As much as I felt threatened by River, I also wanted to be close to him. Spend time with him. There was a draw. A rivalry and a brotherhood of sorts. He wasn't studying but got a job at Cal's brothers' garage. He knew his way around cars and the guys were more than happy to have another mechanic.

There was something about visiting the garage that still made me wanna crawl out of my skin. It was these spaces that were so inherently straight and uber-male, and it always brought me right back to school where they'd call me by my name, but in a lighter tone, making it sound like the girl's name. Or they'd call me "Gaily". Ask me where my skirts were.

It's not like I was ever questioning my gender. I was pretty happy with it all, but I hated how I couldn't participate the way I wanted. It was dumb looking back on it now, so juvenile, but that cut deep. And it still messed with my head now when I was mustering up the courage to go inside.

"Gael?" Cal had appeared by the entrance, arching a brow at me.

"Hey!" I said and ruffled through my bag. "I uh was just looking for something."

"Uh huh, you coming in?"

I nodded and followed. Music was playing from a greasy Bluetooth speaker, there were posters of women in bathing suits on the wall and some signs with quotes on them. Most of them relating to beer. And then there were a few with kittens on them? I didn't know what that was about.

"Hey Gael!" Cooper said and almost bounced over to us. He was just as greasy as the rest of the shop. "You here for River? Making sure we're treating your friend well? We are, by the way. He's being treated well."

"That's good to hear. I wasn't expecting you guys to not treat him well."

"Connor is a hard-ass," River said and popped up his head from the big hole in the floor, which I had been told was a called a "pit". "Cooper is too, but Connor is worse."

Cal snorted. "I told you."

River smiled sarcastically back. "Yeah, and I didn't believe you, so now you get to be all smug, don't you."

Cal smiled back genuinely. "I do."

"Are you off soon?" I asked, shoving my hands in the pockets on my hoodie.

"I'm off now, technically, but I do wanna finish what I've started here with these breaks. Wait for me?"

"Sure, I'll wait. And get violently ill from the toxic masculinity," I muttered to myself, but Cal heard me and snorted.

"Hey, I got them to hang a pride flag, didn't I?" she said and nodded towards the hilariously big flag hanging under the ceiling.

"Yeah."

"And the trans flag." She pointed towards the back wall. The blue, white and pink flag was also hilariously big. I wondered if Cooper had gone online and just picked the biggest ones he could find.

"And Fred is slowly working on replacing the posters."

"Is that why there's cats on the walls now?" I asked, nodding towards a poster depicting a cat coming out of a mug.

"Yep."

"Hilarious." I smiled and looked around a little closer. There were other things here than just the stereotypical shit you'd expect from a garage shop. I knew Cal had also taken the time to explain why it was important for especially them to show they were supporters of us. Especially in a university town. That something like a garage shop could be incredibly terrifying to walk into. I knew they were trying. Still didn't make it any easier for me at this very moment. It wasn't only Con and Coop who worked here after all. They owned the shop and had several mechanics working for them. All big manly men and shifters too.

River finally finished up and jumped out of the pit. He had a jumpsuit on, but had the top half tied around his hips, wearing just a greasy tank top underneath.

"Can we go to mine? I need to wash up."

"Nah, you're a marvel. You must let me paint you," I replied before I could stop myself. I wasn't sure what was up with me that day, but I was giving all the sass I had in me.

He glanced at me and frowned. "Your humour is dryer than the fucking dessert, man."

"It's good humour, I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you've been around only the vampire for too long there, mate." He shrugged and brought out a pack of fags, holding it out towards me. "Want one?"

"I don't smoke."

"I thought artists lived off of fags, black coffee and love?"

"Only starving artists. I'm not starving." I shrugged. "Besides, nicotine was never my preferred drug of choice."

"What was then? Caffeine?" He snorted, probably thinking his joke was super funny.

"Nah, molly was more fun."

He stopped dead on the sidewalk, and I kept walking before I stopped a couple of steps ahead of him, looking back at him over my shoulder.

"You surprise me, Happy Wolf."

"Why?"

"I thought you were a complete goodie-two-shoes."

I snorted. "Why?" I repeated.

