I woke to hear my alarm chime next to the bed and quickly moved to turn it off.  I never used the snooze option.  I was the sort of person who fully woke when disturbed.  My nature had caused some difficulties when we had first moved to this house, amongst a village of strangers. My wolf struggled to settle, the scents were too different, each unexpected sound disturbed him. And if Eric was not lying next to me, either as I had returned from a night shift or he was visiting the Pride, I would not sleep as my wolf would be too alert.

Once mine and Eric's scent was fully entwined upon each piece of furniture, each cushion, each wall, he calmed a little, but it took more than a year for us to fully settle. Now our home, our land was fully our territory, so the only time I might wake in the night is if my wolf felt as if we were in danger or our mates were. He was already feeling especially protective of Alex, so our first instinct was to check on him and I reached for my phone intending to text him as I had over the weekend.

I paused mid reach realising that there was no need.

Eric was partially snoring, partially purring as he splayed out on his side of the bed. This was normal. He either curled up like a kitten and slowly made his way to my side of the bed to press against the heat of my body or he demanded most of the mattress by spreading out and occasionally stealing the blanket. Only this time, Alex was draped over him, using his chest as a pillow. My wolf was circling happily as I observed them, chanting 'mates' repeatedly inside my head. Well, not really. Our beasts don't really speak, it's a thought, image or feeling we receive from them. But when they feel strongly about something, our human-side interprets it as words.

I let them sleep a little longer as I went to brew some coffee.

*****

"Would you be able to drop me off at my apartment, before work?" Alex asked me, while Eric was still in the shower, upstairs.  He had only brought with him the overnight bag that he had taken to his parents and we had washed and dried the clothes from Saturday, so he probably needed something else.

"Sure, but you start at the same time as me," I pointed out, "so I'll take you from the apartment to the hospital as well." 

He tilted his head to one side.  "How did you know when my shift starts?" 

I found myself reddening slightly, unsure how to admit that I knew his schedule for the next two weeks as well as the past week.  "More coffee?" I offered him, grabbing the cooling pot. He handed me his cup and a slightly unexpected sparkle appeared in his eyes.  I refilled his cup, which he brought to his lips before whispering;

"Stalker."  I almost choked on my own drink.  My wolf whined slightly, worried that he had upset our mate, until I noticed the curve of amusement lifting his eyes.

"Well, you didn't make it easy for us to find and talk to you," I mentioned.

"Touché," he mused.  He placed his cup down on the work surface.  "I'm not running anymore."

"And you don't know how happy we are about that," I told him, smiling happily.  "Though my wolf didn't mind the chase too much."  He blushed a little. 

"I'll let you chase me again sometime, if you like."  I'm getting the impression that my mate has a playful side.  I find myself growling at him warning him about teasing me too much, but he simply smiled at me, as if the scent of arousal was not drifting from his person.

"Flirting without me," Eric pouted as he entered the kitchen and poured himself the remainder of the coffee, before adding three sugars and a healthy dose of milk.  "I'm hurt!"

"I'll flirt with you later," I murmured in his ear, which reddened deeply.

"Promises, promises," he replied.  I am surrounded by sass this morning! 

"Come on, my boy," I said to Alex as I grab my keys off of the side and he jumped from the stall and proceeded to the hallway to grab his trainers.

"Ah, you are both going?" Eric asked.  "What about breakfast?"

"Alex needs something from his apartment before work," I advised Eric before placing a kiss upon his pouting lips.

"Actually, I don't now," Alex called back, from the hall. "I was going to go back for my schedule to find out when I was due to start today, but that's no longer necessary, thanks to my stalker."

I growled again at my little mate, but still didn't faze him.  "Oh, so you and the stalker have time for breakfast then," Eric said, cheerfully and popped the frying pan onto the hob.

"Just toast," I said, gruffly.

"I'll have a fried egg!" Alex piped up.  Dammit, just who is the Alpha in this house again?

