Mates of a Human

Part Two. Chapter Four. Eric

I ran on the treadmill, the pace not gruelling, but a comfortable jog.. well for me at least.  To others it would be like running to catch a bus that was waiting impatiently for you.  Yet not quite the full out sprint needed to get on it before the driver gave you a nasty look and drove off without you.  The sweat glistened upon my peachy skin and my hair was beginning to stick to the back of my neck.  I continued on for a few moments, dreaming about how my new mate looked and what he liked to eat and how nice it would be to wake up with him and Michael in the morning.  And wondering how he would look sprawled out naked before me, enjoying only what his mates could provide for him.  My tiger growled in delight as I shuddered and almost lost my footing.  Time to call it a day, I supposed.

I grabbed a towel and let the sweat soak into its fibres.  Michael had only shared a vague description.  He was only an inch or so shorter than Michael, far too skinny and very pale.  He had long brown bangs, his hair was straight without any wave and his eyes were large, hazel eyes with speckles of green and brown running through them.  I pestered Michael into taking a picture on his phone or grabbing something that he had touched or preferably owned so I could see him and inhale his scent.  But Mike claimed that the boy had been avoiding him for over two weeks and he'd been struggling to pin him down.

I was sour over that and my tiger restless.  It didn't help that Michael came home stinking of perfume and lipstick a few times as some nurses were scoping out my man.  We often attracted attention, I understood that, but I didn't like the fact that he was not telling them that he was taken.  But I did understand that he didn't want our mate running for the hills because he was.  It would be hard enough for him to accept that he has one mate, let alone two.  Maybe I should visit the hospital and warn away the pests before sweeping my boy off of his feet and running away with him.  That sounded like a plan.  Michael's gentle approach was neither working nor was it my style.  My tiger rumbled his agreement.

I was even more determined to follow through once I had spoken to Michael later that day.  Michael came in to our house with an overly serious expression upon his chiselled face as if a patient case was troubling him.  I liked to wipe away such seriousness with a lap of my tongue, but he stopped me and made me sit down, with a sigh.

"I finally cornered him, today," he told me and my tiger snapped out of his sulk that we couldn't taste our mate and sat up to attention hopefully.

"Well?" The human side of me knew that this wasn't going to be as simple.

"I managed to speak to him," he told me, "but most of the conversation ended up circling around rejection."

My tiger roared loudly, in distress.  "You rejected him?" His fury spilled through my lips even though I knew Michael would never do such a thing.  He'd been chasing the boy for two weeks, once he was caught, his wolf would never let go. 

"No, of course I didn't," his eyes flashed amber, warning me his wolf was getting pissed.  I tried to calm my tiger down as he was attempting to restrain his wolf.  "He was talking about rejection, even tried to press me to reject him."

"Why would he do that?" I asked.

"He's terrified, love," Michael reached out to stroke my hair and I leaned into his palm, savouring his touch.  "This is going to sound really out there, but I think he's been rejected by a werewolf before.  I think we are his second chance mates."

That startled me.  The Moon Goddess usually gave rejected mates and mates who had lost their pair too soon a second chance, so it wouldn't be surprising if she had chosen to pair him up if this was true of him, even if he was human and not strictly her child.  But ordinarily she would chose another needing a second chance mate.  We were a pair already and had never experienced loss or rejection.