The Contrary Mate

This time Jack took me to a vegetarian restaurant and we had a very nice time, talking and laughing and drinking together, although I wondered if he actually liked what he was eating. More and more, I enjoyed my time with him, and it was almost as if his proximity to me lessened the empty feeling of the lack of life of the city. The world just seemed more alive when he was with me. I wondered if it were my part of the bond working on me, but even if it was, I would not complain.

Once we were done, Paul drove me home. I didn't have to give him directions which surprised me, until I figured out Jack was doing so through his pack link. As we crossed the borders, I pondered just how annoyed Senator Salix and the village council would be that I was bringing a second werewolf onto fae lands. At least this one wasn't as notorious, I supposed. Or maybe he was too, since he worked for Jack. I honestly didn't know and barely cared anymore. I was tired of trying to meet the rigid requirements of the other fae.

"I'll go to that charity thing with you," I told him suddenly, twisting myself to look at his face.

By the dim lights of the car, his pleasure was still obvious. "I'll get Lenora to set you up with something to wear, unless you'd rather get something yourself."

"Lenora would be great," I said, wondering about Jack's secretary. There was a lot of work to do at my aunt's so if she was able to get me something I wouldn't complain, plus I wasn't quite sure what I should wear to something like that.

Jack dropped me off, with another promise to meet again the next night. He got out of the car and we kissed, a lingering longing kiss that spoke of just how much he would miss me and reminded me just how much I would miss him in return. It made me completely forget that Paul was in the car so I wasn't embarrassed until we stopped.

It was so early in our relationship, but I still somehow found myself imagining things I hadn't really imagined before, promises and celebrations of forever.

Or maybe it wasn't that early in our relationship. With the bond, he was probably already there, thinking that way. Maybe it was only natural for Jack and I to go faster than the average under the circumstances.

I wandered into my parent's home, daydreaming about Jack as the sound of his car faded into the distance. My father looked up from what he was doing, something with a magnifying lens, I wasn't really sure what, and smiled at me with amusement. I supposed I looked as happily dreamy as I felt.

Before I could even speak to my father, there was a knock on the door. I hurried over, thinking it was maybe Jack who had forgotten something, but my face fell as I opened the door.

"What do you want?" I asked Rex. I was not in the mood to pretend to be happy to see him anymore.

"I need to talk to you, and show you something," he said quickly, probably because he could sense that I was tempted to slam the door in his face.

"About what?" I crossed my arms and frowned. A part of me hated being like this to someone who had been my friend for so long, but he had crossed a lot of lines lately.

"About...I really need to show you."

"Fine. If I look at whatever it is you have there, will you leave?"

"Yes, of course. If you still want me to." He was dreaming if he thought I wouldn't afterwards.

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes," I said to my father, who unbeknownst to me, had stood up and moved closer to where I was talking to my former friend.

"I'll be waiting," he said, and then looked to Rex. "Have a nice night, Rex."

"Thanks, Mr. Darrow."

My father nodded his acknowledgement, and I followed Rex outside. He picked up a lit lantern, which he had presumably used to travel through the darkness, and walked a distance from my family home. As annoyed as I was with him, I wasn't afraid he would do anything to me besides argue and rant. Rex wasn't the sort to hurt me physically.

He led me to a gazebo that we had spent many happy hours hanging around under when we were teens. A part of me still missed those days, but they were long gone, lost to time and even the nostalgic feeling was being eroded by the way that he kept behaving recently. Rex took a seat, and I sat beside him, keeping a decent amount of space between us.

"So what are you going to show me?" I asked him, just wanting to get this over with so I could go back home and get to bed.

Instead of answering with words, Rex pulled out a shiny device from his pocket, and with shock I recognized it as a cell phone.

"What are you doing?" I asked. This was not like Rex in the slightest. Rex hated human technology with a passion, he was the last person who would own a phone...and yet, here he was, typing a passcode into it and bringing the cold tech to life. He definitely was not as well versed in such things as Jack was, but he did some inexplicable things that made me think he was more familiar with it than I was and a screen with words and shapes was brought up.

"What's gotten into you? You hate this sort of thing, you'd never use the internet," I said, my eyes searching his. Even before he had developed his extremist views, he hadn't had an interest in anything like this.

"Desperate times," he said. "I did a little digging into that Jack Wright." There was no surprise that he had figured out Jack's identity so quickly after Rex had seen him and his home. He tapped the screen and sound and movement erupted as a video sprang to life. It was some sort of celebration, and I watched the screen. The view moved around, and I didn't need Rex to point out when Jack came into view, very obviously flirting with a woman on another man's arm.

"This is from some human party only a few weeks ago," Rex explained, and he swiped his finger along the video. He removed it, and in the corner of the screen I could see Jack drinking and laughing with another beautiful woman. The way he was looking at her reminded me of the way that he looked at me, and seeing him direct that expression towards someone else made me feel sick.

"That was before he met me," I said, my voice more defensive than I would like.

"Maybe, but how do you know he's not playing you too now?"

"I just do."

"Okay, fine. Look at this, then," he said, bringing up another page. I wanted to walk away and tell Rex to take his digging and shove it, but something, perhaps morbid curiosity, held me in place. I read the top of the article of some local gossip website and some article trashing him.

"This isn't who he is. At least not with me."

"I bet that's what all his conquests said." If Rex had acted triumphant I might have lost my temper and slapped him, but I could only hear worry and concern in his voice, and that was more effective than anything else for making me second guess myself. What if he was right?

"It's different. I'm his mate," I said, recklessly revealing the secret between Jack and I.

"What?" Rex sounded shocked.

"Yeah."

"But that's a werewolf thing."

"They're sometimes mated to other kinds, it seems."

Rex frowned. "Can you feel it? That bond?"

I paused. "Yes. I think so." I wanted him like I had never wanted anything, so it had to be true.

"If you're not sure then how do you know he's not lying to you?"

"I am sure, and I just know he's not." I wished I had a better answer. It wasn't like he looked at me different than anyone else, it seemed.

Rex scrolled further down the page, and stopped at a picture of Jack with some redhead. More scrolling revealed more pictures, a ton with a beautiful black-haired woman, and they all stabbed at my heart, even though—thankfully—none were explicit.

"You made your point," I finally said, shoving the phone away.

"I just don't want you getting hurt," Rex said, watching my expression.

"Really? Because I kind of feel like that's exactly what you're trying to do right now. Are you trying to help me or just sabotage Jack?"

Rex ran his hands through his hair in an obvious attempt to stall before he answered. "I accepted that you would be with someone else and I can make myself be okay with that, Aura. But why him, of all people? There are tons of fae who would be happy to be with you, at least there were before this. You're throwing your good name away, and for what? Some guy who's broken the hearts of a hundred women before you...?"

"I'm going home now."

"Aura," he said beseechingly.

"I said you made your point. Good night." I didn't want to hear any more. My stomach felt sick as I walked away.