Devon

The Midnight Cafe looked like any other coffee shop. It was in a nondescript building amongst other small businesses on a relatively quiet downtown street. I parked and paid the meter before strolling inside. There was a black haired lady at the counter—Lydia, I could only assume—and she smiled cheerfully as I entered.

"What can I get for you?" she asked.

"Just a coffee, one cream."

She grinned at me. "Ah, the no nonsense type. Coming right up."

I thanked her as she handed me my coffee. She had an impressive talent for passing as a human while still using her abilities to maximize her efficiency, and I could respect that. I could tell she was a vampire because of the fluidity of movement and the lack of scent, but if she had been walking across the street and I were not paying attention, I could certainly miss her in a crowd.

"Keep the change. I was actually hoping to speak to Dan."

Her whole demeanor changed. She glanced at the couple of humans scattered around her shop and narrowed her eyes at me. "I don't want any trouble."

"I was actually hoping for the opposite of trouble, ma'am."

She inspected me for another long moment, before relenting. "Just a moment." She disappeared into the back and returned a moment later. "He'll be down soon."

I took a seat and waited for the vampire to arrive.

I didn't wait long.

"Oh. It's you," he said, looking as unimpressed as he sounded. Well, I hadn't expected fanfare.

"Nice to see you," I lied. I understood he was an unavoidable part of my mate's life, but I didn't have to like him.

"What did you want?"

"Just to talk." I cast a glance around at the oblivious humans. "Somewhere private."

He frowned but nodded. "Fine. You can come upstairs."

He sounded unhappy with his own invitation, but I quickly took him up on it. I followed the vampire through a back door and up a staircase so narrow my shoulders could almost brush both sides.

The door opened into the kitchen of an apartment, small, clean, and nondescript from what I could see, and he offered me a seat at a small kitchen table. I took it, and he sat across from me. Like the vampire himself, the room had little scent other than the smell of dust and other objects in the room, and the slightest hint of my mate's scent underneath everything. She had been here occasionally, probably only a few days before she had left to come back to me, and I had to push aside a pang of jealousy at the idea.

Dan spoke before I could begin. "So, if this is about Amber, I'm not going to stay away from her just because you order me to. Sure, she's hot—" Was he deliberately trying to provoke my wolf? "—but we're nothing besides close friends."

I exhaled. "I didn't come here to stop you and Amber from seeing each other."

"Really?" He looked skeptical.

"I'd be stupid to put more restrictions on her than absolutely necessary for her safety."

"That's surprisingly reasonable."

"Is it really? She's torn between wanting independence and me, I'm not about to make that choice harder." No matter what my wolf would prefer.

Dan chuckled. "It's just not the werewolf stereotype. Aren't you supposed to be irrationally overprotective?"

I frowned at his condescending amusement, and reminded myself that he was probably resentful about my former relationship with Megan. "Of course I want to protect her, but I can't lock her in a vault. I want her happy, too. I did let her go against my every instinct."

"Fair enough. I'll give you credit for that. But since I guessed wrong, what are you actually here for?"

I breathed out slowly while I tried to think of the best way to begin. "I wanted to talk to you about Megan."

He chuckled. "I don't know what interest that is of yours, wolf."

"She's a member of my pack."

"And your fuck buddy?"

I exhaled. "It's true we had an arrangement."

"You'd better not hurt Amber with your 'arrangement'."

"I did say 'had'."

"It didn't stay 'had' for very long when she was gone."

I gritted my teeth and gathered my patience. "I'm not here to justify what I did. I wouldn't have done it if I had believed Amber was coming back. She'd only ever denied having interest in me, and she's a human, so I assumed she didn't feel the bond between us. I regret it now."

"How sad."

He had to be trying to be this aggravating, right? It couldn't come naturally. My wolf was growling in my head and begging to be released on the vampire. "What's done is done and my regret changes nothing. I'm not here to make excuses."

Dan folded his arms and leaned back as he watched me, eyebrows raised in mocking incredulity. "Oh? Then what are you here for?"

"Megan and I were friends growing up, and she's always dreamed of finding her mate."

"I could see how desperately she was waiting for her mate while she came out of your office straightening her clothing." His voice was cold and sardonic, but his words gave him away. He did care what she had done, on some level, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"As we got older, the other wolves our age in our pack found their mates and paired up. We were the last two left standing, and at a certain point, we did use each other for companionship. We never had a plan for it to go further than that, we always openly intended for it to end when one of us found our other half. The moment Megan knew Amber was my mate, she backed off and redoubled her efforts to find..."

The vampire didn't let anything show on his face.

"But then Amber left me. My wolf was trying to break free and hunt her down. Megan's mate ball was a success of numbers, forty-three pairs of wolves found their mates, but of course you know she was not one of them. A while later, I found her crying in the kitchen. I was drunk out of my skull and we fell back into old comforts." I shrugged, as if the thought of what I had done didn't make me feel like shit. "Not my proudest moment, but not something that would ever happen again."

Dan just looked at me. "Nice story, but I don't know what this has to do with me."

I felt like punching him, this time for Megan's sake rather than because I was jealous. "You're her mate, Dan."

"I don't know about that. Maybe I was her mate when I was human...although she wouldn't even have been born yet when I was. And who's ever heard of a vampire with a werewolf? I know our species are mostly at peace now, but...I don't see how it would work out."

He was trying really hard to act unmoved and I needed to break that apathy and force him to face the truth. "You really should give her a chance. It would be worth your time. She's incredibly hot, you must have noticed that, and if you—"

"Shut the hell up!" His eyes flashed red, his body tensed with readiness to attack me.

I leaned back and smirked that Dan had so easily taken the bait and confirmed he was far less detached than he was pretending. Every female I knew would have smacked me for playing on his jealousy—and Sarah might just have shot me—but it would be worth it if it helped Megan with the mess I'd caused.

He realized what I had been doing and that he had given himself away. "Fuck." He glared at me as he leaned back into his chair.

"So, now that we've established that you at least feel something... I get it, I hate you around Amber—"

"At least I never touched Amber," he said, glaring at me.

If wolf were a cat he would have purred at the confirmation they'd never done anything sexual, but that sweet bit of information wasn't what I was there for so I stayed on task. "And I'm sorry I ever touched Megan."

"What? She's just a regret to you now? You found your mate, so you're just tossing her away?" he asked. The fact he was getting angry again on her behalf was another good sign.

"No, of course not. I still care about her as a friend, that's why I'm here. If I didn't, I would just forget her, but I don't want to watch her fade away. She needs you."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You know you left things unfinished."

Dan exhaled slowly. Did vampires even need to breathe? If not, was it for show, or just an old habit? "I wasn't looking for anything like that. This whole mate thing is something between you wolves, and none of my concern."

"You're her mate. That makes it your concern."

He didn't say anything.

"Tell you what, why don't you come visit my pack when we go back? An open ended visit, to see how Amber's settling in. Then if you happen to enjoy Megan's company, well, you're welcome to stay if that's what you decide." I didn't really want him there, but it did seem like the best solution for all concerned. It also didn't escape my notice I'd probably gain bonus points with Amber for inviting her vampire friend for an extended stay. The perfect win-win situation, although it seemed too much to hope that things could work out so neatly for everyone involved.

He remained quiet so long I thought he wouldn't answer, but then he said, "I'll consider it."

"I'll give you my number and—"

"I'll just text Sarah."

"That'll work, too. Thanks for your time, I'll head out now."

He nodded, and I left the vampire to think about what I had said.