by E A Price
“He’s thirteen!” whined Mark.
“Exactly!” cried Rick. “He’s thirteen!” Thirteen-year-old boys were terrors – he knew because he used to be one. “So why am I seeing pictures of them practically kissing on her Witchbook page?”
Mark frowned. “Kissing? None of the kids have been kissing.”
“I said practically kissing.”
They were standing close together and smiling. Closeness led to handholding, which was a gateway to cuddling, which eventually turned into kissing and that led to… that led to… That led to one furious freaking lion! Grrr!
“Ahem.”
Crud. Rick stood up a little straighter, and his lion let out an embarrassed yowl as he felt and scented his mate’s presence, just a little too late. He was in for it now…
“Ah, darling, I…”
Ariadne came to face him; she appeared almost amused. She looked at Mark with sympathy. “I’m really sorry, Mark. Please just ignore everything this one told you and try to enjoy your evening.”
Rick opened his mouth to object, and Ariadne raised an eyebrow. Mark sagged in relief and scuttled away as quickly as his small frame would allow.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked sweetly.
“That depends on how much you know,” he said cagily.
They were standing at the entrance of the bowling alley, so she had perhaps realized that he had chosen the food truck because of its closeness to where Calisto would be.
“You were in the background of one of the photos Callie put on Witchbook – I can see you in it arguing with Mark. I take it you came here when you were supposed to be in the toilet. Also, I already know you canceled our reservation at Alfonso’s,” she told him.
Trying to bluff and lie probably wouldn’t get him anywhere.
“Well…”
“I called and asked – there is no burst water main.”
“I…”
“You were worried about Calisto and wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“Ah…”
Ariadne giggled. “You’re even more uptight than I am about her!”
Rick raked his hands through his hair in frustration. “I wasn’t planning on all this, but when I heard you teasing her about Jeremy… and then Jeremy’s dad turned up… I thought threatening him would be enough, but I didn’t trust that guy, so I thought it would be better if I were close by in case…”
“In case what?” she said drily.
“In case Callie needed me,” he grumbled. His lion growled in acknowledgment – in the beast’s mind, it was the right thing to do.
“Oh, honey,” she cooed sympathetically.
“How do you cope all the time?” he groused. “It’s scary letting her out into the world.” All the time he was plagued with worries about something happening to her. Yes, he worried for Ariadne too, but Callie was just a kid – his cub…
“Tell me about it. On her first day of school, I had to sit outside in the corridor because I was too afraid to leave. Callie was fine – she was enjoying spending time with her friends, but I was a wreck.”
“Maybe we could tell her no dating until she’s twenty-five,” suggested Rick. Or thirty rumbled his beast.
“Yes, I’m sure that will go down well,” teased his mate.
“I just can’t bear to think of some snotty little boy slobbering over my daughter.”
Ariadne pulled him into a hug and rubbed his chest, making lovely little calming noises.
“I mean, I know what boys are like at that age – I was one. They’re monsters.”
“Yes, honey, but unfortunately, we can’t scare all boys into staying away from her.”
“Humph. I don’t see why not.”
She snickered, shaking in his arms.
“What?”
Ariadne pulled back to look at him. “Here was me thinking you had this easier than I did. I couldn’t have been more wrong.” She sent him a burst of affection through their bond. “I love you so much.”
“I love…”
“What are you guys doing here?” hissed Calisto, her eyes flashing as she stomped towards them.
“Ah, we, um…” started Rick.
“Are you spying on me?” demanded the five-foot-nothing, scary as hell teenager.
“Not spying,” said Ariadne.
“Are you checking up on me?”
“Well…”
“It was all him,” said Ariadne. “This is all his fault.”
Rick slanted her a look, and she shrugged apologetically. Apparently, she wasn’t going down with the sinking ship.
“Callie,” he entreated. “Baby, you’re our daughter – we worry.”
Callie fumed at them. “Mom, Dad, go home.”
Rick smiled for a moment as ‘dad’ sank in. His lion roared possessively for his cub. She may not be his biological daughter, but she was definitely his – and lord help the boy who did eventually knock on their door wanting to take his cub on a date.
He gave her a stern look. “You have to be home by ten, and you do not leave the group.”
“Yes, yes, yes, now go before anyone sees you.”
Calisto bustled them out of the bowling alley, and Ariadne laughed. She leaned up and kissed him. She was as pleased as he was.
“How about we go home and enjoy the rest of our Valentine’s Day?” he suggested, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Actually, I kind of want more fries – you may have unintentionally woken an obsession by taking me to that food truck.”
Rick chuckled. “Food truck it is.”
They kissed and walked hand in hand towards the cheese fries.
The end
Four: Soul Mates
“Sweetie, I don’t think this is working.”
Avery had been standing in the alley for half an hour. Her inner lion let out a lengthy yawn. No one was interested in trying to mug her – they might as well go home. It was perhaps strange to others that she wanted someone to mug her, but she had her reasons.
