FaRoFeb 2025 Micro Story 6
MM PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Part 1
by Maddox Grey
“I thought you said this was a date?” Owen crossed his arms and raised a brow at Theo.
“It is.” Theo shrugged.
“Usually dates don’t involve a dead body.” Owen’s gaze fell to the floor where, yep, there was still a corpse. Male. Mid-forties, if Owen had to guess. Definitely a warlock, based on the smell of burnt herbs.
Owen’s nose twitched. He hated the way warlocks smelled.
“You finally said yes. I had to make it interesting.” Theo grinned. It was that cute lopsided one that had caught Owen’s attention when they met six months ago and had been slowly wearing down his no mixing business with pleasure rule.“Consider it a present then.”
“I think you need to look up the definition of both date and present. I’ll give you a hint. Neither involves a dead warlock.” Owen took a step back and held a hand over his mouth. “It’s already starting to smell.”
“Poor little wolf.” Theo gracefully leapt over the body to stand in front of Owen. Vertically slit pupils set in vibrant green eyes stared up at him. “I like the suit by the way.”
“Again, you said this was a date so I dressed accordingly,” Owen pointed out. “This is a cat thing isn’t it? You’re being deliberately confusing just to entertain yourself.”
“I would never.”
Owen kept staring.
Theo let out a fatalistic sigh that only a feline shifter could make. “Doesn’t he look familiar?”
“No, he doesn’t…” Owen’s voice trailed off when he looked down and saw what he missed before. A black feather tattooed on the man’s wrist. “The Obsidian Coven is back in town.”
“Let’s go hunting, wolf.”
Find Maddox Grey’s books at greymalkinpress.com/pages/maddoxgrey.
Part 2
by L.L. Graves
Theo suppressed the thrill of seeing the enticingly grumpy wolf’s nostrils flare. It was a cat thing to entertain himself. A cat thing to bring the object of his interest a dead offering. A cat thing to play with his food… and Owen looked so tasty.
“Are you done leering at me?” Owen growled.
Theo batted his eyelashes. “Ready to play?”
He got a grunt in reply.
Initially, he’d complained to their superior’s superior when they’d paired him with a canine. Then they’d offered to fast track him to the PBI’s cyber security task force. Naturally, he’d declined.
What could he say? It was a cat thing.
It was a wolf thing to take the lead. Owen already had his phone pressed to his ear, relaying what they’d found to the rest of their team. That left Theo to record the scene before the cops contaminated it—the boys in blue weren’t trained to deal with dead warlocks.
Owen had one foot out the door when he shot Theo an annoyed look. “Are you done?”
“Yes.” Theo tucked his phone into his back pocket and took one last look at the scene. His sixth sense had pinged before Owen’s arrival had distracted him. Now instinct told him something was off… too clean? Too few scents. “Shit. We need to get out of here.”
He sprinted to the door, crashing into Owen’s broad back. “Shit.”
Suddenly, bright lights flashed in their eyes. Theo’s superior sight allowed him to make out five cops, handguns raised, inching down the hall.
“Hands up! Hands up! You’re under arrest for the murder of Mr Joe Hones. Any—”
“Run!” Owen spun, slamming the door behind him. “Window. Fire escape.”
“Best first date ever.”
Follow L.L. Graves’ at www.instagram.com/author_llgraves.
Part 3
by Gwyneira Blythe
Owen was right behind Theo out the window. The cackling feline was reckless, but cute. It was a wolf thing to hunt, an Alpha thing to protect, and his instincts were howling to do both. A shout came from above.
Bullets ricocheted off the fire escape. Owen bit back a growl. The sting of shrapnel lodged in his arm. Damn, he’d worn his favorite suit for this date.
They hit the ground running with preternatural speed. Owen winced when the pain in his arm wasn’t quick-healing as expected. Trusting Theo to take point through the twisting back alleys, Owen guarded their backs from any pursuit.
