The Return: Chapter Two

COREY

It had been a weird two days. I kept hearing people say that Jonas had returned, but hadn’t spotted him once. When I asked, they all gave me a nervous smile, and said if I wanted to know about Jonas, I’d need to ask him myself.

Well, that would be great, if I could! Instead, all I heard were rumors and innuendo. For the most part, it seemed that everyone was thrilled he’d come back. I heard whispered words about how great it was to have him back in town where he belonged. Why had he left in the first place? And each time that question got asked, furtive glances were sent my way.

Had I done something to get Jonas in trouble? Had they discovered I was gay, and become afraid I’d infect him or something? I always thought his family liked mine well enough, but maybe not. When my folks moved down to Louisiana—better weather for my dad’s failing health—I’d chosen to stay. I don’t know why. There was nothing in Harken’s Corners for me. Yet, I felt compelled to remain in the town.

And it worked out well, I guess. I opened the Shattered Bean, the first coffeeshop in town, and it was a big hit. People would come in every morning for my super-secret recipe signature coffee choux buns glazed with a coffee pastry cream. It always made me smile when they licked their lips while staring through the display case, then giving me a pleading look like I was their dealer or something.

After all these years, Harken’s Corners had somehow become my home. I was happy here. The one weird thing was that if a guy came in, and I flirted a little, he’d get a look of absolute horror on his face and bolt from the place as fast as his legs would carry him. After the first few times, I realized it was something with me, and I stopped trying. I thought it would be awkward, but it wasn’t. I’d go home, use a bit of the lotion I seemed to buy in bulk, and make use of the case of Kleenex I’d gotten from Amazon. I won’t say it wasn’t a little lonely, but I made do.

“Good morning, Corey!” came the voice of my best customer, Doug Baxter. I hadn’t seen him all week, because he’d taken his wife to a clinic in Wilmington to see a specialist there.

“Hey, Doug. How are you this morning?”

His grin slipped. “I’m in the doghouse. My wife’s doctor told her absolutely no caffeine until after the baby. I might have let it slip that I was coming here for a choux bun, then realized she couldn’t have it. Her face was so red, I thought it best if I got out of the house.”

Doug’s wife, Amy, was pregnant with their third child. The other two, Kyle and Amelia, were delightful, and I enjoyed having them come in. Give them some crayons and a few sheets of blank paper, and you wouldn’t hear a peep out of them the entire time.

“Ouch. What can I get you?”

He grinned. “A choux bun, of course. You’d better make it two. I’ll let her know I was thinking about her, so since she couldn’t have it, I ate one for her.”

I shook my head. “That won’t get you back in her good graces.”

He shrugged one of his slender shoulders. “Maybe not, but it’ll give me a happy tummy.”

“I’ll say kind things at your funeral,” I assured him, bagging up two buns.

“That’s all I ask.” He glanced around at the nearly empty place. “Kinda dead in here. What’s going on?”

“I wish I knew,” I answered. The last several days, people seemed to be avoiding the place like the plague. You’re actually my first customer since Friday.”

His eyes widened. “What? How is that even possible? People can’t live without coffee, man. It’s more important than blood.”

A fact that had me opening the place to start with. Now? After several days of empty seats, I feared the Bean might actually go broke. What would I do if that happened? Bad enough I’d have to let DD go. She was the lifeblood of the town. Her ability to gossip while pouring her signature Almond-Coconut Frappé was legendary.

“Corey?”

“What?” I dragged my wandering mind back to Doug. “I’m sorry. Kind of zoning out. There’s been a weird vibe ever since the news that Jonas had come back to town started circulating.”

Doug paled. “Jonas is back? Are you sure?”

I shrugged as I rang Doug’s order up. “That’s six even. Let Amy know I’m going to try decaf choux buns to see if they work out. Wouldn’t want her to be deprived of a treat and a husband. As for Jonas, I haven’t seen him, so I don’t know for sure.”

“He…he hasn’t been by to claim… I mean, he hasn’t been in to see you?”

“Nope.” I tried for nonchalant. Not sure if I pulled it off.

“Okay. Listen, I gotta go.” He tossed a ten on the counter and gave a nervous glance over his shoulder. “Thanks. See you…soon.”

Then he hurried out the door like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels. The whole town was getting weird. After Doug left, I took a seat at one of the tables outside and watched. People would be heading down the street, then cross as though avoiding the shop. Or maybe it was me. No one made eye contact, not one wave. Nothing. When a few people I’d gone to school with saw me, I waved, and they blanched and turned around.

