Couldn’t be me.
“You’re kidding me! This was what, your third date? Normally, they expose themselves way before then.”
I laughed. “Thank witches for the instant blur and block feature anytime someone tries that literally.” In the early days of scry-o-tech, many people were inundated with pics of dicks of all shapes, sizes, and species. It seemed that being a scuzzball was not exclusive to humans.
“Hah! Right? But that’s not what I meant.”
“I know, I know, I just couldn’t resist.” I heaved a sigh. “But yeah, Jason had me fooled. I’m always up front about being a latent shifter, so if someone’s gonna be a dick, that usually reveals them right off the bat,” I said with a sigh. “Of course, you’d probably wonderwhythey swipe on me if they think I’m not a real wolf, but it turns out that most of them just swipe oneverywoman without even looking until they hit their scrying limit.”
“Sostupid.This app is supposed to be for connection, and so many of these douches are turning it into a hookup thing.”
It was so validating to bitch with someone who got it. For so much of my life, I was largely alone in what I was experiencing, so finding Tweety had been a real godsend. I really hoped we could hang out in public one day, but my digital friend was incredibly busyandquite nervous about navigating human society. I wouldn’t mind popping over to her place—I had her address in case of emergency, but she hadn’t given me permission yet. I figured, judging from things she said about herself, she was kind of messy. And while I didn’t care, I understood she might be embarrassed showing me that side of her.
“I think I might give up on dating for a while. Maybe once I age out ofbreedableterritory, I won’t get so many knotheads worrying about me passing on my defective genes to any offspring.”
“I mean, that’s not theworstidea,” Tweety said with a sigh that crackled through my headphones. “But I dunno, you’re such a romantic. It feels kind of wrong that you have to go without just because wolves can’t wrap their furry heads around your… uh, situation.”
My situation.What a funny way to say my genetic or magical mutation that caused me to miss out on one of those basic parts of being a wolf shifter. Whomp-whomp.
“Yeah, but you know what? I’ve fought too hard to carve out my own little slice of peace to waste time on them. I’d rather spend time with people who value me for who I am.”
“I admire your spirit, Puppygurl4lyfe,” Tweety said.
As usual, I blushed. I’d chosen my gamertag when I was just fourteen and looking forward to getting my inner wolf after being told that I was a late bloomer. I supposed I could justchange the tag, but Tweety was the only one who ever called me that.
“You know you can just call me Naomi.”
“Of course I do, Puppygurl4lyfe.”
That got a slight chuckle out of me. I was extremely grateful for Tweety’s levity. It was a bright point I needed to stop me from slipping into a self-hating spiral. I’d spent far too much of my twenties loathing myself for something I couldn’t help, and I didnotwant to regress into those old habits.
Sure, I didn’t have an inner wolf, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t a person worth getting to know. Worth spending time around.
A person worth falling in love with.
That thought sobered me, but I tried my best not to get stuck in the mire. So instead, I drew a breath and decided to focus on things I did enjoy. Like my best friend.
“Who cares about these losers? Why don’t we have a girls’ night? We could go sing karaoke”—after all, what harpy didn’t like shrieking into a mic?—“go bar hopping, or…ooh,we can have unlimited crab legs at this Chinese buffet by you that’s run by actual shifters. They don’t kick us out for eating too much, they just charge a fee.”
A godsend, really, considering since even the smallest animal shifter had caloric needs and an appetite that a huge bodybuilder couldn’t quite keep up with. Since I had no inner wolf, mine was quite a bit reduced compared to that of my siblings, but I could still put away much more than anyone would expect of a human woman of my stature.
“Aw, you know, I’d love to, but I’msowiped from all this research I’ve been doing on my latest article. I kinda wanna stay in and brain rot, ya know?”
“I get it,” I said, although I couldn’t help but feel a bit wistful about hanging out with her in person. “But one of these days, we’re gonna make it work.”
“Oh yeah, absolutely! We’ll definitely chill. Timing’s just not right, right now.”
“I getcha…” I managed not to heave a sigh, but it was close. “But you’ll have tonight to hang out on the server?”
“For sure! Since Mr. Loser McGee decided to pass on a baddie with a fatty, I guess I’m the one who wins.”
Nowthatstartled an actual bark of laughter out of me. “I dunno about a fatty,” I chuckled. Yes, for my height I was definitely curvy, but sometimes I felt more square and bloated than deliciously hourglass in silhouette.
“I do! I helped you pick your outfit, remember? And the matching third date underwear set.”
“True that. And you only wolf-whistled three times.”
“I was respecting the culture of your people,duh,” she retorted, and there it was, our usual rhythm coming back. “Man, if either of us swung both ways, we could save a lot of time and just date each other.” Now it washerturn to let out a dramatic sigh. “Although you’re way out of my league.”
