Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
NOW
A iden battled the urge to bounce his leg or get up and pace the room. He’d been jittery all day as he waited for the mage to arrive, and his nerves only got worse as evening neared. He’d never dealt with a mage before. One of their neighboring packs used to have a pack mage when he was a kid, but she’d died over a decade ago, and his alpha had never wanted him around the mage who ran the magic shop in town. The few times Aiden had passed by the shop as a teen had left his nose burning with the unpleasant reek of the mage’s magic.
What would this mage do to Zayn? The lady on the phone had said they wouldn’t hurt him. Zayn had done nothing wrong. MateHub had to realize that, right? If anything, they needed to track down the idiot who’d sent him the toy.
Aiden and Zayn were in their living room, doing homework together, when the knock came.
“I’ll get it.” Aiden jumped to his feet and answered the door, then blinked at the man on the other side.
The guy was… smoking hot. Maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. His jet-black hair fell loose and soft around his face, and the suit he was wearing fit him in a way that should have been illegal. Aiden’s eyes slid down his body before he could stop them.
“If you’re finished checking me out, I have business to take care of,” the man said under his breath.
Aiden yanked his gaze back up, and his brain registered the scent of magic hanging off the man. The mage . The smell wasn’t as unpleasant as Aiden had been prepared for, but it was still sharp and harsh.
“Sorry.” Aiden cringed. He wasn’t interested—he wasn’t sure he could be interested in anyone other than Zayn—but he had eyes.
Zayn glanced up as Aiden let the mage in, his eyebrow quirking.
“This is…” Aiden trailed off. He didn’t know the mage’s name or how to introduce him. ‘This is a mage, a thing you didn’t realize was real, from MateHub, a site you can’t access because you’re unaware of the supernatural, here to talk to you about your new favorite toy, which you absolutely should not have. Oh, and I think he’s about to put a spell on you,’ didn’t seem like the best explanation. But the mage stepped forward, offering his hand to Zayn.
“I’m Tristan Hasegawa, part of the project development team at M.H. Industries.”
Zayn stood and shook his hand, looking confused. “M.H. Industries?”
“You might not have heard of us, but I believe you’re familiar with one of our products.”
A furrow formed between Zayn’s brows. “M.H.? As in MateHub? I’ve been trying to find you online, but it’s like you don’t even exist.”
Aiden couldn’t breathe as he watched their conversation.
“About that,” Tristan said. “There’s been a bit of a mix-up on our part. You see, we’ve been developing a line of toys and had you listed as a potential reviewer for the finished products. Unfortunately, someone on our side got a little too excited and sent you a prototype before it was ready for market.”
Zayn frowned. “You came here to tell me that? Where are you located? You couldn’t have called or emailed?”
“Our headquarters are in LA, but I’m in the area on business, and we thought it’d be better if I stopped by in person to explain what happened.”
“But… the package was sent anonymously to my PO box. Our apartment address isn’t listed on my review site, just the PO. How did you know where I lived?”
Aiden’s nose started to itch, the scent of magic suddenly sharper, the air in the room thick and heavy with it.
“Don’t worry about that.” Tristan’s voice took on a smooth, mesmerizing quality. “I’m just here to ask you not to post your review until we’re ready to launch.”
Zayn opened his mouth to speak, then faltered. He tilted his head, confusion written in every line of his face. “Why…”
What the hell was this mage doing to Zayn? Aiden’s wolf stirred, a low warning growl building in his throat. But the pressure of the magic was gone as quickly as it had increased, leaving behind only its abrasive scent.
“As I was saying, it’s not quite ready for prime time, and we’d appreciate you holding off,” Tristan said.
Zayn blinked, then focused on Tristan again, though bewilderment and confusion still hung around him like a swirling, dusty nebula. “The prototype seems pretty perfect to me.”
“We’re having a hard time ramping up production and don’t want to launch until we can keep up with demand. Clearly this was our error, but if you’re willing to wait, we’re more than happy to make sure you’re in the first wave of reviewers to get the final product. And we’ll throw in a few of the other toys in the line as a bonus for the inconvenience.”
“That’s fair,” Zayn said, seeming to shake off whatever Tristan had done to him. “I mean, I can’t post a review of a product with no website or release date. But I’d like to keep the prototype, if possible.”
Tristan smirked at him. “Enjoying it?”
“Best orgasm of my life. Whoever designed it gets my eternal love. I’m sad humans don’t have that particular feature.”
“If they did?”
“Oh, I’d be on that so fast .”
Tristan chuckled and glanced at Aiden. “Well, I guess you’ll have to settle for the prototype for now.”
