The Contrary Mate

I didn't want to go home. It wasn't even just that I was dreading dealing with my people's bad attitudes once Rex told everyone. It was more that I didn't want to be away from Jack, even if I had to stay in this hollow place to be around him. We had eaten—and this time my food had been lovely—and we danced again, in the near silence of his garden, close enough that I could feel his solid strength up against me and smell his clean and comforting scent, both exciting and relaxing me at the same time.

My imagination began to wander. He had said he'd change the garden for me. What would improve the space? Not barbarically hacking the plants would be a nice start.

"Stop the pruning," I said, tilting my head up towards him. He looked confused, probably because I had spoken out of nowhere, so I expanded on my request. "About the garden, could you please stop them from unnecessary pruning. And the lawn is desperately lacking nitrogen, when is the last time it was fertilized?"

He looked bemused. "I have no idea, and I'll get someone on that."

I smiled at his response, and he kissed me again. The contact of his firm lips on mine did nothing to make me more eager to go home, but sadly the time came when I really couldn't put it off any longer. I still had responsibilities in the morning, at least until the fae senate banished me for getting out of line. I shook off the melodramatic thought.

I didn't truly think it would come to that. The ardent isolationists in the senate weren't the majority and most of our village councillors and elders were more interested in day to day business. I doubted I would actually be run out of town. But no matter what, there were sure to be a lot of people whispering about what I was doing, so I needed to be prepared.

"Is something upsetting you?" he asked me as he accelerated down the road. He was so attuned to my emotional state it was surprising. Rex hadn't even been able to tell when I was merely tolerating and tuning out his obnoxious rants about how evil humans and their technology were. And he really hadn't been much of a fan of other non-fae, either.

I didn't feel like getting into any of that in my last few minutes with him. "Well, I'm going to miss you, for one."

"I'll miss you from the moment you leave me until I see you again," he said. He glanced from the road to me briefly before fixing his attention back on the road ahead of us. The sentiment made me feel warm, but I still didn't want to die in this speeding monstrosity. I mean, I could fly quite fast, but I had control in that situation so it felt safer.

"Should I drop you off at the same place?"

I almost said yes, but then I thought better of it. The secret was out anyway, and I had no hope that Rex wouldn't tell anyone. He'd probably rat me out to my brother, if no one else since he'd already pulled that trick. If it was inevitable, why not announce that I was dating the most notorious werewolf within flying distance my own way?

"You can drop me off at home," I said, giving him directions as he wound his way into the fae territory. He seemed surprised but didn't argue. There was a road, although it was gravel and magically obscured from attention. It was possible to see the turn even for the mundane, but a person had to be paying strict attention at the right time or they would completely miss it on the main human road.

While Jack remained largely focussed on the road, his curiosity about my home was also apparent. I saw my community through new eyes as I wondered what he thought about it. It was nothing grand like where he lived and it wasn't so obviously a center for fae that an oblivious human would know that it was a supernatural center by sight alone, but I wondered if they would still be able to sense the otherness of the place. The houses we passed were largely built of stone or wood, but a few scandalous human synthetics were mixed in here and there. Each house had a large yard, and every yard, regardless of the fae, was filled with tangled growing things, or lawns of soft clover, all green and thriving. Here, in our little corner of the world, the combined magic of my people brought spring slightly sooner and held off the fall a touch every year within our borders.

We pulled up to my family's home and Jack parked in the driveway at my suggestion. It was empty, because my mother preferred that my father keep his truck tucked away out of obvious sight of the other fae. Of course everyone knew our family owned one, but she believed there was no reason to rub their noses in it.

My stomach was tense and knotted. I had brought an outsider into the territory. Because he wasn't a mundane human, the warnings had not gone off, but those in charge would surely be aware of a presence in our territory nonetheless. My decision to let my secret loose had been firmly rooted by this action because I wasn't going to lie about what he was doing here now that I had gone this far.

But then I looked over at him. The steady brown eyes, the slightly mussed hair, the clear strength he portrayed. He wasn't going to let a bunch of fae drama come between us, and my tension lessened slightly at his conviction. "Do you want to meet my parents?" My mother was going to flip, but I would have to tell her soon anyway before she heard from another source. At least this way she would be out in front of the gossip.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes. We've come this far. My mom's going to be shocked and upset though, so could you, I don't know, charm her?"

He laughed. "I'll try. But I think I lost my ability to charm people the moment I met you and left me a clumsy idiot."

"I don't think you're a clumsy idiot."

"Thank the mate bond," he said with a mischievous wink and a smirk that made me long to kiss him again.

But having my mother catch me making out in a car with a handsome werewolf was definitely not the way I wanted to introduce her to him. "Let's go."