11. Todd
11
TODD
Date night had finally arrived.
I had reservations in place, a small gift for when I picked him up, and was looking pretty darn good—with one exception. My eyes. They were not even close to human.
My bear was right at the surface. Far too close. And he wouldn’t stop insisting that Niam was my mate. It wasn’t that I disagreed with him, because I didn’t. After Wednesday night, there was zero doubt left about who Niam was to me.
This was more than just attraction. This was more than just getting along. He was my mate. Full. Stop.
But if my bear kept pushing against me, making himself known enough that any random person could see, he would scare Niam away. Niam had been pretty cool about the whole shifter thing, but it was one thing to know I was a shifter and another to see my grizzly pushing at me, demanding to be seen.
“Could you please calm down?” I didn’t know why I was arguing with my beast. It never went well. I was going to have to just force him down—one of my very least favorite things to do.
Mate. Ours. Claim.
“I know he’s our mate, but he’s human. We need to do this right, or we’ll lose him.” Watching my bear through the mirror as I spoke to him was weird, but speaking to him the way I normally did when he was right there didn’t have the same impact. Not with my stubborn beast, that was for sure.
No. Claim. Ours.
When he got like this, there was no reasoning with him. But still, I found myself trying. “You need to fall back, or he won’t stay with us.”
He growled, but after a beat, my eyes were finally back to mine.
Thank you.
Now, I was ready to go get Niam.
He was staying with his father in town. At first, I worried that picking him up there might make him nervous. Meeting the family was kind of a big deal for humans—not that picking him up at his father’s house meant I’d meet him, but the potential was there. But really, I probably should have met the man already since I was representing his business during an audit.
His other son—my mate’s brother—was a piece of work, I’d give him that. If there was a way to fuck up the books, he had managed to do it. It was like a case study they gave you in school where pretty much everything was wrong. But unlike in school, this situation had the very real possibility of putting good people out of work. Now that I was just about done with the online record keeping, it would be so much easier for me and Niam to maintain for the long term.
After the short drive to his childhood home, I checked myself in my mirror one more time before walking up to his front door with a little gift bag in my hand. But before I could knock, the door swung open and an older version of Niam was smiling at me
“You must be the superhero!” The older man chuckled and stepped to the side.
That was an unexpected welcome. “I wouldn’t say I’m a superhero, but I am the numbers guy.”
“Same difference. Come on in.” He held out his hand and introduced himself. “I’m Jacob, Niam’s dad. Nice to meet you. ”
“It’s great to meet you too, sir.” I cleaned my throat and took a breath to gauge where Niam was. He wasn’t within earshot. “You’ve raised a wonderful young man. I care for him a lot.”
He gave me a knowing look as I stepped inside. “My son’s getting changed. Again.” Mischief sparkled in his eyes. “Guessing that means you’re a keeper.”
If Niam had been standing there, he’d be the color of a beet. But I appreciated the words. It meant that Niam was feeling that same connection that I was. “I’d say the same about him, sir.”
Niam came out a couple minutes later, looking every bit as amazing as he always did. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Don’t be sorry.” I handed him the gift bag. “It was nice to get to meet your father.” The father who had discreetly left the room as Niam came in.
My mate reached inside the bag and pulled out a box of drawing pencils. The clerk at the art store told me they were the most versatile after grilling me about the type of paper he used and what other mediums he might mix with it. I knew none of those answers, so we went with generic quality instead of specialized.
Really, I wasn’t even sure if his doodles were more than a nervous habit.
His jaw opened as he looked at them. “These are… Wow. Thank you.” Guess it wasn’t a nervous habit, if the way his face lit up was any indication.
“I figured they were better than flowers.”
He nodded and went to hug me, then looked around to make sure his father wasn’t there before doing so. Niam was so adorable.
I wrapped my arms around him and held him close for a few seconds before stepping back. While hugging was fine, I wasn’t ready for his father to see my hard-on, and I was definitely sporting one of those.
After a quick goodbye to his dad, we walked out to my car and headed to dinner.
I took him to a small farm-to-table restaurant not too far out of town. The food was great, and the company was even better. But the entire time we were there, I was distracted by the man. I couldn’t figure out how to tell him how much he meant to me without scaring him away.
Humans were just so different from shifters. They required wooing. And I could be patient. I’d woo until the cows came home if that’s what he needed.
Now that I’d accepted that Niam was mine and I was his, I was more than ready to move past the first date and into our forever.
If only it worked that way.