Was it normal that I enjoyed the hours spent with Dean? Was I a bitch for having fun when Eric was yet to call?

I wished I could blame it on my tigress' obsession with her fated mates, but I couldn't – not entirely. Dean was simply a great guy who knew how to put me at ease, how to make me laugh and how to ensure I had a good time.

And I believed he was enjoying himself in the process because, as it turned out, I shared his love for jogging, movies and gaming. So what we did during our "date day", as he dubbed it with a smug smile, was what he would choose for himself.

In addition to having fun, I got to know Dean better and, through his stories involving Sebastian, his grouchy "pal" as well.

Turned out Dean had been a clumsy child, contrary to shifters' typical gracefulness. That was why he had decided to take up martial arts during his years in university, for which he had moved here from his small hometown. Busy with his studies, he had attended only a handful of training sessions until his last year, and that was where he had met Sebastian. They had barely spoken with each other during that training session, but fate had later intervened to bring them together.

Fate, as in a woman they had ended up fighting over at a club. After the woman had left with someone else entirely, Dean and Sebastian had bonded over their bruised pride and faces. And they had not separated ever since.

They had joined a pride once Dean had graduated, but several years later, unhappy with how the pride was being run, they had decided to form a pride of their own. One open to cat shifters of any kind, with no leader at the top as cats, authority and pack hierarchy didn't mix well.

With its numbers growing, the pride had eventually come to need enforcers. Members capable of ensuring the safety of the weaker shifters in the group and the inviolability of the group's territory. In the case of this particular shifter group, the enforcers also had to guarantee what Dean called "the females' freedom to choose the coolest tomcat - or tomcats - for themselves", rather than get forced into a shifter group and a relationship.

Becoming pride enforcers four years ago had resulted in many troubles for Dean and Sebastian, as well as amusing situations. In one of those, they had had to babysit the only cub in the pride for five days while the parents were traveling. Everyone else had found excuses not to pitch in, but that hadn't stopped the pride members from teasing the two tough enforcers over diaper changing and breast feeding.

Had Dean and I had more time to talk between our run in the forest and the Predator hunting its victims in the jungle, I might have spilled some stories of my own as well. That was how much he made me relax in his company.

That, and the fact that he checked my phone for messages from Eric several times without me asking him to. My human half now trusted his word nearly as much as my tigress trusted this male.

Therefore, when after the cinema he suggested we go to his place for some video games on his console, I agreed. There was no avoiding Sebastian after 7 p. m., anyway. And spending the time left until my next date with Dean in my apartment, with nothing to do but fight the attraction between us... Nope, better to keep my hands busy with a joystick.

Plus, Dean and Sebastian had the 2020 Predator video game that I really wanted to try.

"This TV is ridiculous," I noted while the game was loading, my fingers already itching to press the buttons on the joystick in my hands. "The screen takes up half the wall and it probably costs more than the console and pile of video games you purchased it for. And to think that I don't even have a TV at my apartment..."

"Envious, sweetie?" Dean beamed at me as he sat next to me on the sofa, his joystick sticking out of the waistband of his full-length sweatpants.

He'd changed into them once we had arrived in the empty apartment, Sebastian yet to return from work. Just like the cargo pants Dean had worn during the day, the black sweatpants hinted at his well-shaped legs while also leaving something to the imagination. They also looked so soft, giving my tigress crazy ideas. Like, climbing in his lap to rub against the fabric.

I had to keep reminding myself that I was here to survive the Predator's hunt, not to go all predatory on the promising bulge in Dean's pants.

"You know what you have to do to gain daily access to the awesomeness of this TV," he told me with a brow wiggle, oblivious to my dirty thoughts.

"Let me guess... Move in with you?"

He snorted while taking hold of his joystick, his long fingers moving dexterously over the buttons to navigate the game's menu. "How cheap do you think the access to this amazingness is? Moving in with us cool tomcats is just step one." There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes when he looked at me before continuing. "Next, you have to choose my bedroom over Bas'. Since it is I who purchased the TV."

I raised a brow in challenge. "Didn't you say you and Sebastian share everything? What if Sebastian claims the TV is partially his and denies me access?"

Dean shook his head with a grin as he launched the game's intro. "He won't. Because then I will deny him access to my bedroom-turned-our-bedroom."

Too invested in the amusing conversation, I paid the intro no mind. I wanted to play along, although something told me Dean was not entirely joking about bed choices.

"But what good will letting Sebastian into our bedroom do," I asked with fake seriousness, "when the three of us will never fit in there? Or is your bed as big as Sebastian's?"

Dean chuckled, his gaze on me filled with mirth. "If you want to check out my bed, you only have to ask, sweetie... But no, it's not king-size. Still, it's in the bedroom with the better view and the bigger en suite bathroom." He winked at me as he added, "There's a tub."

"A tub, you say? Oh, that changes everything." I giggled, I couldn't help myself.

"You are yet to hear the third condition for your TV access," he reminded me just as the play button appeared on screen. "It's the most important condition, mind you. There can be no negotiating out of it."

I smiled. "I'm listening. Although I suspect it involves taking clothes off?"

He snickered. "You wish!... Okay, maybe I wish that, too. But that's not what the condition entails."

"What is it, then?" Curiosity was now eating at me.

"The condition is..." He shifted slightly closer on the sofa until his thigh brushed against mine.

"Yes?" Why did my voice sound so breathy?

"You'll have to..." His gaze locked onto my lips as he leaned closer.

I bit my lower lip, my heart racing all of a sudden. "I'll have to what, Dean?" I whispered, slightly breathless.

"You..." he whispered over my lips.

"Yes..."

"Must..."

"Yes, yes..."

"Get to the chopper!"

I gaped, which only made him laugh harder at the Schwarzenegger joke from the Predator movie.

"You're terrible!" I nudged him in the shoulder once I'd recovered from the near-kiss.

"No, sweetie, I'm serious." He could barely hold his laughter in as he said it. "You have to make it out of the alien's hunting ground alive to win the game. Win the game, win this super-duper TV."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Game on, pretty boy."