The Contrary Mate

I was sleeping slightly better now that Aura was warming up to me. My wolf was minutely more calm, although I doubted I'd ever sleep really well again unless she was beside me. I wasn't much for mornings, but I was pretty sure waking up with her beside me would be so much better than this.

My eyes burned as I dragged myself to the shower and got myself ready for the day. I could already practically hear Lenora's words ringing in my head and knew it would be a long one. I would have thought that having a mate to look forward to should make the hours flow by faster, but instead it made the day drag by except for occasional spurts of coffee infused focus.

Thinking of coffee, I really needed some caffeine. I probably should ask Fred to get someone to start delivering me the most caffeinated version they could find. Less steps to take before I could get my fix.

But for now, I dressed and dragged my exhausted self down to the main kitchen, where I found a pot of strong coffee simmering away. It smelled so good, like distilled energy.

"Good morning, Jack!" Mira, one of my staff, said in cheerful tones. I wasn't surprised. She'd slept beside her mate every night for the past twenty-something years, so her sleep had likely been excellent.

"G'morning," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster in return. I poured coffee and a dash of cream into a mug, and immediately took a sip of the beverage and burned myself.

I groaned, but my skin began immediately healing and the small pain was nearly gone. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at it through bleary eyes.

And spilled my coffee down the front of my shirt.

Setting my phone on the counter, I pulled off my shirt to get the heat away from my skin.

Mira glanced over at me. "You okay there? Let me get something cold for you."

"I'll be fine," I assured her. Again, my wolf was already starting to take care of the minor wound as it cooled.

"Good thing my mate isn't here to see you stripping in the kitchen with me, or you might not be fine," she teased.

I laughed a bit as I grabbed my phone. I needed to go and change, but I needed to read more than the first line that Aura had sent me. I read the speech bubbles greedily.

Hi Jack, it's Aura.

So this is my dad's phone that I'm using since I don't have one. Hopefully this message gets to you because I have no idea what I'm doing. This is my first message that I've sent like this, but my dad said it was better than calling because you might be sleeping.

I wasn't sure if I was happier that it sounded like she had revealed my existence to her father, or because the words 'my first' sounded wonderful to my wolf's ears, even over something so simple as this.

If you really need me in the future, you can call my dad instead of my aunt's business line. He knows now. After you dropped me off last night there was a whole situation that I don't want to get into on here. I'll tell you later because I'm still a bit angry about it.

See you tonight. I'll meet you at your place this time.

I started walking back to my room for dry clothing, rereading her text so many times it was kind of pathetic. While thrilled with any sort of contact, my ever protective wolf didn't love the idea of her flying around undefended. I wasn't going to argue about it. Maybe, once we were official, she'd agree to have some sort of security to soothe my wolf. Maybe the security would need to be fae so she could fly freely.

But I was letting my imagination get way ahead of myself. I had to get her sold on me before I convinced her of anything else.

She filled my mind on the way to the Meteor building, and then as Lenora ran through any changes to my day, and as I went to my first meeting with the Director of Human Resources. The director was also a wolf, and found the job title amusing because not all her resources were strictly human. After my rundown on employee recruitment and retention numbers and sundry other organizational matters, I headed off to my next task, and my next, and my next.

As per my prediction, my day dragged unusually slowly, and when I'd made it through everything I got into my car, trying to focus on reading through more reports Lenora had sent me on the drive. I hadn't had time to properly plan anything for Aura and I kicked myself for not coming up with something better than the previous night. I didn't want her to find her time with me tedious. I ran through the things I knew my mate liked: brewing, gardening, not eating meat, not wearing shoes, modest dresses that made my mouth water as they clung to her slim curves...

That wasn't helpful. Chocolate? No, I always fed her, it was a base requirement of my instincts, not romantic. Flowers? She liked plants. It seemed so unimaginative and cliché, but maybe she wouldn't care about that.

"Swing by a florist," I told Paul, and when we stopped I jumped out. The shop overwhelmingly smelled of flowers and stung my nose. I was sure most of them smelled fine on their own, but together they were overwhelming. This would be the first and last time I would set foot in this shop. Delivery from here on out if this went over as well as I hoped it would.

"What can I help you with?" asked the smiling clerk at the counter.

"I'm looking for something nice for my girlfriend for tonight," I said as smoothly as I could considering I could barely breath.

"Any preferences?"

"Pretty sure she likes all flowers," I said, trying to focus on anything but the overpowering floral.

"Colour preference?"

"I don't know. How about blue?"

"What sort of blue?"

Did that really matter? Flowers were flowers. Normally I would have just had Lenora deal with these sort of details. "I guess a sort of ocean aqua...Can you do that? I really don't know."

"Any other preferences? Price?"

"Just that it's beautiful." I did want her to like it. "And fast." I needed to get out of there before I suffocated.

"I'll make something right up," she said, her voice cheerful. It only took a couple minutes for her to do it, and the only thing that made me hold out waiting inside the nose burning building was that I wanted to see my mate's pleasure.

I paid and left, carrying my wrapped bundle, eager to get home and see her again.