The steam blew up in my face, tickling my nose, as I lifted the cup, and the warm, sweet liquid poured itself onto my tongue. Swishing my French vanilla around my mouth, I tried my best to ignore Johnny's fingers that were pulling at the dead ends of my hair and his words that were being gently spoken close to my ear.

Only catching what he was saying every once in a while, but not bothering to memorize them. I slowly placed the mug on top of the table before leaning deeper into the booth, looking up to see Viviana giggling in Max's arms, and noticing the way that Max couldn't keep his eyes off of her.

Humans and werewolves can get along, they can even be together now. But, still.

Johnny's voice got even louder as he leaned closer into my personal space bubble, "Do you want to get out of here? It looks as though the two lovebirds need some alone time, especially since Max hasn't seen her since yesterday. Oh, what a pity."

I turned my face to look him in the eyes, and his deep, beautiful brown orbs stared back into mine. Thinking to myself, how can I ignore someone so lovable? Especially when he has to say something like that in such a tone. "Please," I teased, "you're just jealous."

"I take it that you're no longer ignoring me after my little comment about your own mate, although I feel a little hurt that it had to be about how lonely I am," he admitted with a sigh, and tilted his head to the side, "but no worries, as long as my mate doesn't take forever to show up then I'll be fine."

How bittersweet, I thought, to have to wait so long to get your supposed soulmate, your person, your one love. Am I up to the high standards?

Moving away from the clinging Johnny, I took yet another glance at my, from the looks of it, newly mated best friend, to see the two of them completely engulfed in each other, content with just sitting side by side, and enjoying the other's quiet company. "You're right, maybe we should give them some couple time," I agreed, and easily slid out from the booth, with Johnny following my movements.

Viviana had quickly snapped out of their shared trance once she noticed that the two of us were getting up. Quite quickly, she pulled away from Max and placed the palm of her hands against the table as she prepared herself to get ready to leave even though it seemed like she was still in some type of unfocused daze. "Oh, are we leaving now?" She asked.

Max barely had time to react, his eyebrows furrowed together as his arms were still trying to pull her back into his embrace, acting on instinct.

"No," the word slipped past my lips fast, and they formed into a smile as I continued, "you stay with Max, I'm sure you missed him last night."

Viviana gave me a thankful look, "Thank you, my honey."

Johnny threw his arm over my shoulders, pushing our bodies closer as my hip bumped into the side of his long leg. "Enjoy your day!" He called behind his shoulder, and started leading our way out of the coffee shop.

The bell dinged behind us as we exited the small building, goodbye.

"Max really is a lovesick puppy, don't you think?" I asked Johnny once we stepped outside, the wind hitting my face.

"Definitely," he smiled down at me, his long, lanky body tall next to mine, "it was hilarious to see him all panicked last night, and then he had to go back to an empty home-" his voice lowered to just a mere whisper, saying the ending to himself, "-but that wasn't as funny."

"I don't think they've spent a single night apart after they met," I told him honestly as we walked down the street, our bodies close together as we shared the sidewalk with many others. "How long ago was that, do you remember?"

"Well, I came here around two months ago which was the day I first met Max and then that same night he was showing me around the town. About five seconds after entering Amanda's, and he's going off his head about finding his mate. I was pretty lucky as well, I got to see your beautiful face," Johnny puckered his lips and his hand came up to grab my face, squishing my chubby cheeks together.

Slapping away his hand, I rolled my eyes before they settled on glaring at him, "Keep this up and your mate might think you're straight."

"Oh, come on," Johnny teased, and grabbed my hand, linking our fingers together, "you know me, I'm just playing, and besides at this rate my mate really is going to take forever to find me."

"Why don't you try finding him?" I suggested, "Maybe he's waiting for you."

He hummed as he thought about it, "I'm not really into the whole chase idea, so I'm going to have to let him take control, but he better hurry because I'm getting tired of waiting."

"Johnny, you're only twenty-two," I reminded him as we turned a corner.

"Yes, but if he doesn't find me by twenty-five then it's weird," Johnny admitted, "you're able to sense your mate once you turn eighteen, and now it's been nearly five years with no sign at all. I guess, I'm just getting even more impatient with seeing Max and Viviana together."

"I've never really thought about it that way-" squeezing his hand in reassurance, "-I've never thought about it at all actually. Humans are different when it comes to love, we don't know if we'll ever find a person for us, but it would be a different story if we knew that there was someone made for us. A lot of non-werewolves out there settle down with who ever seems suitable, but you guys really do have to wait, huh?"

"There's been a few cases of rejection, barely any of those involved them both being werewolf though, but rejection was mostly practised when humans didn't know of our existence, it was a way to protect us, mate or not," Johnny answered casually, and I couldn't help but feel the tiny tinge of hurt stabbing my heart at the sound of his words. Back when human and werewolf mating was practically forbidden, the years Morpheus grew up in.

"Well, I can't really complain too much," he admitted after bearing my silence, and flashed me a cheeky smile, "I mean, your mate waited centuries for you."

Glaring him down, "I still haven't forgiven you for that sick joke you tried playing earlier."

"Alright," he stretched out the word innocently before giving me his best take on puppy dog eyes, "but you can't stay mad at me for long, right?"

"I'll hold this grudge for years," I grunted.

"Sure," Johnny said, but he still kept that smirk on his face. "Anyways, I'm getting my own room today. My stuff has been cleared and it's been piled into my new room in the pack house."

"Oh, really?" I asked, glancing up at him, "Are you excited?"

The faraway look in his eyes was enough for me to know that his answer wasn't going to be truthful. Johnny is so easy to read.

"Yeah," he breathed, "but-" he turned his head back to face me, and his expression flipped to that of a happy one, a smile breaking out on his lips as he said, "-that means you get to spend your nights with me. We might as well move in together, you have an extra room, right? If only I could move out from the pack lands."

Shrugging my shoulders, I thought nothing of it. Same as always.

The buildings that were around us soon disappeared as we kept moving, and trees quickly took up our view to the point where I could only see green. My shoes hit the ground gently, and Johnny's hand was still clasped in mine, but a nervous feeling sunk into me at the sight of the castle-like pack house. I've been here many times since Viviana's mating.

Johnny's blond hair brightened as the sun seemed to harshly beat down on us, and I found myself wanting to scratch off the skin it had burned into, but I pushed those urges aside as I told myself, 'you're being weird'.

However, as Johnny opened the front door for me I couldn't help but place a resemblance of the castle in my dream to the pack house that I was currently standing in the doorway of.

This might just be the beginning of a very long night.