Chapter 4
Adam held out the bag. “I thought we could do a puzzle, and watch TV, and…” His cheeks darkened, and the raw scent of lust on his skin increased.
Jake accepted the bag and let him in, not sure what to think. Yes, he liked Adam coming over and enjoyed spending time with him, but it wasn’t more than sex… or was it?
It would be rude of him to point out that Adam smelled like he wanted sex and was trying to hide behind the present. The trouble was as soon as he smelled Adam, his own dick got a bit ahead of itself.
Adam’s hand brushed over Jake’s stomach as he paused to kiss the corner of his mouth. Unable to resist, Jake put a hand around Adam’s waist and nuzzled into his neck, giving his ass cheek a taste of claws the way the human liked.
Jake shut the door and peered into the bag. Inside was a 500-count puzzle of cats and a six-pack of beer. “Thank you.”
“I don’t even know if you like doing jigsaw puzzles.”
“Neither do I.” Jake put the bag on the kitchen table and pulled two beers out, offering one to Adam. “Would you like one now?”
“Yeah.” Adam twisted off the cap and took a long swallow while looking anywhere but at him. “Did I make this weird?”
“No, but you smell like you want to take my clothes off, so I’m confused by the pretense.”
Adam gave a nervous laugh. “I want to get to know you better. At first, I just wanted to…”
“Experiment with a werewolf?” Jake finished for him. He’d never put “experiment with a human” on the list of things he wanted to try, which had been an error on his part. Not that he had a list. If he didn’t have a list, then he couldn’t be disappointed.
“Yeah.” Adam fiddled with the cap he still had in his fingers. “But after last time…” He drew in a breath, making Jake wonder if the memory was a bit too much. “I want to see if this can be more. If you want more, that is.”
Jake stared, not sure what to say, torn between saying yes, he wanted more, and refusing to think it was even a possibility. He was making the most of what they had—which was a lot of very good sex. He’d never grow tired of blow jobs, and that was a fact.
But Jake couldn’t see a world where human-werewolf relationships were accepted, especially when humans refused to accept any kind of human-mytho relationship.
The knight of the city was mated to a human cop and there was always talk about that.
Then there was his ogre friend, Troy, who was getting grief from the other ogres for messing around with a human man.
At least the other werewolves in Jake’s circle didn’t care about Adam, though they had commented on his visitor, but he didn’t want Adam getting hurt or being called out in the media.
“How can we have more when I don’t get to be more than this?”
“It’s not always going to be like this. The ‘Mythological Person Bill’ will be voted on soon.”
Jake groaned. “Don’t remind me. I may end up on the not human list.” He peered at Adam as he took a gulp of beer. If he lived in Europe, he’d already be classified as human, which would have made things easier between them.
“I don’t believe that,” Adam murmured. He was too hopeful and kind.
“You don’t want to believe that because it would put you in a very awkward position.” And Jake didn’t know what would happen to him or the other mythos who weren’t people. Would they lose their jobs? What were they supposed to do then?
Adam stared at the beer in his hand. “It’s not your fault you’re stuck mid-shift, all furry and…” He swallowed. “Well, we both know I like your fur and claws.”
“Even if I regained the ability to shift, I’m still what the anti-mytho mob are calling ‘a part-time animal.’”
“But when you shift, you’re still you, right? It’s only your body that changes, not your mind?”
Jake nodded. He never let himself wonder about what life would be like if he could shift again. That was the first step to misery. “I’d only just started shifting before the collapse. I can’t even remember what I looked like.”
“What do you remember? If you want to talk about it, that is.” Adam lifted his gaze.
Jake considered the human for a couple of heartbeats. Adam was interested in his life because he was interested in him. He wasn’t the werewolf experiment anymore, but what could they be?
“Do you want to date someone you can’t be seen in public with? Someone who is never going to be more than a hospital orderly on minimum wage?” Adam could do so much better. He was tall, built, and cared about his parents. He should have guys lining up to date him.
“Do you really believe things are never going to change? There’s a cop dating a dragon shifter. Elves and humans are getting together… In another ten years—”
“I don’t let myself think one year ahead.” And that was being generous. Usually, Jake was only concerned with next month’s rent. He didn’t understand how people made plans for the future when they could be derailed so easily.
“Ah. I get it,” Adam said with a nod.
“Get what?”
“I’m the same when it comes to Dad. Especially when he’s on a downhill slide. Making plans seems pointless. It’s much easier to think ahead when he’s doing well or is stable.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
Adam put his beer on the table and walked around.
He took the beer out of Jake’s hand and put it aside so he could hold Jake’s paws.
For a human, Adam had big hands. His fingertips brushed against the rough pads on Jake’s palms. “There’s been so much upheaval, and there’s more to come with the bill, that it seems pointless to hope and plan. ”
Jack’s tail drooped, and he lowered his chin. “I want things to be better. And it’s not that I don’t want to… to date you.” He liked the idea a lot, but he didn’t know how to make it work as it wasn’t something he’d ever seen work in the long run.
“I can tell that from the way your tail perks up when I walk in the door, and the way your ears also do a thing.”
His ears did what? And now he was hyperconscious of every twitch of his tail and the micro adjustments his ears made as he listened to sounds outside the building, as well as Adam’s heartbeat and words.
Adam smiled. “Everyone has body language tells, and since I don’t have your sense of smell, I needed to learn how to read you.”
Jake hazarded a guess where Adam was learning all about werewolves. “Was that on your Internet forum?”
