Marcus headed to the dining room with his laptop under his arm.I fought against the need to follow him and touch him to offer comfort.Instead, I stayed in the kitchen.
I was still debating whether I should make Marcus more tea when I heard his footfalls.He stepped around the corner a moment later.He examined the kitchen and quickly zeroed in on the oolong that was still out on the counter.
“Let me make that for you,” I offered.
“I’m not too frail to make myself some tea.”He punctuated that with a bout of coughing.
I was beside him and running my hand up his back before I could stop myself.He looked up at me, bewildered, as if no one had ever touched him for comfort before.
“My kitchen, my rules.”I shrugged.
Marcus rolled his eyes.“How come your face is black, but the rest of your hair is just as ginger as you?When…when you’re a wolf, I mean.”
I heard Linc chuckle from upstairs.Oh, the bliss of a closed door.
“I like to think it makes me more handsome.”I tried hard to sell that, tried not letting the fact that our mate was asking about my stupid ginger fur get to me.
“Is that a thing?”Marcus watched me make him his tea, and I hoped I was doing it right.Tea drinkers hadopinions.We had half a freezer full of Linc’s coffee beans since coffee drinkers hadopinionsas well.I wasn’t sure how many more snobs this house could handle.“Does it not matter what a werewolf looks like in person-shape so long as their wolf form is hot?”He scrunched up his face.“Not that I find canines inherently sexy.That’s the monsterfuckers, and I’m not even sure they distinguish between tentacles and tails.”
From the sounds of it, Linc was rolling with laughter.Those two were just peas in a pod.
“Well, I only have the tail.But, Marcus, are you saying this—” I indicated my well-filled-out person-shape, as Marcus had put it, “—is ugly?Or that you find me ugly as a wolf?Which is it?”
Marcus blushed.“I didn’t—you’re not ugly!I don’t… I just saw a big fur mountain, and I thought you were the dog the other two fed their victims to.Still not one hundred percent sure you all going furry wasn’t a fever dream.”
I poured the hot water over the tea leaves to let them steep, then pulled off my tee.
“Whoa, dude!”Marcus raised his hands.
I put the shirt on the counter and slowly walked up to Marcus.His scent was crazy enticing—excitement mixed with desire—even with that sour pinch of lingering sickness.
“There’s nothing wrong with looking at bodies.Whoever came up with thinking naked bodies are something to be ashamed of can go suck a porcupine as far as I’m concerned.”I let my pants drop, glad I wasn’t sporting a semi right now.“You should never be embarrassed to look at your mate.”
Then I shifted.It put me below Marcus’s eye level, but it enhanced all the lovely scents I could discern.On the one hand, there was that tired frustration, on the other, the zing of curious newness.
Marcus stared, but he wasn’t scared.He sank to his knees and started petting me.Like this, he had to look up at me.It made sense that me resembling a dog would make it easier for him to cross that barrier toward physical contact, and I liked it.
“You’re huge.”His hands ran down to my right front paw, his fingers following my claws.
Yup, I had big paws, for sure.
I made a grunting sound, the wolf equivalent ofduh, and since Marcus seemed to enjoy feeling me up, I decided to be bold.I shoved him with my muzzle, not hard, but enough to unbalance him.
His first instinct was to throw his arms around my neck to steady himself, and that was kind of perfect, not just because the reaction came so easily, but also because it allowed me to carefully maneuver him onto his back by simply taking a step toward him.
Marcus yelped in surprise, but I had him where I wanted him now.The kitchen floor was very clean, so I didn’t mind having Marcus on his back.I stood over him, looking down, his hands burrowing into my fur.
“What a big strong wolf you are.”
Just loved our sassy mate.
I huffed and started sniffing his face, his neck.When that didn’t freak him out, I licked his skin right above the neckline of his shirt.Everything inside of me screamed for me to just give him my mating bite right here and now, but I wasn’t so fucking weak that my instincts could ride me like that.
This really was too perfect an opportunity to pass up though, so I shifted back, right on top of Marcus.Got me the cutest wide-eyed stare ever.
“Um,” Marcus said, and then he snapped his mouth shut.
“Wasn’t going to French you without asking first.”Damn, but I did have a bit of a semi situation going now.If this were Linc or Ell underneath me, or any other wolf, they’d see it as a compliment, they’d know they’d turned me on.Marcus’s reaction would probably fall more into the human realm ofoops, awkward.
