(MxM) Tales Of A Shifter (P1) - The Meeting

Chapter 20 - Curiosity

Chapter 20 - Curiosity

Ezekiel trudged home much much.....much later. The chill night hurried him along one of the dirt paths leading up through his tall grasses and onto his pouch.

All three storied of his family's mansion was dark. No candles flickered in any of the third-story windows where his parent's room was. Ezekiel knew that that meant that it was well past two in the morning. He usually saw his mother's candle burning on the upper window sill as she waited for all of them to return from their various patrols, but only a few lights were shining, and all of those were on the bottom floor.

He burned with curiosity even as his eyelids begged for sleep.

Had the mortal, in fact, survived the surgery? Was he awake, or was he still in a haze of pain and unconsciousness?

But he also burned with a need to fall into the bed.

His hands and feet throbbed from slogging around mile after mile from one village to another. And his thighs and backside hurt from where repeated head butts and ramming's from unruly sheep had been delivered to his lower body. For the last three hours. He now understood all too well why his brother Lander had put off the cleaning of the Sheep Pins for the last few weeks and deep deep down he cursed the green-eyed devil to the depths of hell. As he clattered up on the pouch, he growled and kicked off the mud and hay-caked boots on his feet into the railing. In frustration, he decided that he was going straight to bed.

After all.....He had another day of this particular patrol shift until his dad said otherwise.

Ezekiel walked into his house, closed the door, and navigated the darkness seamlessly up to the second floor. He made plenty of noise as he walked, letting his family know that he was in fact a friend and not an enemy skulking in the night.

Ezekiels knew that sneaking up on other Shifters at night was a clear sign of ill motives. Predators only walked on fleet feet when they hunted after all. So, taking the necessary time to stump his way up the steps, he soon found himself walking down the one hall that still had light in it. The hall leading to the mortals room and coincidentally the same hall that all of his brothers shared.

Each level of Ezekiel's home was built in rectangles, stacked one atop another for their three-story home. Excluding the basement, which was only a small square beneath the bottom floor, where the entrance, living room, kitchen, sparing room and day room were all located. The second floor was an inter-connected rectangle of eleven fully furnished rooms.

One of which Ezekiel knew the Mortal now occupied. Ezekiel also knew that his brothers Nate and Walter occupied the room's way on the opposite side of the rectangle. While Lander and Ezekiel had beds on the shorter side of the rectangle, where only one bedroom resided for the two sides.

Ezekiel made his way down the hall as a wide yawn broke out of him, but he couldn't bring himself to pass the mortals room without at least checking if he really was still alive.

The need to know was eating away at him, even as he tried to ignore it.

Why do I even care?

Ezekiel had to ask himself as he leaned into the mortals door and pressed his ear to the wood.

Nothing at first, just the lingering scent of old blood. Ezekiel pressed his ear against the wood harder, strained for a sigh. He held his breath without knowing it.

Then he heard it. A soft, slow heartbeat.

Alive!

He gasped and dropped his head back. And as a wave of extreme relief rolled over him, he realized that he really did care far too much. But for now, he was too happy to care anymore.