Chapter Six

I wasn't having a good time right now. Everyone is looking at us, but mostly me. I'm one hundred percent sure that the second we walk into Ike's house, the pack will immediately begin pooling together whatever info they have on me. Or think they have.

As we stepped onto Ike's porch, I felt someone's eyes boring into the back of my skull. I looked over my shoulder and made eye contact with a girl, looking o be around my age. Normal height, skinny with a bony chest. She had straight black hair and mean grey eyes. She was looking at me like I had just fed her a shit pie. I sniffed the air once, narrowed my eyes at her, and scrunched up my nose in disgust. Her face flushed with anger at my childish insult. I let her see me smile before I turned around and followed Ike. I don't know what her deal is but it's obvious she already has a thing for me. I don't care about your bullshit. If I don't even know why you hate me, it must not be that important. I'm so absorbed in mulling over what just happened, that it took me a second to process that I was in Ike's entry way. I shook my head and slapped my face with my hands lightly. Focus.

I gasped a little as I realized that the inside of Ike's house is like my dream home.

Dark wood floors, soft, cushiony looking sage colored couches in the living room. He even has shag carpeting, which is crazy to me because most people find it too dated and high maintenance. I have a very strong urge to lay down and run my fingers through it.

He leads me into his living room, and points to one of the couches. I sat down, ignoring that he just told me to sit like a dog and I listened. He disappeared into what I assumed was the kitchen, leaving me to look around his living room in awe. He had a lot of bookshelves. They were all made of dark, expensive looking wood, and were crammed with books, though I didn't recognize any of the titles. The tops of the shelves had small plants, a couple candles, and other small trinkets. There was a large flat screen TV in front of the couches, sitting atop a wooden TV stand that matched the bookshelves. The remotes were lined up perfectly in front of the TV, waiting to be used. Organized.

"I didn't think I would see you again." He says as he finally comes back towards me. He has two cups in his hands, and I can see steam rising from them both. I accept the light green mug, wrapping both hands around it like a safety net. He sits on a giant brown recliner diagonal from me, setting his cup on the table and leaning forward on his elbows.

"I didn't think I would be back here, truthfully." I say, eyeing him. His gaze looked darker than I remember, wilder. He has soft purple bags under his eyes. I began to think the mate bond was affecting him as well. "But... I'm miserable." I say, shrugging and bringing the warm cup to my mouth. It smells like hazelnut and cream.

He watches me, nodding. "I haven't been the same since that day, Cleo." My heart stops a little at the sound of my name coming out of his lips. Why did I like the way it sounded so much? It was like poetry whispered from the mouth of a temptress. "I wanted to find you. I tried... truthfully. But with just your first name to go off of..." He shrugs, looking away from me.

"It's Fuller." I don't even think when I say it. It just comes out. "My last name... that is." I fiddle with my cup awkwardly, my eyes flicking nervously over his face.

I notice he's got more stubble than he did last time. I feel a pang of guilt. I should have come sooner. Gotten this over with.

"Well... I won't waste your time." I say finally, sitting up and setting my cup down. "Let's just reject each other and move on with this bullshit." I avoid eye contact.

But I still see him physically flinch.

"Why... what?" He stutters out, almost glaring at me. "Why would you want that?"

I scoff, "Why would you want this?" I ask back, slapping my chest. I lay my hands flat on the wooden table in between us. "Look... I'm not stupid. I'm a panther. A packless panther. I'm no good for you, for this pack. I have nothing to offer you." I look at him now, searching his eyes.

"Why would I care that you're a panther?" Well, I like him. I internally hush my panther. I watch his face for the lie. All I see is confusion and pain though.

"Everyone cares." I say simply. He stares at me for a moment, and I begin to grow restless. This isn't going how I want it to. I wanted him to agree with me. Hell, disgust would have been preferable. Would have been easy to walk away from someone who was disgusted by your very existence.

