Tiger's Mate

Chapter 26 prt. 3

• Ethan •

The eating place was buzzing as everyone milled about and discussed their success in setting up camp and the plans they had to start tomorrow's activities — the lake was clearly one of the more popular ideas on everyone's mind. Quite frankly that didn't sound like a bad idea, and it was so large that I didn't even feel concerned about being bothered by anyone else, especially where Katski and I were camped out.

Dinner wasn't anything special in my opinion, though I'll admit, it was good to know the cookhouse didn't actually plan on feeding us the fast-food kind stuff the whole time we were here. They actually had a nice selection on the menu and the barbecued beef sticks they had actually smelt pretty good. Judging from how Katski took several and no vegetables, I'm guessing he thought so too.

I did shove a cooked carrot in his mouth at one point, seeing if he would swallow it, but he had spit back out with a scrunched-up face like a child. I received an unamused glare for that one but hey — at least I could say I tried.

We didn't really do much other than eat and talk quietly, since we were now back in the company of everyone else. Annoyingly, I still caught onto some of the attention of the two of us — whether it was because even after sitting on the bus, we were still being seen together or because I probably looked strange having another person around me, and not to mention smiling with them and trying to force-feed them vegetables. I knew some of them already had their ideas about us, and some were talking, but hell, I couldn't bring myself to care anymore.

Rumours when not confirmed were only that. Rumours. My reputation already more or less kind of diverged the one idea some people might have considered; that maybe we were together — apparently being kind of an intimidating asshole did that — so most of the things being said did not really fall close to that area. So far, Katski was the hot new guy who had somehow managed to make friends with Eastwood's most notorious antisocial bad boy — (their words) that they figured I couldn't hear since no one in their right mind expected me to have the heightened senses of a beast.

None of this bothered me so long as it didn't reach anyone in the pack. The females of the school were annoyingly still swooning for Katski every time he flashed so much as a friendly smile as we passed, and in turn, every instinct and irrational thought I had told me to show them exactly why he wasn't free. Hell. If we didn't have to keep our relationship a secret, if we're were just two normal people without the whole familial-enemies issue that we shared, I would have already said fuck it and made it clear to the world who he belonged to.

What made me feel a little better about the situation though, if only a little, were the looks I caught him having in the reverse situation; the way his eyes would tinge with hardness and his body language shifted subtly closer, if only for a moment. It was enough to know, not only did he know how I felt, but he felt the exact same.

Thank god once we were finished he didn't have any interest in joining the large group campfire that the councillors were setting up — I didn't think I'd have it in me to stick around if they started singing weird campfire songs like I had the sneaking suspicion was the plan from the one councillor-guy who had a ukulele with him. On the contrary, Katski, it seemed, was almost eager to get back to our campsite as the sun began to fall.

Once we were out of sight of any others, he unabashedly grabbed my hand and practically began towing me as we picked up speed running back to our lone tent, our newfound space away from anything and everything.

"What's the rush, Kitty?" I questioned amusedly as he led me quickly back to our campsite. He shot me a half glinting smile over his shoulder but didn't answer.