Page 50 of Forget Me Not

He would not go back.

“Are you all right?”

Ray had jerked away from the car to face the person approaching him before the concern in the question hit him. His head up and his hands free and ready at his sides, he stopped just short of baring his teeth and growling when he realized what he was doing.

Yellow eyes met his. A wolf’s eyes, which was even more shocking.

“I…” Ray began, out loud, like a human, and then shut his mouth to breathe through his nose.

The were in front of him was a fraction shorter than Ray, and slimmer, and had more gray in his hair, although Ray didn’t think he could be that much older. It was difficult to tell sometimes with weres. They didn’t quite age like humans, but trauma could take a toll as it would with anyone. The silver at the were’s temples was considerable. He had small lines at the corners of his eyes as well, eyes that were slowly returning to brown as Ray calmed.

The were was dressed more professionally than the artists and hipster shop owners in the area, in jeans, a button-down, and a sport coat, and was polite enough not to mention the panic stink that must be all over Ray.

“Are you all right?” the strange were asked again, inclining his head in a curious, deliberately harmless gesture.

The only things that stopped Ray from putting his head back to make a big deal out of sniffing the air around him were childhood lessons in manners and the fact that this were had expressed nothing but concern.

“I don’t know you,” Ray said gently, still out loud, still in words, and frowned for it. “I’m sorry. I’m not myself.”

The stranger’s eyebrows rose, but then he rolled his shoulders in a light shrug and said, “We all have our moments, don’t we?”

Ray’s heart was beating too fast. He should have heard the were coming. He should have noticed his scent on the air. He nodded anyway, trying to breathe slowly in and out. He made sure his hands were open.

“I don’t usually see other weres in the city.” It was not an explanation for his behavior, but it was all Ray was going to offer. It wasn’t that weres didn’t like this city. It’s that it was a city. Weres rarely stayed long. “On the outskirts and in the woods and state parks nearby, but not in town, not even in the village unless they’re visiting Mami’s.”

This were did not look like he was heading to Mami’s to hook up.

“I’m here at the shop often.” The were gestured to Bubble, Bubble, still watching Ray with concern and interest. He had a trace of an accent, and a pine-like scent about him that was not actually pine. Ray didn’t know how to place it. It wasn’t cologne, purposefully applied. It was more incidental. Something the were came in regular contact with. He’d also eaten almonds recently, or carried some with him, and used argan oil to soften his hair. Beneath that, he smelled of city air, as if he had walked here. Beneaththatwas the sameconcern/interestin his gaze as well as faint, barely detectableworry. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“Work keeps me out of the village,” Ray answered. He breathed in again,worry, even though this were didn’t know Ray.

But he was a were in the city, apparently alone. Ray had done the same to Little Wolf, the funny, angry, jumpy,tinywere who’d cleaned messes in a coffee shop and didn’t know how to interpret scents. Ray had met Tim and worried over him as much as Tim had allowed. A little were with no pack? He’d had to.

He didn’t know what to make of another were, possibly only slightly older than him, now regarding him the same way.

But since Ray would have done the same, he allowed his shoulders to drop. “Do you live in town?”

He was suddenly grateful Cal wasn’t there, so Ray didn’t have to see him flutter or hear him comment about Ray’sshineas Ray asked that question.

The were surprised Ray with a smile “Yes. In an apartment. We’ve been looking for a house but…” He waved around, at the city itself. “Anything suitable is too far away and we need a yard.”

A yard, even a small one, was a need Ray understood. “I’m lucky to have one. It’s not much, and I only have that because I happened to buy years ago.”

The were’s eyebrows went up again. “I didn’t know you lived in town either, unless… oh yes.” He shook his head once. “But not in the village?” He had a light voice and a gentle manner of speaking.

“Much farther out.” Ray couldn’t afford closer and the village was too crowded for him. “What do you do for the full moons?”

“Ah.” He didn’t know why the were’s smile would fade for that. “For years, nothing. I moved here because I thought—others thought, it would be healthy for me to be someplace new. But I wasn’t near my family. I was in no condition to do anything then. I was not myself.” He met Ray’s stare, his gaze briefly deep and sorrowful before he offered another smile. “Now, sometimes I run through the park.”

“As a man?” The smaller parks within the city limits didn’t allow unleashed dogs and Ray had no idea what humans would do if they saw something larger than a regular wolf prowling in the moonlight.

The were shrugged again. “Even that helps. But it’s another reason to wish for a small yard. I would like to curl up under the moon in a garden. I’ve been promised night-blooming flowers.” Just for a moment, his smile widened into something almost goofy, and his scent was heady and lush as a wedding bouquet.Wonderandhappiness. He was loved and in love. More than that, for the scent to be so strong and clear; he was mated.

Ray drew in a long breath and directed his attention briefly to the shop windows across from them. He wanted Cal to smell like that, like he had when they’d met. Apples and sunshine alongside something more fragile, like violets.

He had no idea how to go about making that happen. He must have stumbled into it the first time. And of course, he couldn’t ask. They were strangers.

Ray didn’t have to imagine his unsettled scent now, or if his eyes were flashing. But he looked back despite that. “There’s still the state park at the southern edge of town. No one has managed to build on it yet. It can get crowded in the summer.” Human picnickers and hikers, mostly. Elves doing whatever it was that elves did for fun. “But the rest of the year, it’s usually quiet enough. Although I haven’t had gone there in a long time.” One more thing Ray had been neglecting.

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