JAMES
"I need Delphine Kelley's room key," James panted. He leaned over the hotel counter as far as he could. He kept his face hidden, shielding himself with his blazer over his head like a hood. He didn't want to see anyone, especially not Delphine-no! Especially not Eric. This can't be happening. He was going mad, being driven out of his mind by that fucking werewolf. James had worked hard his whole life to avoid this very problem, this exact drama.
HE HAD ONE RULE.
JUST ONE. IT WASN'T EVEN A HARD ONE.
"I'm her apprentice, James Connolly," he insisted, tapping his foot up and down.
The receptionist took her sweet time. He could hear the reception's music from here and the merriment of people whose lives weren't completely ruined. If Eric Silva practiced any form of mercy, he'd take whatever Delphine would say to him and completely ignore it. If life turned out not to be so cruel, Eric wouldn't believe her. Finally, the receptionist gave him the key and he bolted to the elevator.
Realizing something, he spun back around and told the girl, "If anyone asks, I wasn't here. You didn't see me. I am not in Delphine's room. I'm dead. I just keeled over, right in front of you and you tell them I'm laid up in some morgue."
"Sir?"
Without an explanation, James slipped through the elevator just in time.
#
ERIC
"Can I leave?" Frances asked, slouching so deeply in his seat, he might as well have been lying down to take a nap. Out of compulsion, Eric made sure his posture was perfect and fixed his shoulder.
"Just wait," Her Majesty Arista said. "We'll go back to the party together."
Eric stood in the corner, arms crossed and rubbing his jaw. Something was off. James acted like he had seen a ghost. Actually, he already looked rough well before he took Eric's hands. James' hands were clammy and cold, but they held onto his fingers for dear life, like letting go would kill him. His skin glowed from orange to red and only grew colder. He was like an exploding star.
Eric wasn't a nice man. A nice person wouldn't have forced James to perform another vision. Sure, he didn't put a gun to James' head and forced him to give Eric a match, but Eric didn't exactly make it easy for the Oracle to say no.
"Hello! Hello!" The doors flung to the side suddenly with a loud bang and a tall woman exploded into the room with her arms out. The legendary Delphine, Eric assumed. The lights in the room brightened by her voice. She brought a scent of berries and champagne into the room. Her natural scent smelled more like cupcakes than anything, too sweet for his teeth.
"My favorite work of art!" She exclaimed before pulling the King and Queen into an inappropriate hug. She had less grace than James, which was an incredible feat. She continued to gush, "my true masterpiece!"
"Oh, Delphy stop!" The Queen slapped her old friend's shoulder. "We know you say that to everyone!"
"You caught me! Clever girl!" Delphine laughed, turning to see Abigale and Collin hand-in-hand, sitting in the corner. They've been speaking in low whispers since they got engaged. Their secrets turned their cheeks red. "Look at the new couple! A fine choice! James did very, very well," She winked, knowingly.
Eric wasn't stupid.
Eric knew Abigale and Frances made the better match for the coven.
James chose Collin because he figured out they had fallen for each other. During the summer, Eric caught them kissing and Collin swore Eric to secrecy. James' choice was not only a childish whim, but an incredibly selfish act. James turned his back on two entire covens just so Collin and Abigale could sleep in the same bed. No matter how hard they worked as James kept insisting, Frances would have made the better king, despite sometimes being...
Frances yawned while he adjusted his crotch to a more fitting place.
Boorish.
However, it was also a bad idea to give the decision to a matchmaker. It was just plain silly. No offense to the royal family, things like marriage shouldn't be left to chance.
"Now who is this young alpha?" Delphine called, twirling around until her eyes pinpointed on Eric. Her ruby lips widened into a fiendish grin. She stared him down like a huntress finding her favorite kill. "Now," she purred, slipping her gloves off. "Why would a fine young thing like yourself need any help?"
"I don't," Eric grumbled.
Arista laughed. "I insisted."
Delphine laughed right along with her.
"It's fun being queen, isn't it? Well alright. Let's see what drove James out of the room. I will say three visions are quite difficult to have one after another. C'mere sweetie..." she motioned and with a sigh, Eric sat down again. His father was going to have a fit when Eric got home. He'll shout over and over and over again about how he'd been begging Eric to do this for years, since he was eighteen and wasn't interested in dating.
Still isn't.
When the right time comes, he'll look to the pack and find the perfect partner, a wolf that was as proud of their fur and claws as Eric was. He wanted to be able to run with a powerhouse as great as him, someone as equal and brilliant. He sighed. That sounded like a giant hassle that got in the way of real work. Actually, it might be a good thing to get set up.
The realization burned the tips of his ears.
