Chapter Four: Aiden

2056 Words
. . . . . . (late June) Rhys was restless tonight. I asked him about it, but he didn't have an answer for me. Bryce draped himself across my lap before we could think about it further, cuddling up to me like a spoiled cat. Bryce was our best friend, there wasn't much we didn't let him get away with, and if his actions made the troupe think we were a couple, then it just saves me from explaining why I didn't take girls to bed after shows very often. He leaned in close to my face, his sweet cinnamon breath a welcome change from the cacophony of smells in the dressing rooms. I pulled him closer to me and growled possessively, earning rolled eyes from the rest of the troupe and a sudden, conspicuous absence of bodies around us. Bryce's soft chuckle sounded more like music than it should. "Same smells as always, and they sound extra shrieky tonight, so don't forget your gum and your ear plugs." I met Bryce the first day I came for try-outs. As soon as I walked into the hiring manager's office, I knew I had the job. I could practically see the dollar signs in her eyes when she looked at me. A couple of panty-dropping smiles and she led me straight to the back room where the established cast was warming up. As a werewolf, and alpha blood, I'm used to being the most attractive person in a room. So, when I laid eyes on the most gorgeous man I had ever seen, it was a bit of a shock. Even Rhys was mesmerized. His body was long and lithe, with skin that reminded me of warm caramel. The sides of his head were shaved to the skin, his mohawk was braided and beaded into a work of art itself. I sucked my breath in sharply and that's when we caught his scent. He was a shifter, but not a wolf. I couldn't get a clear smell to figure out his breed. The moment he started moving, we knew. /:He's a fücking cat!:/ I couldn't stop the soft growl of irritation that escaped me, and the beautiful shifter froze, his eyes snapping up to mine. His eyes were the same green as my own and I watched his perfect nostrils flare slightly as he picked up my scent. A slow smile curled his perfect lips and his eyes darkened slightly, in attraction to my distinct surprise. My breath caught in my throat when he moved towards me. His footfalls were absolutely silent. I was watching his feet move, but he made no sound. His muscles moved under his skin like ripples in calm water. He stilled just inches from me, his eyes smoldering. "And just who is this masterpiece?" His voice sent shivers through my body. /:Jaguar.:/ Rhys managed to snap out of the trance we were in, finally able to process his scent with him so close to us. He lifted his hand towards us, walking his fingers up my chest in blatant suggestion. "Bryce, this is Aiden, he'll be joining us. Would you show him around for me?" "It would be my pleasure." His lips curled into a sultry smile, and he slipped his hand around mine, giving me a gentle tug. He was close enough now for his breath to fan my face, the strong scent of cinnamon filling my nose. As soon as the hiring manager moved away, the breathtaking shifter stepped back from me. He began digging in his gym bag, handing me a piece of gum after a moment. "Chew this, it'll help, I swear." His eyes were back to their normal color, and he stretched lazily while I put the gum in my mouth. My senses were immediately assaulted with cinnamon, overpowering my sense of smell. "I'm sorry, by the way, my scent isn't usually this strong." I blinked at him in confusion, until it occurred to me that I couldn't smell him over the gum and the weird trance I felt when looking at him was gone. His eyes roamed over my body. "I never thought another shifter would join this group; it'll be nice having your company." His body was relaxed around me, he was far too comfortable around an unknown shifter. I narrowed my eyes at him. "I've never met a cat shifter before." He smiled at me, a touch of sadness in his eyes. "We aren't common around here, that's for sure. I moved here after my mate rejected me. I couldn't handle seeing him every day after that." "Him?" "Yeah, him." He laughed bitterly. "I'm gay. My mate wasn't, or at least didn't want to admit it, so he rejected me." My heart twisted for him; I couldn't imagine being rejected for such a callous reason. "That's the problem right now, it's our breeding season, I'm sorry, my scent will calm it's shït in another couple days." He chuckled at me, his eyes dark again. "Although it does not help ME that you are so gorgeous." He took a deep breath and shook his head. I wasn't really sure how to respond. I'd never been hit on by a male before. /:I like him.:/ /:You hate cats, Rhys.:/ /:I like THIS cat.:/ "You smell like the woods around here, is this close to your pack territory?" His question brought me back, he was acting like this was a totally normal conversation. "Why would you like to know?" I couldn't help the suspicion in my voice, which made him laugh. "So, I can avoid it, silly dog. You wolves don't take kindly to my type anywhere near your territories." I felt Rhys' laugh in my mind, and I couldn't help grinning at Bryce. He taught me to wear ear plugs while performing to spare my sensitive ears from the constant screaming, and chewing his gum kept the myriad of smells from overloading my nose. He wouldn't talk about his life before joining the group, and I didn't question it. We started rooming together on tour, it was nice being around another shifter, even if