3
“Friday.”
Cleo was out of breath. “Friday is good. With my schedule. We can get dinner, or whatever you want.”
When Zoe stared and nodded, she went on. She still hadn’t caught her breath. “We can meet at the café, if you like. Around seven? And we can decide on a place to eat then.”
Zoe nodded again. Her mouth was too dry to speak. She belatedly realized she had just agreed to eat food in front of her tiny, perfect mate, but she couldn’t call it back to suggest a movie or something instead.
Cleo was bouncing into motion and talking excitedly about their dinner. “I can look up places. Or you can tell me best local spots.”
She tucked her phone into her bag and went on with a nervous energy Zoe completely understood. “I want to say, forget it, let’s go to dinner now, but I don’t know if I can without making a fool of myself. Also, I want to dress up for you.”
She put a hand to her mouth as if she’d surprised herself. “I can’t believe I told you that.”
“I don’t know how to dress up,”
Zoe confessed in a rush. “But I want to look good for you too.”
What would she even wear? Her one good vest? Tim would have so much to say about that. Zoe shook her head. “I don’t really care about clothes. How you look right now is fine with me. More than fine.”
“Yeah?”
Cleo’s duffel bag fell to the ground. “Then why are we waiting?”
Zoe was at a loss. “I thought humans wanted to.”
“We have to. We’re liars.”
Cleo’s gaze made Zoe feel like the moon itself. “We need the time to be sure. But wolves don’t. You know . And you want . And you can tell when we do.”
Zoe nodded. She had never seen a human grasp this so quickly. Her mate was smart, and adaptable, and brave. Zoe was going to love her in no time at all.
Cleo nodded too. “Then let’s go.”
~~
“I thought weres had to eat all the time.”
Cleo’s comment caught Zoe in the middle of tearing a roll into miniscule pieces and slowly nibbling each one. The rolls were good, but Zoe desperately wanted to cover them in butter and shove them in her mouth. She also wanted the meatballs, red sauce, and spaghetti on Cleo’s plate, and not the soup she’d ordered.
Zoe froze guiltily the way she had when she’d opened the door to the restaurant for Cleo and Cleo had turned to thank her in time to see Zoe trying to discreetly inhale more of her scent. The opening doors thing was embarrassing enough, an instinctual need to show her mate she’d be good for her, but the sniffing thing was mostly because Zoe had hoped it would calm her down. She didn’t want to do anything too stupid on their date.
Their date . She still couldn’t quite believe it was happening. She hadn’t had days to worry over it. It didn’t seem real.
But Cleo was sitting across from her in Giorgio’s, a restaurant known for its lowkey romantic atmosphere as much as its garlic bread and chicken parm. Cleo had a glass of wine, and the smell of the chianti combined with Cleo’s nervous excitement was making Zoe lightheaded.
“Are you not hungry? Did I choose a bad place?”
Cleo put down her fork and didn’t seem inclined to finish her story about her first college roommate.
“I ate earlier.”
This wasn’t a lie, but it felt like one. Zoe immediately sighed at herself and lowered her gaze to her plate of bread pieces and her nearly untouched soup. “I’m a messy eater. I was trying to be neat.”
“But you’re hungry?”
Cleo pressed. Her eyes widened when Zoe still hesitated. “There are other weres here, and they’re eating.”
She glanced at the tables around them, filled with beings and humans alike on dates or grabbing a casual meal. “With enthusiasm,” she added. “It’s nice that you want me to think well of you, but I’d rather you were comfortable with me.” She gave Zoe a gentle smile. She probably used that smile and that even, soft voice when dealing with her clients to help them relax.
Zoe gave her a smile in return, but then tore another chunk of bread. “I grew up among humans,”
she admitted as quietly as she could, although it still drew the attention of some of the weres in their immediate area. She fought the urge to hunch down and raised her head instead. She lifted her lip in a silent snarl at them, then remembered Cleo and ducked down again.
“I don’t understand.”
Cleo startled Zoe completely by taking her hand across the table.
Zoe let the bread fall to the tablecloth and stared at her in amazement. “I was in the system,”
she heard herself explaining, just like that, focused entirely on her mate and not on the words she rarely said aloud. “Weres burn a lot of energy, especially as teenagers. So we eat a lot, anything, but protein is what we need the most. Most human foster homes don’t want the expense or trouble of a were. We grow fast and eat too much. We need touch most of the time, as well, and plenty of space around the full moon.”
