Tiger's Mate

Chapter 31

•Katski•

I knew I would miss the campgrounds. I mean the mountain air was great, and the forests and lakes had been both a familiar and unfamiliar change in scenery that had brought more tranquillity than I had first realized when we arrived. To me, so much had happened in those three days we'd spent there, and yet, by our fourth morning as we left on the bus, I couldn't help but think it had also gone by too quickly.

I wanted so much more time, I had realized. It didn't have to be there, it honestly made no difference to me whether it was in our campsite back at the grounds or even a new place elsewhere that we made our own. But I wanted more time with Ethan.

Perhaps it hadn't felt so overbearing when it had all frost started, how we had figured out our connection as mates, and had spent time on our own — like the amusement park. I remembered that fondly. I had thought just getting to do things like that were the best, and that it was all carefree and no worries.

But I was wrong. There was just something different, something I simply hadn't been able to realize until I had experienced it.

Because though we still had to practice hiding our relationship from the other students, there had been a sense of liberty there. It had been a place I didn't have to worry about shifting, or being a werecat, or even being in a territory I knew was hostel — and maybe it was something about that that had made me feel as though a small weight had been lifted off me for a short time. One I never even knew I had begun to carry. And now I was about to be handed it all back, perhaps even more weighted than before. Because awareness made it all the heavier.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

I wouldn't even bother Ethan with having to listen to my muddled thoughts. He had shown himself to be a much more compassionate and caring person than I had first made him out to me, even when we had begun...well, I suppose our little meetings had been something along the line of dates now weren't they. So I supposed; when we had begun dating.

Something between us had grown fundamentally during that trip — and maybe that's what I was resentful to let go of. Maybe I thought...our bond might dim. Or fade. Or...

Just as I was getting too deeply tangled in my thought, there was a faint static shock that snapped me back to reality.

Uh — I think, maybe? Maybe it was a shock?

Or...now that I focused, it was more of a pulse of some sort that had kicked up inside me, knocking me straight out of the thoughts in my head.

Ethan was sitting at my side, ears tuned into his earbuds as he relaxed to the sound of guitar strings and drums. I could pick up the muffle of faint lyrics, even though he wore both buds as we sat in the furthest back row on the shuttle bus returning to Eastwood. His eyes were closed, head leaned back in ease against the headrest. But...his hand held onto mine, below the armrest, with his thumb tracing a gentle path over my knuckles.

That's what had pulled me back. One simple action.

My eyes flicked up to his face, trailing over every delicately softened inch, and the tension eased from my shoulders.

I had thought so many times; but still, it never ceased to waver my stare to see his usually hard expressed facial features turn so soft in sleep — or simple closed-eyed resting, I wasn't sure which.