he was a cat. The rest of the group assumed we were hooking up and never questioned it. I learned he suffered through the breeding season twice a year, once in spring and again in the autumn. It seemed odd to me until he explained, while blushing furiously, that because he was gay, his jaguar was female, she was subject to her species' heat cycles, so his scent was laden with female pheromones. It was exponentially worse during their heats and explained why my brain stopped working properly around him. His jaguar was a beautiful creature in its own right, named Mir. Rhys pointed out several times that he was quite fond of her, if-you-know-what-I-mean, and wouldn't mind assisting her, and I had argued with him during Mir's second heat that he was not helping the tension between Bryce and I. Bryce understood that I was straight, honestly if I had any interest in men, I would have been all over Bryce by the first night. Mir's heats were the only times Bryce and I roomed separately. Being on stage together made sleeping in the same room impossible for both of us, and we would find relief in the arms of others. We always performed together on stage. I was the "cowboy", and he was the "Indian". The girls seemed to eat that up. We liked it because my hat and his headdress made it harder to see that we were wearing earplugs. The manager liked it because we made loads of money dancing together. It started after I told Bryce of my plan of using this job as a way to expose Rhys and I to possibly finding our mate. When he managed to stop laughing at me, he agreed to help. So, we danced together, both of us scanning the crowds for unique scents or movements. We met a lot of werewolves, and almost every single time it was because they were trying to figure out Bryce's scent. As soon as they found out that he was a gay were-jaguar who happened to be best friends with an unmated alpha wolf actively searching for his mate, we got invited to a LOT of packhouses after our shows. Without fail, Bryce would have the whole pack in tears as he regaled them with the increasingly dramatic and downright ridiculous story of my efforts to find my mate. Being with me protected him from even the most aggressive wolves, and his personality would win them over by the end of the night. Several Lunas applauded the efforts I was willing to go through to find my mate, that I would pair up with a shifter who should be our natural enemy, that I wasn't just taking advantage of the women that threw themselves at me, and so on while leading me through the pack to meet the she-wolves. I just nodded and agreed with them, I hadn't actually put that much thought into it. Bryce loved meeting all the different wolf packs. He had been serious about avoiding wolf territory before he met me, and we were pretty sure he was the only were-jaguar in the states. He admitted it had been a very lonely life before we met, and since it exposed me to dozens of new she-wolves, he got excited every time we met a wolf during a show. New friends for him, might find my mate in the process, win-win. Mir loved going on runs with the different packs, and I will admit we made quite the pair. An eight-foot-tall, pale golden wolf next to a gorgeous, exotic jaguar, her burnished bronze fur spotted with what I swore looked like paw prints. She was smaller than I was, but still big for a jaguar. Her head was level with my shoulder. Even the most reluctant wolf would admit to enjoying watching her run with the pack, she was like liquid artwork in motion. Bryce told me often that meeting me was the best thing to ever happen to him. I felt the same, without him I probably would have given up and gone back home within weeks, but here we were, three years later. I still haven't found my mate, but I had the best friend I could possibly ask for. I took him home with me once, when I went back for Alpha Derek's first cub's birth. Gigi had been waiting for us on the front porch, with a plate of cookies for me as a bribe for promptly absconding with Bryce. I should have stopped her, because now he liked to toss in a 'precious Sunbeam' now and then when storytelling to other packs. "Earth to Aiden, come in Aiden." Bryce's amused voice broke my reverie, he was still curled up on my lap, braiding my hair behind me so it stayed out of my face while I danced. "Sorry, I was thinking about you, and got lost in my happy thoughts." He smiled and bumped his forehead gently against mine. It was the feline equivalent of a kiss and made me smile every time. He was careful to respect my preferences and almost panicked the first time he did it to me. I had to calm him down enough to explain why he'd headbutt me in the first place before I could figure out how I wanted to react to it. By the time we got it sorted out, Rhys had been wheezing. He was laughing so hard in my mind, and I couldn't find a single valid reason as to why I should object to the gesture. If he could put up with the wolves' bad habit of smelling people, because we really do, I could put up with a headbutt that was actually a kiss, because cats are fücking weird. "What does the VIP section have for us today?" I asked him, tossing a fresh piece of gum in my mouth and blinking while my nose was murdered with cinnamon. "Piece of cake, a bachelorette party, maybe two, I don't know, like twenty bridesmaids." He laughed as I picked him up as I stood. "Pfft. Easy money." . . . . . .
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