Halloween Werewolf (The Holiday Shifter Mates Book 1) Read online

  “I’m sure you were asked, though.”

  “Yeah, but always turned them down.”

  “It’s fun,” Austin assured. “Would you have turned me down if I had asked?”

  Mateo smirked. “I would have at least considered it first.”

  Austin huffed. “Well, I’m asking you now.”

  “And I’ll go. I’ll try not to crush your feet.”

  “No one does any real dancing. You’ll be fine. There’s no way you’d ever crush my feet anyway. You’re way too elegant for that.”

  “No one has ever called me elegant before.” Mateo raised an eyebrow. “You’re a strange man, Austin Cheshire.”

  “You are.”

  “And you’re adorable.”

  Austin blushed. “It’s a date, then?”

  “A date,” Mateo confirmed.

  “I want lots of dates,” Austin said matter-of-factly.

  “Okay.” Suddenly, the look in Mateo’s eyes was far away.

  “What’s wrong?” Austin scratched gently along Mateo’s scruff.

  “What if I can’t handle the crowd and need to leave and shift again?”

  “Then I’ll make sure no one sees you.”

  “I’ll try not to. I don’t know… crowds are harder now.”

  Austin nodded. It made sense to him. Mateo had been living in an all-shifter community for the last four years. “It’ll be okay,” Austin insisted. “You don’t even have to come if you don’t want to.”

  “I want to.” Mateo licked Austin’s neck again. When he pulled away, his eyes flashed bright and yellow like the moon.

  “You really do have the moon in your eyes.”

  “I like that poem. Can I keep it?”

  “It’s not very good, but if you want it, you can keep it.”

  “It’s perfect. I didn’t know you wrote poems. You never told me about it before.”

  Austin let out a jittery laugh. “Because I’m not very good, and I wasn’t super into it back in high school. I mean, I was, but I wasn’t. And after you left, I just sort of started writing poems all the time… about you.”

  Mateo raised an eyebrow.

  “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. It was the only way I knew how to deal with my feelings, and not very well obviously.” Austin yawned.

  “You’re tired. Sleep.” Mateo took Austin’s glasses, placed his chin on top of Austin’s head, and Austin nuzzled his throat.

  “Will you be here when I wake up?” Austin asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want to go back to Alaska?”

  “Sleep, Austin. We can talk more tomorrow. You have students counting on you.”

  Austin yawned again. “All right. Night, Mateo.”

  “Goodnight, my mate.”

  Mate. Austin liked the sound of that too. Mateo said it easily, tone clear. Proud. He was proud to call Austin his mate.

  It didn’t take long for Austin to drift off into sleep after that, smiling against the warm skin of his forever partner, his mate. He was also the man who agreed to marry him, so he was Austin’s soon-to-be husband too. Austin had never been more content.

  Since his grandma died three years ago, Austin had been searching for his place. At the end of his senior year of high school, he decided he wouldn’t let his shyness control him anymore. College was never the intimidating part, it was what he wanted to do and the fact that he no longer had anyone supporting him. He was good at academics, but he had trouble speaking in front of people, and he didn’t know how to project his voice. But he worked hard like Gran taught him to, and he got the best scholarship he applied for. It wasn’t easy to get, but he did it. That was all the push he needed to get through his shyness and succeed like Gran always wanted him to, even though she left him. He was more responsible than he was anything else, and he couldn’t let the scholarship go to waste even with something as big as mourning the death of his only known relative. Gran would have haunted him for that.

  His life was interesting then. He was reaching for his dreams. He was fulfilled in a way he never had been as a teen just going through the motions of life. But there was emptiness inside of him too, because Gran was all he had had left. He was all alone until he met Matt. He needed Matt then. He really did, and Matt liked him, so Austin let things go farther than he should have. He thought he might develop feelings for Matt in return, but he never did. He didn’t regret breaking up with Matt, but he did hope they could be friends again someday. He thought highly of him. He was a great person. He thought Mateo would like him too. He could hope, anyway.

