Primal (Wrong Side of the Tracks 2)

Dane sighed. “Probably. He did try to flirt with you.”

“No! He was jealous of how meaty and sturdy you are. Anyone can see you’re a substantial man and so—Gah. Don’t make me say these things, Dane, there’s children around.”

Dane stilled, staring at him as if he’d been hypnotized. “I’m bigger than I should be,” he muttered. “One of the reasons he’d broken up with me.”

Jag filled his lungs with popcorn-scented air. “Oh. Now I see it! It’s so much worse. He wants you back and was trying to put me off. Bastard’s got another thing coming—” He tried to turn around to confront the sack of shit, but Dane grabbed his arm.

“No, look—” He cleared his throat and pulled Jag past a big door, into a corridor lit by a single lamp. “Everyone has access to food out here. It’s not desirable to be big.”

Jag considered it for a while, but still found it hard to understand. “But you’re desirable to me. I’ve never met anyone more desirable.”

Dane swallowed, his shoulders sinking as he met Jag’s eyes from above the bag of popcorn. The faint light revealed a flush spilling across his features, and when Jag was about to call him out on how ridiculous he was being, Dane leaned forward and gave him the sweetest yet fastest kiss on the lips.

“Um… as you are to me. He’s a loser anyway.”

“Exactly. His loss, my gain. Now… I’m sorry, but I really want to try this,” Jag said with his heart still racing after the kiss. But he put a few of the puffy corn balls into his mouth. Buttery sweetness melted on his tongue, but when he closed his jaw, texture gave him yet more delight. “It’s so crunchy!”

“Yeah, it’s great. I’ll show you how to make it at your campfire,” Dane said, leading the way into a room so spacious Jag momentarily felt as if he were standing on the very edge of a tall cliff. He knew what a theatre looked like, since he’d seen it in movies, but he’d had no concept of the scale of the fucking thing. There was a large balcony at the back, and most seats were already taken!

“Do so many people watch movies here every night?” Jag asked, snatching some of the salty popcorn out of Dane’s bag to find it just as delectable.

“Oh, it depends on the movie and the time of day, but yeah, popular screenings can be sold out,” Dane said, leading the way up the slope of the auditorium, and then into one of the rows of seats at the very back.

Jag was overwhelmed by all the smells. People wore a variety of perfumes and ate different foods. Even the dust of the old carpet had a distinct aroma, which differed from the one in Frank’s house. Maybe he’d been missing out, afraid to peek out of his home? Frank had offered to take him shopping many times before, but Jag had always refused, telling himself he needed to watch their territory. But whether that was really the case no longer mattered. If Dane wanted him to join the life outside in some capacity, then he would try out all the new things and let his mate take the lead.

“I’m so excited. Is that the screen? It’s so big!” Jag said, pointing to the large white rectangle spread across from everyone, but yelped when the lights suddenly went off.

Dane chuckled and pulled on his arm, guiding him toward the very end of the stairs. “It’s fine,” he said and sat between two groups of people who watched them in the dark. Their eyes shone when the screen behind Jag’s back brightened, and a young woman, whose hand was stuck in her own bag of popcorn, met his gaze before focusing on the screen.

Jag was about to ask her why she was scared when the room resonated around him with boisterous noises coming from all directions. Each muscle in Jag’s body tensed, and he looked around, desperate to grab something he could protect his mate with.

But everyone else sat still, and Dane took his hand, rising to whisper into Jag’s ear. “It’s fine. That’s just the surround system. Come on, sit.”

“What’s a surround system?” he asked, weary. Being surrounded was never a good thing. It meant lack of escape routes, but Dane seemed perfectly at ease and pulled Jag into the foldable chair before handing him one of the popcorn bags

“It means that sounds belonging to the movie will come from many different directions, so it feels more real,” he whispered into Jag’s ear.

One thing was clear—this evening would result in a headache. How could city people stand so much noise?

Jag settled in his seat and comforted himself with popcorn. He loved stories and plays, and he’d seen several shows on TV with Frank or Dex, but new experiences could be tricky when shared with so many strangers, and in the dark at that.