Prompt Me Hard - 2. 246 - Instant Attraction

“What now?”

I stared across at my brand new bunk-mate, the beautiful blue eyed young man with the strange and yet slightly familiar scent. He repeated the question with his lilting Nordic accent and I just stood there and stared at him until I just couldn’t take the look in his chocolate eyes any longer.

“Well I’m going for a beer.” And then I dashed out of the cabin.

This was not good. I had managed to convince my parents that applying to work at Six Trees as a camp and activities instructor was a good thing, even though they were deeply unhappy with the idea of my being away on a residential job, living with normal humans full time, for four months. I lived close enough that I could go home at weekends, but it was a three hour drive, and I had no real reason to leave that often.

And now there was my new roommate and buddy for the summer. Troy smelt… like home, which was fucking bizarre, because the only people who smelt like that were other bears, and Troy didn’t look like another bear, plus., there were no other families in the country that I hadn’t met, or wasn’t related too, and I’d never seen Troy before in my life. I stamped my boots on the rough grass and headed in the direction of the mess hall, our little half size staff marquee where we ate when we weren’t looking after the kids, where we could hang out and keep our stuff. There were ten of us all told, and now that induction was over and we’d all been assigned cabins the staff were drifting back towards the fridge and the stock of beer and snacks that had been provided for our first week.

“Hey Paddy!” Nic, our sort of boss, organiser and lead instructor, waved to me and then grinned, lobbing a can of Foster’s underarm. “You all settled in?”

“Aye,” I caught the can, clicked the top and snapped it open, “Cheers.”

“So remind me.” Nic cracked open his own beer and flopped down on one of the deep sofa’s that jumbled for space with the wooden tables and folding camping chairs. “You’re Scottish?”

“Yeah, but my father is Chinese. I got the height from my mum’s side of the family though.” I rubbed my hand through my hair as I swigged my beer. From my father I had gotten my thick black hair, my faintly yellowish-tea colouring, my narrowed eyes… and my fur. As a kid I had hated it, but now that I was nearly twenty one, I appreciated being different. When family met up, it was nice being the one who was different and interesting, especially because my fur was proper jet black, but because mum was much paler, the fur that made up my wide mask was practically white. In a family of brown bears, it was cool to be part spectacled. “Thank god really, my dad is really short, I’d have never lived it down.”

“Is that right?” Nic scratched at his stubble, “How come?”

“All my uncles are really tall, if I hadn’t made six feet I’d be teased for life. In my family, I’m short.”

“Well with your build you’ll be shite at the scrambling course, that’s for sure. But you go up a tree like no one business,” Nic referred to our earlier madness and fun during induction, “You and Troy both.”

“Yeah…” There was that scent again. Troy had walked in behind me and Nic handed him a beer with a friendly grin. We were both first timer’s on the job, but Nic was in his sixth year at Six Trees, though it was only his second running the show. I turned to look at Troy, and suddenly the truth hit me like a ten pound salmon right upside the head.

He was the one.

He was a shifter, though he wasn’t a bear.

We were gonna be fucking like bunnies before the sun came up.

Troy’s small smile told me that he’d realised this well before I had, which explained his earlier question, and I thanked any gods there might have been that I didn’t blush in too obvious a manner. Troy’s pale skin was pink, his freckles very prominent across the bridge of his nose. If Nic noticed the tension between us, he didn’t say anything about it, but wordlessly we drank our beers, and maintained eye contact. I could feel him undressing me. I did the same, smirking constantly.

“Patrick…” Troy said my name like he owned it, and I shivered because I liked that. I stepped forwards.

He was the one, the man I’d been looking for and we were going to be spending the next four months in ether the company of co-workers or human children and young teenagers. I was having a hard enough time not ripping his clothes of now.

Well fuck, that was inconvenient.