrier. I felt like a fish out of water. Slowly suffocating, and there was no kind way to tell him that when he was just so happy and relieved. I couldn't bring myself to shatter that emotion in him. I wasn't just being nice, the idea of breaking him that way made my heart hurt.

All the good reasons I'd had for ending it quickly were still there. He was a werewolf, and I wasn't. This little tour only highlighted the differences. He somehow managed to live happily in this empty place, I could barely stand it. It was like being trapped in a graveyard.

But at least I was not alone, because I could also feel him, in the visceral way I could always feel living things. He was so vibrant against the bleak backdrop.

Although I imagined he would probably still stand out even in the middle of the living, breathing forest. I wanted to see that, I realized suddenly.

Wait, what was I thinking?

He showed me an indoor pond—a pool—in his giant mausoleum. I hadn't been expecting that. It smelled of salt and it was surrounded by chairs with fake plants in pretty pots or planters. It all looked very nice and even almost realistic, but they brought me no relief from the starkness.

"It's nice," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

"We could go to the hall, if you're not interested in this. I just thought this would be less overwhelming than a whole pack of wolves converging on you."

He wasn't wrong, walking in there to find him had been intimidating. "That's very thoughtful of you," I said, taking a seat beside a table while I tried to ignore how much I hated the location. At least it was quiet here. The water lapping at the sides of the pool at least sounded peaceful, even if the horrible plants were straight out of uncanny valley.

"Well, I confess I was also trying to keep you to myself."

I smiled at him as he took the seat opposite me. I floundered around, trying to think of something to say, but he spoke first. "So, you work for Darrow Brewing?"

Oh good, a nice neutral topic. "Yes, it's my aunt's business. I've been helping her since I was a kid."

"A family business. That's interesting."

"Well, I'll probably take over for her one day. My cousin doesn't have any interest in the business, she favours fire."

"Favours fire?"

"She's just naturally good at taming flames—and starting them. Her mother has a strong affinity for plants, so it's been a bit of a wild ride." I smiled at the thought of my family.

"What's your affinity?"

"Definitely botanical as well, I'm very good with plants. Which is why Aunt Fern and I get along so well. Although all fae have some affinity for plants, even if just a bit. I'm pretty mediocre at other sorts of magic."

"I didn't know anything about the fae or affinities before."

"Well, we still minimize contact with the outer world. But I'm surprised that you don't know more, doesn't your company mix magic into your tech?"

He chuckled, "Well, it's not like we throw a bunch of motherboards and magic into a cauldron and mix it around."

"Motherboards?" I had no idea what he was talking about.

"A computer thing."

"Computers..." That I did know. My aunt kept one reluctantly for business purposes. She didn't talk about it openly, though. It was the business's dirty little secret.

"Anyway, we've got witch programmers. I can manage fine with the actual coding, but I can't do anything with the magic. I don't even really understand how it's done." He shrugged. "But what about you? How is fairy juice made?"

I smiled a bit and teased, "Trying to root out my trade secrets for your company?"

He grinned back. "Fairy juice is a bit out of our wheelhouse, but there's no reason not to look for other investments. I was thinking recently how nice it would be if you fairies could come up with something similar for coffee. Something beyond espresso."

"For coffee?"

"We wolves run through caffeine pretty fast, too. There's a definite market for it. You could call it something like Coffae."

I laughed. I couldn't help myself. There was something about sitting with a successful werewolf by the side of his indoor pond, avoiding his pack, while he suggested ridiculous product names that made me giggle from the pure absurdity.

I met his eyes across the table. He was obviously attractive since I met him, even when I thought he was weird, but seeing him sitting here, his jacket thrown back over an extra chair so he was just in his shirt, smiling at me, might have been one of the nicest things I'd ever seen. I knew I shouldn't compare him to Rex, but he made me feel good in a way that Rex never had, and it wasn't just his pretty face.

Maybe that's why I failed so hard at laying down the law and telling him where he stood. Maybe he wasn't so crazy for thinking there might be—could be—something between us.

"Must be hard to be a werewolf," I said lightly.

He laughed. "Well, there are some upsides. And I'm definitely happy to be a werewolf tonight.

My breath caught.

He met my eyes and looked so serious my heart fluttered foolishly. "Thank you for this."

"For this?"

"For reconsidering."

"Well, it doesn't seem fair not to, now that you mention it." Some part of me was a traitor to all the good reasons that I had to just nip it in the bud. "But no guarantees, right?"

"Of course not. I imagine it's very different for you than it is for me. You basically just had a wolf run up and claim you were his destiny, that must have been unexpected."

Destiny? The thought tightened my throat. He had so much riding on this, and I had no idea how it would go. "So, just so I know where I stand, what happens to you if we don't end up together?"