Chapter 26

He’s a cute little thing. Zack can see why the twins are flirting. He’s average height, with brown hair and these huge, soulful brown eyes. He’s handsome, with just slightly delicate features. He’s toned and tanned, looks a little bit like the stereotype of the handsome college guy, but there’s something about his wide, open, almost bashful smile that makes him look like more than just another good-looking college boy.

“You’re sure I can’t convince you to get a piercing while you’re here?” Dawn asks. She and her brother fit in well here, both pierced heavily and with their fair share of tattoos, like all the staff at Shifter’s Ink Tattoo and Piercing Parlor.

The customer is wearing short sleeves and has no visible tattoos. There’s also no piercings, none Zack can see, anyway. He looks clean cut, but Zack has learned from working in Shifter’s Ink that all kinds of people are into ink and piercings. There’s no “type” when it comes to tattoos.

“No thanks. It’s taken me this long to get halfway to knowing what I want in a tattoo. It’d take me forever to work out what piercing I’d want.” The guy smiles, and by his scent he’s definitely a shifter of some kind. All the other smells in the parlor, from customers, staff, and other people coming and going, it’s hard to tell, but Zack thinks the customer is a canine of some sort, but not wolf.

“I could suggest a few places,” Holden says, his gaze dropping below the customer’s belt, which has the guy turning an almost alarming shade of red.

“Need an artist?” Zack asks the twins, walking further into the front of the shop.

The twins turn toward him, looking almost guilty, and Zack would bet good money they were planning to keep the man on the other side of the counter talking as long as possible. If they weren’t so nice, Zack might have growled at them, but they’re good kids at the end of the day.

“Zack, hi. Meet Tobias Bone. Tobias, Zack is one of our most talented artists,” Dawn says, and Zack is sure her hair was a different color this morning when he walked in. Now it’s black, green, and pink in stripes down her back. Holden’s hair is the same as it was the last time Zack saw him: longish, but above his shoulders and bright blue.

Zack doesn’t bother with fancy hair colors like a lot of his workmates. He has dark hair, but he keeps it shaved short. He’s had lovers complain that it gave them nothing to grab onto. Zack doesn’t care; it’s his hair.

He steps forward enough to shake hands, and he must have half a foot of height on Tobias, but then, Zack is six foot five in his bare feet, so this guy isn’t small, per se, just smaller than Zack.

Tobias has a firm handshake, and he doesn’t try and pull any macho bullshit like being the one to grip the tightest. He just shakes Zack’s hand and gives a small smile. It’s adorable. He actually has dimples. Zack kind of wants to lick them. He takes his hand back and tells himself that he’s twenty-nine. He’s not some hormonal kid like the twins. He’s not going to pant over some guy just for being cute.

“Tobias is a tattoo virgin,” Holden says with a wicked smile.

“I heard this shop was the best for shape shifters,” Tobias says.

“We are. Do you know what you want?” Zack asks. The shop does have a very good reputation. Shape shifters can’t just get tattooed anywhere. They need special needles and ink infused with silver if they want the tattoo to stay and not just heal over and disappear.

“Kind of,” Tobias says, pulling an apologetic face.

“Well, I have some spare time now. Come back to my workstation, and we’ll talk about it,” Zack replies. He thinks he’d rather do this without the twins watching his every move, because he can feel their eyes going between him and Tobias.

They really are good kids, but a little sex mad. Maybe it’s their age, but then, Zack’s sure he wasn’t like that when he was twenty.

“That would be great. I thought I’d have to make an appointment and come back.” Tobias follows when Zack turns to go back to his workroom.

“You got lucky. I had a long appointment that someone had to cancel, a piece that was going to take hours, but the guy’s having family issues,” Zack explains.

Once they’re in his room, Zack pulls out a chair for Tobias before sitting down himself. They sit at either side of a small table Zack has set, and he opens a book to a blank page so he can take notes and sketch ideas.