Chapter Three
Tru had left him on ‘read.’
Why did that bother him so much?
Tabian checked his phone again and shook his head, frustrated with himself.
Who cared? She was just some human. There was no future with a human. Sure, Liam and Nory were making it work, but still. Dating a human wasn’t for him.
He checked his phone again and considered throwing the damn thing into the woods.
No one was in Rogue Pack territory but him today.
It was midday, everyone was working, and he was here overseeing the delivery and set-up of his home.
It was a single-wide mobile home. Instead of siding, it had logs all around the walls, and a green tin roof.
The home was delivered quickly, but the front porch had taken three hours for a team to build it.
He honestly could’ve done it himself, but he hadn’t known if he would be out on a job while it was delivered and he wanted it to be completed in a day.
He’d waited months for it to be built, and he’d done the work to install everything the home would need to operate with all the creature comforts he’d come to appreciate.
He’d done it.
Tabian stepped back and studied the home as the deck builders were cleaning up their tools and excess wood. It was just as he imagined, only no one was here to celebrate it with him.
The deck builders waved and left, and he made his way to the shed he’d built that was full of plastic wrapped furniture, and patio chairs that he’d been collecting while he waited.
It was move-in day, and he doubted anyone remembered. Truth be told though, that might’ve been his fault. He hadn’t told anyone.
Liam hated that he was so reserved with information, but that was just how Tabian was built. Pack life was necessary for his wolf to be happy, but his human side had to find a balance between the social side of the Pack, and getting enough alone time.
He dragged out the patio furniture and unwrapped it all from boxes and plastic and set it all up on the large deck. It took him half an hour to get it how he liked, and he stood back again, studying the home.
His home.
He’d really done it.
This was the first place he’d ever lived that hadn’t been linked somehow to the Elders or the government. This house he had paid in cash with his savings, and no one could ever take it away from him.
Not ever.
Tabian lifted his phone and took a picture of it, then studied the image.
He thought about texting it to Tru with the caption, My house, but it felt like a brag and he decided against it.
While he was staring at his screen considering it, a call came through.
He thought he was imagining the name on the caller ID. Tru was calling?
“Hello?” he answered.
“H-hi,” she said.
A grin took his face immediately. Be cool.
He cleared his throat. “You left me on read, so I assumed you had decided against talking to me again.”
“I was trying to leave you on read, but I’m bad at boundaries, which you will no doubt take advantage of.”
“Good Lord, woman. Who hurt you?”
“An ex.”
“Okay, well I’ve talked to you for like four minutes total so many try to get to know me before you make me pay for his mistakes, okay?”
A sigh sounded over the phone. “Okay.”
“Can I share something exciting? At least, it’s exciting to me.”
“Sure.”
“I just had my home delivered, and I took a picture of it, and I thought about sending it to you, but I was trying to be respectful of you leaving me on read.”
“You really didn’t like that,” she said with amusement in her voice.
“Nah, I didn’t. I felt like a loser who couldn’t keep your attention.”
“Well, you are not a loser. You’re interesting, I think. I wanted to text you all last night.”
“I’m facetiming you.”
“Wait, what?”
“Facetime. Hold on, I’m calling you right back.”
“Tabian, no! I haven’t done my hair—”
Click. He hung up and immediately connected a call back.
She denied his call.
He texted. You have three minutes to brush your hair and I’m calling back. Send.
You are a monster.
He grinned.
Hurry. Send.
Don’t rush a woman!
His grin grew bigger and he climbed up his porch stairs and sat on his patio chair for the first time. It was comfortable.
He had built a concrete pad and nestled half of his home into the tree line, so his bedroom windows looked out into the trees. His wolf was happy with this placement. It was late summer, and soon, the leaves would be changing colors and raining onto the forest floor. This would be his sanctuary.
Tabian gave her a couple of extra minutes and then connected the call. Tru answered but immediately set her phone against the bathroom mirror and continued applying make-up.
A smile confiscated his face as he studied her surroundings. The bathroom was small but had white wainscoting on the bottom half of the walls, and gray above. On her shower hung a gray floral shower curtain. The counters were perfectly clean.
