Page 4

Teddy

“It’s really whipped up out there,”

Astral commented as we all watched the rain beat sideways against the big windows of the café. “Maybe we should wait it out here. I don’t want Baby Raylin to get all wet.”

My phone vibrated in my back pocket, and I ignored it. It was probably Jacob calling to convince me to come back to the old folks’ home. There was no way I was trudging through the rain to talk to a wolf who shot me. Mori would just have to get out the magical thumb clamps or whatever he used when folks kept their traps shut up too tightly. It kept vibrating until I finally answered it without looking. It was a break from listening to Astral list all the reasons I might want to talk to Dern at some point before his door showed up.

“I’m not coming, Leem,”

I snapped into the phone.

“Excuse you,”

Mori’s worried voice flooded over the line. “I’m not a lemur.”

“Neither is he. I’m sorry, Mori, I don’t think it’s a good---”

“Shush, please and thank you. Is Othoni with you?”

Mori asked, cutting me off.

I glanced around the café and then got up to look up and down the street for him. Marsin and Astral flashed me questioning looks but they’d put it together over the Starscale flight link soon enough.

“He’s not here, Mori, but hey – wait – why would he be with me?”

I asked, checking the street again.

“He left right before the storm started to convince you to come over here. Are you at the B&B?”

he asked me.

“No, I’m out with Marsin and Astral getting a bite to eat. We have the baby with us. So, we’re waiting out the rain,”

I explained.

“Shit!”

Mori swore under his breath.

“He wasn’t driving, was he?” I asked.

“No, Othoni doesn’t drive. You have to promise not to make fun of him if I tell you this because if you do, I’ll have to hex you, Teddy,”

Mori said, his voice growing grave serious.

“Why so serious all of the sudden?”

I asked, lowering my voice and turning away from the others. Privacy was nearly impossible over the flight link, but I tried anyway.

“Because he’s my friend. I’m the reason he left the safety of his pard. I have to make sure he’s alright and I’m doing a really sucky job of it right now. Really fucking sucky job, Teddy. I let him go out on his own in a strange town when we didn’t even know where you were, and he’s terrified of storms. He tried to tell me earlier it was going to storm but I didn’t listen. I thought he was being paranoid or something but….”

“Yeah, I’m seeing how it’s coming down right now. I get it. Look, he’s not here but have you called the B&B? If he’s afraid of storms maybe once he got there, he just stayed put?”

“I think their phone is out. No one is answering,”

Mori sighed.

I wasn’t about to let Mori go out in this if I could help it. He was more than capable of taking care of himself but whatever hero complex I inherited from my sire was still alive and well inside of me. I wouldn’t ask my friends to drag their baby out into the rain. I’d go on my own. I gave my friends a quick rundown of what was up, minus Othoni’s fears and headed out into the rain.

Fortunately for me, my dragon inherited the double-eyelids most dragons have. Since he had fur here and there, it was hit or miss on whether or not my siblings and I inherited them. The rain was unseasonably cold, but dragons were made for that too. The rain and wind were annoying. The lightning and thunder made it hard to hear myself think. If Othoni wasn’t at the B&B I’d make the trek to the old folks’ home and probably find him hiding under a bush somewhere. If I made it to Mori without finding him, we’d have to alert the Appalachian Wolf Pack leadership to let them know we had a lost tourist running around somewhere.

Someone had taken Mori and Othoni’s trunks in before I arrived back at the B&B. I took the time to wipe my feet despite the constant string of texts coming in from Mori.

“Hey, Erak!”

I greeted the guy behind the desk. I’d lived here for months now and knew all the staff members by name. “Did either of my friends show up yet?”

“The jaguar did,”

he nodded. “I showed him to his room. He looked a little out of sorts. Perhaps he doesn’t like being the only cat around.”

“I’m sure there are other cats around,”

I laughed, pulling out my phone and struggling to text Mori with my wet fingers. Mori was relieved to know he was here, and I was ready to get dry before the rain really stuck between my scales. I walked into my room without turning the light on and stripped out of my wet clothes.

“Fuck it’s cold,”

I muttered to myself as I sprinted into the ensuite bathroom bouncing around to try to warm up as I grabbed a towel to dry off with. After I was dry enough, I dove into my bed, wiggling under the blankets.

“What the…?”

the words slipped over my tongue as my hand found someone furry.

A pathetic, sleepy mew came from under the blankets and like many dragons before me who lost their noses for sticking them in strange places, I shoved my face under the blanket and came nose-to-nose with a pair of bright yellow eyes with huge pupils. The cat meowed again. I froze. The world turned upside down as I drew in my next breath. Everything inside me lit itself on my fire and I had to swallow hard and choke down the smoke trying to escape from the fire burning bright inside me. This was him. This was Othoni. He was the only jaguar in town as far as I knew but he was so much more than that. He was….

“MINE!”

my dragon roared and I choked down the fire he tried to set loose into the room.

Felines and bedding were both flammable. I froze in place, unsure of what to do next. Did he smell me too? I fought off the urge to sniff myself.

“Come on. You know what to do. You made yourself at home in the purple district. You know how to talk to people,”

my inner beast chimed into my thoughts.

