won’t let your human side sit with me until I’ve accepted you. How is that fair?”
There was silence for a moment, broken only by the sound of someone clacking their long nails on a broken table. Happy to wait him out, Kee got up, still holding his phone, and went into his kitchenette, pulling a meal out of the freezer box. Popping it in the microwave, he set the time for half power for five minutes and then grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He was sitting on the couch with his now-heated meal when Dian spoke again.
Chapter Six
Dian might refer to himself as ‘we’ or speak as though he and his other form were two separate identities, when in fact they weren’t that different at all. Sitting on the floor at Cam’s, the house silent around him, he was trying to reconcile his desperate need to see his mate and his innate fear of being seen as a monster.
“I’m not trying to be unfair,” he said haltingly, wondering if in fact he was being a right asshole. By modern standards it was possible. “It’s just, if you didn’t accept my shifted form, then there’d be no future for us.”
“I agree.” Kee appeared to be chewing something. “But…” Dian heard a loud swallow, “but, you’re forgetting, we’re not attempting a bond mate situation. We’re fated mates and fated mates are perfect for each other in every way.”
“You don’t know what you’ll be facing when you see me.” The frustration of his kind made Dian want to roar.
“Because you won’t give me a chance,” Kee shot back quickly. “I accept, for whatever reason, you couldn’t shift when I saw you at work today. Maybe you’re too big, maybe other people would be so horrified Cam would lose all his business. I’m not saying that’s what would happen, because I don’t know. But I’m not at work. I’m at home now. Alone. Human Dian could’ve walked me home and then you could’ve shifted here – either inside or outside, but can’t you see, it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“I thought having the phone would give you a way to get to know me, before… you know…” Dian was sounding lame to his ears, and he was fairly sure Kee thought the same.
“And did you work out how long that getting to know each other was going to take when you came up with this plan of yours?”
The phone had actually been Eagle’s idea, and Dian had thought it was a damn good one. At least he had a way of talking to his mate without freezing up or shifting in front of him. He was glad he could still talk in his shifted form, because hearing Kee was enough to bring his monster forward. But Kee didn’t seem to appreciate it.
“I scented you, you know. In the bar, after you were carried out, I scented you, and do you know what the first thing I thought when I saw you?”
Oh, gods, I don’t want to know. “What?” Dian asked because he was a glutton for punishment.
“That you were hot. A hot, hunky mountain of a man who worked for the government. The government!”
“It’s a very stable job,” Dian said quickly. “I can take care of you the way you deserve. You’ll never want for anything.”
“That’s not a problem, actually… well, that would be really useful,” Kee said, “but what you don’t understand is that my hippie parents warned me about having anything to do with anyone remotely connected with authority since I was a baby. I don’t know why they believed that – it could’ve just been because they were hippies, but I didn’t let your job bother me, because I knew we were fated.”
“I can quit my job.” Dian ran a chunky hand over his weathered face. This is worse than I thought. “Honestly, I just do it out of habit more than anything else. It can be boring living with no purpose.”
“Oh, hon.” Dian found he liked Kee’s chuckle. “There’s no point in you handing in your resignation if you won’t let me see you. You missed my first point. I’m a shifter. I’m battling my fox here. He wants to come out and track you down, and as I know you’re staying at Cam’s house and I know where that is, it wouldn’t be that difficult. Don’t you understand, you’re my mate. Every part of me wants to know you in every way.”
Dian groaned, because by