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He could take care of them. He could improve their lives.
He could build a life with Tru.
Tabian smiled and replayed the snippet of her saying it. “Being a mate to Tabian feels right.”
Hell yeah he could do this. He was going to.
And suddenly it hit him—the story he wanted to tell in this episode. He’d gone into this camping trip with the intention of reviewing the drone and the new tent he’d been sent, and to keep Tru and Bayen off camera. He’d meant to keep them separate from his career as long as they wanted, and he couldn’t go backward if he did this, but he didn’t care. There would be nosecond-guessing for him. Tru was his. He’d known it before he heard the word ‘mate’ spill from her lips in that clip. He would have to do some work on his channel to get it back to more normalized series after this one, but he couldn’t stop grinning as he chose the files he wanted to start splicing together.
This could go well, or this could go very very badly.
Chapter Eighteen
Tru fidgeted with her purse strap and looked out the office window again. “I’m sure he will be here any second,” she murmured to the principal, Mr. Locke, and the two teachers sitting behind him.
Outside of the office, she could see Bay sitting in a chair with his head down and a troubled look on his face.
She hated this.
Inhaling sharply, she turned for the principal. She had met with him so many times before now. “Look, Mr. Locke. I know he’s on his last chance, but he needs this. He needs socialization—”
“We cannot keep putting the other kids in danger just because he needs socialization. We are not equipped for werewolves. We have failed to come up with any kind of solution for him.”
“Solution for him,” she repeated softly.
“He was in a room by himself and went and hunted down that young man.”
The door swung open and relief flooded Tru as she saw Tabian standing there, taking up the entire doorframe. His eyes were fiery and glowing bright blue. He looked at Bayen and twitched his head toward the room. “Let’s go.”
“Um, we aren’t ready to talk to him yet. This is still just a meeting with the parent—”
“Great, now we’re both here and Bayen can tell you what happened.”
“We aren’t to that part—”
“That should’ve been the first part of all of this,” Tabian barked sitting down beside Tru. He slid his big hand over herthigh as Bayen pulled up a chair on the other side of Tabian. “You got the other kid’s story, right? The humans?”
Mr. Locke pursed his lips but didn’t answer.
“Go on, Bay. Why did you leave an empty room, which is, by the way, absolute bullshit to have Bay isolated the way you do. That’s horrible for a werewolf.”
“As I said, we aren’t equipped for werewolves.”
“But you’ll bend over backward if a human has extra needs in a school environment.”
“Those human kids can’t lose control and Turn someone, or worse, kill them.”
“Anyone can do anything. Happens every day. Have you even talked to him? Have you put him with a school counselor and put any effort into seeing what he’s about? He has all A’s—”
“Look, I don’t know who you are—”
“Werewolf. Friend. I’m Tabian Garr. Bay, what happened?”
Whoooo chills were rippling up her arms. Usually, Tru was the one getting scolded and threatened in these meetings.
“Breah texted me that Holden called her a werewolf-fucker in the cafeteria and threw a full glass of water at her. She’s wearing a white T-shirt, and it made it see-through, and he pointed her body out to the lunchroom. She was crying in the bathroom when she texted me because she couldn’t find me. I found Holden and I hit him one time with a closed fist, not the sixteen times he swore I hit him. He wouldn’t have survived sixteen hits from me, and I had no intention of killing him. Breah deserved for someone to stick up for her. The other kids were just standing around and laughing at her. Now ask me if I would hit that motherfucker again?”
“Bayen Alexander, easy,” Tru gritted out.
