The Contrary Mate

I cursed myself for not putting it together. I was trying to make her time with me memorable, but not by feeding her something that disgusted her. She had been eating salads and fruit most of the time since I met her, but it hadn't occurred to me that her choices might be deeply held convictions rather than taste preferences. I'd simply asked the kitchen to make something and thought no more about it.

I was being a terrible mate. I had to fix this. "I'll get them to bring you something else," I assured her.

"Oh, no, don't do that," she said, and the look in her eyes made me pause. "How about we just maybe trade? You take this, and give me some of your veggies? They're really good. I don't want to waste it."

I relented. "If that's what you want," I said, taking the offensive portion from her and shovelling everything she could stomach onto her plate.

"You don't have to give me all of yours," she argued.

"Well, if you're not going to eat meat, you'd better eat a lot of everything else."

"I'm not in danger of starving," she laughed. She seemed to barely eat anything and it worried my wolf instincts.

"Not if I can help it. I'll get my chef to figure out how to make you healthy meals."

She shook her head. "Don't make a big deal out of it, it's fine."

I didn't care where I ended up as long as it was with her, but wherever that was, my wolf demanded that she get enough fed properly. He didn't care how, but he would see it happened. We ate in silence for a while, with only lingering looks between us while I thought through what I had learned about her.

"Does it bother you that I eat animals?" I finally asked. If she didn't like it, I could keep it away from her so she didn't have to see it. I'd live on lettuce if I needed to. My meat-loving wolf side shockingly did not protest the thought.

"You're a werewolf. I wouldn't get angry at a cat for eating a mouse."

"Well, I like to think I have a bit more choice than a fox."

She smiled. "I don't think a werewolf could cut out meat entirely. It's not even that easy for me to eat a well rounded diet, either, but I manage. Although it's easy to want to try because I find meat so unpleasant. But I can eat it. Like I said, I'd rather eat it than throw it away."

"Well, I'll make sure it doesn't go to waste as long as I'm around."

She smiled. "How much will you be around?"

"How much will you let me?" Was I wandering into dangerous territory?

I didn't find out because at that moment a couple of the staff brought out dessert for us. I tried to read her face as she gratefully interacted with Irini, but I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Irini shot me a sly smile as she placed some sort of fancy desert in front of me and I could almost guarantee she had volunteered to play waitress because she was the interfering sort, spending our childhoods getting into everyone else's business. Her one redeeming feature was that she didn't do it maliciously, but I still hoped she would find her mate soon so she would have something to keep her occupied.

"Thank you," I said firmly.

"You're welcome," she said, lingering. "Do you need anything else out here?"

"We're fine." Then I glanced at Aura. "Unless you want something?"

She considered. "No thanks. Everything is great."

"So you can go now, Irini." I shot her a look.

"Just checking up on you, boss. Everyone's worried you're going to screw this up. Normally I'd think you could handle it, but everything you've done since meeting her has been so shockingly incompetent."

"Thanks so much. Bye."

She smiled again at my mate and thankfully left. Aura turned those eyes towards me and I tried to think of something clever or charming to say. Instead she just dug into her desert. "This is so good."

I tried it, too, some chocolate concoction, but my mind was wandering forward. My wolf feared she was getting ready to leave us again, and I tried to think of a way to convince her to stay just a bit longer after we finished our meal. My mind flashed through everything I could try to convince her to do, the feasible, like seeing if she wanted to play some sort of game or some sort of other entertainment; to the unlikely, like swimming—she would look amazing in a bikini—surrounded by plastic plants she hated; to the impossible, like carrying her off to my bedroom and convincing her to live with me here forever. Or to let me follow her anywhere she went. My wolf didn't care at all. He would sleep outside in her yard—the yard we hadn't even yet seen—just to be close to her, so that we could protect her.

My rational human side tried to rein in my wolf's enthusiasm. Logically, I knew the odds of her being in danger were low. The fae were clearly paranoid and well warded their homes, and their mastery of magic was like nothing the rest of us could achieve. She was warming up to me by slow degrees, so I would likely see her again, and soon. And I would ultimately win her over, one way or another, if I could just keep my wolf patient.

We finished eating, and she smiled at me. I could tell she was getting ready to leave, yet again, so my brain threw the first thing that popped into my head through my lips. "Would you dance with me?" Where the hell had that come from? How was I so bad at this with her?

Those eyes like the clearest ocean widened and she smiled uncertainly. "Out here?"

Well, I'd said it, so the only way to go was bravely forward. "Why not? There's music."

"There is."

"And you like it better out here than in the hall."

"Yes, but someone might see me."

"No one will see you. My pack knows better than to bother us, and I don't think anyone else cares." I could ensure that, if she agreed.

Aura glanced around the area, and then back to me. "Yes."

I stood up, and held my hand out to her while I mind linked Fred. "If anyone even looks out into the garden they're fired."

"If that's what you wish."

Fred's surprise made me reconsider. I wouldn't really fire anyone over something so frivolous. "Not really. But find some punishment that will keep them away." I didn't push my weight around a lot since we were all equals in my pack despite my position in the human world, but these were special circumstances.

Aura got up gracefully, and I took in her slight figure. She was so pretty, and the light of the thin sliver of moon only showed that more clearly. I imagined this was how she would look while joining the pack, if it ever came to that. But I was getting ahead of myself. I pulled her a few steps away from the table until we were into the grass, and then closer to myself. She smelled wonderful, like spring in the forest when everything was growing and the long summer was still to come.

Affection for her welled up inside me and threatened to spill out in the most stupid things I could say, the words 'I love you' threateningly sitting on the tip of my tongue. Gone were any skills I'd acquired for saying the right thing at the right time, something about this beauty left me tripping over my own tongue.

She moved with me gracefully, as if she could read my mind. Our eyes met, and I would swear my heart stopped. She kicked off her shoes so her bare feet were in the grass, and her movements against me, while graceful, had a wild edge that seemed to brim under the surface that called to the wildness of my wolf. With certainty, I knew that this was where the naiad of legend had sprung, from the wild fae of the forest. From ethereal creatures like my mate.

She faced me again and moved closer. Unthinkingly, my hands found her waist, and she put her arms around my neck. Her face was close to mine, and without forethought I brought my lips to hers. She showed no hesitation, opening her mouth while I deepened the kiss. My head swam with the contact between us, my own pleasure and the delight of my wolf rushing in my mind.

Without quite knowing how it happened, all distance was completely gone between us, and her breasts pressed up against my chest through our clothing, and her softness drew me closer. My wolf could have happily seen me take and mark her right then and there, but one tiny bit of human intellect managed to reassert itself in my brain. If she were worried about being seen dancing, she would not be a fan of making love in the garden. If she wasn't even willing to tell her people about me, bearing my mark would upset her. I needed patience since I wasn't going to let her regret it.

I broke the kiss, and there was only the sound of our panting, and the noise of traffic in the distance, and water crashing against the shore while I tried to think of what to say. "That was everything, Aura." I swayed her slowly, not even in sync with the tempo of the music and I didn't care.

She smiled shyly. "It was, Jack."

I loved the way she said my name. I wanted to hear it more from those sweet lips and I resisted the urge to kiss her again.