Page 15 of A Queen and Her Knight

“Well, he didn’t tell me yours. What’s your last name?” Cleo typed something into her phone, then waited.

“Browne,” Zoe filled in obediently. “With an ‘e’ on the end.”

“Deputy Zoe Browne.” Cleo flashed a mischievous smile. “Can I get your number?”

“I don’t… own a cell phone.” Like that, Zoe was reminded that she was the sort of person who had stuck two bobby pins in her hair that morning to keep it out of her face and hadn’t checked a mirror since.

But again, Cleo didn’t seem to mind how awkward, or how non-human, Zoe was. She did stop briefly, as if anyone not owning a phone had thrown her. But Zoe could actually see her reasoning why a werewolf might not require one.

“Whenever you want, I’ll be free.” Zoe was desperate and eager and her mate already knew it. Zoe had come out here to see her and bared her throat. Zoe had told her she smelled likeflowers.She’d already said yes. She saw no point in trying to play it cool. Her mate ought to know that.

Cleo parted her lips, although for a second no sound emerged. “Okay. Wolves are honest. I don’t think I fully grasped the concept until now.”

Zoe thought about repeating that she liked Cleo. But it was simpler to lift her chin. With the top two buttons of her uniform undone, she wasn’t showing much skin beyond the top of her throat, but she was showing enough.

“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’treally 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. Youknow. And youwant. 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.

Theirdate. 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?”

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