It was the rabbit.
Dressed similarly to what Shane and Dex had put on Jag earlier, he had short dark hair and a pleasant face with dimples forming on either side of his mouth when he smiled. Jag was tempted to lean in and taste the skin of his neck, but he remembered Shane’s advice to take things slow, so he slid into the chair on the other side of the table with excitement pooling in his chest.
His future mate leaned in, and his lips spread, showing pointy teeth. Ah, his mouth was more like that of a fox than a rabbit!
“Wow, you have amazing eyes. The picture didn’t do them justice. They’re all green and gold, like a Christmas wreath.”
Right. Compliment.
Jag stared at the man offered to him by Mother Nature. “Thanks, I have excellent vision. And your arms look strong, I bet you could slaughter a boar and not even break a sweat.”
Trev, because that was the man’s name, raised his brows and uttered a short laugh. “Okay. Handsome and has a sense of humor. I like that. I’m afraid I’m vegetarian, but if a boar happened to charge at you, I’d definitely step in,” he said, waving at a woman walking between the tables with a jug of water.
Jag shifted in the chair, unsure what to think about the music flowing through the air like a serpent. He wanted to ask what a vegetarian was, but he’d learned the hard way that when people said things in that way, it meant they considered them obvious. He didn’t want to look ignorant.
“I’m perfectly capable of protecting both of us.” He needed that to be clear in case Trev questioned his position in the relationship.
Trev shook his head with a chuckle. “I hope it won’t come to that. Are you into martial arts? Your profile said you’re outdoorsy,” he said, but instead of waiting for Jag’s answer, he addressed the woman who’d come up to their table. He asked for foods Jag had never heard of, but when she turned her face toward Jag with a question in her eyes, he was so confused he just asked for the same thing his future mate was having. A good impression was a must.
Trev’s foot bumped against his under the table. “I wonder where else our tastes align.”
Jag’s imagination pushed the image from Dex’s phone back into his mind, and his chest fluttered with heat. “I’ve been thinking about making room at my home. For a man.” Shane had specifically told him not to call his house a ‘den’, so he’d go with it for now, because he knew very little of partnering up beyond the community he’d grown up in.
Trev laughed and winked at Jag. “As long as you’re not planning to make lampshades out of my skin.”
Jag wasn’t sure why that was funny, as the notion seemed quite disgusting. “I don’t have lamps. I haven’t attached electricity yet, but if that’s a requirement for you, I’d be willing to consider it. I do have a generator,” he added.
Trev cocked his head, and for the first time since their conversation started, he leaned back with a slight frown. “Oh… so you’re building a new place, or something?”
Jag nodded and ran his knuckles over Trev’s arms. He couldn’t help himself, and the texture of soft yet hair-dusted skin made a shiver briefly pass through his body. “I’m making the dwelling more permanent. In the past, I changed locations often to keep my home hard to find, but I want to make it more comfortable for my—” He drifted off because he’d been told by Shane not to use the word mate either.
Trev flinched when the woman appeared at their table again and put down glasses filled with soda water. “Um… what? Why would you hide? Are you like…. Do you have enemies?” Trev asked and took a large swig of his drink.
Jag got distracted by the selection put in front of them on little plates. Everything smelled nice, even the beige paste with some kind of bean on top. He pointed to the chunks in orange crumbs, which resembled the fried chicken nuggets Dex sometimes shared with him. “Is this the meat?” he asked, wanting to make sure his prospective mate had his fill of the best morsels.
The woman in the apron stalled as if the question confused her. “N-no, that’s the tofu. It’s all vegetarian, there’s no meat,” she added.
Jag took a deep breath, frowning at the food. “And they don't have meats in Vegetaria?”
Trev exhaled and bit his lip, staring at Jag from across the table. His smile was gone. “You know what, I need to use the restroom. But don’t wait. You can start,” he said, rising to his feet.
The woman who brought them food smiled nervously and left without answering Jag’s question, so he tried the tofu as he waited for Trev to come back. He wasn’t sure whether the food was a type of mushroom or an artificial product like many he’d tasted since leaving his family. Could a bean be this big? He wouldn’t rule it out if Father was correct about Outsiders producing overgrown food in their fields.