"Is that all you can say today? Why, why, why." He sang the why's. I bet he had a lovely voice.

"I'm just interested in how you perceive me."

"Relax, I've told you I'm not here for your kingdom. And I still wanna teach you, so congrats and welcome to your first lesson. Don't be such an insecure little bitch. Believe that you're what the other wolves are looking for, not some rando who just showed up."

"Am I that transparent?" I asked and stopped again, throwing my arms out to the side.

"Kind of. But I also just... There's something about you that is so easy for me to read. To hear. I think it's because we've got the same maker. It creates some kind of bond."

I shoved my hands in my pockets and started walking again.

"I can tell you want coffee now," he said with a smile in his voice.

I couldn't help but laugh and nodded. "We're on our way to the bakery for exactly that."

"Hmm, yeah, the bakery. With that cute baker-friend of yours. Liza?"

I glanced up at him as he was by my side again. "Yeah. Creek's sister."

"Yeah, she's cute."

I nodded a little hesitantly and held the door for him to the bakery. He winked at me on the way in. He was such a damn weirdo. And he had apparently forgotten all about how he wanted to go home first. I had maybe looked a little forward to seeing if he was a garden-chair-in-front-of-a-massive-telly kind of guy, or if he had actual décor.

"Hey Gael," Creek said and waved a paper bag filled with pastries. "What's up?"

"Just out with River for a bit," I said and motioned toward him. He had already met Creek once in the shop but hadn't really been properly introduced.

"Oh, you getting some cakes and coffee? Can I join?" The way they looked up at me with those big-ass brown doe eyes made it ever so hard to tell them no.

I glanced up at River and he didn't look particularly bothered. "Sure. I'll go get some coffee, you and River can find a table."

There were literally only two tables in the bakery but whatever, it was an excuse to get the coffees and make those two interact for a bit, without my supervision. I didn't know what River wanted, but he looked like a macchiato kind of guy, so that's what he got.

I sat down with my friends and handed them their coffees.

"River was just telling me how it's going in the shop. My dad's car is there. Something with the breaks," Creek explained.

"Yeah, but now there's nothing with the breaks. I fixed it." River took a sip of his coffee and glanced up at me. "How'd you know my order?"

"Useless superpower. I can more or less always guess people's coffee orders." I shrugged and took a sip of my own coffee.

"That is a useless superpower for someone studying art. So useless. Not like you'd ever need a job like... A barrister." River smirked at me.

"Ha, ha." I rolled my eyes at him.

Creek asked River all kinds of questions I hadn't thought of asking him. He was twenty-five, moved around a lot, his parents were still alive and lived in a small town much like this one, they didn't know he was a werewolf. He had gotten his mechanic's diploma when he was twenty. He had graduated school early and gone directly to trade school to learn. He was single. And not straight.

Because Creek absolutely had to ask that of the poor guy.

"Creek, I think that's enough," I said when River had chuckled nervously through enough questions.

"It's alright. He at least cares enough to ask." He sent a pointed look my way.

"I've asked, but I don't interrogate." I drank more coffee. "I also didn't wanna bombard you, but it's apparent Creek doesn't care about that."

"Hey, if you wanna know something, you gotta ask." Creek sent me a real sarcastic smile.

"Well, aren't you two the best of friends already. Need me to leave or?" I asked and half rose.

"No, don't be such a bitch again, Gael," River said and grabbed my sleeve, hauling me down into the chair again.

"Learn to take a joke, maybe?" I shot back.

Creek looked from River to me and then back to River. "One would think you're brothers the way you talk to each other. That's how I talk to my brother."

"Totally brothers," River said, and I kicked him under the table. I wasn't sure how many I wanted to know we shared a maker. He raised an eyebrow at me in response to the kick.

"Gael is a shit liar, don't you think?" Creek said then in a very deadpan way.

I sighed and fidgeted around a bit. "Don't tell anyone, alright? I'm still trying to figure out if it's a good or a bad thing."

"You're totally brothers."

"We're not actually brothers, we just share a maker. The guy who turned me, turned River too."

Creek bit the inside of his cheek before releasing it again. "Why don't you want anyone to know that?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I just... Gotta figures out what it means first."