Owen

I don’t make it a habit of telling random strangers that I’m a werewolf, but this woman wasn’t random. Not at all. I could smell her as soon as she walked in. An intoxicating, sweet scent of cinnamon and vanilla. As soon as we made eye contact, I knew. My wolf howled inside me and started chanting mate, mate, mate, mate. When I came to this bar to relax after a day of protecting a rich prick from people he had screwed over, the last thing I expected was to meet my mate. I could tell by her smell that she isn’t a werewolf. That concerned me. That meant she couldn’t understand the mate bond, although by her reaction I knew she could feel it. Not only the way she looked at me, but when I touched her. That had been a little experiment and she clearly reacted to our connection. I was intrigued by my little mate. She was nearly a foot shorter than me, 5’ 3” if I had to guess, long brown hair pulled on top of her head and beautiful brown eyes with flecks of golden honey. She had a short nose, a small mouth and a gorgeous smile. The awful clothes she was wearing didn’t give me much of an idea of what her body looked like, but I knew she was perfectly suited to me. Because she was made for me. The way I was made for her.

Her reaction when she processed what I had told her was exactly what I had expected, surprise and then fear. It hurt me to know a person that was already so important to me was scared of me, but I didn’t want to beat around the bush. I wanted her to know exactly what she was dealing with so she could make an informed decision about our future. If there was going to be one.

“Oh, that’s… not what I was expecting.”

“Really? What were you expecting?”

“I honestly don’t know.” She huffed a little laugh and looked at me again, calculating, I could see she was trying to decide how dangerous I could be. She had no idea. But I would never hurt her. I couldn’t hurt her. It goes against my nature.

“Don’t worry I would never hurt you.”

“How do you know?”

“What?”

“How do you know you would never hurt me?” Well, I wasn’t expecting that.

“It’s hard to explain, but the fact that your gorgeous helps.”

I gave her my best smile hoping to put her at ease. Her face flushed pink and she smiled at me. Fucking adorable. I had this intense urge to yell “You’re my mate!” at her and take her to my hotel room, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t appreciate that.

“You’re not so bad yourself. Plus, I’m definitely a dog person.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that and she laughed along with me. A beautiful sound like a windchime on a breezy day. We sat together drinking and laughing for a few hours. All to soon she looked at the time on her phone and sighed.

“It’s getting late and I have to work in the morning, I need to head home.”

“Can I take you? I just want to make sure you get home safe.” And it was true. Even though I couldn’t explain it to her, I already had an intense feeling of protectiveness toward her. I needed to make sure she was safe. I followed her out the door when she turned to look at me.

“I don’t think that’s a great idea, Owen.”

“Why not?”

“We just aren’t… compatible.”

I looked at her confused. She had no idea just how incredibly compatible we actually are, but I didn’t want to dump that on her yet.

“What do you mean?”

“Owen, I’m a witch.” Oh, fucking hell. That’s about the worst thing she could have told me. It’s well known throughout our history that witches and werewolves do not mesh well. She must have recognized my look of shock and confusion because she followed up the revelation.

“But I’m a good witch. Like Glinda.” What the fuck does that mean? She recognized my confusion again.

“Glinda… The good witch… From The Wizard of Oz. I don’t really practice my magic. Sometimes I try to help heal my patients, but I don’t belong to a coven. I mostly just try to live like a normal person.”

I couldn’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I was glad that she wasn’t your typical witch, but if she wanted to be a “normal person” how could she fit into my decidedly not normal life? As I shook myself from my confused stupor, I realized she had started walking away. Any concerns about how this would work were thrown to the back of my mind as sheer terror took over me at the idea of losing her.

“Wait! Grace, wait!” I caught up to her quickly. Such tiny legs. God she’s cute.

“I don’t care that you’re a witch. I can’t explain everything right now, but I just feel drawn to you. I want to see where this goes. If you’ll give me a chance.”

“Really?” She looked at me with wide, vulnerable eyes and I wanted to reassure her. I have to touch her. I can’t help it. I reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of my hand. I saw her pupils dilate and she smiled at me. The sparks that ran through my hand helped to soothe me. I had never experienced the mate bond before, and it was much stronger than I anticipated.

“Yes, love. Give me a chance.” The endearment slipped before I could stop myself. It must not have freaked her out because her eyes softened, and she gave me a small nod.

“I don’t know how to do this. I don’t really even date normal guys let alone someone… like you.”

“How about dinner? Tomorrow night?”

“Let me guess, you eat your steak rare?” She laughed at her own joke and it was the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. My tiny little mate was going to have the big bad wolf wrapped around her finger in no time.

“Ok sure. Dinner tomorrow night.” She gave me her phone number and I walked her home. When we got to the door of her apartment building, she stopped.

“This is me.”

“Goodnight Grace.” I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her in a hug. She stiffened for a moment then wrapped her arms around my waist and relaxed into me. The way her body fit mine, her curves matching mine perfectly, it was more than anything I ever could have wanted. The sparks between us flooded my senses, making me feel tipsier than the whiskey I drank tonight ever would have.

“Goodnight Owen” She said breathlessly. She turned to walk away, only looking back as the door shut behind her. I waited a minute or two, not sure for what I just knew I didn’t want to leave. As I turned towards the hotel, I was both exhausted and exhilarated. As I drifted off to sleep that night, Grace’s face was the last image in my mind.