  The emptiness that Austin had grown so used to was gone now. Mateo filled that void inside of him in a way Matt and no one else ever could, and Austin was happy.

  He was really happy.

  But happiness had a way of disappearing, getting chased out by things like sorrow. Sudden deaths. The promise of good dreams lingered underneath the shadow of fear. Austin clung on tightly to Mateo all night, afraid he’d disappear if he didn’t. Afraid he’d face the hunters alone. He couldn’t let that happen.

  “Shhh,” Mateo whispered, and Austin didn’t know if it was real or a dream. “Everything’s okay. I’ve got you, Austin. I’ve got you. And I’ll always have you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE ALARM WENT OFF, and Austin groaned. He put his hand out to slap the thing, but he was met with warmth and resistance. Mateo. He ignored the beeping and snuggled closer to the man he loved. The wolf shifter. And the alarm stopped. Mateo had smacked the thing instead with an irritated grunt. Then he pulled Austin closer with an arm around him. Austin smiled. Waking up to Mateo was even better than he had imagined it being. All of this warm skin… He didn’t want to get up and be a responsible adult today.

  Austin trailed light fingers across Mateo’s chest, tracing the tattoos he hadn’t had the chance to trace last night. He sure had a random collection of them. He wondered if they were picked based off of different moods or if Mateo had a story behind each one. The sun shone through the window, shifting with the branches of the pine tree in Austin’s yard. The shapes danced across Mateo’s brown skin, highlighting the different tattoos. Austin pressed his hand to the left side of Mateo’s chest and stilled, feeling his heartbeat. Mateo’s eyes opened. They flashed yellow for a moment before settling on chocolate-brown.

  “Morning, handsome,” Austin said with a smile that burst from him. Mateo’s reply was to kiss him sweetly on the lips. Then Mateo ran his hand down the length of Austin’s body, resting it on his bare hip. Austin hummed. “I can definitely get used to this.”

  “How’s the bite?” Mateo asked.

  “Good until you asked me about it.” It was one of those things: Out of sight, out of mind. Austin went to touch it, but Mateo beat him to it. It twinged a little, but Mateo’s warmth soothed it at the same time.

  “Should probably put something on it,” Mateo commented. “Unless you want all your students asking about it.”

  “Pretty sure my shirt will cover most of it. It’s fine.”

  Mateo huffed and kissed the bite, running his tongue over it again. Austin didn’t know why that felt so good when the wound was raw, but his eyes were rolling back, like Mateo was touching an erogenous zone.

  “Do you know how much I don’t want to get out of bed?” Austin asked.

  Mateo smirked. “How much time do you have?”

  “Not enough.” Austin sighed, kissed Mateo, and rolled out of bed. “Need to shower.” Then he thought about that for a second. He looked back at Mateo, naked, exposed, but not shy about it in the slightest. The sheets were thrown to the side. Mateo was lying on his back, his half-hard erection happily uncovered. The way Mateo bolstered Austin’s own confidence, standing naked in front of his lover, was something else. They had nothing to hide. “Join me?”

  Mateo rolled out of bed, came up behind Austin, wrapped his hands around Austin’s waist and pressed into him. Austin gasped when Mateo rolled his hips, parting Austin’s butt
cheeks with his growing erection.

  “In the shower,” Austin repeated. “I have to get ready for school, remember?”

  He hated when Mateo pulled away, but it was at his own request, so he had to deal with it—but not for long.

  Austin’s shower wasn’t humongous, and it wasn’t small. Mateo was huge though, so touching each other was inevitable. Austin would not have had it any other way. They kissed as soap ran down their bodies and their cocks rubbed against each other. They took each other in hand and came, finding release within the allotted time and washing off the scent at the same time.

  “Not washing off the scent,” Mateo said. “It’s still there.”

  “Just as long as my students can’t smell it.” Austin raised an eyebrow.

