Page 8 of A Queen and Her Knight

As she slowed her steps and took a left to make a small, short loop around some side streets, it occurred to her once again that she could move out. She was old enough, she’d paid off the last of her student loan debt from her classes in Carson, she could manage rent at Wolf’s Paw prices. But something stopped her from glancing at the houses converted into the single apartments humans usually rented. It wasn’t that weres couldn’t live alone. It was that many didn’t want to. Zoehadlived alone even in houses filled with foster kids. She had always been alone until she’d come to this town. She had no desire to live that way again. She had her room, her very own space, and a tiny pack of her own. She wasn’t ready to give that up for a life with no closeness, no pack touches.

Of course, the pack touches were probably how Nathaniel and Tim’s sex-and-love scent had ended up in her uniform.

She wrinkled her nose and slowed more as she passed the Flores. Then she circled back around toward Main Street. Her shift didn’t start for another hour or so, but she saw no point in heading home now. She could shower and change at the station—something else she’d started doing more and more lately when she knew those two would be home at the same time. Little Wolf honestly had no shame and Nathaniel only encouraged him.

But thinking of her favorite awkward pack brother made her head to Robin’s Egg’s. Calling Timbrother, even in her own mind, made her warmer than the run had. It helped that she knew Tim would squirm in embarrassment in exactly the same way if he knew. Nathaniel would just smile, and his pleasure was nearly as blush-inducing. He’d be so touched, but he wouldn’t comment that it had taken years for Zoe to admit how close she was to him, or say how happy he was to know she loved his mate.

He knew anyway. Thankfully, weres, unlike humans, did not need to discuss these things out loud.

Well, Tim did. But Tim had basically been raised by humans and hardly counted.

Zoe paused outside the door to the café, letting the air cool her skin as much as it could. September in Wolf’s Paw was much like August, at least for the first half of the month. Hot, with only slightly fewer tourists now that the main festivals were over. But she detected a noticeable change in the air, like distant snow, and grinned as she stepped into the café.

She asked for a coffee at the counter, with lots of milk, and watched as the new elf hire, Sampson or something like that, went to work at the espresso machine over by the kitchen door.

Sampson’s skill brought in more customers, Robin’s Egg claimed. Zoe wasn’t sure about that, but the coffee did smell amazing when he handed it to her. She ducked her face over it while he added it to her tab.

Rich whole milk from a local dairy, freshly roasted coffee beans, and no sugar, although something in it smelled sweet, almost like real vanilla. Zoe inhaled the steam, which was definitely sweet, and then took a sip without waiting for the drink to cool. Even ignoring her burned tongue, which would heal, the coffee was good. It was very good in fact, but it wasn’t the source of the scent.

Zoe sniffed around the counter as discreetly as she could, finding the usual grease and donuts and gravy that meantfoodandCosmo in the kitchen. The humans smelled like humans: deodorant they didn’t need, aftershave they usually had the sense not to wear in Wolf’s Paw, and toothpaste. A sex scent hung over a few of them, a cloud ofsweat/sated/muskthat, quite unexpectedly, made Zoe’s skin tingle.

Embarrassed, she hurried away from the counter, although the scent seemed to intensify. Tourists must be sowing their lastwild oats before they left town. The air in the café was warm and getting warmer despite the constantly opening door. She took another gulp of too-hot coffee to fill her senses with something other than salty-sweet satisfaction and blissful contentment, and made a beeline for Tim and the relative safety of the gift shop.

She expected a few customers, but for some reason, seeing one leaning against the display counter while deep in conversation with Tim threw her. She stopped in the doorway, frowning at how close they were standing. Tim was very, very happily mated, something Zoe knew for a fact. Also, he tended to like men only as far as she knew. Seeing a woman in his space shouldn’t bother her, not even on behalf of pack brother Nathaniel.

Zoe studied the woman in confusion. She was human, judging from her height. She was a head shorter than Tim, which meant Zoe would tower over her. Zoe felt like a hulking giant at the knowledge. Some humans claimed they didn’t mind so much, or were already tall, like Tiff. But Zoe was very tall, even for a were female. She was height and strength, and had been since fifteen.

She hunched her shoulders while the human laughed at something Tim said. The human was holding a paper cup of coffee much like Zoe’s, but Zoe could smell the sugar syrup in hers from where she stood. Vanilla, with low-fat milk and strong, bitter espresso, stirred with a birch stick.