She didn’t mention the nightmare of puberty on werewolf senses. “Money was limited for food as it was. No one believed, or wanted to believe, how much we’d need. So when I’d get food, I’d eat as much as I could, as fast as I could. I’ve never quite broken the habit. It’s… not attractive.”
Cleo squeezed her hand. “That’s a fucking crime. Excuse my language. But it is.”
She frowned. “How did you end up in the system, if you don’t mind me asking? I thought the sheriff was your brother. You don’t look alike, but I thought, that happens, you know?”
Cleo’s hand was warm and very soft. Her thumb at Zoe’s wrist was distracting. Her voice and scent were so soothing.
“My brother?”
Zoe’s strength left her. She would answer any questions Cleo had, not that she’d been resisting in the first place. “Nathaniel is… he is…. I never had a home, and he knew it, and he made sure I had one, that I will always have one. When I came here, I’d never had a room of my own, space of my own, and I kept all my stuff in a bag for a whole year. Then he asked me if I’d like shelves.”
The memory was a good one. “Out of nowhere, he says he wants to try carpentry. With shelves. I said yes to make him happy, and we built shelves together in my room. I ended up doing most of it, and then hated how empty they were when I was done. I didn’t realize he was tricking me into decorating my den. My space. I….” Nathaniel was more than brother, but the term would do. “Yes, brother, if you want.”
“Oh.”
Cleo’s gaze was soft too. “Well, I’m glad he was there for you. And that you aren’t, um, into him, if you don’t mind me saying so. You said you like girls, but he’s… I mean. Damn . You know.”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “I know.”
How Nathaniel had the patience to deal with his admirers all the time was beyond her.
“But you guys aren’t like that,”
Cleo reiterated, her voice a little firmer. The hint of jealousy sent a zing down Zoe’s spine.
“No, he’s family.”
Zoe calmed her mate’s insecurity, and then blinked in surprise at how easily she’d said that sentence. “Nathaniel is family,”
she said again, boldly, and then perked up. Zoe had family, and a potential mate who had narrowed eyes when she thought of Zoe with someone else. She repeated herself in amazement. “He’s family and he’s mated.”
“Mated?”
Cleo took her hand away, but only to pick up her fork. She glanced pointedly down, and didn’t resume eating until Zoe—delicately, with restraint—had some of her soup. Cleo twirled some noodles, popped them in her mouth, and ate them. Then she stabbed half a meatball before holding it out for Zoe. “You’ve been staring,”
she explained, although her breathing changed when Zoe leaned forward to eat it. Too late, Zoe realized she had let her mate feed her in front of anyone who cared to look. She didn’t feel sorry for it. though, not even a little bit. The meat was good, but not nearly as satisfying as the sound Cleo made. “Oh,” she exhaled, as her scent grew sharp and hot.
A moment later she held out her fork again, offering the other half.
“I’ve, ahem, been curious about that subject. Mating.”
Cleo looked everywhere but at Zoe’s mouth for a moment, as if she was still used to the human world where some might object to two women together, but then her gaze came back when Zoe licked her lips.
“Mate,”
Zoe replied dreamily, then heard a snicker from a wolf at her right, which brought her to her senses. She sat up. “Yes, mating,”
she said, self-consciously, and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. “Did you have questions about that?”
“Yes.”
But Cleo didn’t ask anything about the bond, or wooing, or feeding one’s potential mate to show you could provide for them. “Do you still only have your room? No place of your own?”
Most American humans looked upon adults living with families as something disgraceful. Zoe hadn’t forgotten. “Most weres prefer not to live alone if we can help it. Some can, and do. But mostly it’s not good for us. A room of my own is enough, for now anyway.”
“A room of one’s own.”
Cleo seemed to enjoy the sound of that. “I think I like how close you are with your family. I miss my mom, but this change of scene was good for me. I will admit, I’m used to the city where you have to have a roommate or two to afford anything, and having my own little place can be quiet.”
“It must be very different here.”
It was as close to asking how long Cleo was planning to stay that Zoe could make herself get.
“Ha. Different is the word for it. I don’t mean that in a bad way!”
Cleo took a moment to reassure her when Zoe dropped her spoon into her soup. “Despite how people think of the city, you spend a lot of time within the same circle, at the same places, and everybody knows your business.”
“You know this is a small town full of nosy werewolves, right?”
