Page 11 of A Queen and Her Knight

If they ever got to know one another.

“She’s going to think I’m weird,” Zoe confessed in quiet despair, and lowered her gaze to the floor. “I’m tall, and were, and I ran out on her without even saying hello. She was lookingat me, like maybe she could like me, and she was” –Zoe licked sweat from her upper lip— “pretty. She was lovely and smelled good, and I ran.”

“Okay.” Tim cleared his throat like an old general about to give a speech. “First things first. Her name, in case you missed it while you were panting at her—which is all right, Zoe, because she was practically panting too—is Cleo.Everythingis all right, Zoe. Better even. Because she didn’t yell in your face, right? Or run away from you. And she lives here now, which is great, because you won’t have to worry about her leaving. Like some wolves do.”

Nathaniel eased back in his seat but didn’t say a word. His gaze went to the ceiling. Zoe had a strange urge to get up and hold his hand. Mating was a fearful business.

“But I ran. And….” Zoe waved at herself. Tim had been right to question her choices. There was no reason for her to be so distracted and eager to run into town that she’d forget to put on clothes—unless she considered that her mate had been in town for weeks, leaving traces of herself everywhere. “I finally found her and I left here there. She’s going to think…”

“That you are charming and wonderful and great,” Tim interrupted. “Here I am, entertaining the new girl in town with stories about life among the weres, because, you know, I figured she could use some warning, and living here does take some getting used to, and this whole time it turns out I’ve been describing Zoe to her mate. It’s enough to make me even more curious about human magic. I really wish the wizard was more forthcoming about the subject, instead of telling me to study. Humans. I’vebeenstudying. But I think human magic requires thinking like a human, and I’m not exactly that, am I? Or were enough for this town’s rules to make perfect sense either.”

“Timothy Dirus.” Nathaniel closed his eyes. Zoe couldn’t tell if he was exasperated with his mate’s rambling or soothed by his voice. Likely both.

Zoe was not soothed. Not at all. “What did you tell her about me?”

“Um.” Tim hummed. “I told her you had to go because you are a deputy and you heard a disturbance somewhere with your werewolf hearing.” Tim was such a liar. His time with the humans had taught him that.

Zoe sighed for it, though. “Thank you.” She was going to have to tell her mate the truth eventually, but for now, it was good to know her mate didn’t think Zoe was a complete freak.

“Pfft.” Tim dealt with sincere gratitude the way he dealt with all real emotions, by ignoring them as long as he could, something Zoe normally approved of. “She asked about you,” Tim went on, sly and pleased. Despite how he claimed to only be good at sarcasm, Tim could be genuinely kind at the strangest, but best, moments. “Did you hear her say she’d noticed you around? You are so in. All you have to do is actually talk to her, and then you can spring the mate stuff on her later. Don’t wait for that ‘recognizing the mate bond’ bullshit this town loves so much. The bond is there whether you know it is or not, and the effects are going to be just as strong, even if you might feel them in a different way. Without ever knowing the name for it, I would have been drawn to him, Zoe.” For one moment, for one small moment, Tim’s voice was quiet and hurt, and Nathaniel’s silence was almost raw. Then Tim perked up again. “Talk to her, get to know each other, acknowledge the bond as soon as it’s safe, and then pounce. Hmm.” He hesitated. “Humans take a while to even feel the bond, at least according to the wizard. So how did the weres in this town used to handle it when their mate was human?”

“Claim first, ask questions later,” Nathaniel commented, eyes still shut. “It led to… problems. There is a reason the rules are there, Little Wolf.”

“Rules always have exceptions, Sheriff Big Dick,” Tim replied crisply. Zoe would have been shocked at his tone if she hadn’t gotten used to his casual insolence these past few months. “Informed decisions are better than instinctual pounce-and-fucks. Carl, I swear to God….” Tim began to mutter something, probably at a cackling old man.

If Zoe’s mate had been were, that might have happened, that pounce-and-fuck, as Tim put it. They might have leapt at each other right there in the café, like something out of a story. Zoe put her hand over her mouth, trying not to lick or bite in frustrated arousal at the idea of a claim like that. But her mate was human. That meant Zoe had to take care. That’s what it had to mean. Humans didn’t understand. They had to be calmed, and wooed, andthenclaimed.

Zoe wanted to learn everything about her mate. She could be patient. She could listen, if not talk. She could put on clothes, and remember to eat with manners, and not bite or lick until she was given permission to.

She could, for her mate.

“Cleo,” Zoe sighed the name.

“Cleo,” Tim repeated brightly as though no subject change had occurred. “She works as a masseuse at the Flores—don’t growl.”

Zoe bit her lip to keep from letting the sound escape. She was a modern werewolf. She shouldn’t be upset that her mate touched others intimately for a living. But perhaps if Zoe claimed her, perhaps if Zoe bit at her neck and the soft skin of her thigh, perhaps if Zoe rubbed her scent at her arms and between herbreasts, then it would be tolerable to have the scent of others near her too.

“She got into town a few weeks ago,” Tim carried on. “She’s not seeing anyone and she’s into you. All you have to do is go to her. Bring her something she likes. Ask her to go get food with you. You can do this.”

“Shut up,” Zoe told him again, because Little Wolf’s gentle encouragement might kill her.

Nathaniel startled her by putting a hand to the back of her neck. She hadn’t heard him move. He always had been able to move fast, and be deadly quiet when he chose to be. But his intent was calming support, and after a pause, Zoe let herself lean into it.

“Come on, Zo’.” Nathaniel’s voice was low, and gentle. “I’ll get you home. You can shower and get ready for work, and give yourself time to adjust to the thought. She’s not going anywhere.”

“Work?” Oh right. Zoe had a shift starting soon. But Nathaniel was right. As much as the idea of finding her mate appealed to her, Zoe was in no state to woo anyone. She wasn’t panicking anymore, but she wasn’t ready to face her again yet without risking another incident.

“Work,” Nathaniel repeated firmly. “A nice long workday to keep you occupied while your senses calm down, and maybe give you an excuse to be out and about if you should find yourself wandering through town unconsciously tracking bits of her scent.”

“You—” Tim drew in a sharp breath, making Zoe glance toward the phone resting on the desk. “You did that?”

Nathaniel ignored him. “And if you also find yourself staring up at their window in the middle of the night, trying not to howl, it’sokay. We’ve all been there.” Nathaniel was just being kind, but Zoe nodded anyway, and turned for a moment to rub her cheek against his hand.

“I didn’t…. You….” Tim was sputtering again, but softly, in almost a whine. “Big Wolf, you didn’t.”

“It’ll be all right. You’ll see.” Nathaniel reassured Zoe, although he had to hear Tim’s distress on the other end of the line. “Your mate already likes you. And everyone panics in those first moments.”

“You did not.” Tim’s objection barely carried through the phone.

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