Being(s) In Love 03 - A Beginner’s Guide to Wooing Your Mate Read Free Page A

asking.
    Zeki had been sniffed out his first day in his new school too. He hadn’t taken it well then, but he had learned control in recent years. He sat still, reminding himself it wasn’t personal. She was being polite in speaking to him instead of silently communicating with the others over his head. She even made a point to sniff the air in a noticeable fashion.
    One of her friends sniffed him too, although he was already talking. “No, he’s not new. This is Dov’s son. He went to school here and he’s been back East studying”—a small hush seemed to fall over the patio crowd at the man’s next words—“ human magic .”
    Zeki kind of enjoyed the chorus of loud sniffs and how everyone then immediately rubbed at their noses.
    “You practice magic,” the first werewolf observed, as if that hadn’t just been said.
    Zeki wasn’t hiding anything. He raised his hands, turning them to display the sigils and runes and lettering he’d had inked into his skin to help him focus and offer additional protection with his trickier undertakings. “I’m a practicing wizard, yes, or witch if you prefer.” He met her stare, fully conscious of how weres could react to eye contact like that. He wasn’t challenging the leader of this little pack, but he wasn’t going to back down because weres imagined the way humans used magic made their noses itch.
    He was good, damn good. He’d spent nearly every waking moment for five years studying, training, or researching. When he began his work on his own, he would be the best of the best. But he was clearly never going to build a clientele in this town.
    He held her gaze long enough to demonstrate his lack of fear at her strength and the strength of her pack, aware his only slightly elevated heart rate would give that credence, and then smiled without any teeth. “I’m staying with my dad while I think things over.”
    Perhaps holding his own with her had been a bad move. She studied him with more open interest now, and she wasn’t the only one. Zeki winked at her, outright grinning when she gave a start. Yeah, he wasn’t built like a werewolf, with all that power and defined muscle, the remarkable height, or those fierce, beautiful eyes, but he wasn’t bad to look at, and he’d learned a lot in the past few years.
    But the clang of metal and the sounds of activity across the street drew everyone’s attention away as the great doors of the old firehouse opened. Zeki’s heart kicked as it hadn’t when staring down a were a minute ago. His sudden urge to squirm didn’t stop him from watching a series of tall, hot weres half-dressed in their fire-gear assemble outside the firehouse while two other firefighters drove the trucks forward. He was going to look his fill now that he wasn’t thirteen and constantly popping boners.
    No one could hide something like that from werewolves who could smell arousal. The only reason he’d never actually died from humiliation was the weres’ complete absence of reaction to natural bodily functions. He’d long suspected the weres in town would have been more concerned if a teenage boy hadn’t sported wood at awkward moments, because not once had any of them so much as twitched in his direction.
    In a drunken confession to his sophomore year roommate, he’d admitted it was the one thing he admired about the weres he’d grown up with, aside from their wild beauty. They reserved shame for things truly deserving of it.
    Their silence now was slightly unnerving. Obviously this ogling ritual was different from a bachelor or bachelorette party, but Zeki remembered this event involving more talking, casual chitchat with leering. Then he realized the talking couldn’t commence until the firefighters were hard at work and could pretend not to hear it. Not that any of the firefighters as much as glanced their way as they checked equipment or pulled down their suspenders to remove their shirts.
    Zeki let out a breath. He’d picked a good day