Zoe gestured at the diners around them. Most weren’t paying attention that she could tell, but some were. They, naturally, knew all about Zoe’s mate already, from Carl or one of the other deputies. The human tourists, at least, were minding their own business. Being too loud when talking to weres, or drinking too much to cover their nerves, as usual, but minding their own business. Most of them were obeying the rules. The more serious incidents tended to involve aggressive weres, who thought in a Dirus, ‘might makes right’ sort of way.
“Everyone pays attention to everyone else, even if they don’t remark on it.”
Zoe was a nosy werewolf too. She was monitoring more than one conversation around them, even if only absently. It was normal. Especially when some of the other diners were new to her, or seemed agitated. “Weres don’t exactly have human boundaries.”
Cleo took a sip of her wine, but maybe she wasn’t as nervous anymore, because she stopped there. “True,”
she agreed. “Tim and Carl were smirking at me yesterday. But they’ve also been helpful. Tim especially has filled me in on a lot of things. In fact, he mentioned something about that being the point. Packs help each other, or something.”
Zoe released a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. Cleo wasn’t too freaked out about how the town worked. She liked it here. “That’s good,”
she explained, at Cleo’s quizzical look. “I’m glad he’s been helping you. Everyone deserves a chance and a home of their own.”
“ That .”
Cleo grinned, this time like a pleased cat with cream, and took another sip. “That attitude is all over the place here. You guys truly believe it.”
As if to prove her wrong, a group at another table began to snap at each other. Their voices were reaching annoying-even-to-human-ears levels.
“Tourists.”
Zoe sighed. “Worse than blizzards. Not that blizzards happen a lot. Plenty of people will help you when one does, though,”
she hurried to add. “Like me. I’ll help you.”
The tourists at the other table were getting louder. Cleo glanced at them, frowning.
It took Zoe effort not to grunt as she explained. “They’re fighting over someone’s attention. The waiter’s, I think.”
Mostly they were grumbling, while the weres and humans and one fairy at the other tables kept shooting them glances.
Zoe sighed again.
“What?”
Cleo appeared fascinated, but she must have caught the mood of the restaurant, because she was whispering.
“Instincts can be a pain in the butt.”
Zoe pushed away her soup and noticed yet another customer looking her way. She was still in uniform. And to be honest, she would have considered intervening anyway. Nathaniel had trained her, after all. “There is discord in the room. My instincts are screaming at me that it’s discord within the pack and it needs to be resolved.”
Cleo’s lips formed a small circle. She studied the bickering tourists, then Zoe. “Should I be worried?”
“I doubt it.”
Zoe sighed again. “But keep your distance, just in case. I’m…”
She put her hands on the table. “I’m sorry about this.”
She got to her feet and turned toward the oblivious tourists before Cleo could respond. Those tourists had messed up her date, and Zoe was in no mood to be nice.
She slapped her napkin on the table and then shot a look at the waiter in question as she crossed the room. He was slim and striking, with dark black skin and short reddish hair. Fairly new in town. She thought his name was Abay. He was pissed enough to have glowing eyes, but wasn’t willing to make a scene yet. She gave him a nod as she approached to let him know she would handle it, then inclined her head toward the kitchen, and hopefully, a phone. She didn’t have her radio, and she didn’t feel like howling for backup. Interrupting her date was bad enough.
“Is that why we came to this town, so you could try to trick me into your threesome fantasy?”
The man didn’t bother to lower his voice, although he did lean his head back to make eye contact with Zoe when she came to a stop at their table.
The other weres with them had gone silent a few seconds before. Maybe they were tired of this argument. They all noticed Zoe, then lowered their gazes in either embarrassment or shame, so she dismissed them without taking her all of attention from them. Getting careless about how strongly someone might feel a pack tie, even to someone this obnoxious, had almost gotten her clawed across the face once.
She crossed her arms and waited for the snarling woman to notice her too.
When she did, Zoe met her stare and she didn’t blink.
“All I want is just once for you to act like the virile alpha male you pretend to be,”
the woman finished snarling at her male companion, then stopped to bark at Zoe. “What?”
The woman, definitely a tourist, looked ready to stand up. She was possibly eager to fight. Her argument had gotten her riled up and now Zoe was here to challenge her.
Zoe raised her eyebrows. She glanced at the boyfriend or husband, then back toward where the waiter had gone, although anyone could have set this woman off. If this woman was really going to fight her over this, in this town, she must be dumber than she looked.
