Chapter Seventeen
Tabian didn’t even know what to do with this one.
He had hours and hours of footage that he was editing, but for the first time in his career, he didn’t know what story to tell.
Before, it had been a simple formula—film driving up to camp, set up camp, a dozen shots of the surrounding area, a few close-ups of water dripping from flowers and leaves, him cooking, making his bed, his nighttime routine, breakfast the next morning, coffee in pretty scenery, and breaking down camp, and the final shot was him driving away and back to real life.
But then he’d gone and shown the wolf, and mentioned a love interest, and now he had all this footage of his people.
Tru, Bayen, the Rogue Pack, and him all smiles in every minute of footage.
It wasn’t his usual serious video. In fact, it would be a challenge to find serious footage of him, but as he watched the screen of his computer, he thought that was okay.
In front of him was a wide-angle scene of Tru sitting at the firepit the first night.
She was looking into the woods with the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen, and he knew what she was looking at.
She would’ve been looking in their direction as he and Bayen collected firewood.
He tried to remember what they were laughing at out there.
What had she heard that made her smile like this?
He wanted to tell the same joke all over again and try to see it in real life.
He’d removed the volume from this footage and had music playing over it.
He and Bayen returned from the woods. The way she leaned into Tabian every time he touched her.
The way she’d set drinks out for them when they’d been out there.
The peaceful look in her eyes. The way Bayen grinned, but then his mood shifted when he talked about the more serious stuff.
Tabian fast forwarded to another angle of Tru looking at the woods, but this time it would’ve been Bayen out there upset and trying to process his emotions. He’d tried to stay quiet, but Tabian had heard him crying.
One of the night vision motion sensor cameras had picked up Bayen leaving his tent in the middle of the night and returning with a small bouquet of dandelion flowers.
He’d hesitated for a few seconds before he laid them in front of Tabian and Tru’s tent.
He’d sat down crisscross and stayed there for a few minutes, like he was considering waking them up.
Tabian had heard him in the middle of the night but had fallen asleep again when Bay was safely back in his tent.
This part wasn’t for the public. He would give this to Tru so she could see that boy really did love her. He just didn’t know how to be open sometimes. Tabian would work on that with him.
He fast-forwarded to breakfast, and him and Bayen cooking together, being as quiet as they could so Tru could sleep in a little.
He’d been telling Tabian about a little dog he’d found on the side of the road when he was a kid and had begged to keep.
It was before Bay had Changed for the first time, so the little dog didn’t know to be scared of him.
His dad had said, “No,” and he’d had to find the pup a home, but Bayen still had feelings about it all.
He’d been lonely. He admitted he was still lonely.
He’d checked his phone and saw a text from Breah and had asked Tabian to help decode what she was saying.
Tru looked peaceful in the videos, and as Tabian watched himself, chills rippled up his crossed arms. He looked peaceful too.
He stretched his leg out under his desk and pulled his earphones onto his neck and fast-forwarded the footage until he got to the happy chatter of the Rogue Pack crashing their camping party.
It was all of them chitter-chattering and hauling supplies with zero direction or permission from Tabian, and he caught Bay helping them with a big old grin on his face.
Tabian chuckled and forwarded the footage to the part where they were about to race to the river’s edge.
If he added any of this to the video he was editing, he would have to edit a giant pizza slice over the blow-up doll so the video didn’t get banned, but other than that, he thought his viewers would crack up.
At another angle was Tru. She was sitting at the fireside with the other females of the Rogue Pack, and they were talking easily and smiling, watching the boys race for the water.
He reached for the mouse to fast-forward, but he caught a single word in his headset.
He paused, and with a frown, he pulled the earphones more firmly over his ears and rewound.
He’d thought he had taken the volume off of all of the footage, but he hadn’t.
He leaned forward and watched Tru’s lips as she said the word that had caught his attention.
“Mate.”
He frowned and rewound and turned the volume up louder. Like he needed it. He was a werewolf. Still, he turned it up and listened to the conversation.
“I had a werewolf call me his mate before,” Tru murmured.
“Bayen’s dad?” Destiny guessed.
Tru nodded. God, she looked so pretty. She’d let her hair out of its messy bun and her waves hung down her shoulders. She didn’t have much make-up on, but she didn’t need it.
“And did it feel like this?” Lyric asked her.
Tru looked thoughtful, and pursed her full lips, stalling. At last, she said, “I remember it felt chaotic and I never really knew what was happening.”
“And how does it feel with Tabian?” Nory asked.
The slow curve of her lips was so pretty. “Steady. Safe. Exciting. Like the future could be good, not damaging.” She said quieter, “Being a mate to Tabian feels right.”
Fuuuuck.
He leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head as his heart pounded like a drum in his chest. He caught himself in the reflection of his computer monitor, and he wore the biggest, stupidest grin right now.
Being a mate to Tabian feels right.
Tabian ran his hand down the scruff on his jaw and stared out the front window. He’d set his new desk in the living room by the front window so he could see outside and tell when Tru arrived. She had a later shift today and was due any time.
Being a mate to Tabian feels right.
Tabian. That was him. He’d spent his entire adult life thinking he would never find her, and here she was. Unexpected. Beautiful inside and out. Patient. Loyal.
So much had changed for his Pack over the last year.
They had gone from a Pack of bachelors, dedicated to that life and convinced that they were better off without females to complicate their lives, but now Tabian couldn’t imagine a day he wasn’t talking to Tru.
She was the happiest part of his life. Bayen was going to shape up to be important too.
He could tell. He could feel it. He could feel his wolf growing so protective of both Tru and Bay.
He could do this, right?
He could take care of them. He could improve their lives.
He could build a life with Tru.
Tabian smiled and replayed the snippet of her saying it. “Being a mate to Tabian feels right.”
Hell yeah he could do this. He was going to.
And suddenly it hit him—the story he wanted to tell in this episode.
He’d gone into this camping trip with the intention of reviewing the drone and the new tent he’d been sent, and to keep Tru and Bayen off camera.
He’d meant to keep them separate from his career as long as they wanted, and he couldn’t go backward if he did this, but he didn’t care.
There would be no second-guessing for him.
Tru was his. He’d known it before he heard the word ‘mate’ spill from her lips in that clip.
He would have to do some work on his channel to get it back to more normalized series after this one, but he couldn’t stop grinning as he chose the files he wanted to start splicing together.
This could go well, or this could go very very badly.