The human herself must have been more than a tourist, because Zoe couldn’t detect a trace of perfume about her, although something sensual drifted across the room, like oils made from flowers. Her thick, bouncy black curls were held in place with a pink scarf, and Zoe thought the woman might have been around fresh lavender sometime in the past few days.

Her lipstick smelled waxy, but not bad, and the purple-pink shade of it made Zoe wish she knew more about things likemakeup. The human’s mouth was full and inviting. Her eyeliner was sharp and defined. There was a glisten to her dark skin, as if the heat had made her perspire a little, and Zoe felt her attention fall to her chest, the hint of shadow at the top of her breasts before her shirt hid them from view. She was built like a tiny, exquisite hourglass, with thighs that looked as soft as the plump outline of her upper arms.

She had muscle in those arms, in those legs, like someone who worked hard, but she was so yielding too, curvy and delicate. She smiled at Tim again, a beautiful smile, and leaned closer to him with her tank top showing much of her smooth skin, and her jeans tight over her backside, and the air was warmed milk and vanilla, like cream, and Zoe took another stumbling step forward.

Tim looked over first. He grinned at her like the bloodthirsty wolf he was, teeth always showing even when he meant well, and then blinked when Zoe couldn’t make herself respond. Taking her eyes off the human woman seemed an impossible task. Zoe wanted more coffee to wake herself up, but couldn’t remember how to move the cup to her mouth.

“Zoe?” Tim asked slowly, while the human who smelled like cream and flowers turned to look at her. Her eyes were deep, dark brown, like tree bark or earth. She had a piercing at her eyebrow, and another at the side of her nose. Little silver hoops Zoe stared at in fascination.

“Zoe?” The human woman repeated. Her voice was soft too. Her gaze was not. It traveled over Zoe from her head to her toes.

“Zoe, did you leave the house in that?” Tim pressed, which at least allowed Zoe to move her head to glance at herself. She saw running shoes, because human feet did not have pads like the wolf. Gray sweatpants that had once been Nathaniel’s, rolled down at the waist so they hung low on her hips. She paused atthe pale but flushed skin of her abs, then stared at her black top for a moment before she remembered that it was, in fact, not a top but a sports bra.

Werewolves, at least, the wolves in this town, didn’t care about such things, but humans did. Zoe was basically half naked in their eyes. She flung an anxious glance toward the human. The human stared at Zoe’s stomach for another moment while Zoe could feel beads of sweat inching slowly down toward her belly button. Then the human lifted her gaze and seemed to focus on Zoe’s arms.

Zoe’s arms were equally sweaty and flushed, only with the added bonus of freckles across the biceps. She wondered if her muscles were too big to human eyes. They’d used to say that when Zoe was growing up. Tiff hadn’t minded, though. She’d even seemed to like them. Zoe missed her, even if they’d only gone out for a few months. But Tiff had left for school and Zoe would never have stopped her.

Tim froze in the middle of gesturing at her bra, which Zoe barely needed anyway, although perhaps the human did not think so, judging from her stares. Zoe should have put on more clothing. She didn’t own anything light or pretty or pink. Her dark red hair was short, shorter than it wanted to be, but she cut it regularly to keep the curls close to her head in a bob. She didn’t understand makeup, although it was lovely on this human.

Zoe inhaled again, vanilla pudding scent this time. Chocolate milk. Cinnamon rolls, the real kind, not the ones from the can she and Tim made. No one around them had any of those things, and yet Zoe thought of them with every breath. Lilies too. Lilies and lavender and lilac. Spring scents in the fall didn’t make sense. Herbs and oils andhealingmingled withcomfortandsugar,forming textures and layers of good things and happy scent.

Zoe sank her teeth into her lower lip. The human’s eyes seemed to get darker and wider. Her heart was a quick, rabbit thing, excited. Zoe’s pulse was hot and heavy.

Tim was glancing between them. Zoe could see his head moving back and forth but couldn’t demand to know what the hell he was staring at. Maybe he smelled her confusion, because he spoke—carefully, like how people spoke to feral weres and scared children. “Zoe, have you met my new friend here?”

The human suddenly smiled, bright and friendly. “I’m here every morning for coffee, and this is the first time I’ve caught you in here. I didn’t know you were the Zoe he’s mentioned before.”

Something in that statement made Zoe straighten, but for the life of her, she couldn’t have said what. She took a deep breath while the human glanced at Little Wolf, who had an astonished look on his face, one he leaned over to share with someone else, probably Carl.

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