“It is my day off,” she explained as she stared at herself in the mirror and applied mascara. “I had big plans to be in pajamas all day with no make-up and my hair in a messy bun.”
“Sounds perfect. You could’ve just left it at that.”
She glanced at him on the phone and then back to her mascara application. “My mother drilled it into me that you look presentable when you leave the house.”
“You aren’t leaving the house though.”
She gestured to him on the phone. “Your place is leaving the house. Just digitally.” She leaned forward and studied the corners. “Where are you? In the woods?”
He chuckled and hit the button to flip the camera around.
He jogged down the porch stairs and turned around, slowly panning to the woods and his home.
“This was the exciting thing I wanted to show you. My house was just delivered, and the deck builders just left. Tonight I’m staying in it for the first time. It’s moving day.”
Her pretty lips parted, and she looked shocked. “Wait, that’s your home?”
He laughed. “You sound surprised.”
“No, no. Do you just live out in the woods alone?”
“What? Of course not. I live with my Pack.” He zoomed in on a few of the other houses that he could see from here—Liam and Nory, Vic and Lyric…Bridger’s freaking mansion of a modular home was behind his home.
“I can’t see Nate’s house from here,” he said. “That’s where I’ve been renting a room until this thing was through the building process. It took a few months.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Back up. You have a Pack?” she asked, picking up the phone.
“Uuuh, yeah.”
“But you were kicked out of Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack, right?”
“Aaah, you’ve been doing some internet digging.
Yeah, you won’t find the story there. The Elders wouldn’t want that.
We were kicked off the government land, and we will have to be listed as Rogues because the Elders are assholes, but my Alpha and his mate decided to keep our Pack together outside of Elder and government law.
We are on human land, and we are each financing our homes through human means.
No one will be able to take our homes again.
” Or we will kill them, the wolf said confidently inside of him.
Tru didn’t need to hear the wolf’s thoughts though, so he kept that little gem to himself to avoid her running and screaming for the hills.
“Oh. I have been under a different impression. I thought you were a Rogue.”
“I’m a member of the Rogue Pack. And technically we’ve been listed as Rogues, but that wasn’t our choice.
We’ve been a Pack for a while, and we’ve been growing lately.
There is a Coeur d’Alene Pack still and we’ve had some war times with them, but I think it’s died off.
They stay clear of us now.” He hadn’t meant for his tone to darken, but the memories of all that had happened over the last year sometimes still flashed across his mind when he mentioned that Pack.
“Tell me about you, now that I’ve blabbed all about my personal life. ”
“Ummm, there isn’t much to tell. My life is pretty boring compared to yours.”
He sat heavily onto a porch chair and said, “Bore me.”
She was walking down what looked like a hallway now and sank into a worn-looking charcoal gray couch.
There were pictures behind her of pressed flowers.
From what he could see, her home was cute, and tidy.
“Let’s see. I’m originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
My parents divorced when I was eight, and my mom remarried right away and had children with my stepdad, and they moved out of state when I was twelve, so my dad raised me alone after that.
He had a small farm with horses, so I grew up riding all over creation.
” Her voice had taken on a dreamy tone. “My friends all rode too, and we would spend all our money on chasing rodeos to watch some of them compete.”
“That sounds like a good childhood, minus your mom leaving.”
The smile was so pretty on her face. “I didn’t have a hard time with my mom leaving after a while.
It felt normal, and my dad gave me everything I needed.
I had good relationships with some of my friends’ moms, and they gave great advice and took me under their wings.
” She shrugged. “When I look back, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything.
I was an outsider in my mom’s new family.
I went and visited her and my stepdad a few times, but they had their house and their routine and I was a guest. It was awkward at times.
I found myself just wanting to be back home with my dad. ”
He liked the bell-tone that her voice took on when she was telling him about her memories.
It was like a story. He could see it in his mind—her riding horses over hillsides with her friends.
It sounded so…normal. Like a regular kid’s life on some television show or something. Humans were so interesting. So…regular.
He got lost in it.