Getting Wild in Talbot’s Peak!

“A kissing booth?” Ziva offered up to the group surrounding the table.

“Oooh I like.” “Sweet!” “Who will do the kissing?” “Ziva.” “Penny.”  Everyone spoke at once which was typical for the group at this table.  Lamar, Mooney, Jamie, Penelope and Ziva sat in a semi-circle facing their boss and doling out ideas for the upcoming fair.  What kind of booth could the town newspaper offer up?  Their latest idea was a kissing booth.  Everyone liked the idea, or in Ziva’s case just put up with it to finally have some resolution on the entire event.

Nick just growled.

No surprise he hated the idea of a kissing booth, she, herself, was less than certain she wanted him offering up his soft lips to any other females.  This on the heels of the football fiasco made Nick one unhappy canine.

“Listen, Bossman,” Penny huffed, leaning toward the aggrieved wolf. “The suggestion could have been for a fucking booth.  Would that make it better?”

“Now that’s a booth I can get behind.” Lamar crooned.

“Lamar!” Jamie barked impressively for the shy wolf.

“Marissa would never allow me to participate in that…” Mooney chuffed, a blush rising from chin to forehead.

“Leave him alone, Penny…”

“That’s Mistress P to you Z.”

“…There will be no fucking booth.”  Ziva winked at Penny, giving her a smidgen of submission to settle her down, before looking back to her mate.

“What,” he growled.

“Nick, we’re running out of time here.  We need to think of a booth.”

“Why can’t we just do what we do…the news.”

“What, and let people stand around us as we write?”  Ziva snarked, her frustration rising with every pout Nick presented.  “We’re a newspaper, Nick, not TV news.  Not much to watch here.”

“FINE!”  Nick’s hand hit the table with such force the others jumped a bit in their chairs, but Ziva knew the sting of flesh to wood ignited his blood.  “Have a kissing booth, but you, Ziva, will not take part.” Her mate leaned in close, his lips a heartbeat away from hers.  “No one kisses you but me!”

“I’d say the same to you, Nicky, but where would that leave us?  We’re both out; Mooney’s out because magick with flow from Marissa's witchly britches if she sees him kiss someone else and just looking at the vein bulging on Jamie’s forehead make me think Lamar would have to be scratched from the list as well…”

“What!? Oh I’m so in.  Someone has to kiss the boys and make them cry…you know, not everyone in town is hetero-specific, some are omnisexual and will be looking for some boy smoochies.”  Lamar reached over and smoothed Jamie’s forehead.  “Sorry, lobo rojo, just consider it research.”

“Excuse me,” Mooney interjected, loudly from his place at the other end of the table.  “How about we adjourn for a few hours and everyone thinks up at least two non-sexual options for a booth.  Then we can reconvene and vote on a winner.”

“Good idea, Moon.”  Nick smiled for the first time since the meeting had started.  “Marissa and the boys are a good influence on you.  Meeting adjourned.  Be back here in two hours with better suggestions.”

##

Two hours later…

“I think we have a workable solution to the booth problem.”  Ziva said, standing in front of the group of hair tousled, stressed out people in charge of the fair booth for the G&B.

Nick looked up from his desk.  “I’m all ears.”

“A kissing/picture booth with a banner that reads… ‘Getting Wild in Talbot’s Peak’ People could kiss a wild animal and take a picture home as proof.”

Ziva waited for Nick’s outburst.

“What happened to non-sexual?”

“No one could think of anything totally without fun.”  Penny quipped.

“So we’d be going furry?”

“Some of us would.” Ziva nodded as she spoke.  “But some would need to stay in human form.  Jamie needs opposable thumbs to work the camera and you, Nick, need to play the alpha card to keep the animals in line.”

“But you’ll still be kissed…”

“Only the top of my head, not my lips.”

“Fine.  But make sure we have an assortment of animals to choose from and you stay in the background.”

“No worries, jefe,” Lamar smirked.  “Everyone will want to lay lips on my snake.”

Most of the group laughed.

Jamie growled.
~~~

Will it work?  Will the gang be able to turn furry when the time comes or will the kisses be doled out human style after all...  Don't miss the fair, coming soon to a town near you!

Serena

Can We Do That Here?

Nick finished dotting the last ‘I’ and crossing the last ‘t’ on the annual employee reviews and thanked Lupa that it was finally done.  While most newspapers around the country were struggling and going down the shitter, the Gazette flourished.

The scent of his mate reached him even before she entered his office.  “Did you forget how to knock?”

“I knew you were alone.” One hand hugged her hip while the other pointed a piece of paper at him.
“Besides, you’re not dumb enough to be giving what’s mine to someone else.”

“Really, and what if I was that dumb?”  He couldn’t help but to rile her up this way.  She was a Goddess normally, but when she was angry…she wrecked him.

“Then the she would be dead and you would be the proud new owner of that chastity apparatus we saw the other day over at Glenn’s.”

Nick cringed and gave a quick reassuring rub to the suddenly startled junk beneath the desk.  Like he’d ever risk losing the woman standing before him.  “What would possess the man to add that to the pet store’s inventory?  I mean sure, most of the towns animals get their love supplies from there, but really, that’s for when we’re in animal form.”

“I think Penny suggested it.  She said something about Danny needing a little discipline in his human form.”

“Shit, no more spending time with that woman.”  Nick had no doubt his admin was responsible for the purchase and the look Ziva currently aimed at him clearly suggested he do something anatomically impossible in either of his forms.  “Fine, tabling that discussion for now.  What do you have for me?”

“A letter to the editor for you to read.  You’re going to love this, Nicky.”

Her smirk told him different, but he took the paper anyway.

Dear Editor,
I’d like to first thank the Grease ‘n’ Grill for putting on the car show last week, it was righteous and about time.  It was a great way to change other town’s perceptions about Talbot’s Peak.  I was wondering if the town would ever consider doing a county fair type thing with games, food, a parade and even rides.  Ooh, we could have royalty as well…Peak King and Queen, Prince and Princess.  Like that.
Please consider.
Hopeful,
Eric

Nick dropped his head to the desk, snorting out his frustration.  “Please tell me that was a joke.”

“Nope, no joke.  Eric the human wants a fair.”

“Can you imagine the shifters in town attending a fair with humans?”

“It would be a challenge.”

He knew that grin.  It was the same one she sported when he told her no.  It was the one she got when they added something new to their sex.  She wanted a fair and he longed to give her whatever she desired. 

“How would we explain raw steak on a stick or live mice?”  He asked, trying desperately not to clue her in to his weakness.  “What about when the Oxen brothers lifted hundreds of pounds in the games of strength?  And royalty?  Can you imagine a Queen…”

“Lamar,” they both said at once.

“I’ll talk to Dante and Gil, but that’s all I can promise, Ziva.  Don’t start planning or posting that letter.”

“No, no planning or posting,” she said, already heading to the door with her head in the clouds.

“Ziva,” he warned.

“I love you too.”

Hell, she was planning and now he needed to convince Dante and Gil that a fair would be a good thing in the Peak.  Shite.
~~~

May your parades be filled with candy and your fairs provide your favorite snacks on a stick!


Serena