Her Detective Wolf

by Alice C. Summerfield

  The fight hadn’t been much of a fight, and it had ended in a traumatic brain injury for him, so he couldn’t even pretend that he had won it. He was a cop, but his car had gotten stolen. And he was investigating Tessa’s problem because he was curious, she as cute, and he was on medical leave at the moment.

  He was hardly heroic.

  I asked her to lie and pretend to be my girlfriend, thought Ajax, annoyed. Not lie and pretend that I’m good at what I do.

  And the absolute worst of it was, he actually was good at what he did; just not lately, it seemed.

  But that’s going to change, decided Ajax fiercely.

  He was just in a slump. It happened, even to the best. And when he helped Tessa solve her problem, he’d be out of it again, simple as that.

  But in the meantime, he had to get through the party, which was easier said than done, especially after Christina lured Tessa away with promises of pieces of piping hot lamb and pork sliced right off the bone.

  The moment Tessa was out of sight, Ajax’s parents began fussing in earnest. They tag-teamed him, taking turns scolding him for taking foolhardy risks and not calling his

  “Why didn’t you call us?” demanded his mother, as she reached for his head. Helpfully, Ajax tilted his head down to let her run her fingers through his hair, perhaps searching for the bump. “Why would you want to go through that alone? We would have come! We’re your family! We would have taken care of you!”

  And where it now rested on Ajax’s shoulder, his father’s hand tightened.

  “Werewolves are always stronger together,” said his father severely. “That’s why we run in packs. You know this. We didn’t raise a fool, Ajax.”

  “I wasn’t alone,” said Ajax, taking refuge in the truth. “And I was very well taken care of. Derek – you remember him? My partner? – He came and stayed with me a few days, along with his fiancée. And Tessa was there too. They all tried to help me.”

  A touch of the frantic anger bled out of his mother’s expression, and his father’s face brightened, and Ajax knew that he had made a mistake.

  “Yes,” said his mother more quietly. “There was that.”

  If they didn’t mistake Tessa for something serious before, they were certainly going to do so now. And the worst of it was, as he listened to their congratulations and their liking of Tessa, he couldn’t help but wish it were true.

  He’d always found Tessa hot. Even when his brains were scrambled, he had felt a pull towards her beauty, had wanted her in his lungs and under his skin.

  Like burning, Ajax thought, and then had to bite back a smile at his own joke. In the current atmosphere, it wouldn’t have been appreciated by his audience.

  But he liked her too, really, genuinely liked her. It had been fun scamming that junk shop with her and taking her out to dinner. And they liked a lot of the same music and movies and bands; the ones that they disagreed on, they disagreed on passionately, but Ajax thought that might be fun with a little more intimacy between them. She was fun and sexy and so sweet to him. It had even felt good when she had fussed over him – embarrassing, but good.

  He liked to think that, had he met her another way, he would have asked Tessa out on the spot. She might or might not have been his soul mate – and with the number of scented products that she wore, he might never know – but she was exactly the sort of girl that he liked best.

  And, of all the girls that he had brought home over the years, she seemed to get along best with his family. Across the room, Tessa had somehow gotten her hands on a serving tray heaped high with skewers of meat and what looked like a handful of purloined spanakopita. She, Christina, and several of the cousins were doing shots and snacking on the refreshments. Ajax wasn’t entirely pleased to see that Diana, and more importantly, her friend Anita were among the drinkers. Given that one was his pretend date and the other his blind date, it didn’t seem auspicious to see them in close proximity to each other.

  Unfortunately, the room was crowded by then, mostly with relatives that he hadn’t seen in a while. Getting across it took time, as he needed to catch up with some relatives, gossip with others, and meet the dates of a few of them. There were agreements to call each other to hang out and ouzo to drink while they caught up. One of his younger cousins, Charlie, promised to get him a book of Greek myths. Ajax wanted to refresh his memory on the matter of Tecmessa.

  By the time that he reached the knot of cousins surrounding Tessa and Diana’s friend, Anita and a couple of the cousins were looking worse for the wear. Ajax was feeling a bit worse for the wear too. As he joined them, Ajax asked genially “How are things going over here?”