That was conveyed in Zoe’s expression, judging from the man’s narrowed eyes. At least they weren’t a mated pair. They probably wouldn’t fight to the death for each other, then. Not that Zoe wanted any kind of fight, to the death or otherwise. She was supposed to be wooing her mate.
She uncrossed her arms to jab her finger at the couple, who seemed so surprised they both sat back. “You’re disturbing the other patrons. I suggest you be quiet and enjoy the rest of your meal, or I’ll have to intervene. On any other night, I would have already.”
The woman had a glint in her eye Zoe didn’t like the look of. “We’re on vacation.”
Honestly, the number of times Zoe heard that, and always in the same tone. She was going to have to explain things. She hated explaining things that should have been obvious, especially to people that didn’t listen.
“You’re breaking the rules,”
she responded, blank-faced and serious. “You’ve made your waiter uncomfortable. That isn’t tolerated here.”
She grunted to give them their last warning.
“He can defend himself!”
The man piped up. “He’s a were, he knows how we are.”
“You aren’t going to listen, are you?”
Zoe asked, not really expecting an answer. She locked eyes with some of the people sitting with them, and angled her head slightly in question. Two of them immediately stood up and stepped back. The other stayed in her seat, but kept her head down.
The woman growled at them, aggressive. She could not have been in town for long or someone else would have corrected her behavior by now. Warnings weren’t going to work on wolves like this one. They still thought the meanest wolf won.
Zoe focused back on her. She had no doubt her eyes were yellow as she tried to convey how she would leave the woman gutted and bleeding in the street outside if she had to. Nathaniel could do that with just a look, but Zoe still had to use words. “This town is not for you. Behave or leave.”
She didn’t have to say more than that. Some of the other patrons stood up behind her. The werewolf citizens, maybe some humans, signaling they’d help if necessary.
Both the woman and the man appeared startled, although she was the only one to slam a palm onto the table and let Zoe see her emerging claws. She snarled as she got to her feet, showing off her height and size in challenge, then dragged her claws across the table. Dishes crashed to the floor. The display was familiar. At least once a month during tourist season some deputy had to deal with this sort of posturing.
Unfortunately for this woman, she’d picked a night when Zoe hadn’t wanted to frighten her potential mate away and now had no choice.
Zoe kicked the table forward with all of her strength—Nathaniel had taught her that bullying wolves never expected other wolves to fight like humans, and it surprised them, every time.
The table slammed into both of them, hitting the man hard in the chest and nearly knocking the woman off her feet. Zoe moved while the woman was stumbling for balance. She darted to the side and then forward, took hold of one furry arm and twisted it behind the woman’s back. She shoved her body down onto the table in the time it took her to inhale. Then she snapped a warning to the stunned man still in his seat. “Stay there.”
Zoe shoved down harder on the woman, who was going to break her arm if she kept struggling while in this position. The break would heal quickly, but Zoe didn’t want the paperwork.
She showed a mouthful of fangs to the asshole who wasn’t bothering to defend his girlfriend, then leaned down to let her teeth graze the woman’s ear. It took her a moment to breathe and then shift back enough to speak normally. “You have an hour to pack and leave. Him, too.”
When she looked up, Pema was gazing at her with mild interest. Zoe blinked at the other deputy, and Pema started to say something, but then narrowed her pale amber eyes at the man for a moment, as if he’d twitched or tried to get up. “The hell is his problem?”
“Romance,”
Zoe grumbled. She belatedly realized the woman beneath her was still snarling.
“Speaking of,”
Pema changed subject with an eyebrow waggle. “Weren’t you on a date?”
Zoe huffed. She couldn’t look over at Cleo yet. After a while she spoke again. “I was .”
She was very conscious of the quiet, watching restaurant patrons.
“Did you follow the rules?”
the woman beneath her sneered, but shut up when Zoe growled at her, deep and low and threatening.
Zoe took a moment to breathe. “I don’t think this one is going to leave peacefully,”
she commented to Pema, who nodded and spoke into her radio. Two deputies appeared in the entrance almost immediately, with all the handcuffs required to keep even a rabid wolf locked up for a while.
When they took the annoying tourist and her charming companion away, Zoe was left in the middle of a mess of broken dishes and awkward silence.
“Aaannyway.”
Pema grinned at her. “We’ll leave you to it then. This was nothing. I’ve got the paperwork, if you want. Just come in tomorrow.”
“Thanks, but….”