The Obsidian Coven liked to use humans as fodder to cover their black market dealings. Slow healing meant silver bullets. Well, the trigger-happy cops had certainly been prepared to take out supernaturals. Hopefully, no one would notice the slight injury.
“Setup?” Theo paused in a recessed threshold, listening.
“Setup,” Owen confirmed, leaning into his partner. “So, who tipped you off to the body?”
In the shadows, Theo’s microexpressions flickered from the pinch of his brows to the press of his lips. Shock, then denial, before anger. “Marcus in cyber security,” he hissed, claws flexing.
“The mage who keeps trying to ask you out?” Owen cupped Theo’s rough jaw, thumb swiping over that deliciously parted bottom lip. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Never liked the guy. Can’t take a hint.”
“Owen.” Theo inhaled, green eyes narrowing in on him. “You’re bleeding!”
“‘S just a flesh wound.”
Find Gwyneira Blythe’s books at www.gwyneirablythe.com.
Part 4
by B.L. Brown
Theo ducked to the side, tugging the bloodied fabric and examining the wound. It was deep, that much he could tell. Otherwise it wouldn’t be bleeding so much and—
Hey, wait.
“Shouldn’t it be healing?” he asked, glancing up at Owen’s paling face.
“Silver bullets,” Owen said thickly. His hand dropped to Theo’s shoulder, and he sputtered a cough. FA foamy spittle formed at his lips, and his arm fell away like a dead weight.
Theo barely got his hands up in time to catch the wolf as he teetered forward. His claws punctured through the front of his shirt, and he staggered under the sudden weight. “Owen?”
Owen wheezed. His knees buckled, and Theo eased him to the filthy ground. “My suit,” Owen mumbled, a faint canine whine in the words.
“I’ll buy you a new one.” Theo propped him against the wall. Sirens wailed, too close for comfort, and streets away, shouts drew near. He frowned at the sickly sweat dotting Owen’s brow, his paling lips. Blowing a steady breath out his nose, Theo extended his claws further and hooked them in the fabric of Owen’s suitcoat. “Not gonna lie, big guy,” he said. “Call it a cat thing, but I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.”
He shredded through the fabric with ease, tearing the coat sleeve away and doing the same to thehis shirt. The hot, metallic stink of blood hit him immediately, smelling so much like Owen it made his mind reel. Theo leaned in, biting his tongue to keep from licking the wound. Cat tThings, and all. He sniffed and reeled back as the bitter, bright stench of aconite slapped his senses.
“Shit.”
Tires screeched to a halt at the end of the alleyway.
“Wassit?” Owen grunted, shifting uneasily on the ground. Damn stubborn wolf. Shot in the arm and poisoned with wolfsbane, and still, his protective instincts kicked in.
“Nothing.” Theo grabbed his arm and brought it to his mouth, hoping, praying, wishing that all that fFirst aAid training the PBI had them do was up-to-date.
He widened his jaw, ready to bite down and suck out the wolfsbane, and froze as a bright beam lit up the alleyway.
“You! Freeze!”
Find B.L. Brown’s books at linktr.ee/brittabrau.
Part 5
by Tavia Lark
Struggling for consciousness, Owen reached out—but Theo was already whirling away. The meddling, infuriating, perfect mess of a cat wanted to protect him.
“Stay back,” Theo hissed, lithe form outlined in the… arcane green light?
The light faded as a figure stepped into view. Not a cop. His sickly pale features blurred in Owen’s poisoned vision, but the burnt herb smell was clear.
“You’re dead.” Owen tried to stand. “Or I’m hallucinating.”
Theo held Owen down by the shoulder, way too easily. “That makes two of us hallucinating.”
“No hallucinations, but yes, I’m very dead,” Joe Hones said. The warlock sounded peeved. “You think you had a bad date? I thought I was getting coffee with Marcus.”
“Condolences,” Owen gasped.
“Do you have a wolfsbane antidote?” Theo asked, which was extremely against PBI protocol.
Owen groaned. “Don’t bargain with the enemy. Even if he’s dead.”
Theo’s hand tensed on Owen’s shoulder. “Owen, I love you, but shut up right now.”
