Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cabin Tour
ELI
I’d stood in front of my bathroom mirror, preening myself like a parakeet for the last hour and a half.
I’d plucked my eyebrows, trimmed my beard, shaved my nose hairs with a machine that sounded like it had a jet engine inside it, blow-dried and styled my hair down to the individual curls, and manscaped all over.
It took me another half hour to figure out what I was going to wear, going through six different (but mostly similar) green or black shirts until I settled on an olive button-up with a pair of boot-cut jeans and a clean set of white Adidas.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d put so much thought into an outfit. I was used to throwing on either gym clothes, hockey gear, or a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. That’d been my rotation these last few months.
It was nice dressing up for something. I had music playing on my phone, and I wasn’t nervous at all. I was excited to be spending more time with Gabe.
Just us.
He offered to pick me up like a true gentleman—gentleshifter?
—but also said he wanted to get there first to set it up for us.
I told him I’d meet him there to make it less complicated, so I gave myself one last look over in the mirror, asked myself how the hell I had gotten here, turned the music up a little louder, took one last swish of mouthwash, and headed out with a little pep in my step and a little vibration in my pocket.
Wait… oh. “Hey, Mom.”
I connected the call to my car as I got in.
It was a chilly but comfortable afternoon in late February with a cloudless blue sky stretching out ahead of me, so I turned the A/C off, lowered the windows, and opened the sunroof.
“Can you believe Isa went home last night?” my mom’s voice rang out loud over the speakers.
“Huh?” It took me a second to realize what my mom was talking about.
It was a reality show I occasionally watched with her, about celebrities in a castle lying and backstabbing each other.
It was campy and entertaining when I had a long flight or bus ride to spend.
“Oh, I didn’t watch. I haven’t watched the last two episodes, so thanks for the spoiler, Mom. ”
“Oh shit. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, I’m joking, I don’t care. And I said Isa was going to go home before the scare challenge. She was playing too aggressively.”
“You’re right. I just liked how she was from Puerto Rico. Reminded me of home.”
“I think Caleb’s going to take it all.”
“I agree. At least he deserves it. His story’s so sad. But also, he’s very attractive. And I read somewhere he’s gay! You should message him.”
That got a laugh out of me. My mother had been on a mission, trying to set me up with anyone and everyone she heard was gay pretty much the second my breakup was official.
So far, she hadn’t succeeded. And, well, it looked like she could give up her quest.
Which brought me to an entirely “unrelated” question.
“Mom, what are your thoughts on fate?”
“On fate?” she repeated. Her dog, Chichi, barked loudly in the background like she did every time my mom talked to someone on the phone.
“Yeah. Like destiny.”
“Are you thinking of getting into tarot reading or something? Because, honey, I really don’t think you should give up your talents in hockey for—”
“No, Ma, I’m just asking in general. Do you think it’s real? Like, do you think there are relationships out there brought together through fate?”
My mom mulled over the question. The silence was filled with a barking Chichi.
“Yes,” she finally answered, shushing Chichi in the process.
“Just like I think there are certain moments in life that are ‘meant to be,’ I think there are certain relationships that are the same.
Your dad, as much as that man annoys me on a daily basis, had been placed in my path.
I chose to go out that night, but so did he.
And I think there was an inkling in the back of both our minds that something would happen the night we met.
I think that meeting was written down in a book somewhere, a very big book, and it led to a chapter featuring my favorite son.”
“Your only son,” I said.
“Yes, ok yes, it wasn’t a difficult title to achieve, but I promise you it is one that’s impossible to take.” She laughed, her singsongy joy always bringing a warmth to my chest. “What’s with the fortune cookie mood?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said, more than happy with the answer but not wanting to divulge too much just yet. “So you really think Caleb’s going to win The Liars?”
“One hundred percent. I’ll bet you anything he’s walking away with his money. And if he doesn’t, then I owe you a gift card to Longhorn.”
“Mom, I told you, I’m not betting on things with you anymore.”
“Gift card to Houston’s Steak?”
I paused briefly. “Deal.”
“That’s my boy. And if he loses, then I’ll still get you the gift card because I love you that much.”
I smiled and playfully rolled my eyes. “Sounds good, Ma. I’ll call you later. I’m about to hop on the highway.”
I hung up the call with my mom, feeling like I’d already won all the gift cards to expensive steak houses that money could buy. The sun was shining, the roads were clear, and I was on the way to meet with my secret shifter, um, situationship?
Okay, so maybe some things still had to be figured out, but that was a problem for tomorrow Eli.
Today was going to be about letting go and having fun.
Gabe waited for me, posted outside of his Jeep, arms crossed, a golden band of sunlight shining down on him through a covering of tall oak trees.
