“Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Because it was inevitable anyway. Ultimately, I’m meant to be with you and not Lucy. And Lucy’s also meant to be with someone else. I’ve done a lot of thinking. I’ve screwed up and I want to make things right. Plus, to be honest, I’ve always kind of had a crush on you.”
He quickly smiled at me, turning back to the road and continuing. “It’s kind of funny, I used to dream about your scent sometimes.” He laughed. “I’d go into department stores to try to figure out what it was, but I never could. Now it all makes sense.” He took my hand, which sent sparks and calmness throughout my body. He kept my hand in his for the remainder of the drive.
Luke pulled into valet parking, where the valet helped me out of the car. I walked toward the entrance when I felt Luke’s hand brush against mine, clasping his strong hand around mine, leading me into the casino. I smiled to myself at how comforting the gesture felt. We walked through the halls, the loud sound of slot machines echoing, creating an exciting and vivacious ambience. We cut through the gaming floor, and I looked around, observing the bright lights of the slot machine screens reflecting off patrons, and people having lively conversations at card tables. The excitement of the casino penetrated me, and I found myself smiling brightly, feeling optimistic about the evening.
When we reached the restaurant, Luke went up to the host stand. “Good evening, Mr. Hemming. It’s nice to see you tonight,” the man behind the stand said. “We reserved the best seat in the house for you.” He led us to a round booth at the back of the restaurant where we had a view of everything. The host handed us both menus after we sat down.
After a few minutes, a waiter came over to ask if we’d like anything to drink. I replied, “Just water for me, thank you.”
“What wine do you recommend?” Luke asked.
“Ah, we have the perfect bottle for you, Mr. Hemming. It’s on the house, of course. We’ll bring it right out,” the waiter replied.
Once he walked away, Luke turned to me and said, “They know me here since the pack owns the casino, so don’t worry about being carded. But that’s not why I brought you here. There’s just not many other restaurants in the area, and I know this one’s really good.”
After some time, the waiter poured us both wine from a bottle after he presented it and opened it for us. After he walked away, Luke said, “Cheers,” and touched my glass with his. We sipped from our glasses, and I was pleased to find the wine was actually really good. I normally found wine a bit too bitter or harsh, but this one had a nice sweetness to it.
After the waiter took our orders and menus, Luke moved closer to me until we were almost touching. Then he turned to me and said, “I know we never talked about what happened when I went over your house, and you were in heat. I really hope you don’t regret anything that happened. It’s been bothering me.”
I flushed and replied, “I made a huge fool of myself, didn’t I? How embarrassing. I won’t do that again.”
He looked at me, his eyes wide. “What? No, you didn’t make a fool of yourself at all. Why do you think that?”
“Well, I obviously had no idea what I was doing. But I’ll learn. I’m a quick learner.” I looked in his eyes eagerly. I was sure my whole body was red.
He put his hand on my knee. “I can’t believe you’re even worried about that. That’s not what I meant at all. I meant, I hope you don’t regret that we, you know, got really intimate with each other.”
I looked down at my lap, fidgeting with my hands. “Oh. No, I don’t regret that. I actually really enjoyed it.” My chest tightened, and my face, neck, and ears burned from the candid admission.
“Okay, good. I just really want you to know that it wasn’t my intention to take advantage of you. So, I’m glad you don’t regret anything that happened. I enjoyed it a lot too. Kissing you and being with you is so amazing. I’ve never felt anything like it.” He put his arm around my body, pulling me against him, setting off calm and sparks throughout my body.
The waiter brought out bread for us. Then a different waiter came out with a charcuterie board. He placed it in front of us and said, “Compliments of the chef. Here we have some parmesan flown in from Italy this morning, aged twenty-four months, our most popular imported salami, prosciutto di San Daniele, and our house-made mozzarella.” He pointed out each item as he spoke.
After our main course was served, a tall man dressed in a suit came over to our table. As soon as I inhaled his scent, I instantly recognized that he was a werewolf from our neighboring pack that owned the pharmaceutical company my parents worked for.
“Good evening, Beta Luke. It’s nice to see you joining us tonight. And may I ask who this beautiful lady is?”
Luke stood up, pulling me up with him. “Of course, Nate. Let me introduce you to my mate, Jasmine.” Luke then looked at me and said, “Jasmine, this is Nate. He manages this restaurant. He’s from the Autumn Moon Pack.”
Nate held out his hand for me to shake. Once I took his hand, he said, “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Jasmine.” I noticed his eyes glanced at my collarbone. After letting go of my hand, Nate looked at Luke and said, “No mark on her yet, I see. Must still be early days.”
“That’s correct,” Luke replied. “We just very recently realized that we’re mates, and it’s our first date.”
“Well, I hope she’s marked next time I see you,” he winked at Luke. “Anyway, I wanted to come by and say hello to our VIP guests. Anything you need, just let our staff know and we’ll take care of you.”
We sat back down to eat our meal. Luke turned to me and said, “I hope you don’t mind taking things slowly, Jasmine. I’m still processing everything. But I’m guessing you’d want to wait until after marriage for marking anyway?”
“Yes, I think my parents would have a fit if we marked each other before marriage, and I like that we’re taking things slowly,” I replied. I could sense that he felt relieved by my response. I began to consider if I actually was ready to bind myself to him for the rest of our lives. Usually, werewolves marked each other almost immediately after meeting their mates, the desire to do so was overpowering. I felt it too, but I also felt a resistance to it, as if it didn’t feel quite right. It was probably due to starting things off on the wrong foot.
After we had coffee and dessert, Luke led me outside the back of the building where there was a golf course. We threw our jackets on, feeling the chill of the beginning of November. He took my hand to bring me over to a line of golf carts. “Stay here, I’ll be right back,” he said, unlocking a door next to the golf carts.
He came back out with a key and waved me over. He helped me into the driver seat of one of the golf carts and then got into the passenger side. “Let’s go for a ride!” he said and showed me how to start up the cart. I drove it out onto the green. We drove around aimlessly, just talking and laughing.
He finally told me to stop. We found ourselves in the middle of the golf course, far from the casino. He came around to draw me out of the golf cart and dropped to the ground, pulling me down with him into the grass. We lay together on our backs, staring at the stars up above. “Do you know anything about constellations?” he asked.
“Nope,” I replied.