Chapter 4 Tanner
TANNER
I probably shouldn’t be looking there
Normally, on a Sunday evening, I’d be out back in my fur and enjoying the last bit of the weekend. But that was BC; before Candrin. Unlike everyone else who lived here, Candrin was human and that meant I needed to be sneaky about taking my fur.
If I even wanted to take it, which I didn’t. I liked Candrin and wanted to spend time with him. My bear liked him too. Only thing was, my bear liked him too much. The beast was sure that Candrin was my mate which was ridiculous on many levels, including him being a human and everything.
“I’m going to grab a quick shower and then maybe see about dinner,” Candrin said, his hands in his front pockets, drawing my eyes where they should not be.
Was it where they wanted to be? Absolutely, but definitely not where they belonged.
Staring at your new roommate’s package wasn’t the way to keep him your roommate for long.
“That sounds good.” It was almost as if he were asking permission and I wasn’t sure if that said more about his old home or about his comfort level here and in either case, it saddened me a little and pissed my bear off.
He wanted nothing more than to protect Candrin and just the hint that his past hurt him had my bear’s manties in a bunch.
Candrin went upstairs and gods help me, I watched him walk away. He looked too good not to and I immediately felt like a dick for ogling the poor guy. He didn’t deserve that. Not at all.
He was half way up the stairs when I started to scent my beast. I had no choice but to let him out and not in the leisurely Sunday romp in the back. My bear needed to run and get some of this pent up energy out.
Mate.
Claim.
Ours.
I didn’t even answer him right away, instead running outside and behind the shed that lay just beyond the tree line where I barely got my clothing off in time to let my bear break free.
He’s not ours. We just need to get laid.
Ours.
Mate.
Claim.
No. Run. And I pushed him to obey and we took off into the woods, running as fast as we could.
It wasn’t hunting season and it was probably safe to go past our property line even if we got that far, but the way my bear paid no attention whatsoever to his surroundings was very telling.
My beast wasn’t in complete control of his actions and that wasn’t good.
We ran and ran and then ran some more until we hit the river that lined the one side of our property.
He stopped and drank, the entire time pushing me to go home.
And he was right. I should. Poor Candrin went to take a shower and was going to come home to an empty house.
But also, I needed my bear good and tired first. I didn’t need him getting too close to the surface with Candrin around.
I pushed my bear to run as fast as he could back to the shed, hoping it would wear him out enough and by the time we reached it, he was slowing down.
I took that as a very good sign. Taking my skin again, I threw on my clothes and jogged back to the house where I found Candrin squatting down as he looked through the fridge, his hair still damp, his shirt clinging to his back where he probably didn’t get it quite dry enough.
I could dry it for him next time.
I shook that thought from myself. The last thing I needed was to get a boner in front of the guy and in these jeans there would be no way of hiding it.
“Any good ideas for dinner?” I asked and he jumped up and quickly shut the door.
“Sorry. I was just…” He turned to face me. “I don’t really know how to do much of this stuff.” He waved his hands around in the air indicating the kitchen.
I’d noticed when we were doing chores that they were not natural to him. He never complained and worked hard, but more than one thing seemed quite new to him based on the questions he asked and the way he went about everything.
“That’s okay.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I know my way around this.” So much for keeping a budget. “Any allergies?”
He shook his head and I dialed up my favorite pizza place and ordered a couple of large pizzas, one plain and one their house special with pretty much everything on it.
When I slid the phone into my pocket, I noticed him looking…
I wasn’t sure…uncomfortable was my best guess.
Whatever it was, I hated that I was probably the cause of it.
“You ordered pizza.” It wasn’t a question.
“We’re hungry.” Maybe not only for food, but my horniness was not his problem.
“I really don’t have money for that.” He scratched the back of his neck.
“Well, it just so happens that I recently got a little extra money in the form of a rent payment and this one’s on me. I didn’t want to eat alone and I love this pizza.”
“But you left…I thought maybe you were mad that I took my shower first or something.” He stared down at the floor.
There was something so vulnerable about him. I longed to cross the room and hug him. Instead I did something I absolutely hated to do, I lied.
“I had to check something in the shed and then got distracted.” If it wasn’t imperative that I kept my beast a secret, I’d have introduced him right then and there, the sour taste of the lie still in my mouth.
“I promise you, the only thing I thought when you said that you were taking a shower, was that you were going to be taking a shower.” And that I shouldn’t be thinking about him in said shower.
“Okay.” He said as if he was just agreeing to move on.
And if it was moving on that he wanted, I was going to give him that.
“That’s a really neat watch you're wearing.”
He ran his finger over the face of it and then told me the story of where it came from and why it was special to him.
He relaxed, getting more animated as he spoke.
I liked seeing him like that—just being himself and not trying so hard not to upset me, as if he had to always be on eggshells or else something horrible would happen.
The doorbell rang and I ran to get the pizza, not wanting Candrin to feel like he needed to contribute to the meal financially.
If he was going to have to pay weekly at first, he didn’t have the money to spare.
And while I appreciated him paying the full first month, part of me wanted to give it back and tell him to get on his feet first. Only another part of me was shouting that that would make it worse.
And the bear part of me? He was still insisting Candrin was my mate.
As if my head wasn’t a confusing enough place already.
At least my beast was quieter, relaxing the longer we spent with Candrin.
Sure being exhausted contributed to that, but it wasn’t the whole story.
It was being around Candrin my bear was loving.
I set the pizza and bag of napkins and pepper flakes that came with it on the coffee table and waved Candrin over.
“As I see it, we have two viable options; We could go to the kitchen and eat with proper plates we’ll have to wash later or we could turn on a cheesy television show and eat like frat boys in the old eighties movies with no plates and even less manners.
” I plopped on the couch already knowing what I wanted.
“And to sweeten the pot on option two, I should probably let you know that there’s a Shifter World marathon that just started. ”
“Shifter World?” He sat beside me and my bear started to purr—he freaking purred. “I could lose my manners for some Finn.”
I grabbed the remote and found the channel, and Finn appeared on the screen. The television gods were officially with me.
Popping open the top pizza, I offered one of the house specials to Candrin.
“What’s not on this pizza?” He grabbed a slice and took a huge bite.
“No anchovies, but I think just about everything else. And they only stopped the anchovies because they lost their supplier.”
“Not sad there. This is amazing. Thank you.” He shoved another piece in his mouth and my bear puffed out in pride over having fed our mate, even though he couldn’t possibly be ours.
I was officially in big trouble.