  Mateo shrugged. And he eclipsed Austin’s bite with his hand. Austin wondered if he’d always be drawn to that area now, the space between his left shoulder and neck. He was reverent about it, casting furtive glances like he couldn’t believe it was there. It wasn’t a side of Mateo Austin was very used to. But he liked it. He liked that it was for him.

  After they were out, Mateo grudgingly assisted Austin in covering up the bite, taping down a pad of gauze drenched in painkiller.

  “It does hurt,” Mateo said. Then he growled. “I hate not seeing it.”

  “It’s not bad, and covering it up was your idea remember?” Austin fixed his collar and the bite was officially concealed.

  Mateo grumbled something, and Austin kissed him, chasing away his bad mood.

  Austin gathered everything he needed to take to school and found his poetry binder. He took out the poem Mateo said he wanted. “Here,” Austin said, handing it to Mateo. He watched as Mateo’s eyes seemed to light up as they traveled down the page. Maybe this poem was better than others Austin had written. There was no better way to describe Mateo’s eyes or the way he felt anyway. He remembered “The Moon In Your Eyes” word for word without having to look around Mateo’s thick arm to read it.

  The moon in your eyes,

  Is full and bright.

  Warm like the sun,

  You are day and night.

  My every breath,

  The home I seek,

  It’s you, when I look into the sky.

  The light in your eyes,

  Moon-like it may be,

  A mere reflection,

  A trick of the light,

  But more than this,

  The moon in your eyes,

  Is where my heart beats.

  “Now for a quick breakfast,” Austin thought out loud. “You hungry?”

  “I’ll eat later,” Mateo said.

  “What are you going to do while I’m gone?”

  “Wait for you to come back.”

  “Don’t say that so pitifully, and don’t give me those puppy-dog eyes.”

  Mateo chuckled.

  “You’re going to help me set up the dance, right? I’ll be doing that right after school. Then I’ll come home to change and eat something before heading back with you for that date. Do you have a suit?”

  Mateo considered this. “I’ll help. And do I need one?”

  “No…We’ll figure out something for the dance. It’s too last notice to get you one now because I don’t trust you to pick one out yourself.”

  Mateo raised an eyebrow. “Because you think I’ll flip out?”

  “No, because I don’t trust your fashion sense.”

  That got a deep rumbling laugh out of Mateo. The sound made Austin’s cheeks burns. He was like a lovesick teenager all over again, floating in the clouds, unable to think about much of anything else beyond Mateo. Mateo. Mateo. Mateo.

  Austin cleared his throat. “Perfect.” He tried to smile, but something was stopping him: dread. “Please don’t do anything dangerous while I’m gone. Okay?”

  Mateo cocked his head again. He did that a lot. “Like no shifting? No leaving the house?”

  “No, no. Nothing like that. I’m just… worried about the hunters.”

  “I won’t let anything bad happen.”

  “Do you know if they’re coming? When they’re coming? You wouldn’t keep that from me, right?”

  “I won’t keep anything from you, but I am going to end them.” There was steel in Mateo’s voice.

  “You won’t even consider getting the police involved? Those hunters are wanted by humans too, you know.”

  Mateo shook his head. “Not good enough. I read up on how they’d get punished for what they’ve done, and it’s not good enough.”

  “What if I got the police involved?”

  After folding his arms, Mateo regarded Austin quietly.

  “Not good enough. I get it. I looked into this too, but you can’t do this alone. I’m not letting you do this alone, Mateo. I-I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll do something. You want to protect your shifter friends, but I want to protect you.”

  “The hunters haven’t replied to me. When they do—if they do—I’ll tell you. I’ll keep you in the know.”

  Austin sighed and nodded. One step at a time, then. At least Mateo had no intention of keeping anything from him.

  Mateo followed Austin to the kitchen as Austin got himself a boring bowl of oatmeal since he was running a little late. He noticed Mateo’s eyes go to the single red rose sitting on the windowsill above the kitchen sink. His nose twitched, and he made a little huffing noise that made Austin wonder if he needed to sneeze.