Wolfman emerged from behind a dumpster and sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”
They had thought to have a little fun where Avery could be in danger, and Wolfman saved her, and – because she was very capable - she helped him beat up the bad guy or guys. But there didn’t seem to be any takers. She’d even yelled about how much money she had in her purse, but still nothing.
“Maybe we should just go home and watch a romantic movie,” she suggested.
By which she meant Wall-E – she loved the movie, they were the most romantic freaking robots ever, and she knew without asking that her honey would love it.
Avery and Wolfman aka Winston Strong were dating, and very much in love and self-confessed nerds. Avery was a lion shifter and Winston a wolf shifter. While she worked for the Supernatural Enforcers Agency, Winston owned a comic book store and was currently working on his own comic book. When he wasn’t masquerading as Wolfman, vigilante extraordinaire that is.
The two met when Avery was being mugged for real, and Wolfman stepped in to help. It had been one of the best nights of their lives, and they were hoping to recreate some of the magic, but the muggers were not co-operating at all. It was very frustrating.
Wolfman smiled and grasped her hand. “Yeah, you want to grab a pizza or…”
There was a scream, making both of them freeze. Her lioness howled.
Wolfman put his hands on his hips. “Wolfman must…”
“No time,” cooed Avery, tugging his hand and running towards the scream. She did love his Wolfman banter, but if someone was getting murdered or something, they needed to hurry.
As it turned out, they found a young woman, standing alone outside a closed down mini-mart, sobbing and wailing as if the world was ending.
“What happened?” asked Wolfman searching for danger in the shadows.
Avery took the woman’s arm. “Have you been hurt? Have you been mugged?”
The woman glared at them through
her smudged mascara. “Yes, I’ve been hurt. My idiot boyfriend broke my heart!”
“But did he hurt you?” asked Avery, seeking a little clarification.
“Yes, he broke my heart!” snapped the woman and then broke into a fresh round of tears.
Avery rolled her eyes and glanced at Wolfman who looked nonplussed. She really couldn’t arrest anyone for breaking hearts, but she didn’t want to leave the emotional woman alone in the middle of the night. Her lioness huffed, wanting to get back to celebrating Valentine’s with her mate. Perhaps she could get the boyfriend to come and make it up to her.
“Ah, where is he?”
“Let me guess, he’s up there,” murmured Wolfman looking up.
Avery’s eyes swiveled up to the roof of the mini-mart. Sure enough, there was a young man up there.
“I’m going to jump!” he declared and jutted his chin stubbornly.
“No one’s stopping you, Tom!” snapped the woman.
“Yes, yes, we are!” growled Avery.
“Chelsea, I’m going to jump unless you un-break up with me!” he yelled.
“Not until you apologize.”
“I have nothing to apologize for!” he howled.
Chelsea bristled with indignation. “The hell you don’t! You disgust me. All men disgust me. You’re all the same!”
She narrowed her eyes at Wolfman, and he took a step back, edging closer to Avery.
“I’m all for helping people but do you think we could just leave them to it,” Wolfman whispered.
Avery considered it – a part of her really wanted to leave them to their idiotic argument, but… “I’d say yes if he wasn’t on the roof.”
Wolfman sighed. “Yeah. Maybe I could climb up and…”
Avery placed her hand on his arm. “Babe, I got this.”
She knew her honey was courageous and would climb up there in a heartbeat, but the last time he tried to climb something he tripped on his cape and… it wasn’t pretty. Besides, she was a cat – she was made for climbing.
“You try to talk to her,” she whispered. Because the sooner Chelsea and Tom stopped dicking around, the sooner she could get back to her own Valentine’s.
As she walked away, she heard Wolfman ask, “So what did he do?
Chelsea launched into a loud explanation.
*
Avery peered over the edge. It wasn’t that high. Although Tom was human, he’d survive – he’d have a few broken bones, but he’d survive.
Leave him to it then grumbled her inner beast. But no, she was up there now, she ought to make some effort.
“I don’t suppose you can just apologize,” said Avery.
Tom folded his arms. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“But you love her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Enough to threaten to kill… break a few of your bones?”
“Yes.”
“Just not enough to apologize?” she rightly guessed.
“If I apologize, she’ll think I’m admitting to what she thinks I did and I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Avery exhaled. “Okay, hit me, what happened?
*
Wolfman shook his head his head in sympathy as Chelsea finished her story. His wolf was virtually snoozing, but Wolfman knew what to do.
“He should apologize, right?” demanded the irate woman.
“Yeah, definitely,” he agreed.
“Well, there you are then!” she howled triumphantly. “Are you going to apologize or not?” she called up to her boyfriend, or rather ex-boyfriend.
“Never!” Tom yelled.
Her eyes flashed in anger. “Are you going to admit you were wrong?”
“Never!”
Chelsea looked like she wanted to climb up and throttle. She almost started trying to do that when Wolfman placed a restraining hand on her shoulder.
“Look, just apologize,” he shouted up to the guy.
Avery’s mouth dropped open in outrage. “We are not going to apologize – we shouldn’t have to.”
Wolfman rumbled furiously. “Well, we won’t un-break up with you until you do.”
