Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Jett
“I fucked up. Can I come in?”
Wordlessly, because honestly I have no idea what I’m supposed to say in a situation like this, I step to the side and allow the man inside. He’s soaking wet and shaking from the cold. What the hell is he doing out in this snowstorm? Why isn’t he dressed better? Why is he here at my house?
“Fuck,” he murmurs, stepping inside. I close the door behind him, then I turn around and stare. I’m so fucking confused.
When he turns towards me, my heart stutters.
Fuck, I know who this is! This is the guy who found me in the river!
Thank the gods I heard him coming otherwise he would have been even more surprised to find an octopus swimming in the river.
We’re so far away from an ocean, it wouldn’t have made sense to find a wild octopus out here.
The last thing I need is to draw attention to myself. I love living out here in the country because I can be all by myself. I don’t need people poking into my business, trying to figure out why there’s a stray octopus swimming around.
This is my neighbor. I can’t remember his name but I know without a doubt this man has seen my entire ass, balls, and dick on full display. And now he’s in my home, shivering from the cold, looking at me with wide, desperate eyes behind his fogged up glasses.
Great.
“What’s going on? Why are you out in this storm?”
The guy wraps his arms tightly around himself, still shivering. Fuck, I’m being such an ass right now. I need to get him into warm, dry clothes first. Questions can come after.
“Never mind,” I say with a deep sigh. “Tell me later. Come on,” I say, leading him deeper into my home.
I gesture for him to step into the bathroom while I walk to my bedroom, pulling out a clean pair of boxers, sweatpants, shirt, and hoodie.
I’m bigger than him so none of this will fit him properly but it’s better than him staying in his wet, cold clothes.
I come back into the bathroom and the guy is standing right where I left him, looking unsure of what to do. Fuck, is he going into shock from the cold? His lips aren’t blue and the tremors have slowed down, though he hasn’t stopped chattering quite yet. I think he’ll be fine once he warms up a bit.
I place the clothes on the counter before rummaging through my cabinet, picking up a clean towel. I toss it into my towel warmer and turn it on. I might be a simple man who lives a very simple life but there are still little things I splurge on. Warm towels are one of those things.
“Don’t get into the shower. If you raise your temp too fast, it can make you sick. Get out of your wet clothes and toss them in the bath, I’ll take care of them. Dry off as best as you can and then get dressed. I’ll start a fire in the living room and have a blanket ready for you. Okay?”
“Okay,” he finally says after blinking up at me a few times. “I don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Jett.”
“Jett,” he says slowly. He looks down at the clothes and nods his head. “Thank you, Jett.”
“You’re welcome.” I bite my bottom lip, wondering if he can handle getting changed himself. “Do you need help?”
“No, no! I’m fine. I can handle this. Promise.”
“Okay. I’ll stay nearby. Just call out if you need help, alright?”
He nods his head. I step outside and close the door behind me. How is this my life? One moment I’m sitting on the couch reading a book and the next thing I know I’m helping my neighbor. This is not at all how I assumed I’d be spending this snowstorm.
The forecast has shown this storm for almost a week now. How the hell did he completely miss it? Does this guy live under a rock?
I work at a hobby farm not too far away.
An older couple pays me to come over everyday and help take care of their garden and their animals.
It’s a wonderful job, one I love dearly.
Those animals I consider mine just as much as they’re the Greys’.
I made sure they had everything they needed to take care of the animals for at least a week because I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to come over again with all this snow.
If things get really bad, I have a snowmobile I can use to travel over there.
They can call me if I need to head over but I’m hopeful they’ll be able to handle everything.
Moving into the kitchen, I quickly start whipping up a warm drink. A latte for me, and a hot chocolate for my neighbor, whose name I still don’t know. Hopefully he likes chocolate because I don’t have any tea in my house. Tastes too much like grass to me.
I bring the cups into the living room, setting them on the coffee table that sits between my fireplace and my couch. Once those are finished, I turn to my fireplace, tossing in some twigs and newspaper so I can get a fire started.