The dead warlock drifted closer. His car keys dangled from his hand. “Yes, saving the werewolf would be an excellent first step in my revenge. Marcus hates him. First, I’ll cure the wolfsbane—”
Joe snapped his fingers, and the darkness started receding from Owen’s vision.
“Then, I’ll transport you both somewhere safe. Stay put while I report my own murder to the PBI—”
Joe snapped his fingers again, and the alleyway disappeared in a flash of green light.
After the sickening jolt of a transportation spell, Owen and Theo appeared in a dimly lit café. Dozens of bright eyes stared at them through the shadows.
And the sign on the wall read: Joe’s Magical Cat Café.
Find Tavia Lark’s books at www.tavialark.com.
Part 6
by Cleo Nitz
Theo pounced on Owen to examine his wound. Now that the wolfsbane was gone, it was visibly healing, the skin spreading to cover the gap. Soon, nothing remained but dried blood.
“You’re okay!” All the tension left Theo, and he collapsed into a cat puddle on the floor.
“What the fuck is this place?” Owen asked.
Theo looked around. It was indeed a cat café, featuring a variety of cats. A lion sleeping on a leather sofa, two tigers sitting on a massive cat tree, a bunch of housecats. And one Theo.
But no door.
Theo slowly blinked at the other felines and pointedly looked away. The tigers politely returned the gesture; the lion didn’t stir.
There was a single table with two chairs. Two hot cups of coffee were served. Between them, there was a paper with crappy handwriting that said, “Enjoy your date. Will bring you back into the real world later.”
“I guess we’re stuck here for now,” Theo said. “This can’t be too bad. Joe isn’t going to cure you of wolfsbane just to poison us with coffee.”
This was perfect. A date, mayhem, and skipping all the boring PBI cleanup crap.
Owen took a cautious sip of coffee. He immediately turned greenish. “Might poison us accidentally though. This coffee is terrible.”
On the table, the note was gone, but the napkin’s brand name had changed to, “Rude.” Theo brushed it away quickly.
He shrugged. “I still think this was a great first date.”
“This doesn’t count as a date.”
“It does. I fully intend to bring you back home when you’ve finished your coffee.”
“So impatient. Is that a cat thing again?”
“I’m not all cat, if you haven’t noticed.” Theo brushed a strand of hair away from Owen’s face with his very human fingers. “I don’t like waiting. It’s a human thing.”
Find Cleo Nitz’s books at www.cleonitz.com.
Part 7
by Coral Moore
“It’s not a date, even if I let you seduce me after,” Owen repeated.
“Let.” Theo tsked, brushing something from the lapel of Owen’s ruined suit coat. “As if you wouldn’t be an active participant.”
Owen focused on Theo’s perfectly shaped lips for a moment, imagining what it would be like to taste him, and then a memory bubbled up from when he’d been out of it from the wolfsbane. “You said…”
“What did I say?” Theo blinked up at him, all wide-eyed cat innocence.
“That you…” Owen looked away, feeling unsure.
Theo grumbled, his impatience winning again. “That I loved you.”
Owen’s heart beat double time in his chest. “You do?”
“Of course I do, you big lug.” Theo smiled, a hint of a blush rising into his cheeks. “How could I not?”
Owen moved in a rush, gathering a surprised Theo up in his arms and pulling him into a hungry kiss that had been years in the making. He poured every bit of his simmering desire into showing Theo exactly what he thought of that sassy feline mouth.
Theo pulled away a long while later. “Is it a date now?” he asked with a purr that was cut off when Owen kissed him again.
They didn’t manage to make it back to Theo’s place after all, and when Joe popped back in they were tangled in one another on the floor, satisfied and content and very naked.
“Shifters.” Joe cursed under his breath. “Put your clothes back on, we’re going after Marcus.”
Owen would never admit it under any sort of torture, but a bit of revenge against the person who had set them up would be the perfect ending to what had already been a perfect first date.
Find Coral Moore’s books at www.coralmoore.com.