"Cleo... I get where you're coming from. I do. But... Did you ever wonder if maybe I wanted to get to know you?" He keeps staring at me with those black eyes of his. I watch him carefully as he gets up and makes his way over to my couch. He sits next to me, not close enough to touch, but almost. "I haven't even seen a panther in years, let alone thought I would be mated to one, but I don't know. I think it's kind of cool... what you are." I stare at him, waiting for the but. To my surprise, it never comes. Instead, he slowly reaches his hand towards mine, and gently pulls it towards him.

I watched as he intertwined our fingers together, his large hand dwarfing mine.

"I don't..."I stutter out, not knowing what to say. This is good! We have a chance at an actual mate!

My mind is racing, a million different thoughts are happening all at the same time. Was he lying? He must be. Everyone always told me my mate would reject me on sight. My birth mother from the minute she knew what I really was, the rest of the members of my pack, and later, my forced fill in mother.

But he wasn't looking at me with disgust. He was looking at me like a guy looks at a girl that he has a crush on.

I felt my cheeks heating up at the thought of a guy having a crush on me.

One side of his mouth lifts up into a soft smile as he watches my face grow pink. "What?" He asks, still holding onto my hand.

"I just... never thought my mate would give me a chance." I say quietly, shrugging. We sat there for a moment, both watching our intertwined fingers like they weren't real.

Finally, I broke the silence. "So, what now?" I ask. I'm scared of what he's going to say. Mates often move in directly after meeting each other, and while I was no longer racing to reject him, I certainly wasn't ready to move in with him. Yet.

"Well... do you want to go on a date?" He asks, shrugging. I feel butterflies tickling my tummy, and I can't help the small smile growing on my face. I've never been asked on a date before.

"That'd be nice."    

"What do you like to do?" He asks, watching me closely. I scrunched my nose up and pursed my lips.

"Now that I think about it, the only things I do are go to the gym and work. I guess I don't get out much." I say. I let go of his hand to play with the ends of my hair. I sounded so boring. Why don't I have any hobbies?

He shakes his head, a smile now on his lips. He already looked lighter than when I first saw him today. He looked less tired and sad. Now that I thought about it, I felt better too. Not so... worn down. Ah, mates.

"Don't even worry about it. All I needed was your permission, I can take care of the rest. Give me your phone number." He says as he digs his phone out of his pocket. He leaned forward, staring directly into my eyes as he held his phone out to me. I had no choice but to listen to him.

"What should I wear?" I ask as I type in my number.    

"Something comfortable. When are you free?" He takes his phone back, smirks at my number on his screen, and tucks it back away in his pocket. He goes back to leaning on his knees with his elbows and staring into my soul.

I think. It's not like I have to be anywhere but work. Today was Wednesday. "I'm always free after work, but if you need more time for this date then I'm also free on weekends. I never have plans." I see his right eye twitch ever so slightly when I say I never have plans, but he doesn't comment.

"Let's do Friday then. I want as much time with you as I can get." I finally break eye contact with him at this statement. No one has ever wanted more time with me. I was a little annoyed to be honest. It wasn't often someone could get me to look away from discomfort. It felt like I had lost some unsaid game.

I stood up then, slapping my thighs and looking to the front door. I was ready to leave.

"Text me then." I nod before turning away from the dumb look on his face.

"I-okay. Yeah, I guess I'll text you then." He stands up quickly as I open his door and go to leave. "You're not upset, are you?" He asks, giving me a confused puppy look. I shake my head.

"No, I just know the longer I stay the harder it will be to leave. And I'd like to go home this evening." I smile a bit and close the door behind me as I step onto his porch.

I wasn't lying, not really. I liked him already, I could tell. I liked the way he smelled, and looked, and acted, and sat. I liked the facial expressions he made, and I liked the way my name sounded coming out of his mouth.

I was worried about all the things I liked about someone I had known for all of thirty minutes.