Jonah:Where does a werewolf get a new tail?
Emmett:I’m afraid to ask. Where?
Jonah:At a re-tail store.
Emmett replied with a string of laughing emojis, and Jonah felt his shoulders come down for the first time since he got home. He let out a breath, leaning back in his chair as Emmett tried another corny joke, and when he finished eating, he took his phone with him to bed, unwilling to end the conversation just yet. He had one good thing going for him right now, and that was a new friendship with a werewolf who somehow always knewwhen he needed a laugh. He’d protect that for as long as he could.
CHAPTER NINE
After a full week of working at Spellbound as a temp, Jonah no longer jumped at every interaction with supes. Emmett had been right that it only took a few days before he could at least assess a situation without panicking. The more he got to know the people he was working with, the easier it got.
There was a small problem of getting the attention of a few coworkers, which Jonah found kind of strange. But he didn’t think it was a supe thing. He assumed it was just a novelty thing. He still hadn’t met any other humans in the company. Maybe they were just as curious about him as he was about them?
By the end of his first week, he no longer needed Emmett to join him for lunch to be able to walk into the cafeteria. He still waited for him, but that was more of a personal choice than a necessity. Emmett was his first friend at Spellbound and never failed to show up at least a few times a day to check on him and make stupid jokes. And flirt. Gods, was the werewolf a major flirt. Coming from him though, it didn’t bother him as much as the other flirting attempts he’d gotten throughout the week.
Jonah’s responses to the flirting surprised himself at first. Being so isolated from supe society, he’d never considered what kind of interests he might have outside of the human variety.It had honestly never occurred to him that he’d be attracted to other species. But when Emmett flirted with him? Yeah, there was definite attraction there.
It started slowly. Any time Emmett leaned into him to talk over the noise of the cafeteria, the low growl in his ear made Jonah shiver. Then there were the many times Jonah ran into the werewolf, which he was absolutely certain Emmett was putting himself in Jonah’s path on purpose at that point. Each time he stumbled into the werewolf, he was assaulted by his favorite scent, not to mention being pressed up against all those muscles. He’d always had a thing for muscles, and apparently being covered in fur didn’t change that.
He didn’t think it was a good idea to start anything, not while he was living at home with his family at least, but that didn’t stop him from reacting whenever Emmett got close to him.
After a weekend at home with his family pretending he didn’t exist, Jonah was glad to be back in the office on Monday. He walked in through the lobby doors with a little more confidence, passing by Miguel who was watching the doors. He gave the werewolf a friendly wave and got a chin jut and a smile in greeting as a reply. Jonah had gotten to know a few of Emmett’s packmates in the last week, they liked to eat in small groups so there were always a few of them who joined Jonah and Emmett for lunch. Along with Taron, Kian, and Peri of course.
Taron wasn’t kidding when he said he was adopting Jonah. He’d actually showed up with paperwork the other day, and it was only the fact that one of his mates was nearby and overheard him that spared Jonah from having to tell the shapeshifter there was no way he was getting adopted. The tall man in a smart suit wearing his hair in twin braids gave Taron an exasperated smile and dragged him away, giving Jonah enough time to sneak away without Taron being able to follow him. After a week of gettingto know them, Jonah got the feeling the shapeshifter was more likely to kidnap him than Kian would.
He turned immediately for Peri’s Place, knowing if he didn’t check in with the fairy at the very least, he’d hear it by lunchtime. When Peri had first invited him to his bakery, Jonah had tried to refuse, he couldn’t afford to eat out, but Peri had a special table behind the bar for his friends and they got to be guinea pigs for his new creations in exchange for free treats. He hadn’t screwed up a pastry yet, so Jonah wasn’t complaining.
There was a line, like always, and Jonah wasn’t comfortable cutting it to go around them, so he waited his turn to go inside, checking his phone and letting Emmett know he’d arrived.
Emmett:Are you still in ED today?
Jonah:…ED?
Emmett:Yeah, you know, the Entertainment Division?
Jonah snorted to himself.
Jonah:ED means something different to humans.
Emmett:Really? What’s it mean?
Jonah:Look it up.
He wished Emmett were around so he could see his reaction. He got the feeling it would be hilarious.
Sure enough, Emmett’s response was just as shocked as Jonah expected. He snickered as he read Emmett’s flurry of responses.
Emmett:Oh gods!
Emmett:That’s a thing with humans?!
Emmett:How does that even work?
Jonah:It doesn’t. That’s the whole point.
Emmett:So it just sits there? That’s so sad! Is there a cure? Or are they just stuck like that?
Jonah’s shoulders shook as he typed out a response, shuffling along in the line without paying much attention.