Only Othoni wasn’t just another person. He wasn’t just another potential hookup. If our big soul pieces didn’t click together, it would be more than just another bad night.

Outside thunder slammed into the sky again and Othoni leapt into my arms. I reflexively closed them around him, hugging him close to me. He was soft and cuddly but also trembling and smelled like he might explode from anxiety. I snuggled in under the blankets, still unable to find the words that needed to be said. True-mates. Mine. How was he right here in my bed?

“He sniffed us out,”

my dragon rolled his eyes inside his inner sanctum.

I kissed the top of his furry head and waited for the storm to quiet down again. He purred, fast and hard as if he tried to out-noise the storm. I pulled the blankets over our heads again and sank into the bed. I’d swallow the storm whole if I could’ve just to help him relax. Instead, we rode out the storm in near silence. Outside, the weather did all the talking as it tossed lightning bolts around and slammed thunder over and over. The rain battered against the building and little icy balls of hail hit the windows and all I could do was hold onto the feline I’d spend the rest of my life with as he rode out his anxiety.

Across the room my phone vibrated but I ignored it. It was either Jacob or Mori. Maybe my sire or siblings if they picked up the news of my meeting my true-mate over the family link but they all could wait. Everyone under the sun, moon, and stars could wait. He was afraid and I wasn’t about to leave his side for a second until he felt secure about his place in the world again.

I thought about what I knew about Othoni. It wasn’t much. He was a jaguar shifter and the heir to the pard down south. His alpha brother had gotten into loads of trouble for stealing a potion to find his true-mate. I chuckled to myself. Othoni had beat the odds. As far as I knew, he hadn’t used a potion to find me. What happened now? Did we go back there? Stay here? I’d have to deal with Dern. Somehow.

If he asked me, I wouldn’t be able to say no. I wouldn’t be able to look him in the eyes and refuse him something seemingly so simple. He nuzzled in under my chin, scent marking me, as another lull in the rain rolled through the town. I let out a long, slow breath, trying to slow my own pounding heart. I wasn’t afraid of the rain or the storm. It was hard to squash a dragon or blow us away and I’d hold onto Othoni to keep him safe.

Slowly but surely the sunlight peeked through the cracks around the shades and Othoni’s heart rate began to slow. Most felines had fast heartrates anyway but his had tried to pound its way straight out of his furry ribcage. I rested my hand there over his ribs as if I could finish up the job of returning his vitals to normal. He wrapped his legs around my arm and held on with his furry head pressed against me.

“It’s gonna be alright,”

I said. “Dragons and storms get along. They can’t really blow us away.”

He licked up my arm with his rough tongue as if tasting me to find out if I told the truth or not.

“So, I know you’re Othoni,”

I said, filling in the silence before it pounded too loudly inside my head. “I think you know who I am since Mori said you were looking for me. He’s worried about you out in the storm. I think he feels a bit bad that he didn’t believe you about it being on the horizon. It’s just been a strange day for everyone. Do you think Dern knows about us? Everyone says he’s a fortune teller. Do you think he saw us or something?”

Othoni just looked at me through the dark inches between our faces with his big cat eyes. For a moment, I considered chomping into his shoulder. Somewhere under all that soft, lush fur resided his claiming gland. I’d find it one way or another if it meant being able to know his thoughts.

“You are Othoni, right?”

I blinked at him.

I’d never met Othoni in person. Never smelled him. Hell, I’d never seen him in cat form. For all I knew, there were two frightened jaguars running around town afraid of storms. In my hurry to dry off, I hadn’t checked Othoni’s room after all.

The jaguar licked my nose and then my forehead without answering. Maybe the lick was the answer I didn’t speak feline well enough to translate it. A second later, he let go of my arm and scooted up until he could reach my head. He licked my hair, grooming away the styling product that managed to mostly hold up through the rain.

“That can’t taste good, mate,”

I chuckled as someone knocked on the door.

Othoni twisted on the bed and hissed at the door. I didn’t need to speak cat to know he wanted the knocker to beat feet and leave us alone.

“Ni?”

Mori called through the door and the jaguar sighed. He flashed me a pleading look but I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. Open the door? Get rid of Mori? Go talk to Dern? Ignore everyone and take him right here and now and--- Well, he’d need to shift for that.

“Ni? Teddy?”

Mori called out again. “I can smell you, Ni. Teddy! What’s going on? Teddy if you’re already trying to bed Othoni I swear to the fattest bear ancestor I have---”

Plenty could’ve been going on but nothing like Mori was implying. Did he know already? Did we already smell like mates somehow? Was that even possible? No. It couldn’t be that. Mori was just worried about his friend.

“I’m coming in! I don’t think you locked the door,”

Mori called out and Othoni hissed again.

“He’s your friend too, right?”

I asked, trying to soothe my mate. “Mori won’t hurt you. Want me to ask him to prove that he’s our Mori?”

The door opened before Othoni had a chance to answer and he was out from under the blanket like a bat out of hell. He leapt across the room, hissing and knocking Mori out into the hallway. He kicked the door shut behind him before I managed to even untangle myself from the web of bedding we snuggled down in.