Leas kept his promise of giving her a good hour to wash herself and get ready. She couldn’t really focus while doing so, her mind kept going back to what he said about the date. Imagining the possibilities.

What’s next? The first date, she nearly had her way with him. Her imagination ran free with all these lewd possibilities, she had to slap herself to wake from the stupor.

Idonea blames the over complimenting he was doing earlier. It made her too soft towards suggestions. That’s why she agreed to this non-date so easily, forced to spend even more time with him.

Stupid. This is exactly why she should have run away when she could and ended this strange game with this mortal. As much as her grumpy mind went on this tangent to end the affair as soon as possible, her chest ached to think so.

Even as she brushed her teeth angrily, her meek heart panged to fantasize hurting this mortal’s feelings. It was strange to have these conflicted feelings, it made her wonder that maybe-

Nope! Out you go. The she-wolf spat the mix of her own saliva and toothpaste. Pretending that the glob of toothpaste mixed in spit was her strange feeling, she turned on the faucet and let it be washed away by hot water. Down you go! Bye bye!

Idonea washed off the residue in her mouth with some warm water and spat it out. Feeling really refreshed after her twenty-minute shower and a well-deserved toothbrushing. Her breath really grossed her out after eating two meals in wolf form. It wasn’t like she had a lot of opportunities to wash away the fish smell from the night prior. She didn’t know how Leas could ignore such a stench. Maybe he was just too lonely of a man to care.

Ending her speculations due to her time crunch, she grabbed her clean clothes from the hanger and slung those on, starting with the shirt. As a woman who exercises to the point that her biceps are bigger than some of the men she works with, shirts will always sit baggy on her. This blue one hid the curves of her defined waist and the bulge of her breasts, the shirt end reaching midway to her tensed buttocks. The sleeves wrap around her biceps with not much room to fit a finger.

The next are black cargo shorts. These hugged her hips and gave her breathing room for her pronounced thighs. They fit for comfort and provide pockets. There exist pants with pockets even for a lady like herself.

She had one sock in before someone pounded on the door and there weren’t many people that would dare try to get her attention. And there was no smell of cigarettes and regrets this time around.

He came back!

The sweet musk made her nose tip twitch, and it brought fuzziness in her gut. As if butterflies decided to sucker punch her gut, her pragmatic side bribed these feelings away with more logical reasons. That feeling never surfaced on her features, the corners of her lips pushed down like her original reaction. The annoyance grew when he kept banging on the door as she put on the next sock.

“ENOUGH! Give me a moment!” Idonea forced her feet into the boots, rushing to tie the laces with her callous riddled fingers.

“But you said just an hour, my lovely Idonea. I will die every minute more away from you~!”

This radio host has a death wish. Idonea could only imagine her neighbors, or even Mrs. Rombart, hearing him being a literally needy child. It’s embarrassing. Then why is there a heart skip in her chest?

This has been the angriest she has ever been while trying to tie her shoes, only remembering the other time being during the Renaissance Age. Unfortunately for her, she found out that her triplet brother had decided to impregnate all the pretty neighbors in their street the hard way. The hard way means that each of these females knocked on their apartment door with the claims. Some came one by one, more than once they all showed up at the same time screaming at each other over who her brother loved the most.  She never dressed so fast just to chase her brother through the beaten cobblestone of France.

This is almost the same caliber as that time. Idonea finished tying shoes and stormed towards the door. If she had fur, she would bristle with annoyance. Unhooking the chain and then opening the door, she gapped her mouth to yell at him. Instead, she got a face full of his chest as he pulled her in yet into another hug. This one is filled with the desperation that matched the emotion in his strong musk, the longing that could be mistaken as lust if it wasn’t for some solemn shadowing the corners of this emotion.

What is this? She involuntarily took a whiff, not certain how to interpret this hidden emotion. She smelled it from him sometimes before, always so fleeting.  It was later masked away, colored by pure bliss.

Plus, she could feel him breathing in her damp hair during this hug. The hell!?

“You smell so nice my lovely Idonea. Really soothes the pain of finding my car empty.” His voice feigned cheerfulness. He was so good at it that she would have thought no differently if it wasn’t for his scent hinting otherwise. Leas was upset to not find ‘Jenna’ in his vehicle.

“I told you! She’s a nomad.” Idonea pressed her hands on his chest, pushing to add a slight gap between them. There wasn’t a lot of effort put into the strength, her body really enjoyed this out of nowhere embrace and it weakened her attempts. Her neighbors could see them if they walked down this hallway. The couple were hugging in between the frame of this door. “Leas! Food will cheer you up! Let’s go!”

Before I cave and decide to eat someone else.

“Food is so fleeting. A hug and a kiss are much more lasting“ Leas winked, leaning in his head to close some of the gap. Beautiful, near purple eyes glittered with the thrill of a chase while his bitable lips curled into that famous playful smile.

Ugh!?

“Fine. Whatever!? We need to go before the neighbors send a noise complaint.” Idonea only easily agreed just because she still felt terrible for tricking him. Any other time, she finds any excuse to get out of this.

Leas made that cute chuckle again, kissing right above her brow.

Her body shivered more than it should, the uncivilized kind of shiver. One that wanted to rough house his well-put-together clothes and find all the freckles on his body. No! Bad Nea!?

“You got your kiss and hug.” Idonea watched his motions, keeping things as professional as possible even in the embrace.

