Page 9 of The Suspicious Mate

Once in his bedroom, he locked the door and pulled the heavy dresser over in front of it. He was thoroughly spooked, and after securing both doors, he sat down on the bed in the darkened room and began to consider returning home to North Dakota. He wasn't certain that the man was who he thought he was, but the fear in his gut would not let him go. His nerves were strung so tight that he suddenly leaped from the bed when his phone began to ring. Out of breath and with his heart racing, he answered without checking who was calling.

“Hello.” He panted.

"Are you okay?" The voice was very familiar and so welcome. He met the guy once, and suddenly Noa's voice was all Kallan needed to start to calm and center himself. Noa was one of a kind, for sure. He was a man who could thoroughly piss you off one moment and be your shining knight in the next.

"Yes, I'm okay." He said, but the halting nature of his words left his statement rather suspect.

"You're scared; what's scaring you? Are you in danger?" Noa was talking fast and sounded genuinely concerned. "I'm coming over."

"No, no, I'm fine, really." Kallan had to get hold of himself, or he may end up looking ridiculous. "I thought I heard something, but it was nothing." He lied, hoping to put an end to the questioning.

"Whatever it was, it scared you. I can hear it in your voice. I've only known you a short while, but you don't strike me as reactive or irrational." Noa complimented him, and he liked it. The calm that he felt the moment Noa spoke continued to grow as the conversation continued. "Tell me what you heard."

Kallan paused, considering what to say without sounding reactive and irrational, the two things Noa said he wasn't. "I thought someone followed me home, but there is no one there now. I only saw him for a second, and I must have been mistaken. It startled me, but now I'm calmer and rational thought is returning." He forced a laugh.

“Who was it?” Noa wasn’t letting go.

"I don't know, probably no one. I'm tired, and it was most likely just a play of light and shadow. I'm fine." Kallan tried to explain it away, and then a thought struck him.

“Why did you call?” Kallan wasn’t accusing or angry, just curious.

“I wanted to make sure we were still on for morning, and I wanted to hear your voice again." Noa chuckled.

“I’m still on for morning if you are.”

"Definitely, and since there are quite a few shops, I want you to see, we'll hit the top five first and then decide on the others over lunch." Noa had an air of uncertainty about him, as if he worried Kallan would back out. Kallan found it rather endearing for such a confident man.

“Sound good to me. I’ll leave it in your hands, and I look forward to seeing some of the town.” Kallan was finding his spirits rising and was experiencing a feeling of peace which brought a flood of relief.

“I’ll see you at nine then.” Noa reiterated.

“I’ll see you then.”

“If you have any problems tonight or anything concerning arises, call me." Noa made the offer and punctuated it with a seriousness that Kallan could feel. "Do you want me to come over and check the area?"

"No, I'm fine, really." Kallan forced a certainty into his tone. "I'll see you in the morning." With that, he closed the call and felt a wave of sadness at losing his connection to Noa. It was stupid, but as soon as he hung up, a slight shadow of fear returned, and he moved over to his bedroom window and looked out carefully to keep himself concealed but saw nothing, only the empty street below.

CHAPTER FIVE

"Was there a problem? Is he okay?" Both Parc and Cross were leaning on the bar observing Noa as he made his call. He'd felt something was wrong, and his bear began to react, causing Cross to grab him and hustle him away from the door and over to the bar.

Between Cross and Parc, they calmed him, and he was able to suppress his animal. Noa explained about Kallan, and they suggested he call rather than race over to the guy's apartment and make a scene.

"He was scared. I could hear it so clearly and not just spooked. He was really frightened." Noa raked his fingers roughly through his hair, clearly frustrated that Kallan had not told him the entire truth. He was holding back for fear of looking helpless, or it might have been simple embarrassment. "I'm going over to his place and do a search of the area. He said he thought someone had followed him home but then said he was mistaken. I won't be satisfied unless I take a look for myself.”

He looked over at his friends, who were eyeing him with a grin. He smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure he’s my mate.”

"Yeah, we're pretty sure, too. Now go see to his safety. You won't rest until you do." Cross gave him the rest of the night off, and Noa was appreciative. The need to go check on Kallan was crawling up his spine and filling him with anxiety. He ran to his truck that was parked in the back lot and, once there, changed out of his tight, black, see-through t-shirt into a nice black Henley.

Concern for Kallan remained as he made his way across town to Kallan’s apartment complex. The mere thought of someone following that young man and daring to frighten him made Noa’s blood boil. If there was someone outside giving Kallan grief, he would make sure the man never bothered anyone again. His anger kept growing the closer he got to Kallan's apartment.

By the time he arrived, Noa was ready for anything and hoping to take care of whatever problem dared to enter Kallan's environment. There was street parking available, so he parked just down from the building and got out. He stood for a few minutes, just taking in the area and focusing on any unusual scents or moods in the air. The first thing that hit him was jackal and then a subtle smell of wolf, but jackal was the prominent scent. It still hung in the air, so the beast had been there recently.

He looked up at the building and wondered which windows belonged to Kallan. He said he looked out the window down onto the street below, and his apartment was on the third floor, so his place was one of the banks of windows on the third floor facing the street. All the windows were dark, so he assumed Kallan had turned in for the night.

Noa walked the front of the building and around the back, checking adjacent properties and any hiding places but found no one hanging around. The smell of jackal remained, although it was growing fainter as the minutes passed. If there was a jackal sniffing around his mate, there would be hell to pay.

The fact that he thought of Kallan as his mate gave him pause for a moment but also made him smile. He wasn't sure what to expect because a mate was not someone he ever thought would enter his life, but the experience so far was quite pleasant.

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