  “Good,” returned Tessa cheerfully, her smooth whiskey voice honeyed with mischief and spirits. It went straight through Ajax, a hot line of want.

  Casually sliding a hand around the curve of Tessa’s waist – he could do that. They were supposed to be dating – Ajax leaned past her to claim a skewer of goat. Straightening, he bit it. The goat was good: moist, smoky, and well-seasoned. His dad definitely hadn’t lost his touch.

  And just like that, Ajax discovered that he was ravenous. Allowing the conversation – and the shots and saults – to ebb and flow around him, Ajax concentrated on grabbing a couple more skewers before Tessa devoured them all.

  Werewolves burned more calories than the average human did and, correspondingly, ate more than them too. As a dragon, Tessa would need even more calories than he did. If he somehow persuaded Tessa to really date him, then Ajax foresaw a lot of dinner dates ending with cleaned out restaurant buffets.

  Diana’s friend, Anita, was looking a bit delicate by then, and something about the mouthwatering scent of grilled goat wafting over her made her turn faintly green.

  “I think,” began the woman who was supposed to have been Ajax’s blind date, and Tessa made an encouraging gesture with one hand. Ajax might have admired her ability to forgive and forget, if she hadn’t been holding a skewer of grilled goat in her hand when she made that gesture.

  Anita turned a deeper shade of green. She bolted.

  Tessa caught Ajax’s gaze with her own fire-bright and gleeful one. Her smile was all teeth. Very dragonish.

  That hot line of want, the one that Tessa had threaded through him earlier, pulled tighter inside of him at the sight of it.

  Gulping, Ajax turned to help himself to someone else’s shot of ouzo. It wet his suddenly dry mouth, but it also made his head spin – he didn’t drink enough to keep knocking shots back shots like that.

  Grinning, Tessa wrapped an arm around his waist, casually shoring him up against his dizzy head.

  By then, most of the meat skewers were gone and there were only a few more of the spanakopita left on the tray. Ajax snagged one, only to have it snatched from his fingertips a moment later. Indignant, Ajax turned on Tessa, who smirked and bit into his spanakopita as insouciantly as humanly possible.

  Ajax’s eyes narrowed, a low growl trickling out of his throat.

  Her eyes steady on his, Tessa took another bite out of his spanakopita; obnoxiously too.

  A challenge, then.

  Heat sparking up his blood, Ajax leaned in to kiss her as she finished chewing. A soft press of his lips to hers and then a firmer one. She began kissing him back, and Ajax was nearly distracted from his purpose. But then her lips curved up against his, a smile, reminded him what he was about.

  Plucking the last bit of spanakopita from her fingers, Ajax leaned back to smirk at her. He popped it in his mouth just to see her eyes flare with indignation.

  “I’ll get you back for that.”

  “I certainly hope so,” breathed Ajax, hopeful, and Tessa laughed.

  Chapter 11 – Tessa

  It was late when Tessa flew them home.

  After all of the singing and dancing, spanakopita and lamb and goat, and ouzo, especially the ouzo, Tessa was in no condition to drive. And if she wasn’t, then Ajax definitely wasn’t. By the time that they left, he was slumped against her s
ide, his arm around her shoulders and his chin hooked over her shoulder. Turning his face into the side of her neck, Ajax took a deep breath. Sighing it out again, he nuzzled her.

  Against the skin of her neck, he breathed, as if imparting a secret, “You smell nice. Best I ever smelled.”

  An electric shiver shimmied down the length of her, from her ear to the tips of her toes, curling them, and Tessa shivered. Her arm tightened around his waist.

  “Yeah?” she rasped, and he shivered against her. “You think so?”

  “Yeah,” he sighed nuzzling against her again. “Except for the perfume or – or soap or whatever that is. That’s not nice at all. All… chemically.”

  He thought she stank. Well, that certainly punctured her good feelings.

  But if she was tipsy, then he was drunk; albeit sweetly, amusingly drunk.

  Fortunately, flying was easier than walking, especially while tipsy.

