“Uh… Why?” he croaked. “What’s down that hallway?”
The elevator dinged behind him, signaling someone else’s arrival, and Jonah was relieved when Emmett stepped off, a bunch of food in his arms. He beamed when he saw Jonah, but the smile fell and he cocked his head when he noticed his anxiety.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
Jonah shook his head. He didn’t want to admit he was still struggling around some supes. He didn’t want to offend the arachne who was just doing her job.
“Are they with you?” she asked, still frowning at Jonah.
Emmett nodded, coming to stand by Jonah’s side. His arms were too full to put one around Jonah’s shoulders like he normally would, but he pressed up against him and the warmth helped Jonah relax.
“Yep. This is Jonah.” He looked around with a frown. “Where’s Roz?”
Jonah flapped a hand awkwardly down the hallway Roz had disappeared down. “She went that way. She didn’t hear the receptionist when she called out.”
“Ah,” Emmett nodded, then explained to the woman, “Sorry about that, Nadia. She’s deaf. If she didn’t see your lips moving, she wouldn’t have heard you.”
Nadia blinked but looked mollified by the explanation. “I see. Well, hopefully she didn’t anger Mr. Van Buren by waltzing into his office unannounced. I try to call to let him know when someone is coming so he isn’t taken off guard. Isaac insisted on that protocol.”
Jonah didn’t know any of the people they were talking about, but he didn’t ask. He felt better with Emmett nearby, and when Emmett led the way down the hallway Roz had gone through, Jonah fell into step beside him.
“Why does she need to warn someone that people are approaching the office?” Jonah asked, taking a few of the takeout boxes out of Emmett’s arms to help him out.
Emmett shot him an appreciative smile before explaining, “Because the dragon is territorial. Important rule of thumb for all shifters: never enter their territory without express permission. Especially not dragon shifters.”
Jonah’s mouth fell open. “Dragon?”
Emmett didn’t respond, poking his head into the office at the end of the hall. “Knock knock. Can we pass through?”
Someone grumbled an unhappy sound, and someone else snickered. “He’s fine. Go on through. They’re waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Isaac. Come on, Jonah. We’re just passing through.”
Jonah scurried to keep up with Emmett, sneaking a look at the two men in the office. The one with the pink hair was hard to picture as a dragon shifter. It was his companion who sat at the big wooden desk that Jonah figured was the one to avoid. He was massive and currently expelling little puffs of smoke when he breathed.
“Don’t mind him,” Emmett murmured as they exited the office and crossed the grassy lawn of the enormous greenspace on the rooftop connected to it. “He agreed to let us use this space. He’s just a grouch in general.”
“Who? Maverick?” someone asked. “That’s not about us. Apparently one of his nephews got arrested, and he has to deal with it.”
Jonah had been looking over his shoulder at the dragon shifter, so he hadn’t realized they would be eating with new people. He turned around to find a giant picnic blanket spread out, with new faces smiling up at him in greeting. His feet froze, and he looked between two of them, confused.
“Are you… human?”
The smaller one, a blonde with big blue eyes, beamed at him. “That’s right. I’m surprised you can tell.”
“I, uh… Emmett told me what to look for,” he admitted. It was hard to tell since some species looked human in every way except their magic, but during his first week, Emmett had talked him through what to look for when finding the difference between a human-looking supe and a regular old human. Eye color was a big one. If their hair or clothes seemed to move ina way that wasn’t natural. Sometimes it was just a general aura. He’d tried to compare when at home with his family to see the difference, but it was when the humans were around other supes that it became easier to tell.
“Come sit,” the blonde urged, gesturing to the blanket. “I’m Avery, by the way. Avery Hawksley. And that gentle giant over there is Tony. The pretty man hovering behind him is Zephyr, one of his mates.”
Jonah’s brows snapped together tightly. “Wait. What? Humans don’t have mates.”
“Not true,” a strained, but familiar voice said behind them. “Goddess, this thing is heavier than I expected.”
Jonah glanced over his shoulder as he sat down, watching Taron trying to carry a big squashy chair on his own. He kept stumbling and tripped over his own feet at one point. Lucky for him, he landed in the chair and not on the ground, letting out a surprised, “oomph!” as he fell.
Making a tick sound behind his teeth, the man Avery had introduced as Zephyr pushed to his feet, careful to make sure Tony was steady before going to help Taron. “Why didn’t you text me and ask for help? Or shift, for that matter. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
Taron looked up, a sheepish grin on his face. “I, uh, may have worn my magic out with that shift last night. Flying is hard.”