“Yeah, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that your toy has ruined human anatomy for me for life.”
“I have a feeling you’ll have other options shortly. I’ll be in touch.” Tristan turned and headed for the door, sending Aiden a look that was a clear ‘follow me’ as he did. He slipped outside and was gone.
Aiden stared at the door. “Ahhh. I… I’m going to see if he has a business card? Yeah. A card. In case you need to contact him.”
He heard Zayn protest, but he followed Tristan out anyway.
Tristan wasn’t difficult to find. The faint trail of magic led Aiden straight to him.
“Was that it?” Aiden asked as he walked up to him. “Was that the memory spell?”
“Oh, no. This was the initial assessment of his level of awareness and general demeanor. He seems clueless and amiable, so I’m not particularly concerned at the moment, but we’ll have to get a memory spell in here and wipe his memory.”
“But you did something to him? To his memory? Just now. I smelled it. What did you do?” Whatever it was, his wolf hadn’t liked the idea of a mage messing with their… Zayn.
“He’s a smart guy. Without a magical nudge, I doubt he would have stopped asking questions or believed that I drove six hours to an address I shouldn’t know to request he not post a review. It’s a temporary enchantment though. All it did was make him slightly less curious. He’ll be full of questions again by tomorrow morning.”
Well, that didn’t make Aiden feel better. Zayn’s curiosity was one of his defining traits; he always wanted to learn more, to experiment and question until he had the answers he needed. Aiden hated that someone could take that away from Zayn so effortlessly, even if the effect was temporary.
Tristan studied him coolly, and Aiden tried not to squirm under the scrutiny.
“You’ve been living together for over three years, right?”
“How do you know that?”
“We have our methods.”
Well, that kind of freaked Aiden out. Between their “methods” and their tech mages’ apparent abilities to censor the entire internet, he could only hope MateHub used its power for good.
“You are aware that memory spells are notoriously difficult to control, aren’t you?” Tristan’s tone was nonchalant. “We can’t remove his memory of a single toy; we have to wipe it of all things supernatural.”
Aiden’s stomach lurched. “Does that mean… What about… Will he remember…?” He swallowed.
“It depends on whether or not his brain considers you supernatural. If he suspects something about you isn’t human…” Tristan shrugged.
Aiden frowned. He’d always been careful around Zayn. He didn’t think he suspected anything. Zayn was crazy smart, but in a scientific way. He wouldn’t think werewolves and wizards were real, right?
“Of course, if he were to, let’s say, learn about the supernatural and get bonded to a shifter, I wouldn’t have to wipe his memory.” Tristan’s bored expression said he couldn’t care less whichever way it went.
Aiden’s frown deepened. “I don’t know how my pack would react to me bonding a human, or how Zayn would react to finding out about the supernatural.”
“Not my business. But generally speaking, not having to do a memory spell is much preferable. Human brains are annoyingly delicate to work with.” He pulled out a card and handed it over. “Here’s my number. Normally I’d do the spell within twenty-four hours, but I seem to have forgotten to bring salt.”
“Salt?”
“For the spell.”
“…Special salt?”
“Salt salt. You know. White stuff. Extremely difficult to come by or purchase. Very expensive. Foolish of me to forget it, really. Now I’ll have to drive back to the MateHub headquarters to get some. At which point, I’m sure there will be a different fire for me to put out that’ll take at least a week to handle.”
Aiden breathed a little easier. A week. Okay. That gave him time to decide what to do.
“And just so you know,” Tristan said with flat disinterest. “MateHub is aware of Zayn’s blog. He has quite a fanbase in the supernatural community. Obviously I can’t make any offers, but if he knew about the supernatural, there’d be an audience for his reviews of our merchandise, provided they were hosted on a more appropriate, secure site. And if we were ever to make a more human-friendly line, it’d be useful to have a contact who reviews toys off-site as well, to help us drum up promo. Just saying.”
With that, he nodded to Aiden, got into his car, and drove off.
Aiden stared after him for a long moment, then returned to the apartment.
“So…” Zayn said as Aiden entered. “He’s… good-looking. A bit old, I guess. But good-looking.”
Well, crap. Zayn thought he’d gone after Tristan for personal reasons.
“Uh, no,” Aiden said. “He isn’t my type.” His type was very specific, and while Tristan was hot, he wasn’t it.
Zayn almost looked relieved, though Aiden wasn’t sure he wanted to let himself believe that.
He walked back to where they’d been studying and sat next to Zayn again, inhaling his perfect scent as he did.
Tonight, he would figure out what he was going to do about Zayn, but first, they had a Cosmology assignment they needed to finish.