Page 14 of A Pact for Porter

Some kind of pasta, I think. What are you eating?

Pot roast.

Microwaveable?

Yeah.

We texted until he went in to eat then picked up a voice chat as soon as he finished and headed back to his apartment. It was so natural to talk about everything. I told him about the man in the seat next to me who kept asking the flight attendant for more bloody Mary mix and the lady on the other side of him who kept giving him horrified looks. He did smell a lot like rotting tomatoes, which couldn’t have been good even if it wasn’t unpleasant for the rest of us.

Chip talked about his progress on the habitat and how pleased Karma and Warren were. It was still mostly on paper, but he sent me some of the drawings and I was thoroughly wowed. We continued going back and forth, hanging up to get something done then just continuing to text.

I’d had friends who talked about being like this with their mate right after they met them, but I’d never had that experience for myself, obviously. Until now. And I totally got it. Gratitude for both Angus and me flooded me. We would have had an okay life together. We always got along great, but it would not have been like this. With butterflies in my stomach every time the phone buzzed.

We talked while undressing and texted while brushing our teeth and finally exchanged a little sexy talk once we’d crawled into our lonely beds.

There was no way I was going to make it without him, even in the short term. Maybe later when we had more time together to fall back on, but now?

I went to work the next morning and struggled to focus. I did what needed to be done. Barely. And by the time I got home the next afternoon I packed my bags to fly back to Arizona and my mate. Practical? No. But being apart was not an option. Not now. I’d call in and quit my job the next morning and fly by the seat of my pants for the very first time in my life.

For the best possible reason.

Chapter Twelve

Chip

The trip was long, and under most circumstances, it would’ve been exhausting, with me nodding off on the flight and looking like the walking dead as I meandered through the airport. But not today. Today, I was filled with so much adrenaline.

I was finally going to be at the same place as Porter. Yeah, it had only been a short time, but to my beast and I, it might as well have been a year.

My capybara was practically bouncing inside me. He didn’t even get too pissed about being locked in a plane, which was his least favorite place to be. To him, I might as well have been in a tin can being flung through the air. He didn’t understand the science of flight. Truthfully, I didn’t understand the science of planes either, but I had a sense of trust, and I went with that.

I grabbed my luggage at baggage claim and checked my phone. There was a message from Porter. It wasn’t surprising. We talked nonstop. It’d been hard to keep this secret, and part of me wanted to tell him we were almost there, but we were getting too close to spoil it now.

I joined the taxi line and got in when it was my turn. I gave him the address and stared at a picture of my mate on my phone as he drove. I was doing this.

Then the doubt started to settle in. What if he wasn’t home? What if he hated surprises? What if he didn’t want me there? No. That part didn’t sound right. Of course, he wanted me there. But still…

We pulled into his neighborhood. It was nice enough. The townhouses all looked the same, the grass was flawless, and the trim was painted nicely. It was perfect, almost too perfect, like a book I read in elementary school where everybody was exactly the same.

Maybe it was just the off-putting landscaping that had me side-eyeing the neighborhood. It looked like they found the cheapest variety of shrubs and said, “Everybody needs them.” And maybe that was how it worked, because this was definitely all from the same builder.

The place didn’t feel like Porter. There was nowhere for his wolf to run. I wondered if he liked it here.

The driver pulled up to my mate’s address, and I thanked him and grabbed my bag. It was time. I was going to see Porter. I knocked on the door.

I heard movement, but no one was racing to answer. I rang it again, and this time, the door did swing open.

My mate stood before me, my glorious wolf. He stared at me. I decided, screw it, and threw myself in his arms.

“I missed you so much.” I peppered his face with kisses, and he caught my lips and kissed me soundly, shutting the door behind me and pressing me up against it. I forgot about everything but him and me and the way our bodies were pressed together. I forgot about the luggage, the crappy layover, the stupid price of the taxi—all of it. It was only him and I.

“Surprise,” I nipped his earlobe.

Porter gasped, then opened the door and pulled my suitcase in.

“You’re smarter than me, mate. I was too busy thinking about your lips.”

But then he brought the luggage fully in, and I saw for the first time that it wasn’t the only luggage in the room. Porter’s bags were there as well.