Zane stared at her a moment, then buried his face in his arms and laughed. "Oh my God. You're right. I am a wear wolf. That is the worst thing I've ever heard."
Vicki actually clapped in delight, although her previous indignation suddenly rose to the surface again and she put her arms akimbo. “But wait, is thiscommon? Is it commonhere? In Virtue? My God, nowondereverybody’s so closed-mouthed! Oh my God! Your father! Is he a—what did you call it? A shifter? Is that why he hates me? Because I’m not? But everybody here can’t be, right? Or can they? No, no way, there’s no way the kids would all stay human on the playground. I certainly wouldn’t. Whfhfhaflflfff!” The last sound was accompanied by a wild flailing of her hands. “What theheck!”
“So you’re taking this well,” Zane said cautiously. Vicki gave him alook, but he shook his head as he sat up. “No, I mean it. Those are all good questions, and I was afraid you’d scream and run away, so this is definitely taking it well. It’s pretty common in Virtue, yes, and it’s part of why my father doesn’t like you, yes. He’s never liked any outsiders, and he especially doesn’t like people who aren’t shifters coming to Virtue, not that the town could sustain itself meaningfully on just the shifter population, and?—”
“Oh, you sounded just like Librarian Sarah there, except she never said anything about shifters.” Vicki’s eyes popped. “Wait, is she a shifter too? Is Virtue full ofwolves?”
“Not…fullof them…? And wolves are a pretty common shifter species but there are a lot of others in town. There’s at least one rabbit shifter family I know about, for example.”
“…don’t the wolves eat them?”
Zane laughed. “Shifters can sense each other, or recognize each other, kind of. We wouldn’t generally eat another shifter. If it came to that I’d assume there were some much larger problems going on around us.”
“Right. Right, good. And what about Sarah? Wait, are you allowed to tell me, or is that like outing somebody?”
“It is like outing somebody, but Sarah isn’t a shifter.” Zane hesitated over telling her that Sarah’smatewas, and winced at the very idea. Or at the word, maybe. Saying Sarah’s boyfriend was seemed much better than using the wordmate, or trying to tell Vicki about shifters and their fated mates.
Something in his expression gave him away, though, because she put her arms akimbo again and tilted her head. “Sarah’s not, buuuut…?”
“Her boyfriend is,” Zane replied slowly. “Which…iscomplicated for me to tell you. It could be fine, itisfine because I trust you, but…” He finally got to his feet, raking a hand through his hair. “Obviously we don’t tell people about ourselves, for safety reasons. The exception is…”
After a moment, Vicki got up, too, and leaned against a table with her arms folded under her breasts. Zane wasn’t exactly distracted, but it was difficult not to admire the lift of her chest, and impossible not to remember the sexy, revealing bra hugging those curves. He actually closed his eyes for a second, trying to keep himself on point, then opened them to meet Vicki’s confused gaze as she said, “Whatever it is can’t be as dramatic as ‘I turn into a wolf,’ right?”
Zane chuckled. “No, I guess not. It’s just that most shifters believe strongly that there’s someone in the world for them. A very special someone, someone we’re fated to meet, and who we’ll recognize instantly as being the person we’re supposed to be with all our lives. We’re allowed to tell those…those ‘fated mates’…about other shifters andtheirmates.”
Vicki had gone very still, and echoed, “‘Most’ shifters,” after a momentary pause.
Zane exhaled. “My parents weren’t fated mates and my father absolutely doesn’t think they’re a real thing. He’s completelydismissive of the whole idea. I…” He trailed off, then gave Vicki a lopsided smile. “I want to believe? And I know we have a connection, and my wolf says it’s real. It’s just…”
“It’s just that it’s like a fairy tale,” Vicki offered. “And fairy tales don’t really come true.” She lifted a finger, saying, “I want to come back to that ‘my wolf says’ thing, but…does it matter, Zane? I think we have a connection, too. I felt it as soon as we met. Does it really matter if it’s magic or fate, if we both feel it and want to do something about it? Normal…I mean, not-shifter humans…what do you call us? Because ‘normal’ implies you’re not, and I don’t exactly like that.”
“True humans.”
Her eyebrows flickered up. “Woo, that sounds like it carries a lot of baggage, but okay. True humans, even true humans experience love at first sight, right? Or a strength of connection they can’t explain? If that’s easier…why can’t what we’re feeling be that? I don’t need it to be fate. I just want it to be real.”
“It is real.” Zane crossed to tuck her into his arms, nestling his nose in her hair. “I believe that, at least, Vicki. Victoria. I wish I could tell you it was fate and we were meant to be together forever, but I have a hard time believing that, even if my wolf thinks I’m an idiot.”
She laughed against his chest and looked up with bright eyes. “Your wolf talks to you?”
“Not very often, but yeah. Most shifters’ animals do.”
“And…he doesn’t help you with recognizing people?” She looked faintly offended on his behalf. “Can’t he tell the difference between one person and another by scent, at least?”
Zane groaned and put his forehead against hers. “You’d think, wouldn’t you? But it’sincrediblyindifferent about people. They’re all loud and smelly and they wear things that make them move strangely, so it prefers to ignore them as much as possible. It’s no help at all.”
“Well but that—that…!” She clearly had protests, but couldn’t actually verbalize them. Zane grinned sympathetically.
“I know, right? That’s basically how I feel about the whole thing. But it’s been like this my whole life, so I’ve just had to accept it and do my best without any help.” He wobbled his head, forehead still against hers. “Without any wolf help. Dion’s ahugehelp, and so is my mother. They get me across the red carpet and through interviews without completely embarrassing myself.”
“Oh! Oh, is that why they’re always your dates to those big events? I thought?—”
“That I was dating Dion or a complete mama’s boy, or both,” Zane said with a chuckle. “Everybody does. Annoys Dion to no end, because he says it limits his prospects. He’d never admit it, but that’s at least half of why he wants us to have a public romance: so it’s obvious he’s single.”
“And what about you?” she asked. “Do you want a public romance?”
“God, no. Not that I don’t want a romance!” he said as her face fell. “But a public one would upendyourlife, and I don’t want that. If the just-friends-in-public thing would work, I think it’d be better for us, regardless of smoldering pictures taken at the diner.”
“Oh. That’s thoughtful,” Vicki admitted before her stomach gurgled so loudly Zane heard it. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, but I’mstarving. And I’ve got to go home and finish tomorrow’s class project.”
