Page 73 of In This Iron Ground
“Yeah. Exactly. Like that anchor isn’t as steady. A lot of shifters move away for college for that reason. It’s necessary to feel this way in order to decide if you want to stay there all your life. Most return, I think. But, man, I almost quit school in those first few months. It was a struggle.”
Damien thought back to when Hakan first left. Damien had been avoiding him then, a combination of wanting to give him space and the still-burning humiliation of the aborted kiss. He wondered if it had been the right thing to do. If Hakan had felt like Nasir described. Unmoored.
“Yeah. Everybody in the pack that fostered me that went to college chose somewhere a few states away.”
“Yeah. You’re in a relationship with one of them, right?” Nasir asked.
Damien frowned in confusion. “What? What do you mean?”
“Your scent. You smell really strongly of other-wolf. Of someone in particular. A male wolf.”
“Oh. No, he’s a friend,” Damien said, not knowing if he liked the feeling of warmth at the thought of smelling so strongly of Hakan. Like he was claimed.
“Oh. Really?”
“Really.”
“Well. His loss, I guess.”
“Mmhmm.” Damien side-eyed Nasir, who smiled.
Their conversation devolved until they were just laughing at Vines on Nasir’s phone. By the end of the night, they were sitting with their shoulders pressed against each other. Damien was laughing as he told a story one of the Vines had reminded him of, involving a bottle of Coke and a very irritated Koko.
As Damien looked at him, he noticed Nasir staring back intently. For a moment, the look reminded him of Hakan. Unbidden, heat curled inside Damien. He stuttered on the next sentence, licking his lips nervously. Nasir followed the movement with his eyes.
“I’m not usually this direct,” Nasir said when Damien finished his story, “but I would really like to sleep with you.”
Damien let out a nervous chuckle. “Um. Yeah. Thatisreally direct.”
“I usually have to worry about half-shifting when I’m with humans. It’s hard. And…you smell really fucking good, underneath the stink of other-wolf.”
“I smell good under all the stink. Wow. I’m charmed.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like—”
“It’s fine. I think I got what you meant.”
Nasir looked at him. The look was waiting, but not expectant or pressuring. Damien got the sense that he could turn Nasir down without having him turn into a dick. That wasn’t as common as one would wish.
“So, you wanna get rid of the stink?”
“I want to make you smell like me.”
The words went right through Damien, hitting a button he hadn’t known he had. He watched as Nasir’s eyes darkened, his nostrils flaring slightly.
The arousal must have been coming from him in waves.
Damien leaned in, pausing a few inches from Nasir’s mouth. Nasir simply waited. Damien smiled.
He moved all the way in until their lips pressed together. For a single, disorienting moment, a fist of guilt squeezed at his chest. Because Nasir was a werewolf, perhaps, Damien got the sudden sense that he was betraying Hakan.
He pushed the feeling away. Damien couldn’t do that to himself. He and Hakan weren’t, had never been, and would never be in a romantic or sexual relationship.
Nasir tilted his head and opened his mouth. The kiss was slow, shallow. Almost sweet.
Damien wondered what it would be like to kiss someone in a half-moon shift.
“You only smell a little of alcohol. You’re not drunk, right?” Nasir asked when they parted.
