Page 4 of Code Mages & Empty Pages
Thank the Moon Goddess I didn’t react to caffeine like a normal person. This was my third cup, and it wasn’t even nine.
I grabbed my water bottle to refill it and tried to sound casual, as I passed Dawn’s desk. “Can I get you something too? Coffee, water?”
Her eyes dropped to my muzzle as her lips parted. My cock perked up.
Fantastic!
“It’s fine. I was just about to get a cup for myself. Thanks, though.” She grabbed one of the handmade mugs she’d brought in on her second day, together with an assortment of different tea blends, and got up.
I let Dawn go ahead. Her scent, a mixture of almond and a sweet and a fruity note, tickled my nose. I suppressed a groan.
Protective, not predatory, I scolded myself when my eyes dropped to the hypnotising sway of her hips.
Somehow, I kept it civil in the tea kitchen and got back to my desk so I could get a bit of work done before the opening.
Desmond, Dawn, and I crammed into the tiny lift to the rooftop. I ended up in the corner with Dawn in front of me and her scent in my nose again.
It wasn’t just physical attraction I felt for her, though, and that was the problem. I genuinely liked her. With Dawn in the office, it was like the sun came up. Wanting her for more than just her body scared me far more than any fleeting desire ever could.
I followed her and my cousin out of the tiny cabin on weak knees.
Mia and Harper already waited for us. Together we walked down the short hallway to the new glass sliding doors that led out onto the rooftop terrace. “Wow.” Harper whistled through her teeth. “That’s fucking gorgeous. Can you imagine having lunch out here?”
“Yeah,” Dawn agreed, taking in the lush potted plants and the sunlit view of Kirkmuir. A sad smile pulled at her full lips. “This would make a great wedding venue.”
Of course, she was still hurting from her breakup. I wanted to comfort her but didn’t know how. I kept my mouth shut.
“Come on.” Desmond held open the door of the restaurant for all of us. It was still nippy outside, so all the guests squeezed into the glass house. It was so full of potted plants it looked like an indoor jungle.
A tall Dragon shifter with huge curving horns and a snug, dark grey corset stood to the side of the counter, talking to Samuel Carson. I recognised him as Taran Atax. His name and picture had been in the company newsletter when they announced the rooftop cafe to the staff.
I didn’t even listen to Carson’s speech. He droned on about how elated he was that Taran Atax and Maeve Cooper, the Dragon’s purple-haired mate, had agreed to grant Frostfire Real Estate this opportunity.
He introduced the new baristas: a towering Frost Giant named Haldan and his colleague, Gregor, a Hare shifter, with long ears poking out of his mop of silvery brown hair and a cute button nose. The poor guy looked mortified by all the attention and tried to hide behind the other man.
“Freshly baked sweet treats are a winning factor of Froth & Flurry, as is the fantastic coffee by our local roaster, Ross Graham.” The massive Minotaur gave a shy wave to the cafe, before Carson launched back into his speech. He talked about how great Frostfire was and how fruitful this partnership would be. A few people fidgeted when we had to endure five minutes of him flirting with his husband, a Christmas Elf named Perky, from his platform.
By the time Carson wrapped up, my mind had already wandered to Dawn. What would she say if she knew I’d read the book she had written a couple years ago based on my twin brother? Hector had told me and made me swear never to mention the book to Mason. I could see why. His possessivePooka would not have handled it well. He’d even let slip the title and her pen name,The Wolfman Next Doorby Allegra Fawn, and once I knew, there was no way I wasn’t going to read it. I’d always been too morbidly curious for my own good.
I’d finished it last weekend and the copy remained on my bedside table. Reading about “Horace” with the silver hair and eyes had been weird. I’d seen so much of myself in the character, even if she’d tweaked enough to make Horace unrecognisable to anyone but me who had shared a womb with Hector. It was unsettling, but I didn’t hate it.
Dawn wrote about love and sex in a way that made me feel seen. Parts were unrealistic, though, and she’d got a few of the details about our kind wrong.
The idea of my father shaking a hand in greeting was laughable, let alone one of us engaging in any kind of physical affection outside of fucking and reproduction. Horace also loved cuddling, and she’d improvised about his anatomy and customs. My kind wasn’t nice or cuddly, with the odd exception like Desmond or Hector, my littermate, and even he was only like that towards his immediate family. Most Lupinians didn’t evenlikehumans. I assumed that most of them bought into the patriarchal bullshit our kind loved so much. It was either that or the others were better at hiding their trauma than Desmond, Hector, and me.
In the story, the female main character hired the Wolfman to build a shed in her garden, and they bonded over shared meals and wintry forest walks. At one point, Horace told her he wasn’t great at sprinting but great at endurance. She had probably drawn inspiration from wolves and had hit the nail on the head. We had fantastic endurance, in and out of the bedroom. One of my cousins was an ultra-marathon runner. Not me, though. I was so deconditioned it was laughable. But I’d started a “get your life together” plan: fixing up the house, setting routines,and building healthy habits. I’d even joined a gym last week. APEX Predator Fitness was a small, feline-hybrid-run chain of gyms in Kirkmuir. They’d built it for people like me, with extra-long treadmills that allowed me to lope on all fours, and heavy-duty equipment. Unlike the machines at the human gym near my cottage, these didn’t creak under my weight.
A desperate search on Kraken on how to deal with your infatuation with a person who was out of bounds when your rut was approaching had suggested working out. I had three or four more weeks to go but a little prep never hurt anyone. And it helped. Sort of?
Whatdidn’t helpwas that every time I looked at her, lines from her book popped into my head.
His strong, furry hands pinned me to the wall. Horace’s silver eyes pierced my soul as he slipped a finger inside me. Moon Goddess.
I pushed my thoughts aside.
I need more coffee.
My eyes found her before I could start my quest for more caffeine. I’d never been a people watcher, but I liked looking at Dawn. In fact, looking at her gave me a bit of a tightness in the crotch. I was undecided whether the feel of my knot pressing against the seam on my jeans was a good thing or not.