By the time the fire is properly going, my neighbor walks into the room. He stands just inside the living room, placing one foot on the other, like he’s hiding his toes. The stance is, dare I admit, kind of adorable.
“Sorry,” I say, standing back up. “I should have given you some socks earlier. There’s a pair on the couch for you.” I point at the table. “There’s a hot chocolate there for you as well. Hopefully you like chocolate.”
“I do,” he says right away, stepping over to the couch.
He sits down and slides the socks onto his feet.
My clothes are too big for him, drowning him.
I’m shocked by the way my body reacts to the sight.
There’s something deeply pleasing about an attractive man being in my clothes, especially because he’s much smaller than me.
I’m surprised by the possessiveness rising inside of my chest. It blindsides me and I have no idea what that means.
Right now is not the time to be thinking about things like that.
“I don’t even know your name,” I blurt out. Well, who needs tact, right? Sometimes it’s better to just say what’s on your mind instead of trying to tiptoe around the topic.
“It’s Landon. I’m your neighbor, if you can call me that. I live a couple miles that way,” he says, pointing in the direction of his house. “I suppose I owe you an explanation.”
“I wouldn’t say you owe me anything but I am rather curious. They’ve been talking about this storm for like a week. Why the hell were you out there in running clothes?”
Landon’s cheeks turn bright pink and relief hits me. It’s a good sign that he can blush, it means his body is warming up again. Also, I can’t help but notice how cute he is when he blushes.
“Believe it or not, I was wearing running clothes because I was out for a run,” he says, his face breaking into the tiniest smile.
“Stupid in hindsight. I should have been paying more attention to the forecast but I went outside, looked up in the sky, and decided today was the perfect day for a run. I just kept going forward and by the time the clouds came, I was way too far away from my place to turn around and run back. So I ran here instead.”
“Impressive stamina,” I find myself saying. That’s not very helpful but it’s not a lie. Being able to run for a few miles like that all in one go is really impressive. I might be a shifter but even I wouldn’t make it that far. Plus, I hate running.
Landon cracks another smile. “Thanks.” He picks up the hot chocolate between his hands, bringing it up to his face and breathing it in. “Gods, this smells delicious.”
“No worries. I’m gonna go toss your clothes into the dryer. Do you need anything?”
“I think I’m good. Thank you again, Jett.”
I give him a nod before leaving the room. I find his clothes right where I told him to put them. When I pick them up, something inside of me freezes up in a way that has nothing to do with how cold they are. The scent coming off of them is like nothing I’ve smelled before.
The first thing that hits me is the muskiness of an alpha shifter.
That’s not the part that hits me square in the chest. Landon’s clothes smell ridiculously good.
He smells like the freshest air I’ve ever smelled with dew out on the grass.
He reminds me of sunshine first thing in the morning as everything slowly melts.
He smells homey in a way that’s hard for my brain to translate other than I like it. I like it a lot.
I shake my head, doing my best to clear it. The scent has an effect on me. My body feels lighter and more energetic, like I’ve just finished a great cup of coffee and I’m ready to take on the day. I feel electrified.
This is all very confusing.
I do what I always do when I’m confused; I tuck all of this inside of a box inside the back of my head, far away so I don’t have to think about it. Then I go about my day like nothing weird happened.
After tossing Landon’s wet clothes into the dryer, I walk back into the living room, finding him under a blanket on the couch, holding his hot chocolate between his hands.
His glasses are no longer foggy and I can see that he has pretty blue eyes.
They stare over at me, like he’s waiting for me to yell at him or something.
“How’re you feeling?”
Landon looks away, letting out a long breath. I walk over to the coffee table, picking up my drink before sitting on the floor, stretching my legs out in front of me.
“Better. Thanks to you,” he says softly. “I can’t thank you enough for letting me inside.”
I shrug. “It’s the least I could do. I’m just glad I was home.”
“Me too.”
We both look outside, watching as the snow comes down. It’s coming down so thick that I can barely see anything other than white. It’s a complete whiteout outside. There’s no leaving even if we wanted to.
