Page 9 of A Home for Tyler (Omegas of Animals #14)

Tyler

Last night had been the best night of my life. Full. Stop. But when my eyes cracked open this morning, as I slapped at my phone to turn the alarm off, the magic was broken. I had to work. There was an exterminator coming at the butt crack of dawn.

And while I didn’t know what the future held, as far as where I was going to live or what was happening with Dimetri and I, I couldn’t let the people who lived here deal with the rodents and bugs that would invade this place if we missed the appointment.

As it was, I’d discovered my fair share of both while working here.

The guy should probably come at least twice a month, if not weekly, but given how little my boss actually cared about this place, I considered once a month a win.

I slid out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

And when I came back out, I tripped, nearly falling all the way to the floor over my mate’s shoes.

We hadn’t been exactly careful about where our clothing went the night before.

We had other things on our minds. I picked them up to set them on the floor beside the, and that was when I saw them up close for the first time.

These weren’t the kind of shoes a person got at a discount store.

They cost more than a room here for an entire week.

That didn’t make them the luxury items of the century or anything.

This place was pretty cheap. But it was embarrassing.

What must he have thought of me when he came here last night?

It would’ve been better had we gone to a real hotel, but was nothing I could really do about that.

I had to be here dark and early, and hotels cost a lot of money.

I threw on some clothes, set a bowl with a packet of instant oatmeal next to the hot pot, and gave my sleeping mate half a wave. What I wanted to do was bend down and kiss him, but he didn’t need to be up now. Let him sleep. Goodness knew he’d earned it.

Not even Bob was out when I reached the office.

It was too flipping early. The exterminator pulled in before I walked inside.

He was a nice enough guy and far too chipper for this time of the morning.

I showed them where I suspected the mice had been coming in to the one unit.

Unlike him, I wasn’t human and was able to scent their gross little paths, giving me a very large advantage.

“Oh, that’s a good eye. I’ll fill that in with some steel wool when I’m done. Keep ’em from coming back.”

I left him to his job and got to mine, starting in the office, making sure there were no messages or anything missed from the night before. The last thing I needed was people coming back saying I ignored their requests.

There were none, which was good. There was, however, more paperwork than anyone should ever have to deal with. Yay, end-of -month duties.

It was my first time doing it, and my boss’s instructions were not what you’d call complete. He said, “Here, make sure all this is done.” I spread everything out and started filling in blanks then erasing other blanks and filling them in correctly.

My eyes were going blurry from it when the door opened. I scented him before I saw him.

It was my mate.

“Morning.” I walked around the desk to meet him, and in his arms were two bags of what smelled like delicious goodness. I gave him a kiss, my fox coming up to greet him, my eyes not mine for a few seconds.

“Can you take a break?”

“Probably should. I’m trying to do paperwork I don’t understand.” I’d be surprised if it wasn’t a hot mess.

“Ooh, that doesn’t sound fun.”

“Trust me, it’s not.”

“Well, I brought breakfast.” He held up two bags. “Where should we eat?”

My room had a bed and a dresser. That was that. The office wasn’t any better—one chair, the desk currently filled with papers.

“Let’s go out back. We can have a picnic.” That was my nice way of saying, There’s no place to eat. Let’s go eat on the ground. But he agreed, and we found a nice spot, a little bit of shade from the building.

“I wasn’t sure what you would like, so I brought random food.” He was literally the sweetest.

The first container he opened held an omelet with toast and potatoes.

The second contained a big stack of pancakes.

The third held a bowl of yogurt with granola and fruit.

The fourth was filled to the top with strawberry French toast. The fifth included scrambled eggs and sausage.

There was enough food for most of the residents.

All of them if you only included the ones up before noon.

“Did you buy out an entire diner?” It was sweet and adorable and so kind—but also completely unnecessary.

“No, I went back to Animals and made it for you.”

I hadn’t been expecting that.

“You made it for me at Animals? They just let you do that?”

“I mean, it’s my cousin’s place. What are they gonna do, tell me to get out? ”

“I can’t believe you did all this for me.” I hugged him tight, afraid I was gonna wake up. Admittedly, this place was pretty shitty, but everything between Dimitri and I had more than I could’ve ever hoped for. Waking up to discover it was a dream felt like a very real possibility.

“I did see my cousin, though, and his mate. I talked to them, and they said they have jobs and an apartment for us if we want to stay.”

“Were you not planning on staying?” I hadn’t considered that he might be here for a short time.

He half-shrugged. “Eat.”

I opted for the omelet and picked up the piece of toast, took a bite, “Eating. Don’t think I forgot that I asked you a question.”

He shook his head, eyes closed, obviously amused.

“Fine. I don’t know. I don’t know what I was planning on doing, where I was planning to go, or any of that. My bear was on a mission—one he didn’t quite make clear to me.”

“Is he still on the mission?” And what did that even really mean?

“He was looking for our mate. I didn’t realize it at the time, but there’s no other explanation. He’s calm now. He’s no longer wanting us to…to leave.”

He. Was. Looking. For. Me.

“So, guess what I’m saying is, I don’t really know what I want to do, but I know I want to do it with you. And I know that I do not like you living here.”

“I don’t hate the place,” I confessed. How could I? It brought me to him. “But also, it’s not ideal.”

Just then a blood-curdling scream from Bob came through his window.

“I gotta go.”

I raced around to his front door, banged on it, told him I was coming in, because I assumed he was, you know, dying—but when I opened the door, it wasn’t that. It was that water was spurting everywhere out of his faucet, or what remained of the faucet.

So much for having a nice breakfast with my mate.

Duty called.