Chapter 5
GABE
My omega dad would be the first to label my alpha mate a crybaby pushover.
First, he was mostly vegetarian, which Dad would hate.
Then, he said he wouldn't fight for me, which was one of my dad's criticisms against my alpha dad.
The idea of play-acting a shouting match sounded like fun to me, but my dad wouldn't understand.
To top it all off, Mika cried at the end of a nature show!
So why was I even more attracted to him now?
He was everything I'd been told to avoid in an alpha mate, but I didn't care.
Maybe I was still in my rebel era. It had been nine years since I'd disagreed with my dad's idea of a "stable, well-paying job," and now I rejected everything I should want from an alpha mate.
I wanted Mika, plain and simple. Besides, I'd already irritated the hell out of my dad with my Bachelor of Arts degree and my job as a court artist. What was one more disappointment after that?
My dad would be at Becca's wedding. She'd spent a lot of time with us throughout her dad's long grieving period.
The poor man still wasn't over losing the love of his life.
As I watched episode after episode of the adorable meerkat matriarch and her mate, I could understand why.
While they were animals, it was obvious they loved each other.
After combing through each other's fur, they would search for bugs and other snacks to give their mate.
That all changed once the matriarch was pregnant. Then, her family let her have whatever she wanted because she was eating for at least two. When she gave birth to a litter of three pups, I paused the show to ask Mika, "How many babies can meerkat shifters have at once?"
"Not that many," he reassured me. "Sometimes twins. We're more human than meerkat when it comes to babies. Our gestation period is still nine months."
"Thank goodness." Meerkat babies were born eleven weeks after conception. If I'd be loaded down with two or three on top of that, I would die of embarrassment the moment I started showing.
My face burned when it dawned on me after a few more minutes of the show—here I was, already thinking about having babies with this alpha, and we'd just met! Weirder still, I felt so comfortable in his apartment. If I hadn't known before, this was my sign: he was my mate.
I leaned over against the arm of his loveseat and kicked my shoes off to pull my feet up. I curled on my side with my head closest to Mika. He shifted to lie on his side on the papasan chair, too, with his head closest to me, and we watched meerkats being meerkats.
By the end of the first season, I was already a little in love.
Somewhere mid-second season, the streaming service asked if we were still watching.
I glanced over at Mika, who was sound asleep on his papasan chair.
I didn't want to wake him, so I let my eyes drift closed, my earlier fear of being alone with him long forgotten.
As I drifted toward sleep, I envisioned our life together.
I bet Mika wasn't the type to pretend to be a gentleman until it no longer suited him.
We'd split the bar bill. Then, he'd opened my car door for me, and while he had offered to buy me dinner, he hadn't batted an eye when I slapped cash on the coffee table for my meal.
After we ate, I'd hoped he would sit beside me on the loveseat, but he'd returned to his papasan chair. The farther away he was, the more my body yearned for him. I was lucky I wasn't near my heat, or my ass would be dripping with slick.
I never thought I'd be down to fuck on a first date, but he smelled so good. It didn't help that half of the show's second season had been filmed during meerkat mating season. It was weird how turned on I was by the primal way they rutted against each other.
No, I would not play with myself on Mika's loveseat. I curled into a ball and willed my boner away, even though my cock had been at half-mast since we'd arrived. I'd untucked my overlong shirt from my pants before I sat down, so at least he couldn't tell, or so I hoped.
I snuggled into the leather loveseat. I imagined I was tucked away in a tunnel like the ones the meerkats called home. The room had cooled with the dropping desert temperatures outside, but inside, I was cozy and warm.
I startled awake when a thick blanket fell over me.
"Sorry," Mika muttered. "You looked cozy, so I was going to leave you until morning."
"Yes, please." I hoped I said the words aloud, not only in my head.
I fell asleep again, this time feeling much warmer. My dreams of meerkats were so vivid, I could feel their soft fur and warm bodies against me as we lay in a pile in the middle of a burrow.
I woke flat on my back with my legs tossed over the loveseat arm. It wasn't the worst position in the world. My lower back, which usually protested loudly each morning, was oddly quiet.
The strangest part was, I wasn't alone. On top of the cozy blanket Mika had draped over me, a soft, furry body lay on my chest. Did Mika have a cat?
Something was off. I ran my hand down the cat's body and then returned to the ears. Little round ears, not catlike at all. I cracked one eye open and found a meerkat gazing at me through half-lidded eyes.
"Mika?"
If meerkats could smile, this one smiled at me. He opened his eyes a little wider and stretched his paws out on my chest. He shimmied and shook his body into a line down my abdomen. When he lay down, his tail brushed against my cock, and I groaned.
"I'm going to be late for work," I muttered to take my mind off his soft fur and warm body.
The meerkat sprang backward, squishing my balls before leaping to the coffee table and then to the floor. He scampered off in the direction of the bedroom.
