I was seated on a chair facing the computer I had set up seperate from the classroom's computers. She had been sitting up on the table. When I looked at her I had to do a doubletake--for 2 reasons.

        First, she had finished her food at least as quickly as I did. Second, her short skirt covered nothing, and I was in a good position to see her southern 5 O'Clock shadow.

         It so startled me--both things-- that I jerked a little before turning back to my work. "Thank you for the meal."

         She left me alone for maybe 15 minutes. "What are you doing?"

         "Things that require my attention, right now, unfortunately. So, get my number from my phone and put yours in, then get out. I don't need the distraction."

         "What distraction?"

         I stared at her for a second before going back to my tasks. "Honey, I'm not blind. I know the actions of a woman looking to get laid--which I don't mind. I promise, I'm interested, but I'm not getting paid to fuck your brains out. So, run along, and I'll be done around 9, if all goes well."

        I didn't want to turn her down. It still makes me uncomfortable to turn her down, and we have a year of relationship building behind us. Its not a red-blooded masculine thing to do.

        Yeah, I may not give shit one about what you think, but I'm like every other guy: don't mess with me on my ability to perform. I'll get hella sarcastic.

        But she left so quietly that I didn't even hear her, and I was being paid to do a job. It took me until 10:30.

        I almost didn't call her. 10:30? I could work a full day tomorrow, and likely still would have to do several testruns on this very set-up.

         But I did, not expecting her to answer so perkily. "Why hello, sugar, I expected to hear from you around 9."

        "If it is too late, I'll certainly take a raincheck. But I'm done, save for live testing, tomorrow."

        "I'll come walk you up to the big house. Boss will likely not want a test run until noon, anyway."

         And so she walked me over to this compound within their little town and into her small suite, laid out much like a cheap hotel room, on the 3rd floor, and lounged on the cozy loveseat, patting the cushion next to her for me to sit at.

         I had not said much through that, trying to take in exactly how weird this building was. "So, are we spending time getting to know each other or are you just wanting my services?"

        "Don't most women enjoy a little conversation beforehand?"

        "Not all." I was clamping my teeth shut, as I sat, trying not to talk about my ex. She enjoyed a lecture that left me half limp.

        (Girls if you want sex remember that we are often performance oriented and belittling us will not make for a stiff cock because you're going after our abilities in other areas. Just like belittling doesn't often work for women, but for other reasons: you don't feel emotionally connected and find it harder to relax in trust enough to enjoy the session. Totally different methods of arriving at the same offense of ruining sex for your mate. It is fairly rare to find someone who wants to be insulted, and you don't want to train someone into that.)

        She thought I looked stressed and leaned forward to calm her mate...of course, the intensity that newly found bond hit us, instead. Somehow lost about 4 hours in her arms--don't ask me how much of that was actually sex, as everything felt like an eternity.

        I fell asleep with her. I spent the night with a stranger. That's not something I do.

~~~

        I woke up to some guy and the woman I just slept with trying to quietly argue out in the hallway.

        "He needs to be doing his job."

        "You are not going to run my mate ragged right when I've found him, Cliff. Don't get between mates."

        "Fay, that's about getting in between their fights."

        "You don't think there will be a fight if you interrupt his sleep and push him to work before he eats? My one job is to care for him."

        "You are imposs..."

        I opened the door, speaking calmer than my words sounded. "What the fuck type morons stage whisper their fight? Woman, I gave you the details yesterday, and you? Have someone check in the night before. By all rights, if I took her to my place, you'd get me out here when I wanted to come, and not a second earlier. Now what the hell time am I needed?"

         "Noon."

         "As she said last night. Now, what time is it?"

         "About 8."

         "She's right. It could have waited. I did a crash run on it last night before I shut it down, just to make sure everything is working. I need to check the details, oh, about half an hour before your boss is ready to see it. Only concern is he wants to make sure that it will work on some thing faster than a human--which is weird--but I've cut down on as many of the delays as I could. Calibration would be the issue, after that. Y'all are good. Don't wake me up if there's a next time."

        I wandered back in and decided on a shower. I wrinkled my nose at her choice of scented soaps, not finding a single scentless thing up there...the most tolerable was some lavender things, so at least the shower wouldn't be a waste of time.

          That is, until she joined me. Nothing productive gets done in a shower with a horny shifter. It just doesn't. I didn't mind the hour of my life wasted because I wasn't sleeping like I wanted.

         Then she fed me--actually tried spoon-feeding me like a lover. We just met; and I know we were already doing stuff, but come on. Finally got her to stop with the nonsense, and fed myself in peace.

         Eventually made my way out to the daycare (which was surprisingly empty today) and put everything through its paces, and my hookup wandered off, to leave me in peace. Only had a few things that were working poorly, and got those figured out before the boss walked in.

         He was a strange one, looked like he could join an Elvis Presley competition as a body builder. Just strange. Never saw him in rhinestones, as he favored black like a lot of wannabe badasses do. "So do you think this will work?"

           "This will catch any human, period. Don't care if he's Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt, or an undead Luther Cary, or Jesse Owens."

          "The only one I know is Bolt."

          "Not surprised. Asafa Powell is Bolt's competition, Luther Cary is a white dude from some of the earliest modern Olympics, and Jesse Owens muddies the waters on exactly how racist the US and Germany was in the 1930s."

          "Huh. You making the argument that they weren't?"

          "Hell no. We were still a segregated society and Germany was killing people like crazy. At least you were polite enough to ask instead of chewing me out about being some sort of racist. All I meant by it is that there were more opinions than assholes about what Jesse should and shouldn't have done, and how much the two nations interfered with a proper Olympics run. It's a history that people forget to teach, and occasionally I think it's deliberate because the ignorant are so easily lead into attacking you for no reason."

         We bantered on for some time before we got down to it. "Look, unless you have something on hand as fast as what you are worried about, this is done and ready to go."

         This is where the unintentional Elvis Impersonator scared the ever-loving shit out of me. "Well, since you're Fayette's mate, and we need this done, I'll just rip off the blinders, alright? We're werewolves, and this system better be able to capture one of us running through here or it serves no purpose."

        I already thought they were a cult, and that if I did not play nice, I'd wind up dead. Don't know what had me take the risk of being with Fay, at all, to be honest--even knowing about the mate bond, I ignored it for hours, to get this job done. I didn't believe just yet, but my fear of these people increased a lot. They either believe crazy things or they are crazy things. Fight or flight was activated, but wageworker that I am, money won out over either.

         I blinked for a few seconds as all this flit through my mind. My mouth was dry as I responded. "Well, get your fastest one in here, and we'll go through the paces.