Zoe trailed off there rather than admit her date was probably over. Some of Cleo’s scent clung to her, wonderful and awful because it couldn’t last. She smoothed her hands over her uniform—splashed with marinara but not blood, and let out a breath.
Pema clucked her tongue at her, added a wink, then shook her head as if Zoe was being ridiculous.
She jerked her thumb to the side, in the direction of Zoe’s table.
Cleo was there. On her feet, and frowning, but there.
Zoe swallowed, then nodded to Pema, who left to follow the other two deputies.
Giorgio himself came out of the kitchen to scowl at the mess and curse dramatically. He offered free slices of tiramisu to everyone to apologize for the disturbance, and Abay came out to help some of the other staff with the cleanup.
The rest of the weres at that particular table took off, probably to pack and leave town.
Zoe didn’t really care about any of it, not even when Giorgio shook her hand and waved off even the idea of Zoe paying for anything tonight. That was great, but Zoe didn’t care.
Cleo’s eyes were huge.
Zoe crossed to her, but couldn’t maintain eye contact for longer than a second. She had to use words. “I know that looked bad. I know we’re scary, especially weres like that with more fur than sense. But I didn’t lose it, not then, not ever.”
She needed Cleo to know that, whatever else happened. “I wouldn’t hurt you. But I understand. If you want to go. If you saw my teeth and thought I was a monster.”
Someone else in the room hissed in displeasure at the term. Sometimes, Zoe didn’t like that everyone knew she was as awkward as Little Wolf, that they were all watching now, concerned that she’d fucked up her chance at keeping her mate. Zoe had been supposed to dress nicer, maybe take Cleo into Carson. Show her she could provide, and that there were places she could go outside of Wolf’s Paw if Cleo felt the town was too small. That was without getting to the part where Zoe might hopefully be allowed to woo her in other ways, to please her in bed and out of it.
“Zoe,”
Cleo whispered her name. She cleared her throat and raised her voice when Zoe lifted her head. “First of all, I’m from the city. I’ve seen a fight or two. And secondly…”
She gestured at Zoe in a way Zoe didn’t understand.
Zoe peered down at the stains in her uniform. “It’s just red sauce. It’s not blood,”
she explained, only to abruptly shut up when Cleo reached out and grabbed a handful of her shirt. She tugged Zoe down, gently, slowly, while Zoe was blinking at her, and then her parted lips were against Zoe’s.
She offered one kiss, short and soft, and then licked across Zoe’s bottom lip before releasing her.
Zoe stared at her in dazed arousal, flowers and wine her new scent for happiness. “Cleo?”
she asked, sort of stupidly, sort of not caring how stupid she seemed. She wanted to touch, so the world would know this was her mate.
“And secondly,”
Cleo finished, a bit out of breath, “you are on a date.”
She looked around them as if worried, but then gave everyone an embarrassed smile when someone whistled and no one interfered or called them names. “And thirdly” –she reached out and took Zoe’s hand— “I wouldn’t ask a monster to walk me home… unless you were still hungry?”
Zoe mutely shook her head. This could not be happening. Zoe was not the girl who got people like this, a mate like this, for her own. Cleo was too wonderful for just her.
But Zoe held her hand tightly as Cleo led her from the restaurant.
~~
“People think it’s short for Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. They’re always surprised when they find out my mother loves Blaxploitation films.”
Cleo’s voice would have drawn Zoe after her even if their hands hadn’t been linked.
They could have walked all the way to Carson and Zoe wouldn’t have noticed, although she thought they had gone from the center of town to the quieter residential area. Her truck was several blocks in the opposite direction. She could not have cared less.
She shook her head. “I don’t know those. Unless we make a trip into Carson to see something new, the only films at the cabin are the romantic kind, the human ones.”
Romantic comedies were considered fluffy and silly. Zoe swallowed. “They aren’t mine. I mean, I watch them, I like them, but they weren’t really made for me, were they?”
Cleo stopped and gave her a nudge. “You don’t see anyone like me in them either, do you?”
“Maybe….”
Zoe took a deep breath and focused on that hand in hers to give her strength. “Maybe you can show me the ones you were talking about, sometime.”
Cleo turned to her, studying Zoe in the glow from the streetlamp and the dim light from several windows in the homes around them. “It’s your turn to ask me out?”
she guessed, but then tugged Zoe closer. “So, this went well?”
she wondered, a trace of huskiness in her voice when Zoe leaned down so she wouldn’t tower over her.