What had I done in the last few days that would make them run from me now?

When DD appeared, she smiled, then her pale skin went ghastly white and she turned away. Only… It wasn’t me she was looking at. I spun, and was confronted by a mountain on legs. I let my gaze travel from his knees, up, up, up. Holy shit, this man was big. His hips were wide, his legs thick with muscle, his chest broad, and his face was….

Jonas.

“Corey,” he breathed out a moment before he lifted me from the ground and pulled me to him. He buried his face in my neck and inhaled.

“Fuck, you smell good,” he ground out.

I, meanwhile, hung limply in his grip. There were no words for how I was supposed to feel in this situation. I relished his touch, but who the fuck was this man, and what had happened to him? Angela wasn’t kidding. Puberty had blessed Jonas. Shit, Mother Nature had taken the manliness stick and beat the shit out of him. He stood nearly six-and-a-half feet tall now. It was easy to tell that if he wanted to, he could crack my spine like a glow stick. I’d never in my life met a man who was so….much of a man.

After a few moments, he leaned back and stared into my eyes, and I was stunned to see his. They’d been a creamy coffee color at one time, deep and rich. Now? They were amber and gold with onyx flecks in them. That wasn’t possible. Eye color didn’t change like that.

I wasn’t sure who the man before me was, but he wasn’t the Jonas I remembered.

“Do I know you?”

His face crumpled. “Core?”

I shrugged until he put me back on my feet. I hate to admit how much I missed the contact. What was worse was the pain that was etched on his face. Like I’d rejected him or something.

“You can’t come waltzing in here like the last six years didn’t happen,” I informed him.

“I didn’t want to go!” he barked.

“Then why did you?” I demanded. “Why didn’t you call me and tell me you were okay? Do you know how many nights I lay there, wondering if I’d done something to drive you and your family away? I mean, I thought we were friends, but then you just went poof, and no one I talked to knew anything.”

“Look, can we sit down?” There was a pleading to his tone that caught my ear. “I want to explain things, but I need you to promise me you’ll listen and not freak out.”

“I don’t know—”

“Please, Corey. Promise you’ll hear me out. That’s all I ask. When I’ve said my piece, if you want me to go away again, I will.”

Was he fucking insane? I never wanted him to leave in the first place. No way in hell did I want him to disappear again. But….

“You hurt me,” I admitted.

“I can promise you I hurt just as much. Probably more. Please, give me an hour before you decide anything. Okay? Just sixty minutes.”

My resolve was crumbling. He might be in a different body, but the unsure kid I’d known was still there, wanting—needing—affirmation from me.

“Have a seat. I’ll get you a coffee.”

He settled his bulk into one of the way too tiny chairs, and crossed his arms on the wrought iron table. It was a funny as hell picture, like Andre the Giant perched on doll furniture.

“This is a really nice place, you know.”

It warmed me to hear that from Jonas. Why I craved the acknowledgement, I wasn’t sure, but knowing Jonas approved was important.

“What kind of coffee do you like?”

He frowned. “I don’t really drink coffee. Do you have any tea?”

Unbidden my eyes widened. “This, sir, is a coffeeshop. We don’t do tea.”

His forehead crinkled, and I couldn’t contain the laugh.

“Yeah, we have tea of all kinds.” I peered at him. The years had been more then kind to him. “You strike me as a lapsang souchong tea person.”

“I…don’t know what that is. I usually just drink Lipton.”

“Good God, man…. I think you need a new palate.” He frowned, and I had the urge to kiss his forehead to soothe that look. “How about you let me make you a cup? If you don’t like it, then we’ll find you something else.”

His gaze bore into me. “I’ll always trust you, Core. Never doubt that.”

And with those few words, Jonas had once again rocked my world to its very foundations.

 

JONAS

It wasn’t a surprise to me to see people giving Corey a wide berth. I’d only been back in town a few days, and they weren’t sure how to react to me yet. Still, it nearly killed me to see the hurt expression on Corey’s face as people turned away from him.

The first thing—the very first thing—I wanted to do when I arrived in town was to claim Corey. The mantra my father taught me in the years since we’d left Harken’s Corners and moved to our pack lands—25,000 pristine acres of woods that had belonged to my great, great, ad nauseam grandfather since the pack arrived in what is now Delaware, settled the area, and named it Harken’s Corners.

What my father had taught me, and then reinforced daily, was that I would be Alpha, and as such, my job was to act as steward of the pack. To make it prosperous, help it grow, keep the members safe. To get me to listen, he would also point out that if—when—I claimed Corey, he’d be pack too, so I was doing this for him.

