Chapter Eight
She was figuring this out.
Over the last three days, Tabian had set a routine with her.
He texted and called on her lunch breaks and then found reception when she got off work and chatted with her the entire drive home, said their goodbyes before she went in to see Bay after school, and then at nights, he would drive back out for reception before she went to bed to text with her for a while.
This trip was a three-day one, but he didn’t spend all three days at one spot.
He had tracked down three different campsites at three different places, and introduced, rated, and advertised new gear on each trip.
He recorded the set-up, and menial things like hiking, wood preparation, cooking, and peaceful nights in a camp chair by a fire drinking a beer and answering fan questions.
He spent hours a day editing the videos and would release all three campsites at different times throughout the next week and a half before he left to do it all over again.
And as she dove into the videos before bed, she started to understand the interest in what he was doing.
For the average person, they were stuck in a job and a routine and a life where exploring different places was rare and at a premium, but with Tabian’s adventures, and the way he brought his audience along with him, it was as if they were all camping together.
And on top of that as well, she was noticing something really cool—Tabian was exposing parts of being a werewolf that made his people more relatable.
Sure, there was hate for what he was. A lot of it.
Like…a lot a lot of hate for werewolves.
But there were also people who would defend him in the comments.
Some were even admitted former anti-werewolf people who had grown understanding through his videos as he showed he had normal people problems too.
If she couldn’t be with him at nights, digging through his old videos did help her to get to know him a little better, even if it was on a superficial and guarded medium.
He would be home tomorrow. She was wildly excited about meeting up with him while Bay was at school tomorrow, and she was currently in her pajamas in bed scrolling through his videos trying to decide which one to watch to wind down for the night.
A new post from Wolf Outdoors popped up in her notifications, followed by a text from Tabian. I saw you like a few of my videos. Do you know how stupidly excited I got about it? I’m at a hamburger joint in town uploading my first video from this trip. Want to see a picture of my burger?
Um, always, she responded. But only if your lap is in the picture. I have needs. Send.
They’d been teasing each other for the last few days and they always tended to ramp it up at nights.
A picture came through of a hamburger plate with the keyboard of his laptop in frame, and the zipper of his jeans in the shadows at the edge of the table.
A grin confiscated her face, and she sat up in bed to better text him quickly. Good doggie. Send.
Ha! You’re in trouble. Hey, can you tell me if that video uploaded okay? Reception is patchy out here.
I’ve got you. Hold please. Send.
She opened his channel, and right away the brand-new video of his popped up. It already had forty-six views. Sixty-one. One hundred and twenty-four.
She would never get over how dedicated his following was.
The video was titled Should I go Wolf? and the intro picture was of him leaning down in front of the camera, with a wicked smile on his face, his eyes wolf-bright and glowing blue, and a tent set-up behind him.
Well, yeah, that would grab some attention for sure.
She clicked the video and laid back down, propped the phone onto the pillow beside her and turned up the volume.
Usually, his videos opened up on some cool drone footage of the woods around his campsite, or some raindrops falling from pine tree needles, or a close up of his boots slogging through a layer of crunchy leaves…stuff like that.
This one opened up on him already midway through building his tent.
“I have a dilemma,” he said, casting a bright-eyed glance at the camera as he tossed a bag of tent stakes onto the ground and flipped the handle of a hammer into the air, and caught it easily.
“Some of you guys and gals are going to understand this, but I have recently come to the conclusion that I might…” He grinned at the camera and knelt down to hammer a metal stake into the ground, tethering the corner of the tent there.
“Nah, never mind. Too personal. Too personal.”
A giggle escaped her. What a tease.
“It’s just I want to be open with you guys, I really do, but I’m worried about what some of you think if I admit where my head is at.”
He hooked his hands onto his waist and nodded thoughtfully at the camera.
“And you know, I think a lot of you would be able to handle it—getting to know the real me. But I think some of you would get real mad.” He went to the other corner of the tent and staked it down, then stood and looked at the camera again.
“But maybe not.” He flashed another devilish smile, and scratched the back of his head, staring at the ground thoughtfully.
Suddenly he looked back at the camera with those glowing, frosty eyes and said, “Fuck it. I think I like older women.”
A squeak escaped Tru, and she sat straight up in bed.
Was he…was he talking about her?
He totally was. Right? Right?!
Her breath quickened in her chest, and she clutched onto the phone tighter.
She didn’t even blink as he started talking again.
“I like them with some baggage, you know? You got a kid? Cool, when can we meet? Does he play sports? Hell yeah, I’ll bring the cash for the snack shack.
You have a tight schedule and busy calendar, and you have trouble fitting me into it?
Let me know when you have thirty minutes darlin’, I’ll come straight to you, no wasting time.
You been burned by other men? I’ll fix it. ”
She could not believe her ears and eyes right now. God, he was so sexy, and she knew all these women on here, especially anyone who was even a year older than him were falling in love with him.
She got it.
She was too.
“If I ever found a mate, would you all burn her at the stake in the comments?” he wondered out loud as he rolled up the biggest of the tent windows and secured it with a little tie.
“Or would you understand what a little baddie she is and cheer her on. I’m not easy, you see.
I have this damn animal that makes me combative sometimes, and unreasonable.
Sometimes I’m late to apologize. Sometimes I have to disappear for a few days at a time, and you know?
She has to deal with all the thirsty comments on here from you hussies,” he said through a grin and twinkling eyes.
“But I do wonder if I ever found a mate, would you be kind? Or would you get territorial and push her out? Would you let me make her happy? Or would you eat us alive?” He shrugged and moved to the next window, rolling the fabric up to expose the netted, thinner window fabric beneath.
“Things I wonder about when I’m out in these woods all alone and feeling a little lonely.
That’s what I’ve got today,” he said. “Oh. The title of this video. Total clickbait, right? Don’t be mad at me, don’t be mad.
If you make it all the way through this video, I’ll give you a surprise at the end.
” He approached the camera and flipped the hammer back in the air and caught the handle smoothly again.
“Some of you have been here for two years begging to see the wolf. I’ll probably catch hell from this.
Shit, this channel may ban this video and delete it.
Better watch quick and screen grab while you can.
” He leaned in closer to the camera and gave a wolfish smile.
“Let’s make camp together now, shall we? ”
And with that the sound went to leaves blowing in the wind, birds chirping in the trees, and the sounds of him finishing camp set up.
He didn’t talk anymore. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to.
She could see the comments going insane as he worked, setting up a little portable pizza oven on the tailgate of his truck.
It panned to another angle, and he was washing his hands in a river, shirt off as he ran wet fingers through his hair and splashed cool water over his face.
He dried his face and neck on his discarded t-shirt and then shoved it into his back pocket, striding away with it swinging from side to side with his powerful gate.
New angle…him spreading out a pre-made pizza dough and carefully arranging toppings on it.
Pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, peperoni, sausage.
Next, he pulled a large pocketknife out smoothly and cut mushrooms and black olives on a wooden cutting board that had his logo engraved into it. Wolf Outdoors.
She was mesmerized. He was doing menial things, but it was so interesting to her as she sat in bed watching this fine man make a homemade pizza.
And he did it with such skill and confidence, like he had made pizzas like this a hundred times before.
Even the crust had little crispy bubbles when he pulled it out of the little pizza oven.
He ate on a camp chair, near a fire he’d made, with the trees behind him swaying gently in the wind.
Every once in a while, he would take a sip of his beer, which seemed to be a sponsor because he had the logo posted in the corner along with the pizza oven brand, and the tent brand. He just looked…peaceful.
His views were at fifty thousand already.