  Changing out of her nice clothes in the nearest empty bathroom, Tessa folded them up and put them in a shopping bag. That went into the front seat of her car and, wearing one of the worn out, oversized smocks from the emergency kit in her trunk, Tessa led Ajax down the street.

  In the cul-de-sac at the end of the lane, Tessa transformed into her much, much larger and far scalier shape. In the dark of the night, she glowed.

  Very gently and very, very carefully, she wrapped a giant clawed hand around her very drunk detective. He didn’t seem to mind. Even better, he didn’t get air sick.

  Back home, in one of the seldom used side lots, she set him down and transformed back into her human shape. At nearly the same moment that her soft, human feet touched down on the tarmac, Tessa yelped – a tiny little shriek that turned into a laugh – and clutched at Ajax’s shoulders as he swept her off of her feet.

  He spun her around and around, nearly knocking them both down for his efforts.

  “Stop! Stop! What are you doing?” she shrieked, delighted, as he staggered to a stop.

  “Being happy!” He nuzzled his nose into her cheek. “You burned off all the chemicals. You smell fantastic!”

  First thing tomorrow: new soap, thought Tessa, feeling wryly amused in spite of himself.

  “Ajax, I’m naked.”

  Ajax blinked down at her, as if just realizing that.

  “You are, aren’t you?” he said reflectively. Then he leered; drunk, unfocused, and unintentionally hilarious.

  Tessa rolled her eyes. “Can I borrow your jacket?”

  Ajax hastily set her down.

  “Sorry, you’re cold,” he said, as he shrugged off his jacket.

  Not really. October in Florida was actually pleasant. But she did want the jacket. Tessa was actually very selective about who got to see her naked.

  Happily, Tessa pulled on Ajax’s jacket, which fortunately came down to roughly mid-thigh on her, and fastened it shut. She was still barefoot, but at least she wasn’t buck naked anymore.

  Ajax swept her off of her feet again. Truthfully, it was just as fun – and he was just as unsteady on his feet – as it had been the first time. Tessa laughed.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, sounding happy and indulgent rather than any shade of indignant.

  “Carrying you,” said Ajax. “We’re in a parking lot, Tessa.”

  “Carrying me? You can barely walk! And what about your head?”

  Ajax scoffed. “My head’s fine – probably fine. And you don’t have shoes. What if you step in glass?”

  “Well… that would be bad,” agreed Tessa, and Ajax smirked as if he had actually won the argument.

  Probably because he had.

  I cannot believe I lost an argument to a guy this drunk, thought Tessa, miffed with herself. But she really didn’t want to step in broken glass, either.

  So, she took her chances and let the sweet drunk carry her home. He only nearly dropped her maybe a dozen times between the parking lot and the sidewalk. Honestly, it kind of reminded her of when she was first learning to fly.

  He really did drop her in the elevator, though, staggering to the side and losing his grip on her when it lurched into motion. Her bare feet hit the ground with a muffled thump, and Tessa staggered forward, knocking them both into a wall. On the bright side, neither of them hit the ground.

  By the time that the elevator jerked to a halt on his floor, Tessa had an arm around Ajax’s waist. Together, they staggered out of the elevator and down the hall to his apartment.

  Ajax made it as far as the couch, collapsing onto it with a deep sigh.

  “Let’s sleep here,” he mumbled, half his face smushed against a pillow. “Tired now.”

  And, because she wasn’t entirely heartless, Tessa went to get Ajax a glass of water and a couple of aspirin.

  “Here,” she said, when she returned to his side. Ajax seemed to be drowsing on the couch. “Take these.”

  And he did, sitting up to trustingly take two of the pills with all of the water.

  When Tessa moved to stand up, his hand shot out with surprising speed to catch her wrist.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “To get you another glass of water for tomorrow.”

  He hummed.

  “Or you could stay here on the couch with me?” He nuzzled close again. “You smell nice. Perfect.”

  “The couch isn’t wide enough for that,” said Tessa, amused both at his antics and at her body’s response to them. He could probably have had her for a song and smile. Fortunately for her, he was better than that.