Instead of following my instincts and grabbing Corey before dragging him off to my place, I forced myself to focus as I went through all the pack financials, learned about the new births and the deaths. Found out who got married, which couples—or more—were expecting. In short, I relearned the pack, so that I could take over as Alpha after my father stepped down next month.

That had been what we were doing for the years we were gone. He was training me, grooming me to take over. Of course, once the changes started, I grew hotheaded, and my dad and I went around and around, with me demanding to be taken back to town so I could see Corey, and him stressing why I couldn’t.

For me, that had been the hardest part. While Corey tamed my lust, he inflamed my protective instincts. After what Adam did—and how I reacted—my father feared that if anyone looked at Corey, I’d fly into a rage. And, if I’m honest, I don’t think he was wrong.

But, Dad… What happens if Corey finds someone else?

I have people watching him. As long as he remains in Harken’s Corners, no one is going to get near him. Can you be patient? Can you wait to claim him? The change came on much earlier than expected, and I don’t know that you can handle the stress it’ll put on your body and mind.

He wasn’t kidding. One day, I was indignant over how I was being treated, and the next I made plans to steal away to see Corey with my own two eyes. I was in turns angry, morose, lonely, and missing the fuck out of my mate. He didn’t know it, but before I left his room that day, I’d taken his shirt and stuffed it into my jacket. Even though his scent had long since faded, I still imagined it. That deep, rich, musky scent of a boy on the cusp of manhood.

My mate.

When my mom came to my room one day, I wondered what was going on. Then she took a seat, cleared her throat, and started in.

“So…Corey, huh?”

“Yup.”

“And you’re sure? I mean, your father says you are, but I’d like to hear it from you myself.”

“Corey is my mate,” I said, leaving no room for discussion.

She lifted her gaze and smiled at me. “I’m so happy for you.”

And I knew it was true. Mom loved me, despite the hard times I was going through. I figured at some point, she’d kick me out and tell me to fend for myself. That never happened. If anything, she held me tighter, like she knew I was in danger of flying apart at the seams.

“Now, there are things you need to know,” she continued.

“Oh? Like what? Is this going to be the safe sex talk?”

“Ew, no. I still picture you in your cute little suit and bow tie when you were in first grade. Please don’t destroy that image. No, what you need is to learn to properly care for your mate.”

I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “What do you mean?”

“Corey isn’t a wolf. He has no idea how much his life will change when he finds out the world is larger than he realizes. You can’t simply walk up to him and say, “You’re my mate, get used to it.”” Then she frowned. “Please tell me that’s not what you were going to do.”

Well…yeah. I mean, he was the mate of an Alpha. And not just any one, but the future leader of the tri-county packs. What person wouldn’t want that?

“Oh, Jonas. No. Just…no. You need to be aware of his feelings. It’s easier for you, because you know about shifters. For humans, they’re things in movies and books. They aren’t real. To hear they are will likely rock his world.”

“Funny, I thought that was my job,” I teased.

“Again with the ew, okay? Who’s going to do the cooking? The cleaning?”

Now that I had thought about during my confinement. My mom took care of those things for me and Dad, but I’d knew Corey had gone to college. Surely he wanted more out of life than taking care of the house. “I was thinking I’d work with Corey on them. I mean, that’s okay for an Alpha, right?”

She reached out and put a hand atop mine. “That’s perfect for an Alpha,” she informed me, her grin threatening to split her face. “You’ve got rough edges, but I honestly think you’re going to make an amazing mate.”

And to me, that was high praise.

When I got the call from Doug, apologizing for being near Corey, I did my best to soothe him. Everyone was so afraid of getting me angry, they’d done exactly what I hadn’t wanted. They avoided Corey, thus threatening his business. I have to admit, I was so fucking proud of what Corey had accomplished. I knew about the shop, of course, but I honestly had no idea it would be as popular as it had become.

I wasn’t arrogant enough to think that people went to his place because he was my mate. I knew it was because he was Corey, who could win over the surliest of wolves with his soft charm and spine of steel. He wasn’t one to give up when he wanted something, and seeing him with the entire corner lot, green metal tables dotting the sidewalk…. I could imagine the place being full, with the people of the town clamoring for Corey’s wares.

When I finally got things settled and laid the groundwork to take over the pack, I came for Core, ready to lay my claim. I smiled down at him, but all I saw on his sweet, round face was confusion.

“Do I know you?”

It was surprising how easy it turned out to for him to bring an Alpha wolf to his knees.