A moment later, Mika reappeared in a pair of loose red shorts. He pulled on a gray tank top and slipped into a pair of flip-flops.
I was still fully dressed in my wrinkle-free dress shirt and suit pants. I slid my shoes back on and folded the blanket before placing it over the back of the loveseat.
"Do you want something to eat?" he asked. "I've got bananas and breakfast bars."
"I'll take one of each to go, please." I added another five dollars to the money still sitting on the coffee table. "I had a great time last night."
"Me too." He grinned. "What are you doing this weekend?"
I stared at him for a moment. "Are we really not going to talk about what just happened?"
He clasped his hands to his chest and stared at me beseechingly. "I was hoping you would forget, or think you were dreaming, or both."
"You're a meerkat shifter, and I woke with a meerkat on my chest," I prodded.
He met my gaze with a sheepish grin. "It pretty much explains itself."
Even though I was getting later for work by the minute, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned my hip against the couch. "It really doesn't."
He tried to stare me down, but then he shrugged. "You're my mate."
"Thank the gods, you feel it, too." I dropped my arms to my sides and took a step toward him. "Ever since I hopped in your car, I thought you were mine."
He braced his hands on my shoulders, but instead of pulling me in for a kiss, he held me at arm's length.
"My meerkat couldn't resist you. I don't even shift during the week, or in my apartment, but he wanted to be closer to you.
" He squeezed my shoulders. "I thought seeing my animal form would be less traumatic than waking up in my bed with a naked man draped over your chest."
Now that he'd said it, I wouldn't be able to get that image out of my head for the rest of the week. "Maybe next time?"
He stood up a little straighter and dropped his hands to steeple in front of his chest. He reminded me so much of a meerkat searching the grasslands for predators. "Next time?"
I repeated his earlier question. "What are you doing this weekend?"
Hiking. Mika wanted to take me hiking on a four-mile trail on Saturday morning. I wasn't opposed to walking. I grew up on public transportation and never learned to drive a car. Walking for fun, though? This would be a new experience for me.
I thought about Mika at random times through the week.
Using the copier of doom in the county clerk's office, I photocopied the sketches I'd made of him.
On breaks, I snuck the folded copies from the folder at the front of my sketchbook to stare at them again.
Even in black and white, I'd captured his smile and expressive face.
He was gorgeous, and so passionate about his work for the energy company.
On Friday, the only trial at the courthouse had two witness testimonies before the prosecution rested. The defense's lead attorney gave their opening statement, and then the judge adjourned early and moved the defense witness testimony to Monday.
After an afternoon nap, when I wished I had a meerkat sleeping on my chest, I took stock of my limited outdoor supplies. To be fair, I didn't hike often, or ever.
I owned a single pair of sexy blue leather hiking boots, but they were more for the club than the trail.
They happened to be waterproof, a necessity when people constantly spilled drinks around me.
Becca spilled a lot, especially when she'd had too much to drink.
Since Bruce had graduated from North Carolina State, moved back home, and proposed, she'd stopped drinking to the point of spilling, mostly.
I doubted Mika would spill a drink on my boots, and it probably wouldn't rain, but the boots were stylish and practical …
for people who didn't live in a desert. I had a feeling they would be covered in a layer of dust after five steps, and then they'd look like any other hiking boots along the trail.
For clothes, I decided on layers. To combat the cool morning fog, I had a thermal plaid jacket.
Beneath that, I could wear whatever combination of long-sleeved and short-sleeved shirts I wanted.
My artistic heart knew better than to pick them out tonight.
I would decide tomorrow morning, probably while rushing.
I never planned on being late. It just happened.
To compensate for my eventual tardiness, I grabbed my reusable shopping bags, locked my apartment, and walked to the convenience store a few blocks away. It had everything I needed, from snacks to bottled water.
Mika had given me his number while he drove me back to my apartment. Still, I hesitated over the nearly blank text screen. If I messaged him now, would I seem too needy?
I rolled my eyes at my silly teenage crush behavior. I wasn't the one who had turned into a meerkat in the middle of the night and decided to cuddle. Mika gave me his number because he wanted me to text him.
"What's your favorite trail snack?" I asked.
"Trail mix," he responded promptly. "Chocolate. No raisins." He ended the second text with the poop emoji.
I liked raisins. I grabbed both, so we would each have our own bag. Then I found a much larger bag with peanuts and white and dark chocolate spheres. I imagined Mika's fingers brushing against mine as we both reached into the bag, and I put the others back on the shelf.
In the refrigerator aisle, I snagged two large bottles of water. I hesitated with my hand on the door for the sports drinks, but thought better of it. I didn't want to lug all that liquid for four miles.
Despite my best intentions, I browsed the candy selection.
I couldn't resist grabbing two peanut rolls, since they were almost trail mix, anyway.
And because Mika said he liked chocolate, I added some chocolate and caramel squares from the local chocolate factory.
After four miles, we would need something sweet.