I couldn’t imagine a little kid shifting in a grocery store or at the cinema so shifting around adolescence sounded manageable.
"Does your family know about me?”
He hesitated. "Not yet, but they will."
"What will they think about you being with a human?"
"They'll be happy I found someone." He met my eyes. "It's not uncommon for shifters to partner with humans."
"Really?"
"We're not that different from you. We fall in love with people, not species."
The casual way he said "fall in love" made my heart speed up. We weren't there yet because we'd barely survived one crisis.
I was reluctant to ask the next question but I had to be honest if we were to move forward. "What about the full moon? Does it affect you?"
"Not like the movies. Some shifters shift during full moons because it reminds them of a time when we lived in the forest and the moon guided our behavior more so than it does in the modern world."
I tried to imagine what that would be like. Having another way of existing. "Will you show me again? When I'm ready?"
"Whenever you want."
We collected our tickets and approached the prize counter. Renard studied the options.
"The stuffed dragon or the stretchy frog?" I pointed at the middle shelf.
"Neither." He reached past both and picked up a small enamel pin shaped like a tiny hockey stick crossed with a dog bone. "This one."
I stared at it. "Where did they even get that?"
"No idea. But it's clearly meant for us."
I laughed and let him hand over the tickets. He put the pin on the strap of my bag, and the gesture was so deliberate and so unlike him that I had to look away for a second.
We left the arcade and the playful energy from inside didn’t vanish as we wandered back to our cars.
"Thank you." He cleared his throat. "For giving me a chance."
I touched the pin, aware of how close he was standing. "And thank you for being patient after my freak out."
"But it nearly destroyed me watching you run and not being able to follow." He brushed hair from my brow. "I know we have to take this slow. But I need you to understand what I feel for you isn't casual. It isn't something I can turn off."
A wave of heat washed over me and sweat dotted my upper lip. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying you're it for me, Julian."
"That's a lot of pressure."
"I'm not asking you to feel the same way right now. But I need you to know where I stand." His eyes searched mine. "So you understand why I can't be casual about this."
I didn’t back away from the intensity in his voice but leaned into him.
"I'm still confused about the shifter thing. But I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Even when I turned off my phone, all I could think about was how much I wanted to hear your voice."
His eyes darkened. The only word I could think of to describe them was to say they were hungry. "Kiss me, please."
His hand slid into my hair and his fingers tightened at the base of my skull. The whimper that slipped out of me was a desperate plea. He answered it with not quite a growl. I felt it more than heard it.
