Page 36 of Witchwolf

He huffed a sigh and shook his head. “But there’s always another steak. Thousands of steaks. Not so many chefs. And it’s not like the steak can cook the chef.”

Comparing Jax to a steak wasn’t even a good metaphor here. It was just insulting to werewolves.

“No, this steak has teeth. It can rip the chef’s throat out if he’s a big enough asshole.” I turned to look at him, grabbing his face in my hands and leaning up to meet his eye steadily. “Jax, you’ve got to stop this. Werewolves aren’t, like, second-class citizens. We’re all people, and no person is more or less important than another person. Me being able to make my stapler float by an accident of birth isn’t some great amazing fucking accomplishment.”

He bit his lip and glanced away.

Fuck me, how bad did mages have to be, how giant did their egos have to be, to have made a fully grown badass werewolf man feel this way? The arrogant way the Igarashi people had acted seemed somehow even more sinister than before, and reminded me of the number of times in human history one group had decided another was lesser.

How often that decision had resulted in horrific atrocities.

He groaned and shook his head, grabbing my hands and pulling them against his chest. “I’m not saying I think werewolves aren’t worthwhile. I’m not saying I think you’re better than me. I’m just saying that mages don’t have a lot of respect for us, and you are a mage.”

“So I also have to be a bigoted asshole? There’s a requirement?”

“So they might think less of you if they found out you were fucking one. I don’t want to be responsible for you losing face in the magic community. You deserve?—”

“I deserve to make my own choices. Just like the mages do. And you know what the mages decided, Jax? They decided to fucking abandon me. I was adopted by people who don’t even know magic exists and raised not to believe in it.” I threw a leg over his hip and pulled us in closer to each other. “They didn’t choose me, so I don’t choose them. Crescent chose me. I’m allowed to choose you back. Everyone at Crescent has been amazing to me. Friendly and welcoming and great. And that’s what I want. I want people who chose me, regardless of magic or fangs and claws. Just because I was the right guy, and they wanted me.”

His body sank into the mattress, like his muscles had gone lax, and for a moment, I thought—hoped—that would be the end of it. But a few seconds later, he shook his head. “I’m your boss. I shouldn’t let?—”

“Are you going to fire me?” I demanded, and for a moment, it was like having an out-of-body experience.

Like I was looking down from the ceiling at this ballsy asshole who was staring at the gorgeous sexy guy and telling him what to do. Surely it couldn’t be me doing this. Not meek, shy little Dakota, who’d never defied his superiors in his whole fucking life.

It was the magic, I realized, and that alone made a tiny ball of ice form in my stomach. Was it changing me? Did becoming a mage make a guy into a different, worse person? Had it made me demanding and rude, and was I ignoring Jax’s needs?

He frowned at me, sighing and shaking his head. “Of course I don’t want to fire you. This isn’t about the job.”

“Am I bothering you? My... my demands? Am I asking too much?” That was more like the me I knew.

It was his turn to draw me closer, shaking his head. “You’re not. You’re not... I’m not worried about me. I’m fine. But spending time with wolves will hurt your reputation.”

“What about Prudence?” I asked back. “She seems like kind of a badass. Does she have a bad reputation because she works with you?”

His lips screwed up in an annoyed moue. “Not... exactly. I know she’s gotten some trouble over it, but Prudence’s reputation is solely of her own choosing. She just doesn’t much care what the magical community thinks of her.”

I raised both brows at him and waited for him to catch up with his own words.

After a moment, he sighed. “I understand. Really, I do. But Prudence is rich and immensely powerful. She can afford to make as many enemies as there are mages in the world. You’re new. You can’t even defend yourself from them if they attack you.”

“And you introduced me to Prudence, who’s teaching me how to deal with that. To deal with how to handle any mage who comes after me. Heck, the first thing she explained at lunch was this weird mage handshake pissing contest thing they all do upon meeting. You’ve given me everything I need to handle this, Jax. The rest is up to me.”

The handshake thing had been weird. Apparently, it was something mages did when they met another person they knew to be a mage, sort of puffing up their feathers like a peacock, pushing their magic to the surface of their skin, and waiting for the reaction of the other mage. They could gauge the other mage’s magical power that way, as well as their inclination to be aggressive or not.

She’d followed by demonstrating a dozen different ways the handshake could go and how to achieve the effects she’d demonstrated. Looking back at it, it had made me dislike Igarashi Jiro even more. Unless I was much mistaken, he’d been trying to exert his power over me, testing and trying to intimidate me. Frankly, it reminded me of the way some beefy guys were prone to squeezing people’s hands too tight, just to show them how impressive their muscles were. It seemed to me a symptom of douchebaggery more than a sign of actual power.

It also begged the question of how Igarashi had known I was a mage before we met. Could a person see it instantly? If so, then why had his inferiors not seemed to notice or care about me? Did he just do it to everyone he ever met? If so, even weirder.

Jax looked like he wanted to protest some more, but I shook my head, then leaned in to plant a kiss on the tip of his nose. “I swear. Prudence is a gift, Jax. The best gift anyone’s ever given me in my life. I’ve never had a real mentor before, and she seems awesome.”

“She is,” he hedged. “I... I like her a lot. And she’s helped to make Crescent what we are.”

“The intellectual property thing.” He didn’t answer aloud, but his nod was enough for me. “Well then, all the more reason for me to dig deeper into these contracts. I can protect herandCrescent. This is... Jax, it’s everything I need in the world and then some. More than I ever thought I’d end up with.” Okay, that sounded pitiful, but I willed him to understand. Also, to not judge me for being pitiful.

“If you’re sure...”

He was still hesitant, but I latched onto the acceptance. “I am. I’m completely sure. My job is great, and so is Prudence. I have all I need. I don’t need to go seeking out the approval of some stuffy asshole mages I don’t even know.”

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