“Well, we aren’t coming down until you admit you overreacted,” retorted Avery folding her arms.
“Fine stay up there all night for all we care!”
“We will, and I’m not listening to another word you say!”
At that, Avery broke out in song – opting for a tuneless version of ‘I’m Henery the Eight, I am’ - and Wolfman started stomping around and humming loudly.
*
After sixteen minutes of listening to Avery’s monotonous singing and Wolfman’s irritating humming, Tom voluntarily came down from the roof, and he quickly reconciled with Chelsea.
“I’m sorry,” Chelsea gushed.
“No I’m sorry,” Tom said.
“We shouldn’t fight.”
“This is all my fault.”
“I overreacted.”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“We are soul mates.”
Wolfman and Avery watched as they walked away arm in arm, murmuring sweet nothings. Avery took his hand and smiled.
“You know,” he said, “she was crying so much while she was talking that I’m not really sure what their argument was about.”
Avery nodded. “Yeah, I kind of zoned out when he started talking, and I realized there was no way he was planning on jumping. Figured it was best just to annoy them into giving in.”
Wolfman beamed, and his wolf practically snickered. “Yeah, me too.”
True, Wolfman and Avery hadn’t been together long, but they didn’t fight. They didn’t let small things bother them, and no doubt whatever was bothering that couple had been small and ultimately pointless.
Avery ran her hands up his arms and circled his neck. “I don’t know about those two, but I know that we are soul mates.”
He placed his hands on her waist. “Yeah, we are,” he said just a little smugly.
They started kissing, but after a couple of moments, Avery pulled back.
“I scent someone coming,” she whispered excitedly.
“Maybe someone to mug you!”
Her face lit up in delight at the prospect.
Yep, they were definitely made for each other. Rawr.
The end
Five: Fun at the Zoo
“Four adults and three kids please,” said Erin with her sunniest smile.
The ticket seller peered over the side of her booth to get a peek at Erin’s brood. Her triplets were firmly strapped into the triple stroller – it was becoming apparent that the three of them were amateur escape artists. But they were not getting away today. Anna was currently trying to pick at the pink bow on her head. Arik – the largest of the three - was snoozing off breakfast. Since he had eaten the leftovers of both his sister and brother’s meals, it wasn’t such a surprise. While Axel had a dog chew toy in the shape of a bone in his mouth – he had picked it up at his grandmother’s house, and as embarrassed as it made Erin when people saw her baby with a dog toy, the fallout from trying to take it away from her son was not worth it.
“Aww, they are adorable,” cooed the older woman.
“I know,” said Erin proudly. She and Gunner certainly made cute babies. But then, given her mate, that wasn’t such a surprise.
“All yours?”
“Yes.”
“Aww, you must be exhausted.”
“Yes,” admitted Erin. More so since they started crawling. How Axel kept getting onto the top shelf of the linen closet still baffled and scared the hell out of her.
The woman passed her the tickets and a sympathetic look. Erin pushed the stroller over to her gorgeous mate who was waiting, arms folded.
“Here, you are in total charge of the tickets,” she told him, because if she held onto them, somehow they would be covered in spit-up, lotion, and baby food within two minutes flat.
Gunner grunted and took them. He draped a large arm over her
shoulders, and she snuggled against his chest. Gunner was a polar bear shifter and Erin a psychic. They both worked for the Supernatural Enforcers Agency, and since they both had the day off, they decided to take a trip to the zoo. Maybe it was an odd choice for Valentine’s Day, but they wanted to spend the day with the babies, so it became a family outing. Plus, Erin had invited a couple of friends.
“Any sign of them?” she asked.
“No, and I don’t know why you invited them,” grumbled Gunner. Who would much prefer it was just the five of them.
“Because I like them. I like spending time with my friends – I barely see them these days. Sky loves the zoo. Plus, you know…”
Gunner looked down at her. “What?”
Erin gave him a sheepish look. “Well, if I have one baby, you have one baby… we can give the other to Sky.”
The logistics of having three babies were not always easy – sometimes it was just easier to get help under the guise of hanging out with friends.
Gunner’s brow wrinkled. “So you’ve invited her to be an unpaid nanny?”
“Sort of…”
Her mate let out a lusty laugh. “That’s my girl.”
*
Zane slammed the car door.
“You’re pouting,” teased his mate, Sky.
He and his inner bear humphed. “This is really what you want to do for Valentine’s? You want to schlep around a zoo taking care of Gunner’s offspring?”
“Zane,” she chided softly.
“You know that’s why Erin invited you!”
“Of course I know,” said Sky calmly. “But I love the zoo, and I love Erin and her babies. You said you have to work tonight, so this is our Valentine’s Day fun.”
Zane huffed. Fun? He wouldn’t say looking at animals was fun. He supposed Gunner and Erin had no choice but to do this kind of malarkey, but he and Sky could be doing something so much better.
True, he would be working that evening. As a private detective, his bread and butter cases were cheating mates and spouses. He had a few people to check out tonight to see if they were indulging in a little Valentine hanky-panky. But surely they could have spent the day at home, in bed…