  “I smell him. He was here recently,” Mateo said.

  “Matt?” Austin asked.

  Mateo nodded his head.

  “I broke things off with him officially yesterday.”

  “So, he brought you a red rose?”

  “Not exactly. He… he was hoping we’d stay together. I kept the rose.” Austin frowned. “Matt was a good friend. He was there for me when no one else was, and I’d like to be his friend still—if he doesn’t mind. If you don’t mind? I think you’d like him.”

  “If he’s important to you, I’ll try to keep it together.”

  Austin sighed out a captive breath. “I didn’t think I could love you any more than I already do. Thank you.”

  Mateo cocked his head. “You thought I would say you couldn’t be friends with him?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, I was dating him?”

  “But you don’t love him, not like that.”

  “I don’t, but I do care about him.”

  “I know.”

  Mateo was either that confident in him and Austin—which was something most people couldn’t say—or he could read Austin better than anyone else. Because he was right. Matt would never be more than a very good friend to Austin. He never was.

  Austin ate the rest of his oatmeal, brushed his teeth, and was about to head out the door when he turned back around, grabbed Mateo by the hips, stood on his tiptoes, and kissed his lover soundly. Mateo chased after his lips when he moved away, but Austin really was running late.

  “I’ll call you when school’s out,” Austin said. “Oh, give me your phone number.” Mateo did, and they exchanged “I love yous.” It was all very domestic, everything Austin had ever wanted—aside from the hunter problem.

  Austin left for school feeling okay, optimistic even. Maybe the hunters wouldn’t come out. Maybe they’d write the video off as a hoax, something not worth their time, or as something a bit too risky since they had caused trouble in Glasglow, Utah before.

  And he wanted a nice date with his mate. He wanted romance without having to worry about other things. A guy could dream, right?

  Mateo had been bored out of his mind after Austin left. He ransacked the house without really ransacking it because he would have felt bad if he had trashed Austin’s clean living space. His mate liked clean, order. He had no idea what Austin saw in him, but he didn’t worry about that. He went off feeling, and nothing felt more right than Austin. The hunters were rather far from his mind, too—though he still had every intention of finishing what he started.
r />   Austin had said he could watch the TV or whatever, put on Netflix and have a marathon, but Mateo had never been one for TV. He always fell asleep or got so agitated he’d have to run outside for a while. He had energy to burn and decided to spend most of his day in the mountain. He wondered if Austin would come out here and run with him someday. Maybe not. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with a wolf, but Mateo couldn’t shake the idea of a game of chase out of his head as he ran through the forest, giving the wolf side of him free rein. He didn’t really think he had two separate sides, wolf and man compromising to inhabit one being. He was just Mateo.

  Maybe Austin could ride on his back someday. Mateo could show him the thrill of running through the forest that way, because this was freedom.

  Mateo ran all the way to the top of the mountain and found a ledge without trees where he could look over the city. He couldn’t see Austin, but he could see the school. Then he took a nice long nap, settled by the nature surrounding him, the songs of birds, the leaves rustling in the wind. It was peaceful out here.

  By the time Mateo woke up, it was getting late. He went back down to the base of the mountain where he had left his clothes, dressed, checked the time, and made his way to the high school. He decided he’d meet Austin there. There was no point in heading back to Austin’s house and waiting for him to call when he could meet Austin after work. The nap helped pass the time, but Mateo missed his mate.

  When he arrived at the school on foot, the last bell rang, and students left the building in a steady stream. They were noisy, full of energy, shards of memories of a life Mateo had once lived. He thought about covering up with his hood, but he stilled. He ran plenty today, and it was already helping. He could handle this.

  He stepped through the students, walking against the current. He got some looks and whispers. “Who’s that?” and “He’s scary,” and, “He’s hot,” but he ignored them. He caught Austin’s scent, and he was headed straight for his mate. He walked into a classroom with an open door to see Austin behind a large desk at the front of the classroom, assisting a student.