Page 31 of A Queen and Her Knight

Tim’s throat tightened like he was going to cry, and he grasped her arm in warning or some sort of stupid plea not to stop, and after a small moment of shock that he could feel, Zoe kept scent-marking him.

“Zoe.” His voice was trembling so he kept his face hidden. “Zoe, can I talk to you sometime? About Cleo? About mates?”

Zoe made a funny little sound, startled maybe. Tim didn’t usually ask her for advice. But she nodded, then resumed rubbing her scent all over him. It was reassuring and easy and were. She wasn’t Nathaniel, but she was pack, Tim’s pack.

Tim burrowed in closer to her. “You won’t laugh?”

Zoe did not hold back her growl. “If it’s serious enough to scare you, Little Wolf, then no one should be laughing at it.”

Tim raised his head to look her in the eye. She was blushing and scowling, and she smelled like home and Nathaniel a little bit, even though she spent more time at Cleo’s than at the cabin. She smelled mated and settled, but she didn’t live with Cleo yet, and that was probably important. Tim exhaled deeply, but didn’t let her go. “Zoe,” he pronounced, very, very carefully, even though they were on the sidewalk with humans all around them. “I want to tell you something.”

The End

Spring’s Not-So-Secret Secret

First posted in 2017

Set afterLittle Wolf

Summary: A glimpse of the fairy on Tim’s favorite soap who was clearly sparkling for his co-star. m/m

Spring could do this. He could absolutely do this. He was an actor, after all.

Admittedly, not a great actor, but since he’d never intended to be an actor, then it was all peachy keen that he was now. He got paid well, and other fairies were ever so happy to see him onscreen, even on a soap, and he got to… he got to….

He hunched his shoulders and felt his wings slow—the tell-tale giveaway a fairy was upset, even before it showed in their glitter. His wings always gave him away onscreen. If it weren’t for his wings and glitter, he might do all right speaking the ridiculous dialogue, since acting was pretending, not lying.

Problem was, he couldn’t pretend when he was in the same room as Roman Grenville, billionaire industrialist and de facto owner of the small town of Harper’s Cove, whereDiedre’s Secretwas set, or when around Nicholas Manton, the actor who played Roman Grenville. So Spring’s limited acting abilities were not going to get him through this situation.

He regretted ever attending a Hollywood party, splashing around in the pool, and drawing the attention of the lonely, socially awkward soap opera writer outside. He did. He was going to quit right now and leave, and fairykind would just have to find some other fairy to be their role model.

Except… Springcouldn’t regret it, because it had still brought him here, to this set, to this room, where the human he loved was not very far away.

The room was tense and still quiet, as if Spring’s foolish words had left everyone stunned. He didn’t see how—he was quite obvious on the show. Even a glimpse of him onscreen should have left no doubt in anyone watching as to the object of his affection.

Only human ignorance explained their shock now. Perhaps there was some value in Spring staying on television a little longer; it would help humans learn about the fairy.

He tried to smile as he looked over at Beth Maurice, the interviewer fromSoaps Daily. He couldn’t look at Nicholas, but that was probably just as well. “I didn’t think…”

“Are you saying that you’re in love with your costar onDiedre’s Secret, Nicholas Manton?” The glee in their interviewer’s face was unmistakable, like the thread of ambition in her shine. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“The upcoming plotlines are going to be incredible,” Alice said weakly from Spring’s side. Alice played Bianca, Spring’s nemesis on the show, but she was a lovely, supportive human. She did seem a bit gobsmacked, though. Apparently, actors did not proclaim their love for their costars in front of reporters.

Spring supposed that made sense, in a way. Especially if your costar didn’t love you back. Could not even manage a word, in fact.

He darted a look around Alice to where Nicholas sat, frozen.

Then the interviewer turned to him and Nicholas unfroze enough to face her. A scant moment later, he didthe thing—one of the many things that had drawn Spring to him so quickly, but this one was the most special—he took a breath and lifted his chin, and like that!—he was Roman Grenville, and even Beth was briefly cowed.

Roman was not nice. He was a handsome, older human, dark of hair and eye. He was strong, and fearless, and… really sort of brute, so Spring should not like him at all, but he was by far the most fascinating character on the show. Far better than a clueless werewolf.

Nicholas was extremely nice. His smile had dimples. He sat bent over an e-reader between takes, and loved theater, and could sing and dance. He was polite to the crew and the craft services people. He hated when he messed up his lines, and he did small roles in serious movies whenever he got the chance, and he called Spring by his full name, always, unless he was tired and the shooting day had been long.

All of which was very appealing, but not nearly as much as knowing thatthisman could playthatone.

Spring really could not be blamed for blazing with happy, aroused, in-love glitter every time Roman Grenville quietly threatened him for interfering in his plans by hiding the baby that the witch predicted would be his downfall.

What Springcouldbe blamed for, apparently, was talking about it.

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