  At her words, Ajax actually looked sad. “No?”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “You could sleep on top of me?” he offered. Then at Tessa’s arched eyebrow added “Just sleep. I’m drunk, and you smell like… but I’m not stupid.”

  Tessa smiled. “Is this a werewolf thing?”

  An inexplicable expression flickered across his face, before Ajax smiled up at her, sweet but somehow secretive.

  “You could say that,” he said.

  “Then I’ll loan you my pillow,” she said briskly, as she pushed herself to her feet.

  Groaning, Ajax fell backwards.

  Tessa took off Ajax’s shoes, prodded him onto his side, and propped him there with a couple of throw pillows. Her usual pillow went under his head, and she covered him with what had become her usual blanket. To her amusement – and secret delight – he breathed deeply, before snuggling down into her bedding.

  He was asleep before she returned to place the refilled glass of water and a couple of aspirin on the coffee table for Ajax. Hopefully, he’d find them in the morning.

  Tired herself, Tessa drank a glass of water, took a couple of aspirin, and went to claim his bed as her own – just for the night, of course.

  In the morning, Tessa woke to bedding that smelled mostly like Ajax but also faintly of wet dog. Behind her eyes nagged the faint pink tendrils of a headache.

  For several moments, Tessa laid where she was a tried to remember how she had ended up in anyone’s bed, much less a dog owner’s.

  No, she realized. Not a dog, a wolf.

  Pushing herself upright, Tessa downed her pre-prepared water and aspirin. Then she rose to face the day.

  Twenty minutes later – freshly showered, dressed, and with the lightest coating of makeup ever – Tessa creeped past Ajax, who was still asleep on the couch. He needed his rest. And, between his previous head injury and currently brewing hangover, he should put off waking up as long as possible.

  Outside, the sun was already up and shining. Tessa took a good, deep breath, a light breeze bringing to her the scent of fresh cut grass. It smelled nice.

  I wonder what it would smell like if I was a werewolf too? Tessa wondered, as she stretched. Maybe I should ask Ajax some time?

  Ajax. Now there was a thought that she was willing to skitter away from, at least for the time being. She had a lot of things to do, and not a lot of time in which to do them. She definitely, absolutely wasn’t putting off thi
nking about Ajax because she liked him or his family or maybe, possibly wanted him to stick around after her problem was sorted out, and not just as a friend either.

  Did nice, strait-laced guys like him want to stick around for punk rock mechanics?

  Tessa didn’t know, but she found that she was highly interested in the answer.

  Putting on a pair of sunglasses, Tessa fished out her cell phone and, using a ride sharing app, booked a ride back to the street on which Ajax’s parents lived.

  Then, once more comfortably ensconced in her Sweetie’s spacious driver’s seat, Tessa headed for the nearest fast food joint. Aspirin, a couple of glasses of water, and a hot shower had done a lot to make Tessa feel more human, but hot French fries rarely tasted better than when nursing a hangover. On a whim, she doubled her order. Ajax would probably be hungry when he got up and got going.

  When she got back to his place, Ajax was still asleep with half of his face mashed into her pillow and a blissful expression on his face. Looking at him, Tessa decided to let him sleep. He could wake up to his hangover soon enough. In the meantime, she took all of her breakfast purchases to the kitchen.

  Unfortunately, the smell of hot food seemed to wake him. Groaning, Ajax first rubbed his face harder into the pillow then abruptly he sat up. From her place in the kitchen, Tessa watched with interest as he rubbed at his eyes and scanned the room, his eyes skipping over the water and aspirin in favor of landing on her.

  Smiling, she offered him a little wave.

  To her amusement, he waved back before turning to down his water and morning aspirin.

  Ajax left the couch at a stagger, heading straight for his bedroom and, probably, the bathroom beyond it. Roughly three minutes later, he joined Tessa in the kitchen, where she was enjoying her fries and pretending that she hadn’t been spying on him.

  When he flopped down into the seat across from her at his little table, Tessa helpfully pushed his share of the food across the table to him. He grunted his thanks.

  “I didn’t know what you like in your coffee or even how fancy you like it,” she said, as she freed the drinks from their caddy. “So, I got your coffee like I like mine: black.”