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “There were some tips.”
Jake was impressed Adam was taking their relationship seriously and diving into all things werewolf. Another thought hit hard. “How much do you share on the forum?”
“Do you want me to show you? And before you get all kinds of weird, I’ve been hanging out in online forums for gay men since I was nineteen. There is everything from health information to where the cruising spots and glory holes are if you’re into that kind of kink.”
Jake blinked. He had not expected such a vast array of information, not that any of it helped him. Even if he stuck his cock through a glory hole, no one was going to suck it. They’d scream and run… except Adam.
Adam lifted his eyebrows. “You know what they are?”
“I do… but they are human places. We don’t have them in mytho culture because there was no need. The closest thing we have would be the satyr den.”
“Not gonna lie. I would like to go into one. Only to admire the view, though.”
Jake laughed. “Maybe one day I can take you?”
“Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough.”
“It’s just a bar… unless you go behind the curtains.”
“You’ve been there?”
“No, but I know people who have. It’s not a secret. And it’s not a brothel. Satyrs like sex, so they offer freely. It’s almost like you’re doing them a favor.”
“I understand what you’re saying, but I struggle to comprehend living in a society where no one cares about who you’re fucking, like it’s no big deal.”
That was one reason some humans hated them. “We struggle to understand why humans care so much.”
“I wish they didn’t.” Adam rested his head on Jake’s shoulder. “I’m not asking for promises about the future, but I need to know if you want to hang out sometimes, or if you only want me to come around for sex?” Adam sounded tentative and unsure about asking.
Jake put his arms around him and breathed in Adam’s scent.
He wasn’t ready to give him an answer, so instead he asked, “Why don’t we try the puzzle, order some take out, and see what happens?
” With Adam pressed against him, he didn’t want to let him go.
And for a heartbeat, it was far too easy to imagine that in another year or two, if the bill passed, it wouldn’t matter if they went out and held hands.
He didn’t want that kind of hope because it might be taken away.
He gave a fake growl. “I may hate puzzles.”
Adam laughed, and the sound vibrated through Jake’s chest, warming him from the inside. He rolled his eyes, patting Jake’s stomach. “No one hates puzzles.”
They ended up ordering three different curries, two different naan breads, and rice from a nearby Indian restaurant.
When it arrived, they were halfway through the puzzle of cats.
It wasn’t a big one according to Adam, though it was clearly designed for skinny human fingers.
So while Jake didn’t hate it, and he understood why Adam enjoyed putting on a movie and working on a puzzle, picking up the pieces was challenging for him, especially since he now kept two claws on his right hand filed down for Adam.
He ended up having to use his left hand to pinch up the pieces.
They sat on the sofa with the much smaller coffee table—one Troy had found, fixed up, and given to him—loaded with plates and take-out tubs. “Sorry, I don’t have anywhere else to sit.”
If his dining table was any bigger, it wouldn’t fit in his apartment.
“It’s fine. I expected the puzzle to fit on the coffee table.” Adam put some more butter chicken on his plate.
Not even the scent of curry hid the fact that Adam hoped for more than putting together a puzzle and eating dinner.
They had agreed to meet today as neither of them was working tomorrow.
Though Adam needed to be back home by lunchtime because his mom had to go out and someone needed to look after his dad.
Over dinner, Adam told Jake more about his family, growing up, and what the collapse had been like for him.
Adam had already been working as a firefighter, so he’d been very involved in the immediate aftermath of the global disaster.
He’d spent a week digging people out of rubble.
After that, it had become body recovery and cleanup.
They’d compared notes about that night, and the first month post-collapse.
Jake remembered crawling out of rubble with some other werewolves.
They recognized each other by smell but not by look.
Back home, they were in wolf or human form, and this was neither.
They’d tried to dig their own people out.
Some had been shot by panicking humans. Some werewolves had also panicked and attacked.
He didn’t remember a lot of details, only the turmoil of fear and confusion.
They hadn’t spoken the language. They hadn’t understood what anyone was yelling at them.
They hadn’t known what cars and ambulances and fire trucks were. The lights and the sirens had added to the disorientation.
The internment camp had been safe. No one shrieked in horror. He had a place to sleep and food and the chance to learn about the world. That was where he’d met Troy.
Those who were teens in the collapse were old enough to remember Tariko, and young enough to learn the ways of the new world as they became adults. Those who were younger didn’t seem to remember Tariko, and those who were older remembered it too much.
Talking about the collapse with other mythos often reopened wounds which had barely healed, but it was nice to air out the memories, so they didn’t become stale.
And when Adam talked about his childhood and his father before he became sick, it seemed like he felt much the same.
His parents sounded like good people, and they had raised a good man.
Which didn’t explain why Adam was sitting on the sofa in Jake’s studio apartment eating takeout and drinking beer. It felt as though they should be old friends now. They had shared their painful past and spoken of the future.
Jake hoped the bill passed, and that he was classified as human. He hoped they used the European model, where if the mytho could learn another language, they were designated a “person.”
He didn’t like the way it was so easy for Adam’s hope to rub off on him.
But he did like the way Adam rubbed against him, and it seemed he couldn’t have one without the other.
He put his plate on the table and turned to Adam, hoping his voice and ears didn’t betray his wants. “Are you going to stay the night?”
“Do you want me to?”
Jake grinned. “We have half a puzzle to finish.”
Although…
He didn’t expect to finish it…