Frances was right.
He couldn't be bothered.
He gave his hands to Delphine. She held them and like James, her skin glowed. Shimmers of light bubbled and withered under her skin like light reflecting off water. She flinched. Ah. This was when the pain came in. James always looked like he was in pain. Eric eased on his grip, but Delphine tightened her hold.
However, where tears ran down James' face, Delphine smiled. She laughed. She let go of Eric's hands and her laughter ripped through the room. It bounced around every corner, against every wall to the point where she was tearing up. She keeled over in laughter. "This is the best day of my life!" She sobbed, though she seemed perfectly amused. She banged her fist on the table, bellowing a bigger laugh.
Eric sat upright, wondering if he should be insulted.
She looked up at him, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "You are my favorite person in the entire world. I can't believe this." She wistfully sighed into another giggle. "This is brilliant! What face was James making? Hm? Did anyone get a picture? I would kill to have seen his face!" She squealed before convulsing into another laughing fit. She slammed her feet on the ground like two jackhammers. "I absolutely love my life!"
"What is it Delphine?" His Majesty asked, taking a step towards the table.
"Sorry, sorry..." Delphine controlled herself and raised her hands. "Eric Silva, you have already met your mate." She grinned wickedly, sliding her gloves back in place. "You must remember him, he's twenty-three, an up and coming matchmaker-"
Eric froze.
"Freckled. Very handsome, a bit of a talker. Stubborn, but you already know that-"
"You're joking," he said.
"I most certainly am not Mr. Silva. Your mate is James Connolly. Congratulations," she stood, "but you'd better catch him before he boards a plane to Mexico. If I know that boy and I think that I do, he's running for his life right now."
Eric stood, the whole day racing through his head. It wasn't possible. There was no way. Eric would have known. His wolf would have done something. He would have known the second he met James. He would have been able to know just by his... smell. James had no smell. James cut off his smell.
That was why...
No. He wouldn't believe it until he had proof. His own proof.
Without a word, Eric stormed out of the room. He heard Delphine's laughter echo behind him. Just wait. He'll make her eat that laugh because there was no way his mate was that freckled ridiculous James.
Eric practically flung himself at the front desk. He slammed his hand flat on the desk. "Excuse me? Has James Connolly checked into his room, yet?" He was breathless. Eric Silva didn't lose his breath. He was an Alpha. He could the length of mountains and back and still be ready to go on the hunt again.
The receptionist bit her lip. She didn't even look at her computer, but she still said, "No. He hasn't."
Without a word, Eric's face tightened into a scowl as he waited for her to crack. She smelled like human like sweat and laundry detergent. He sniffed and continued to wait. He didn't get awkward. He didn't get uncomfortable. He had two natural switches: angry and impatient. Typically, they worked on the same circuit.
She shrunk. "Well, he's not in his room, but-"
"But?" He raised his brow.
See? So easy.
She flinched. "He's in Mrs. Kelley's room."
"And what room is that?"
"412." She pointed up. "Three floors up."
He nodded and went straight for the elevator. He'll go up there and demand the truth. Demand to know what James saw and disprove it. That Delphine person had never even met Eric, how could she know who he was destined for? This was why he hated magic. Magic complicated everything.
He walked down the hallway, past door after door. He banged his fist right over the brass numbers 412 and waited. He could hear breathing on the other side, but no movement. He knocked again and again, no response came. He didn't have time for this. He was twenty-six years old and the time to play these childish games were over.
He banged harder this time. "James! I will knock this door down! Don't think that I won't, if you don't let me in right-"
The door opened, James was there, ready with a glare. "Calm down."
Eric didn't answer that. He let himself in and surveyed the room out of habit. Well, James hadn't had time to construct a bed sheet rope for a desperate escape. He was ready to let James have it, but of course James just had to get the first word in, "I think you should count to ten first before we talk about this and I'd like to say that I'm very angry the front desk lady told you where I was, because of course they did. What did Delphine say? No. I don't want to know."
Eric could feel the temperature in the room rise. He rubbed his face, wishing he could manually wipe the anger from existence. "James," Eric bellowed. "Let me smell you."
That shut James up.
"That's how I'll know. That's how I can prove this is nonsense and there's no way you're my mate," Eric explained and as soon as he said it, he felt the pang of regret. He didn't mean for that to sound so harsh. Maybe he did need to count to ten.
James straightened. He had taken off his tie and blazer and his hair was slightly messier. He must have been wringing his hands through every tuff of hair. James was just as freaked out. Eric was too blinded by his own panic to notice. Eric wanted to apologize, but James glared at him fiercely, "No. I told you. It's not fair. I don't want you to have it."
