Chapter Nine

Chasten

Grina and Treg were indeed at the Fall Festival. Kirk and I found them in the parking lot where Grina was taking her time to construct a long well thought out text to check on me. It dinged off in my pocket when we were almost to them. Her head jerked up and Treg let out a low, throaty laugh.

"Well, at least we know for sure you're alive now," Grina said, pulling me into a hug.

She held on tight for several long seconds before letting me go. Even then she held onto my shoulders, looking me up and down as if I might've been patched up with sticky tack and duct tape.

"I'm alright," I said, blushing.

I was never good at being doted over even when I was sick. I hated to imagine anyone using their limited minutes worrying about me or my wellbeing when they could be enjoying themselves.

Treg saved me from Grina and pulled me into a bear hug. They gave some of the best hugs I've ever received. I hugged them back, putting off the moment when one of them would ask for too many details.

"The nurse from the hospital is your true-mate?" Treg started off the round of rapid-fire questions.

Which included: whether or not that was legal, whether I thought I fainted because I was fated to meet him, whether or not he moved in with me, how many kids we wanted, and if I was still allowed to have snacks at the fair.

Lucky for me, once I introduced him Kirk took over answering most of the questions. He put on his nurse's voice which amused my smiling friends. He skipped out on how many kids we wanted and went straight onto a short monologue about not moralizing food.

"Food isn't good or bad. It's fuel. It's just about finding the right fuel for your body and the same goes for Chasten or anyone," Kirk said, slipping his hand into mine and entwining our fingers.

I nodded my agreement and squared my shoulders. Touching him made me feel brave. As an artist I was better at putting an idea down on the page as a drawing or concept art. Putting it all into words and saying them with my chest had never been my strong suit. I could be a smartass but that wasn't the same thing as standing up for yourself or setting good, strong boundaries. It was something I was still working on.

"I'm okay," I added when Treg and Grina both looked to me for confirmation.

"We're just worried about you. You went down so fast," Treg said. "One moment you were upright and the next I had to catch you. I thought you died right there on the spot for a second."

"Thanks for catching me."

"Thanks from me too," Kirk said. "Thankfully, he didn't hit his head. That would've been worse than the blood sugar by a long shot."

As we talked, we moseyed our way up to the ticket booth. Grina insisted on buying everyone all day arm bands. I wasn't sure how long we'd stick around because I wasn't sure how long I could go without being alone with Kirk so soon after meeting him, but I didn't put up an argument as I put on the armband and followed my friends to where all the food was for sale.

As a general rule, shifters loved to eat. Wolves are omnivorous and will eat just about anything that won't eat us first. I really wanted a pumpkin funnel cake but wasn't sure overloading my stomach with all that sugar and fried carbs was the best idea before we even got near a ride.

"I think I'm okay for now," I said, eyeing Kirk who bought two corndogs and tried to hand me one.

"Are you sure?" he asked, brow furrowed.

"Don't look at me like that. I did eat breakfast!"

"I know but that was a while ago," he said and glanced at his watch.

I didn't know anyone else who wore a watch these days. Even those computer watches had gone out of style years ago, but Kirk wore one.

"Tell me if you get hungry," Kirk said before biting into one of the corndogs. "Even if we're on the other side of the fair and you don't feel like walking back let me know. Actually, if you're too tired to walk back and hungry – you really do need to let me know. I'll come get you something."

I opened my mouth to tell him that I was okay, and he didn't have to be my gopher but stopped short. Grina and Treg were listening to our every word, and I didn't want them to think we were arguing. I nodded and said I would. It's not like I went around not eating when I was hungry.

"He's always been like that," Treg said, and I mouthed that he was a traitor when Kirk wasn't looking at me.

"Like what?" Kirk asked as if he were clueless to any flaw others might perceive in me.

"Putting off eating."

"I am not!" I said, rolling my eyes. "That day I didn't eat because I wanted to eat here. I'm not eating now because I had a big breakfast!"

"I bet!" Treg teased and nodded in Kirk's direction.

"That's enough of that!" I snapped.

"Sorry," Treg frowned, and I felt like a giant, furry ass.

"It's alright. I don't want to talk about food anymore and don't joke about my sex life! I'm not in the mood for all that teasing," I frowned back.