“Your serious face is so cute!” That caused her to choke up. He did as promise and released his arms from her waist. That is when she took this chance to lock the door, ignoring how he easily loomed over to watch her. As if it was the most entertaining thing for this radio host to watch.

“What are you staring at for?” Idonea grumbled, pocketing her keys.

“I am just waiting for the opportunity to do this!” Leas roped his arm around her tense arm, smiling one ear to the next. Guiding her stupor self out of this apartment.

This is too intimate again!? The words never left her mouth, in shock that he was just waiting to take her arm in his like a sugary sweet gentleman.

She is surely going to die on this not-date.

Of course, their linked arms didn’t go unnoticed. As they stepped out the apartment door, the landlady poked her towel-wrapped head out to yell at them.

“Make sure you sweep after his dirty shoes!?”

Leas froze to give this woman a confused expression, even his mouth losing its smile to emphasize how genuinely perplexed he was.

Idonea dragged him away as soon as she saw his mouth part to speak. “Alright Mrs. Rombart! I’ll take care of it!”

“Good!” The landlady huffs, fixing the bottle cap glasses.

Idonea didn’t need Leas to get involved with her landlady. It was already too much to have him visit her at the apartment. Now this…

They slid into his silver MR2 wordlessly. It wasn't until he started to drive that he began to question her.

“So…do you often just do things for the landlady?” His sweet musk hinted that he was concerned, his pout amplified that smell.

“Only to keep my rent cheap.” Plus, she hasn’t questioned my agelessness yet or my lack of photo ID. Idonea watched the streets roll by her apartment already just a speck behind them.

“Do you have money problems?” The probing annoyed her, she wasn’t entirely ready to share her life’s problems. So, comes out her most fabricated self-biography.

“Leas. They aren’t problems if I was never graced by luxuries to begin with. I lived like this for a long time.” Lies. Idonea remembers the time when she didn’t have to worry about finances in the pack. Her pack leader, who was her mother, took care of the bookkeeping. Money, food, housing, and clothes were never issues in the Eklund Pack.

“Fine, what about your family? Any siblings or parents?” Leas lessened the pout on his face, almost like he gave up probing about the earlier subject.

“Two brothers and a mother. They are all in Sweden right now.” She can be truthful here; it wasn’t like Sweden was an easy place to get to or even a small country.

“That far? You must miss them.” Leas’s assumption rubbed her the wrong way, the very opposite of what this empathetic fool intended to do.

Miss them? Idonea tried to find the proper answer to give to this fool, but she turned the question around towards him, slightly offended. Her piercing yellow orbs bore holes through the window, “Not really. What about you?”

“Oh. My ommu or grandmother is still kicking in Iceland. I visit her when I can.” He answered this so nonchalantly that it made her suspicious.

So, what happened to his parents?

“And your parents?” She interrogated many war prisoners with her brother back then. Now she can recognize certain twitches a person makes when lying. Also, lying always gave a sour smell, like green apples or sour grapes.

“I don’t know them. They were never around to raise me.” Leas said plainly, his smile losing some of its shine. Then the smell of deception made her head whip towards him, really seeing the slight changes of his features.

What are you trying to hide?

“Really? I find it hard to believe that your grandmother never reached out to her own child.”

“It’s the truth. Ommu was my only parental guardian.” That’s where the smell evaporates, she can tell that this part he just spoke is the truth. That is only one part of the tale though. She’s waiting for the deception to crawl right back. “She’s a proud woman, simply won’t bend to anyone that disrespects her even if they are her own children.”

Sounds a lot like my… Idonea forced a sigh to stop her thought process, facing her pouting face towards the car window.

“Was your father in the picture?” The words stung, even though he had a sweet demeanor on him it still hurt to hear him ask. Because her father…

“He was many years ago, at least before he died.” She crossed her tensed arms over her chest, fighting down the gut wrenching feeling she had. Her father…was still a very sensitive subject, even if his death was over a few hundred years ago. Happened at the end of Werewolves of Ossory, to be exact.

“Idonea…I am so sorry.” His sweet smell colored with the emotions of guilt, worry, and sympathy.

Feelings she didn’t expect to receive from anyone. Her tense expression always scares people rather than anything else. Meaningful relationships were never an option for her before. The newness of the situation caused her heart to drum warm and wild.

“It was so long ago….don’t worry” I barely remember what he looks like anymore. The she-wolf snorts away from the gloom, pointing at the outdoor sign that says ‘Kilkeel Sandwich’. “Is that the place?”

“Oh!? It is! Hold on, my sweet Idonea~!”

He got distracted. Cute. Her lips no longer pouting, the underused muscles on her face formed a small smile. It’s cute to see him fluster, she wanted to see more of those sides of him. The sides that make him endearingly faulty. It started to become harder to rationalize out these feelings burning in her.

Wait-!? The change of G force shocked her out of the smile as Leas recklessly U-turned on this road. She clawed onto the brown leather seat, not used to whiplash like that. Even the decorative see-through dice on the rear-view mirror swing to the right. “Leas!?”

“What? Just turning back.” Those near purple eyes skimmed over her panicked form. The smile broadened; she caught the whiff of mischief off him.

That brat!?

“Did you even look?!” She snaps at him, gritting her teeth.

“Oh, Idonea. I can’t keep my eyes off you ever~!” He jested while his gaze was ahead. It smelled of deception mixed with mischief again, but that still didn’t calm her nerves. Her immortal life depends on his driving abilities…and last she checked she’s no cat.

“Just look at the road!?”

“Haha, as you wish~!”