Shane: A Day in the Future
- N.J. Lysk
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
These scene takes place seven years after the events of "Always His" and contains major spoilers and mixed feelings.
Shane didn’t spend much time in the human world these days. He couldn’t say he minded, really. What was there to miss? Crappy ultraprocessed food, smelly crowds and flashing lights everywhere?
But he did miss coffee. It was probably more additive magic, but if it was, it was good enough to fool werewolf senses: Costa’s Spanish latte was melting on his tongue with each sip, creamy and rich like… well, like it was drowning in condensed milk. He hummed a little in pleasure, eyes following as the door to the shop opened and a young woman walked in, dark hair swaying as she pulled off her white jacket. She must have sensed his regard because her eyes found his, just a moment that held for a beat too long, and then she turned towards the till.
For a moment, he couldn’t quite let go, eyes tracking her red shirt where it followed the curve of her spine and hugged her hips. He looked back down at this coffee, feeling… weird. He took another sip, barely tasting it. He wanted to look again, he realised.
Oh.
It wasn’t new, of course. In fact, it was a very old impulse. He just hadn’t gone there in such a long time. And he wouldn’t— The moment he raised his head to look out the window again, he saw her again, sitting right in his line of sight on the tiny table there. Her dark hair was pushed over one shoulder, soft looking curls spilling wildly.
And then someone at the counter called out and she stood up, facing him. This time, her eyes crinkled in something that was about to become a smile. She’d caught him staring, so that was the best reaction he could expect. And if he was a little breathless as he watched her once more go and retrieve her drink and pastry…
He would have called it a dangerous game, except for how it wasn’t a game at all. It was real; he’d been drawn to women from a very young age and he’d never stopped. Men… There weren’t any men that did this to him. It wasn’t like he’d had a bad time when he’d messed around with other boys as a teenager, and of course it was different with Tim, but… He’d forgotten this, the way it made him straighten, feel bigger, more centred somehow. Right.
Like a man.
Yolanda would probably smack him if she heard say something like that. But it was true, for him. He was used to people treating him like an omega by now, mostly because it had been choosing not to care or spending his life furious at everyone for an offense they did not mean to give and often did not even understand.
But it would never be comfortable.
It would never feel true to who he was.
The bell by the door jingled again and he came back to his body with a slow blink. The window table was empty, he noted as he scanned the whole shop looking for something.
And then his eyes got covered from behind, startling him into a gasp.
The sound of giggling relaxed him at once. He’d recognise his daughter’s voice anywhere, even if he’d somehow missed her scent in the crowded shop. “Santa?” he guessed, heart still pounding.
“No!”
“An elf then,” he insisted, getting another giggle right into his ear. It made him wince, but he was smiling too. He stood up, breaking her hold and turning around with wide eyes. “Ella?!”
She burst out laughing and he scooped her up, absorbing her nervous energy. At seven, she was old enough to control her shift in most circumstances, but it was always a good plan to ground her if her emotions were running a little high. He kissed her cheek, inhaling her scent. “Someone had cotton candy,” he said, not quite reproving.
“Half!” she said quickly, leaning back. Shane missed when she’d cuddle him for hours on end. “Papa had the rest.”
“Did he?” Now that he wasn’t lost in his thoughts, he could sense his mate across the room. He turned them around to meet Tim’s gaze, as full of love as he always found it.
And fuck, he was ridiculously lucky, wasn’t he? To be loved like that. He bet anyone in this café would have given a lot for it.
It just… wasn’t what Shane would have chosen, and it wasn’t everything he wanted. But when Tim came over and patted his shoulder, squeezing just once in greeting, the fantasy cracked and dissolved. Maybe it would have been nice to kiss a woman again, to feel her softness against him and to roll on top without needing to ask, simply because it was his role in the dance. And she wouldn’t have needed to hold back in public from greeting him with a kiss, so he could have buried his nose under her ear to scent her.
But even as he thought of it, the scent in his mind was Tim’s. And it didn’t matter that Tim’s beard was beginning to show in the early afternoon, that there was nothing soft about the solid shape of his body… because it was Tim. Shane didn’t believe they had been meant to be together, whatever Moon fanatics claimed, but he believed in the life they had built, in the awkward conversations they had faced, and the sleepless nights they had shared.
And most of all, he believed in Tim’s love, dragging him up from the darkness and the hopelessness, true as steel and just as steady.
Even when he couldn’t quite find firm footing on his own. He let his knuckles brush against his twin’s side, just enough to get a hooded look. More than enough to make his breath catch. He bit his bottom lip, a signal for a secret kissed he’d laughed at Tim for inventing, and grinned when his twin’s eyes flared hot, the bond growing electric between them.
Ella squirmed in his arms, maybe sensing the tension, maybe, like she claimed, desperate to get back to her littermates to show off the gifts she’d got on her solo birthday trip of the year.
Shane let her down. “Let me just finish my coffee,” he asked her, and turned around for his cup. It was lukewarm now, the cream beginning to congeal, and after a moment, he shook his head. “Never mind, let’s go home for a cuppa.”
Shane’s and Tim’s love story can be read in the novel Always His and the novella Always Mine. Get the boxset with both here.
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