“I hope you don’t mind staying here for a while,” I say before taking a sip of my latte. I let out a pleased sigh at the warmth and the taste. It’s perfect.
“I’m the one who should be asking if you mind that I’m here. I’m kind of invading your space, Jett.” Then he softly adds, “again.”
I feel my lips tip up slightly. “I was wondering if you would bring that up.”
Landon’s eyes widen. “Maybe I shouldn’t have! I’m really sorry! If I had known you were bathing, I wouldn’t have gone that way, I promise! I wasn’t trying to be a creep or anything.”
“It’s fine,” I say, waving him off. “It’s not like I was being very careful. I just needed to stretch my arms.”
Landon tilts his head in question. My heart picks up speed.
I don’t tell people that I’m a shifter very often.
As an octopus, I have a heightened sense of smell, even more so than other shifters sometimes.
If someone smells the ocean on me, I don’t mind if they assume but actually saying it out loud? That’s terrifying.
As a shifter, I’ve always been taught to keep this secret close to my chest. Humans shouldn’t know about the paranormal world around them.
Worse still, there are hunters out there, willing to take shifters out just because they’re different.
In my experience, there are monsters out there who prey on humans, but that’s a very small part of the paranormal world.
Most creatures just want to live their lives and be left alone.
I’m one of those creatures. I like being out here on my own. I like interacting with animals more than people. Does it get lonely? Sometimes. Does the loneliness get to be so bad that I crave human interaction? Not really.
Instead of answering, I scoot myself closer and hold out my wrist, gesturing for him to smell.
His eyes widen in understanding. Landon leans forward and smells my wrist. Warmth surges through me at the gesture.
I can’t remember ever allowing someone to scent me.
It’s intimate. It’s special. It’s completely stealing my breath.
I’ve never felt anything like this before about another person.
“Oh,” he whispers, pulling back. “You’re a shifter.”
I nod my head. “So are you.”
“Yeah. You smell like the ocean.”
“You smell like the forest.”
The tension in my chest breaks as Landon smiles. “I’m a wolf.”
“Octopus,” I tell him.
“That must be hard,” Landon says softly. “Living so far from the ocean.”
I shake my head. “It’s okay. I have a giant bathtub and sometimes I go swim in the river. It’s not the same but it’s close enough.”
“Wow. Who would have thought? We live so close and never even realized! I wonder if anyone else around here is a shifter. We could have our own little commune.”
I clear my throat. “The Greys’ are human.” Then I quickly add, “and I would really like this to stay between us.”
“Oh gosh! Of course, Jett! I would never tell anyone something like this. I know how important it is to keep this all on the downlow. I was just saying it’s nice to know I’m not alone, you know?”
“I understand,” I say with a nod. I take another sip of my latte.
It’s so strange having someone in my home. What the hell am I supposed to do with a guest? Should I just put on a movie and pretend he’s not here? Would it be rude to just go hang out in my bedroom?
Fuck, this is why I prefer to be alone. It’s much less complicated.
As I drink my latte, I can’t help but look at Landon, just taking him in.
His blue eyes are bright behind his glasses which frame his face well.
He’s got stubble across his strong jaw. His hair is flopped down to one side, still wet from the snow but slowly drying.
I think he normally wears it in a mohawk that’s brushed back away from his face.
At least, that’s what I remember from that day he caught me in the river.
I only got a quick glance at him though.
He looks so good in my clothes, wrapped up in my blanket. I bet my scent is getting all over him, marking him.
Okay, enough of that line of thinking. I’ll admit, I don’t normally think about people like this.
It’s not that I don’t find people attractive, because I do, I just don’t normally jump straight into thinking about marking them or getting physical with them.
I’ve always been someone who has to get to know someone before I get all those lustful feelings.
Apparently, Landon is the exception to that rule because even just sitting here, I can feel my groin warming with sensation and desire.
This is all so strange and unexpected.
I don’t know what to think about it so I simply don’t think about it at all.
“So,” I say, breaking the silence, suddenly feeling awkward now that I’ve realized I find Landon attractive. “Do you like Go-Fish?”