Page 10 of A Pact for Porter

“You know I am.” I wasn’t gonna lie about that. Of course, I was. He had somebody who wanted him. If I hadn’t been there, he might’ve done just that.

“Scenting you, I all but forgot about why I was there,” he said. “I caught your scent. My wolf knew you were mine. That’s why I ended up in that habitat where I thought, you know, you were dying. For the record, I’m really glad you weren’t.”

I should’ve let it go, but I couldn’t.

“Do you love Angus?” I didn’t want to be hurt. He picked me, but I couldn’t help asking.

“I do love him like a brother or best friend. Not like what I feel for you. We both wanted the same thing, a family and someone to share a life with. I figured if Fate wasn’t going to help us with that, we would figure it out ourselves. But, you know, Fate did help.”

I wasn’t sure if it was Fate or Karma, honestly. She was the one who got me here, and sometimes it felt like she knew I was going to meet my mate here. Between the apartment, a couple of comments she made, the food…it was as if she orchestrated this all so we met….or maybe I was reading too much into it.

“Breakfast is ready,” he said.

I poured the coffee as he served the food, and we sat around the table, eating and talking about what was next. No decisions were made. I still didn’t know how long my project was going to take or what would be happening after that. But I knew one thing: wherever my mate was, that’s where I wanted to be.

“Shit. I have a meeting,” I said. I’d almost forgotten.

“What time?”

“Pretty much now. Can you stay? I know you’re only visiting this area, but don’t leave.”

“I couldn’t leave if I wanted to, which I don’t, but my wolf would never allow me.”

“I don’t know how long I’ll be,” I told him honestly, “but I’ll come back. I promise.”

“You have to.” Porter kissed my mating mark. “All your stuff’s here.”

“I don’t care about my stuff, but you’re here, so I’ll be back.”

Chapter Nine

Porter

I should have taken more time off. But my supervisor only gave me a few days, and since the company policy was two week notice to take any vacation, he was already being nice to me. I couldn’t push my luck by asking for more. I needed that job now that I was a mated alpha. If I chose to switch to another later, fine, but as my dads who always had all the advice said, “It’s always easier to get another job when you already have one.”

But I had one more day to enjoy with my mate before we had to separate while we worked out all the details of our new relationship.

Of course, we wanted to be together, but we hadn’t decided yet how that would look. It seemed all my romantic plans went in that direction, but this time it wasn’t because anyone was settling. And I didn’t want or need to spend any time thinking about that just now because we did have this whole day together before I had to leave in the morning.

“So, what shall we do this afternoon?” Chip asked. “Anything special you’d like to see?”

“Yes.” More of him naked. “Your animal. My wolf is very interested in running with your capybara. He wants to spend more time with him.”

“Oh.” He blinked. “Sure.” His “sure” didn’t sound very certain. Or at least not very excited.

“You don’t want to shift again?” In my experience, animals were always glad to get out and run around, but maybe capybaras didn’t like to do it often? “We could do something else.”

“No, I do want to,” he said. “I just also want to go back to bed and do more of what we did all night. I want to do both.”

“Omega, you have the best ideas.” I pulled him close and kissed him, trailing my lips over the mark on his neck. “Why don’t we see if there is somewhere nearby that we can take that run so we don’t have to get too far from the bed?”

“Agreed.” He pulled a shirt over his head, the first time he’d worn one since we came in here, and I kind of wished he could just leave it off. “Let’s see if someone in the kitchen can direct us. The club won’t be open yet, but someone should be working in there.”

“Sounds good.”

Together we walked down the hallway toward the club building. I continued to marvel at the smooth walls carved from the native stone as we passed other residents of the units. Apparently they were all employees and their families, and I wondered what it would be like to live here. With my mate, it sounded pretty much like paradise. But then it would be paradise anywhere, as long as we were together.

Chip made a right turn and we emerged into sunlight. There had not been a window in his apartment, but a skylight carried the sun’s glow all the way through the mountain and down to light up the room. I had no idea how it worked, but it did. Still, the brightness outside had me blinking as my eyes adjusted.