*****

I had another gloriously long shift today.  The first few hours fled past, what with being able to share small glances with my mate as he trundled past me with the cleaners trolley, hearing his laughter openly echo down the corridor as he shared jokes with a patient, eating in the canteen with him, where he glared jealousy at an intern who attempted to flirt with me.

"I'm happily mated," I informed her.  She was a fey, a fairly tall and willowy woman with pale green hair.  As a fey, she should understand about mates.  Unfortunately, as a fey, it also didn't bother her.

"Hey, so am I!" She said, cheerfully and clapped her hands.  "But what does that have to do with joining me on a date?" 

"His mates just happen to be very possessive," Alex murmured as he played with a packet of salt.  "They might just attempt to surgically remove your wings if they discovered you trying to tempt their mate."  The girl paled slightly.  A Fey's wings were their pride.  They could summon them just like a shifter could summon their beast.  She glanced at me, slightly torn, clearly wondering whether I was worth the risk.  I internally rolled my eyes.  I had never understood why Fey were so promiscuous.  Practically anyone that they had sex with they claimed as mate, but I certainly did not want to be apart of any Fey's harem.

"Remember, my boy," I said nonchalantly, "Eric is a tiger, he would likely shred them, but so long as his prey cannot fly, what would be the point of removing them entirely?"

"Good point," Alex replied.  "I just wanted to see if the Fey physiology I learnt at school was correct.  I own several surgical scalpels you know." 

"And where did you get surgical equipment?" I asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"eBay," he said, as if this was obvious.  By now, the woman had already fled, but I hadn't seen her leave.

As Alex' shift ended a few hours before mine, I texted Eric to come and collect him from the hospital.  Alex looked rather.. pained when I told him.  It turned out that Eric's driving terrified him with good reason.  I sighed, my tiger must have been trying to impress him with his baby and ended up doing the opposite.  I reassured him several times that he would be safe with Eric, that Eric would never do anything to hurt him. 

"I know," he agreed.  "But his driving still sucks."

*****

They weren't in the kitchen or living room when I finally returned home.  I found Alex sitting in the dying sunlight staring out across the garden from the deck. 

"Where's Eric?" I asked and my boy pointed towards the grass area that we purposely kept long.  Our garden had several more wild patches, including an area of trees, but only a couple of the trees were strong enough to cope with my tiger's weight. Said tiger was currently stalking a large pigeon that had stupidly flown into his view.

"His tiger wanted to greet me properly," Alex told me. "But then he saw this rabbit and completely lost interest me."

"Sounds like Eric," I chortled. I sat down beside him and he automatically leaned into me. My wolf furiously wagged his tail, happily.

"I haven't met your wolf as yet," he said, shyly.

"Would you like to?" He nodded, blushing. Normally it was considered rude for a person to indicate that they wished to see a shifter's animal, sort of like asking to see someone naked. But he was my mate and he had every right to greet my wolf and my wolf was more than ready to meet his mate.  I felt the need to kiss his lips and did so, before rising and entering the house to remove my clothes. 

My wolf was various shades of silvery grey tones, from near black to platinum white.  I was an Alpha and sizeable in my wolf form, I think I surprised him just how large I was.  I know he had seen the picture that Eric keeps open his office of us, but seeing a shifter's wolf in front of your eyes is another matter.  My wolf glanced at him expectantly and was not disappointed.  A warm smile appeared upon his face and he reached out to allow us to take in his scent before his fingers brushed through our fur.  My wolf leaned into our mate's touch. 

Eric came bounding to our side to scent my wolf with his large face, before swiping his tongue up Alex's face.  Alex laughed a little and presented his forehead so the big cat could nuzzle him.  My tail wagged, contentedly.  Could this day get any better?

The tiger entered the house, reappearing a few minutes later, shifted and wearing an apron(no, it was not a naked apron moment). "Who's up for barbecue?" He asked as he approached our outdoor grill.

"We bought beef burgers, pork sausages and venison steaks," Alex whispered. My tail began to beat against the deck enthusiastically.

I have the most amazing mates.