“By the way, this doesn’t count as going out,” he said.
I glanced around. We were literally outside. “It doesn’t?”
“No.” He shook his head firmly. “You still owe me one. We’ll go out properly another time.”
The certainty in his tone made something flutter low in my stomach.
“Alright,” I said, smiling as I sat beside him.
For a while, we just ate. The food was warm and comforting, and I realized I was even more hungry than I’d thought. Levi ate more slowly, occasionally glancing at me like he was making sure I had enough.
The conversation drifted easily. Small things about the town, about his training schedule, about how Nico apparently cheated at the game earlier.
And the more we sat there, the more I became aware of Levi beside me.
The way his shoulder brushed mine occasionally when he shifted. His scent, clean and warm, with that faint sharp note I’d noticed earlier, seemed stronger outside, and my coyote leaned into it instinctively.
When he smiled at something I said, I found myself watching his mouth. His lips looked soft and plush, curving slightly at the corners even when he wasn’t fully smiling.
I looked away quickly, focusing on my food.
I finished before he did, wiping my hands on a napkin. From inside the house, a loud cheer erupted, followed by someone groaning dramatically.
Levi chuckled. “Sounds like Nico lost again.”
He set his plate aside. “Want to walk? Just around the block.”
I hesitated for half a second, then nodded. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
We walked without much direction, following the quiet roads that wound through the packlands. The sky was a deep blue, the last of the daylight fading, porch lights glowing here and there between the trees.
For a while, neither of us spoke. Our footsteps fell into an easy rhythm.
Levi glanced over at me. “So, how are you settling in?”
“Good,” I said. “I mean… I haven’t really been around town much yet.”
That wasn’t exactly a lie. I’d mostly stuck close to the house and the areas Nico had shown me. I hadn’t wandered further than that. It just felt like if I did, it wouldn’t go unnoticed.
Before I could stop myself, I added, “I didn’t really want to overstep.”
“Nico just doesn’t like driving.”
I blinked.
“He hates it,” Levi added, sounding amused. “If you want to go somewhere, just call me. I don’t mind taking you.”
“Oh.” The answer caught me off guard. I guessed I’d built the whole thing up in my head, assumed I was being watched. “Sure. Thanks.”
He nodded, and we kept walking.
I didn’t talk much after that. Levi didn’t seem to mind. He filled the silence easily with stories from patrols, half amused and half resigned.
Like the time they tracked a lost shifter for hours only to find him asleep in an abandoned shed. Or when Nico insisted he could read footprints better than any tracker, then promptly led them the wrong way.
“Security and tracking argue all the time,” Levi said, smiling. “But we end up working together anyway. Nico once tried to ‘improve’ our route planning software. Crashed it right before a patrol rotation.”
“What happened?” I asked.