Zoe’s chest was tight. “It could have gone better. I didn’t do the things I was supposed to. But you… you kissed me anyway.”
The amazement in her tone was embarrassing, although it didn’t make her step back.
“Yes, I did.”
Cleo smiled, but then scrunched up her face while she considered Zoe. “What were you supposed to do?”
This part was definitely embarrassing. Zoe cleared her throat and focused on Cleo’s earring to avoid meeting her eyes. “I should have showed you how I could provide for you. In the old days, or if you were wolf, I would hunt for you, feed you. And give you things you like, although I don’t know much yet, except for your coffee order.”
She flinched a little, in case that sounded stalkery to human ears, although it was based on smelling Cleo’s latte, not following her around. “I’m supposed to demonstrate any skills I have to you, to make you want me. It’s how we, um, woo.”
“You’re wooing me?”
Cleo seemed about to laugh, and Zoe tensed although she knew Cleo was likely amused at the idea of wooing, which was old-fashioned to humans, and hopefully not the idea of Zoe wooing her.
“Not well,”
Zoe grumbled. “The only thing I’ve done right is display myself for you and that was an accident.”
Cleo made a strangled noise, but shook her head when Zoe looked at her in concern. “This town,”
she said, then lowered her voice. “I liked it when you displayed yourself, accidentally or not,”
she pointed out, making Zoe jolt. “Doesn’t that count? And I think you demonstrated your skills just fine with that rude woman. Unless that wasn’t what you meant.”
“That impressed you?”
Zoe straightened for a second, pleased with herself. She hadn’t even done much. Then she processed the rest of what Cleo had said and went hot all over, which hopefully Cleo couldn’t see. “Um… not exactly. The rules. They say I can…. If you desire me, I can use that.”
“To woo me?”
Cleo repeated, softly, warmly. “For what, exactly?”
“To stay,”
Zoe answered, stumbling. “To… to be my…”
“Girlfriend?”
Cleo finished. “That seems fast.”
“Wooing is supposed to take time,”
Zoe justified it and let the matter rest at ‘girlfriend’ for now. “Humans usually need time. But you….”
Cleo had understood so quickly, and leapt forward. “You wanted . And you smell good, to me.”
Cleo was silent a few moments, possibly confused or ashamed or embarrassed or some other mostly human emotion. Zoe tried not to fidget or growl. Cleo was still holding her hand. That meant something.
“Weres don’t need time?”
Cleo questioned at last, but didn’t wait for an answer. “Because of how we smell?”
Zoe nodded eagerly, grateful she wasn’t going to have to talk about it. “You don’t have to decide now, or even soon. Just know that I want you.”
She exhaled that part shakily, but stood in place while Cleo stared at her without blinking. “So,”
Zoe made herself go on, “if you want to do this again, I am… I would be… happy.”
Cleo was silent for another moment and then released Zoe’s hand. Zoe staggered back, adrift in the middle of the street while Cleo turned and walked up the sidewalk. She headed up a stoop to a small, well-lit porch, and then pulled a set of keys from her duffel bag.
“Zoe,”
she called without turning around, wavering and uncertain. “I want to invite you in for tea, but it seems dishonest after all that.”
“Tea?”
Zoe echoed blankly. “Dishonest?”
As if that proved something, Cleo put a hand to the door and then twisted around to study her. She put her shoulders back before she spoke. “Would you like to come in?”
Her voice was soothing and stirring, carrying clearly over the distance between them. “For tea, or, for something other than tea?”
She smiled, almost shyly. “I’m not ready for this date to end.”
“Yeah?”
Zoe wondered breathlessly, probably to the amusement of anyone listening in. Not that she gave a shit. She tripped into motion, following the same path Cleo had taken, trailing after her with a few respectable feet between them when Cleo opened the door and stood aside to let her in.
She turned on lights Zoe didn’t really need, and closed the door, and shoved her bag on a chair in the small living area that served as her entranceway. Zoe noted a kitchen on her other side, in soft yellows and blues, and an opened door revealing a bedroom decorated in the colors of spring. Everything smelled of Cleo.
“Is it true what they say about werewolves?”
Cleo asked from behind her, then moved past her little dining table into her kitchen with restless energy and a hammering heart. “You claim each other?”
On the verge of complaining about the ‘werewolves can go all night’ legends, true though they might be, Zoe shut her mouth. After a moment, she nodded.
Cleo’s kitchen cabinets had no doors. She pulled out two pale blue mugs and put them on the table. “Humans too?”