Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 1

remained. I had done little to personalize the space, leaving the walls that generic cream color that all rentals have. It's like I was never really here.
    What little I owned I had packed in the trunk of my car. Ready for the journey to the next stage of my solitary life. I sighed as I walked down the stairs and out into the scorching California sunshine.
    I actually looked forward to having seasons again— to snowflakes on my muzzle, and crunching through autumn leaves.
    I got in my car, started the engine, and turned to the East. A new chapter was starting. Going home was impossible, but I was going somewhere new.
    The promotion had been unexpected, but it had come at a good time. My current project at Soft Corp no longer satisfied me if it ever really had. I wanted more challenges or something, but I liked the company. Being offered lead engineer for a new effort was a dream come true. So why did I feel so empty inside? Oh yeah, no one to share it with.
    Perhaps deciding to drive three thousand miles in the early summer from San Jose, California to Natick, Massachusetts was not my brightest move. I thought it would be a chance to get out of the city without actually breaking the Council's decree. But it left me with too much quiet time, to think… to remember.
    ****
    Eight Years Earlier
    The beer bottle was cold in my hand, a droplet of condensation making its lazy way down the side. My buddy Craig had already found his target for the night. She was a junior here at Williams College and well on her way to tipsy. I had no doubt she wanted him, and they would go back to our off-campus apartment together.
    I caught a scent of green leaves and good earth at the door. A shifter, but not a bear like me. Maybe cougar, maybe wolf? I didn't have much contact with other kinds. Our council liked it that way. There were so few bears— we kept to ourselves. I had been stunned that they let me leave Vermont to go to college.
    He had a long, lanky body; just my type. His neatly trimmed hair reminded me of a ginger root. I imagined my larger, muscled body wrapped around him, my umber hair a dark contrast to his lighter tones. He looked out of wire-rimmed spectacles, surveying the place, when his eyes snapped to me, widening. I thought I caught a hint of amber before he blinked and his eyes turned back to the blue of a lake in springtime. He headed for me, and I could not look away. There was something about him. He definitely looked doable and I was still free to party. I had a couple years before the council would insist I choose a mate from our kind, bond, have babies, yada yada.
    "Hi, I'm Kyle." His spoke with a soft voice, barely a whisper, but I heard his heart pounding. Was he afraid? Excited?
    I looked him up and down and my cock stood up and took notice. Down boy. We just met; we should give him at least a few minutes. "Devlin. Can I buy you a beer?"
    "Uh… Sure. Yeah."
    Something in his tone made me pause. "How old are you?"
    "Eighteen," he said, standing up straighter as his voice squeaked.
    "You got ID, drinking age is twenty-one?"
    His shoulders rose and fell. "Yeah, I'm covered."
    I signaled to the waitress for two beers. She came over, carded him and seemed satisfied with what she found. I didn't care about giving beer to a minor, not if he had the metabolism of a shifter. He would have the stamina, too; my cock throbbed hopefully.
    He nursed the beer as he vibrated next to me, strung tight. I thought it was from using the fake ID, but that was past, and he only seemed more excited. I could smell arousal on him. This would be easy.
    "You a freshman?"
    He shook his head. "Next year."
    Shit, a high school student. What the fuck was I thinking? This was the weekend when the accepted prospects all came and got wined and dined. Well, non-alcoholic wine. What was he doing in a bar? Didn't he have some good wholesome fun to attend?
    He seemed to read my mind. "I skipped out on the activity tonight. Some presentation by a computer scientist. I wanted to see what campus life is really like."
    My roommate gave me the signal. Damn, he was taking the apartment. Shit. This kid was probably bunking with some freshman. Where was I gonna take him? Was I really gonna take home a high school student?
    "You really eighteen?"
    "Yeah…"
    At least he was legal.
    His eyes gleamed in spite of the dim light of the bar. "I'm a wolf… you?"
    "Bear."
    "I've never met a bear before."
    I didn't think it was possible but his eyes got even