(MxM) Tales Of A Shifter (P1) - The Meeting

Chapter 29 - Try Again

Ezekiel walked back through the front door to their mansion with determination.

Almost two days had passed since he had gotten caught up with the mortal.

Ezekiel had spent that time on thin ice and mostly far away from the house and out in the villages. Which was not something completely new.

As Guardians Ezekiel, and his brothers sometimes spent days...to a week, out of the home fixing one Clan issue or another.

Ezekiel had spent a lot of his time patrolling in the hours since being kicked out of the house by his father. To keep his mind off of what was transpiring with the mortal Ezekiel kept busy cleaning and running errands to burn away the curiosity about what was happening with the stranger. But he still wondered what was going on at home.

Unfortunately their Clan Lands were so big that Ezekiel didn't catch a glimpse of any of his brothers and he didn't exactly think he should go home yet.

Still sleeping in grassy fields beneath the sky for the last day and a half, had left Ezekiel on the outer loop of things and all of a sudden.... Ezekiel decided that he needed to scout out the situation himself. So there he was in the Mansion...secretly sure that his father was going to rip him a new one.

Walking back into the house Ezekiel instantly realized that he was absolutely dying for a meal, but even though he should have been feeling good to be home after a long few nights of patrols he didn't. In fact, the same home that Ezekiel had known all his life and had always found comfort in, gave him very little peace.

When he came in through the heavy wooden front door and let the dimming sunlight play across the bright red diamond shaped stain glass widows etched into the middle of the door as he softly shut it behind him. Instantly Ezekiel couldn't help but notice the change in the air. A change that had tickled his subconscious for almost a week now. Ezekiel couldn't believe that in only half a week his entire home had gotten turned upside down. But it had.

It was a subtle change that he only picked up because of his inner beast. The big cat within never failed to bring the details of his environment to his attention and many times his Leopard had protected him. By alerting him to the unnatural crack of a branch, the smell of decay from a weakened pine tree or even the change in air pressure that signaled rains or thunder storms approaching.

His Leopard's senses had always kept him fully aware of every change that could harm him, but he honestly wished it would let this one slip by. There was a scent in the air now, the mortal had put it there. It was a soft scent that twined down the familiar hallways of his home changing his surroundings in an almost imperceptible way. And because the scent was new his Leopard reacted to it, the energy of the Shift pouring out his core, changing his eyes and teeth so that his pupils contracted to thin slits and his canines lengthened behind his lips. It was a protective gesture, something that always happened around new things. At least....that's what Ezekiel told himself.

He ignored the fact that he found the scent in the air mildly....attractive? He ignored the fact that every time he came in to the house he sought out the scent of the mortal, insuring himself that his father hadn't made good on his threats yet. He also ignored the fact that every time he caught the mortal's scent he breathed easier than before. Somehow marking his continued proximity to the mortal calmed him. But Ezekiel shook the bizarre feeling away every time. He told himself each time that his eyes and teeth didn't grow because the mortals scent excited him, but because it was something new in his environment he was forced to react to. That's what Ezekiel told himself.

Ezekiel closed his eyes and quickly forced the energy that his Leopard was putting out back down inside of himself. His eyes quickly changed back to normal and just as he felt his fangs shrink away he sensed the presence of another coming toward him.