One important aspect of gargoyles was the fact that they imprinted themselves on people. If a gargoyle felt a special bond with anyone, they would imprint on that person so that there was a magical connection. It wasn’t just mates or families. A gargoyle could imprint on as many and for whatever reason that made sense to them.
As Theo had felt an instant connection with Garrett, he wondered if maybe Garrett had chosen him as a friend? He was too shy to ask, but seeing the gargoyle there made Theo so very happy.
“Would you like to come in?” Theo offered.
Garrett slowly shook his head before he smiled. According to Josh, Garrett currently had two out of three forms. His final form when he reached five hundred would give him the ability to pass as human. Garrett not being able to speak yet didn’t seem to bother Josh and it didn’t bother Theo either.
Leaving the window open, Theo walked to his bed and sat on the side. He started to pull on his shoes.
“Well, I’m about to meet Wylder and Josh for dinner. We were going to the dining hall but if you’d like to hang with us, we can have a picnic under the tree across the way.”
Garrett’s ears perked up before he nodded slowly.
“Perfect!” Theo sent a quick text to Wylder asking him to grab Josh and pick up dinner before meeting Theo under their tree. They ate there a lot and it felt like their special place. He also told Wylder that Garrett had surprised him but not to tell Josh yet. That would be a nice little surprise for his other new friend.
Theo finished tying his shoes then grabbed the hoodie that Wylder had let him borrow. Theo knew he was going to have to wash it soon, since he’d been wearing it every day that week, but he loved how it smelt like his mate. And it was big enough that Theo could wrap it around himself, feeling like he was getting a hug.
“Okay, all ready. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
Garrett gave him a thumbs-up before his wings burst from his back and he floated from the building.
Theo instantly felt silly. Of course, Garrett wouldn’t have fallen even if he hadn’t had his claws in the side of the building. He could fly. Or glide was how Josh explained it. Not that he thought he’d offended the gargoyle or anything. Theo was new to this world even though he’d been born a shifter. Luckily no one seemed upset when he made a mistake or said something silly. Theo was surrounded by the best people ever!
He hurriedly closed and locked the window to pull the curtains back in place. Maybe he wasn’t able to see all his mates at the same time, but Theo had friends now. His life was full. His studying in all things supernatural was a lot more interesting than his college work, but he managed to do both. At least for the moment.
Skipping across the room, Theo gave a little butt shimmy and he pulled open the door. Dorky? Maybe, but sometimes Theo found it hard to hold all the happiness inside him.
He made sure to lock the door behind him and hurried down the hall to the stairs. It didn’t take long for him to reach the outside door and to push through it.
Theo didn’t spot Garrett right away and started to worry that the gargoyle had taken off before the leaves of one branch of Theo’s favorite tree moved to the side and Garrett’s smiling face appeared.
There he was!
Rushing forward, Theo bounced down the steps before crossing the sidewalk. He stopped under one of the widest branches grinning up. Garrett floated down and landed on the ground with a hard thump.
“I’m so glad to see you again!” Theo said honestly. “Josh has been teaching me about your species and culture.” Theo placed his hand over his heart and made a circle. “Friend.”
Garrett’s ears swiveled while giving a huge toothy grin.
Okay, so the dagger-sharp teeth were still a little freaky, but Garrett repeated the friend gesture back to Theo.
Theo beamed. He was super happy that Josh had shared that with him.
“I didn’t realize that you traveled this far.” Theo plopped to the ground as he spoke. If Garrett normally nested at Aleksander’s fathers’ house, then the university was a few hours away. Of course, with Josh attending school there, it would make sense that Garrett might show up. Theo was fairly sure thatGarrett and Josh were mates, but no one had mentioned it yet. He didn’t want to pry if something else was going on.
Garrett hunched into himself, which seemed to shrink his size. If he was flesh and bones instead of stone, it wouldn’t even be weird that Garrett was sitting with him. Being a gargoyle seemed super complicated, though. Lots of rules and customs. Theo was fine with being a plain ol’ cat if it meant that he could skip some of what Josh told him Garrett’s species expectations were.
“That’s cool that you can morph into different sizes,” Theo told his new friend, “And fly, of course—that would be amazing. I bet it would be fun to fly wherever you wanted.” He didn’t mind that his companion couldn’t speak back. He knew that Garrett was listening. “Josh told me it was okay to talk to you in public since humans would just see a blind spot. He said that I would just look like I was talking to myself.”
Not that there were a lot of people around. It was later in the evening and dinner was being served in the dining hall. A few other students walked around but no one was paying any attention to him.
“Hey!” Theo had a sudden thought. “Should I have gotten you something to eat? I didn’t even think about it, and it would be super rude to eat in front of you. I can call Wylder—”
Garrett shook his head while petting Theo’s cheek.
“Alright, I’m going to take it that you’re not mad. I will totally share with you, though.” Theo didn’t feel bad about having Wylder pick up his food since Dario had put funds in both their accounts. Technically it was Dario buying their meals. But Dario’s money bought all Theo’s meals. Not being hungry allthe time was something that Theo hadn’t thought about much. He was even getting a bit of a belly, but when he tried to show Wylder, his mate had thought he was crazy.
Theo totally saw his stomach growing, no matter what his mate said.