The walk over to the corn maze was a quiet one for us. I'd ruined the mood by snapping at Treg. Teasing newly met true-mates was an age old tradition. It wasn't one I agreed with hanging onto, but it wasn't out of the ordinary. Mostly I was mad because his joke made me think about Kirk naked and that made my wolf irrationally mad that Kirk and I both weren't naked.

"What sort of art do you two do?" Kirk asked my friends, breaking up the awkward silence as we walked by the maze and toward the rides.

"Does he know what you draw?" Grina asked me.

"Yep. I told him everything," I nodded.

"I do boudoir photos," Grina grinned. "Singles, couples, thruples, polycules. Whoever wants it. Let me know if you two want to book a session."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kirk said, his tone easy-going. "What about you?" He asked Treg.

"Mostly art of and for trans and non-binary folx," Treg said, choosing his words carefully.

"They have a web comic and everything," I added on. "You should read it."

"You don't have to," Treg added quickly.

"I'll take a look at it. I don't read as much as I used to, but a web comic sounds like it can be read in small chunks between patients," Kirk shrugged. "Your pronouns are they/them, right?"

"Yeah. Most people don't pick up on that," Treg grinned.

"When you work in medicine you try to pay attention. At least I do. Not paying attention would be like calling someone the wrong name all day because you didn't care enough to ask what it actually was."

"Which one do you all want to ride first?" Grina asked, raising her arms to gesture at the lane lined with rides. It was a festival and not a theme park. So the selection was limited, but still fun enough. Hemlock Mountain pulled out most of the stops for the Fall Festival but saved most of the excitement for the Yuletide Festival. There were a few pop-up rollercoasters for that one.

"What do you think, mate?" Kirk asked me.

"What do you think?" I shot the question back at him.

"I think the question is upside down or not," he laughed.

"Not," Treg said.

"Which is why I didn't eat before the rides," I said and stuck my tongue out at all of them.

"Want to do the ferris wheel?" Kirk asked.

"With you, yes," I said.

"What about the Wolf-A-Whirl?" Grina asked.

"Maybe," I said, eyeing Kirk.

"Do you just want to be alone with your boyfriend, I mean mate?" she asked.

"Would it make you mad if I said yes?" I asked and fought off the urge to bite my lip.

"No," Treg said before Grina could answer. "It's your mating moon. I'm surprised you two are even out of the house."

"We had to grab his stuff from his old place so the new roommate could move in," I explained.

"Come here," Treg gave me another big bear hug. "Have fun. Just don't forget to eat!"

Grina gave me a begrudging hug goodbye. She was mad about Kirk. Worry plagued her scent. We'd been friends since we were pups. I usually told her everything and when my brain finished processing the whole ‘swooning' ordeal, I'd tell her about it. For now, I was happy to snuggle up with Kirk on the ferris wheel and see Hemlock Mountain from the sky.

"I bet this view is breathtaking at night," Kirk said, as we settled in and the wheel started turning us toward its summit.

"It is," I nodded. "I could ride it forever once the sun goes down."

"That's what I like to hear," he whispered in my ear and I blushed straight to the roots of my hair.

"Well, I could," I said thinking both about his dick and the festival ride. "Too bad we'd get a lewd indecency charge if I did both at the same time."

"I don't think the other patrons would appreciate the show."

"Their loss," I laughed and rested my head on his shoulder until the ride ended.

We exited hand-in-hand and Kirk walked me back to the corn maze we passed earlier.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"It's never hard to get through," I shrugged.

He arched a brow.

"We might be able to find a private spot," I said a second later once my wolf and my dick caught up to what he meant. "BUT we'll have to be careful! We don't want to scar someone for life."

"We won't go all the way out here, but I'll get you off."

"Who says I'm not going to get you off instead?!" I said, squeezing his hand.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Kirk said and sprinted off into the corn maze.

Eventually I did catch up and we both got off hiding behind one of the taller haystacks. We barely had our pants zipped up before security passed by making a round. They waved and gave us a knowing smile but since they only caught us decent there wasn't anything to get in trouble about.

"That was close," I laughed as we slipped through a spot Kirk made between the stacks to exit the maze ‘illegally.'

"Not too close," he said, taking my hand in his. "I'll race you to the car!"

"Hey! How are we racing if you're tugging me along!?"

"Want me to let go of you?" he asked, still sprinting through the crowd.

"NEVER!" I howled, following on his heels.