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WILDER

“Do you know what I want to do tonight?” I stood behind my mate, my chin resting on his shoulder. We looked out the window onto the city.

“No, I don’t.” He rolled in my arms until he was facing me. “But I can guess.”

He leaned in for a kiss that quickly turned passionate. And, well—yes, I very much wanted to do that. But it wasn’t what I had meant when I asked the question.

“Close.” I gave him a peck. “I want you to show me what you like about the city. Take me to your favorite places.”

“Are you sure? It’s very peopley out there.” He was right about that. Just looking out the window, I saw more people than I would see in a month at Cougar Lake. But this had been a part of my mate’s life for a long time, and I wanted to experience that with him.

“How about this?” He rubbed his cheek against mine. “I’ll take you on the perfect date.”

“And what exactly makes a date perfect?” I asked, because I wanted to know for the future. The whole “date” thing was new to me, and I wanted to be sure that I constantly gave my mate everything he wanted and needed in life—including human fun.

“Being with you, of course. Now get your shoes on. We’ve got a lot of places to go.”

Thorn amused me when he got so excited, and I followed, not asking any more questions and crossing my fingers and toes that he wasn’t going to take me to one of those nightclubs my cousin and his friends liked so much.

“First, we’re going to have the best dinner in the city.” He stopped us at the corner, which turned out to also be a bus stop. When the bus pulled up, we climbed inside. He tapped a card for himself, then handed it to me to do the same. Apparently, coins were no longer a thing—everything had to be preloaded.

We rode for four stops and got out. We could’ve easily walked, but I suppose buses were part of the experience.

“Here we are.” We were standing in front of a food truck. “Best dinner in the city.”

I looked up, expecting to see one of those fancy places from those Food TV shows—where they compete to win a spot at some elusive prize location or whatever the prize was that week.

It was a hot dog cart.

Not fancy, weird hot dogs, like you would see competing on the show. Just plain old hot dogs. They also had bags of chips, nuts, cans of soda, and all the toppings you could think of for a picnic—but not so much that it turned your hot dog into something gourmet by any stretch.

“I’m trusting you on this one.” I put my hand on the small of his back and waited until it was our turn.

Hot dogs acquired, we walked across the street to the park and sat on a bench.

“I have to admit—” My mouth was full, but that didn’t stop me from expressing my delight at our meal. “I was skeptical when you said this was our date night dinner.”

“What? You didn’t believe your mate?” Thorn reached up with his napkin and dabbed a bit of mustard from the corner of my mouth.

“I didn’t think you lied, but I never in my wildest imagination thought that hot dogs could be this good.”

They weren’t even grilled. Just boiled. But wow, I could eat them for every meal. I tried not to think too hard on the why of that. Hot dogs weren’t known for being the best quality of meat products. But then again, I ate random squirrels while shifted, so who was I to judge?

“Told you.” He stuck out his tongue playfully. “And next—we’re going to my favorite place for dessert.”

Unlike the hot dogs, our next stop was a fancy restaurant. Everybody ahead of us had reservations. The host was snooty. And the ambience was one that screamed exclusivity. It appeared to be everything my mate had first thought the steakhouse was going to be but wasn’t.

I half expected us to be turned away, but my mate must’ve come here enough that the host said, “Yeah, there’s room in the bar. Head on in,” before Thorn even asked.

We wove our way in and found a tiny table in the center of everything. So many people, so many tables mushed together—you couldn’t have a private conversation.

But when they brought the dessert tray out, I saw why my mate picked this place. It was impossible to pick just one thing. We ended up getting six different desserts to share. There was no way we could eat them all—each one more rich and delectable than the next—but I didn’t regret a single one of our selections.

“I’m never having dessert again.” I was wrong. We ate every last morsel. I was stuffed. “There’s no way it’ll ever compare to this.”

“No, it won’t. But I found out you can order it to be delivered overnight—and frozen—so we never have to do without.”

We were gonna need to book a lot of rooms at the lodge to afford my dessert habit, I mused to to myself.

“Okay. Now it’s time for fun.” He stood up from our cramped table.

“I thought we were already having fun,” I said, but he was so excited to take me to the next place, I had a feeling it was only going to get better from here.

The next stop was two buses away. And when we arrived? We were nowhere, not really. Just… on a street filled with closed businesses. Not even a restaurant to be seen.

“Don’t laugh at me. You’ll see why we’re here soon enough.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me across the street and down the sidewalk, which at this point was going across a bridge. He stopped midway and told me to look as far as I could see.

And it was beautiful.

I was not generally a cityscape kind of guy, but seeing all the lights—many in unexpected colors: blues, reds, purples—all lighting up the water? It was absolutely stunning.

“How did you find this place?”

“I got off the wrong bus my first week here and fell in love. I thought you might, too. The colors dancing on the water reminded me of the sunrise and dancing water where we live.” He hugged me close. “And sharing it with you? I love that even more now.”

He kissed the bottom of my jaw.

“I’m glad you brought me here.” We watched the water for a few minutes, holding each other close and soaking in the beauty.

“You up for some more?” He rubbed his cheek against mine again. I loved it when he did that, knowing his scent was all over me.

“I’m up for anything you want to show me.” Even if we went to a nightclub, although I was thrilled that hadn’t been a part of the agenda.

That was how we went through the night, going from one surprise destination to the next. None of them were what I pictured when people talked about “city life.” Each of them taught me something about my mate that I hadn’t known before.

My mate had lived here. He’d had a good life here. But even though he probably didn’t realize it, he was always seeking out the beauty of the city—the simple joys—much more than my cousin and his friends ever did. They wanted the action, the people, the excitement.

But my mate?

He found pleasure in such simple things.

And it affirmed that we’d made the right decision. That he hadn’t felt forced to stay in Cougar Lake. That he loved what the area offered and would love living there as well.

He would thrive.

“We have one last place to go,” he said, stepping on his tiptoes and whispering close to my ear. “And that’s to bed. Naked. And very much not sleeping.”

“I think it’s official. Thorn, you are the best date organizer ever.”

“That’s only because I have the best mate to share it with.” His lips brushed against mine.

“I love your world.” It wasn’t where I’d want to live, but I now saw that if he ever felt the need to move back, we could make a good life here. “And I love you, Thorn.”

“As I love you, Wilder. As I love you.”