He was good at poking Eric's buttons. Eric huffed, "It's the only way."
"No. You could trust me. You could trust Delphine. I'm your..." He couldn't say it. That big confidence he was boasting, James swallowed back up. He sighed and turned away, "fine." He glanced back around and pointed to a chair at the desk on the far side of the room, "But you have to stay all the way over there, got it?"
Eric frowned. What did he think was going to happen?
Yet, as he was told, Eric sunk into the desk chair. James just stood there, but Eric saw several things happening. He could hear James' fluttering heart and feel it's pulse create waves. He blushed. His breathing hitched. He really was a mess.
James couldn't look at Eric. He looked at his shoes and it didn't seem like anything was happening. There was no flashy light or crazy colors. The smell came slowly. It faded in like the beginning of a song and then suddenly, Eric's heart started beating faster. A thrill danced through his body and he leaned forward, the smell enrapturing him.
James smelled like home after a three course meal had been served but more fulfilling.
James smelled like a crackling perfect bonfire in the woods, but warmer.
Eric stood, even though his legs begged to give out. James shrunk and raised a warning hand, mixing his smell up in the air and Eric had to freeze just to take it all in. James might as well just slapped him across the face. His chest seized, and he couldn't breathe anymore. James' skin called out to him, like a beacon of hope. James could save him from this unquenchable agony by tasting his flesh.
The wolf inside Eric growled, reeved and ready to pounce. Go to him, his wolf begged, wishing for nothing more, but to roll around on top of him until James was his and he could never run away again. James' smell devastated Eric.
He tried taking a step. His foot hit the ground and the world seemed to quake. James retreated a step back. "Relax," James said, his voice making the hair on Eric's neck stand up. "Please relax or at least snap out of it. Please snap out of it Eric."
Eric closed his eyes, cracking his neck and fanning his fingers out. Every inch of his body was lit on fire, burning faster than paper thrown into a fireplace. He craved James' cool skin. He remembered it, when they held hands.
His wolf growled.
Eric couldn't wait.
He marched across the room, directly at James like oncoming traffic and James didn't have time to jump out of the way. He slid his hands over James cheeks, holding his neck in place. Their pulses mixed together, but Eric couldn't tell whose was whose anymore. James flinched, Eric's kiss landing hard on his mouth. Eric kissed him deeper, sucking all his breath away and James clutched his blazer, unable to keep him at bay. He wanted to kiss him so hard that James wouldn't be able to kiss anyone ever again. His face fizzed, his body rattled and he kissed him more and had James gasping. He liked the way James trembled.
That was when something strange came over him. James' skin glowed and Eric found himself somewhere else with a little freckled face boy at the bottom of some rotten steps. He saw Delphine. Different somehow. Younger and holding her hand out to the boy. He took her hand and suddenly the world spun around and James was getting spit in the face by a pink faced ugly boy.
"Trash," they called him.
"Waste," they called him.
Yet, he saw a little boy who liked to fly heavy groceries to people's cars or fix a doll when the stitching came out. He saw a little boy who didn't cry when he was alone at night, when the loneliness felt like a knife scratching into his heart.
He saw James at his first wedding. Feeling strong and invincible. He saw the happiness he brought and thought there could be no greater fulfillment. He felt powerful, like a superhero.
Eric saw a wolf. One he didn't know. Not from Eric's pack. James said something and the wolf snapped. He grabbed James by the throat and when he meant to throw James against the wall, he threw him out the window. Eric saw red. He watched James, covered in wires in a hospital, vow that he'd never date a werewolf again. That they weren't worth the pain.
And neither was he, not for love.
He'd give it to everyone else.
He saw James accidentally run into a guy in the hallway and Eric felt the terrible embarrassment and then the pain of being made foolish by that person, by himself. He could feel the uncomfortable awkwardness Eric didn't recognized through James just because Eric couldn't take a joke. And then, all of James' excitement to help dashed because James felt like he couldn't stop screwing up.
He saw James hand Izzy the cake and say "If Eric ever needs a better night's sleep, give him chamomile tea or make lavender muffins." How did he know?
Eric saw him alone in this hotel room, torturing himself over the fact he's never been more terrified in his life and letting some guy waltz in and make him feel even smaller than before.
Eric almost saw more, when everything froze and black filled his vision.
Author's Note
Sorry! But I haven't had a lot of time to edit! I'd really just like to write the story and edit more heavily later! But don't forget to vote and tell me what you think! How did you like that kiss? And the visions? How do you think Eric handled the surprise?
Thanks again!
If you'd like to buy me a coffee and support my writing (which basically sends me to a place with little distractions and better work ethic): ko-fi.com/missbonnett