Fucking hell, God really did have favorites, huh?
“Glad you found this place alright,” he said as I got out of my car. “The map can get funky.”
“It did try to lead me into a river at one point, but thankfully, Toyotas don’t self-drive yet, or I would have shown up a little wet.”
Gabe laughed at that and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me toward him. “I wouldn’t have minded that.” He didn’t let me reply, kissing me instead.
You know those kisses that are described as sweeping someone off their feet? As plopping them directly on a fluffy little cloud with the number nine hanging off it?
Those kisses exist. Not just in movies or fairy tales, but out in the real world.
And why wouldn’t they? Magic lived in this world and in the one I occupied before finding out about shifters.
It existed in attending a concert for a favorite artist and singing along with an arena full of people; it existed in the smallest of flowers that would spring up through cracked concrete, apparently against all odds.
And it existed in kisses like these. A kiss that made you feel less lonely, supported, understood, hungered for, protected. All of it.
All in the way his tongue danced with mine. In how his hand tightened around the back of my neck. In how I could hear him breathing me in, how he pressed his front to mine, erasing any atom of space that may have existed between us.
It was such a contrast to the head nods we’d give each other as hellos before practice or how we’d say goodbye after a game, only to meet up later at his house or mine and spend the entire night rolling around naked.
I want this all the time.
But I knew I couldn’t have it.
I swallowed that bitter pill as we broke for air.
He smiled down at me, his pearly white teeth perfectly straight.
“Welcome to my hideaway.” He stepped back and flared his arm out, directing my attention to the beautiful black painted cabin behind him.
It was a beautiful home, built with a traditional mountainside log cabin in mind but with massive windows, a wide wraparound porch full of potted flowers and cozy places to sit, and a fire pit that looked out over a beautiful vista of the mountains.
“This is yours?” I asked.
“It is. It’s been in the family since my great grandpa.”
“It’s beautiful.” I took a step back so I could soak it in. “I didn’t know you were a mountain boy.”
“I’m full of surprises,” Gabe said with a wink in what could have quite possibly been the understatement of the decade. “Come, let me give you the tour.”
I followed him onto the porch, the wood creaking underneath us as we walked. He opened the dark blue door and let me in first.
The interior was just as breathtaking as the exterior. There were still the same touches of blue that he had in his home, but they seemed to have been toned down by—
“I had an interior designer help out.”
I chuckled, pointing at an artsy bronze light fixture above a round black-and-white marble coffee table. “Yeah, this does look a little different than the design tips you got from the Blue Man Group.”
Gabe took a second to register my joke. His face cracked. “You’re such a dick,” he said with a laugh.
“I also have one. What a coincidence.”
“Oh, I know you have one. A very nice, thick, uncut one.” He licked his lips and kicked up the ever-burning fire in my core. But instead of tending to the flames, he turned and said, “On with the tour.”
I ignored my subtle ache of blue balls and followed, exploring the kitchen and the guest rooms and the spa-like bathroom with its rainfall shower and dark stone walls.
It was on the second floor where the tour took a turn, and it wasn’t because I could see the master bedroom directly in front of me.
“What’s that room?” I asked as we walked past a door with a heavy digital lock on the front. It was different from all the other doors and not just because of the lock. It was also made of a different material, painted over with matte-black paint.
Fiberglass?
“That is…” Gabe’s voice trailed off. He abruptly stopped.
We were on the landing to the second floor, the smooth wooden railings looking down over the living room and out through the massive walls of glass.
The view seemed painted in, a sun-soaked mountain range covered in deep evergreen trees, undulating like a wave coming to crash onto shore.
“It’s my were room. On nights when there’s a full moon, I come here and lock myself in there to shift. ”
My head tilted forward, and my eyebrows jerked up my forehead in surprise. “Holy shit, really? What the hell happens on full moons?”
“That’s when us shifters involuntarily transform into our were forms. For us, yes, that’s typically what you think of when you hear werewolves.
We’re bipedal wolflike men and women. Our heights and builds change; our arms elongate and hands turn to claws.
Noses into snouts. It can also be a vulnerable state for us, even with as much power as we have. ”
“How so?”
“We tend to lose control to our basic animal instincts in were form. If I’m not locked up, for example, I may end up getting the urge to go find you.
Not to hurt you,” he quickly added, likely going off the look on my face.
“But because I’d want to be near you, protecting you.
And sometimes, yes, those instincts can turn dangerous.
A were wanting to go and settle a fight with an enemy, for example.
In those cases, it’s best we all have a safe room that we can lock ourselves in and keep everyone else both safe and unaware of our existence. ”
I sucked in a deep breath. I wasn’t sure if his explanation made me feel any better about this.