(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 220

Chapter 220: Side story - Where has all the time gone?

Being home alone wasn’t something that Casper ever liked.

Yes, he lived further away from everyone, but that wasn’t something he had decided on his own.

He needed that separation for his and everyone else’s well being. If he lived any closer, he might never leave the Tower. And what happened yesterday would happen a lot more often.

Granted, he’d always gotten close, but no one had ever stopped him before. Until now.

He’d been benched. By Kellen, no less. A man infamous for overworking himself.

Turns out, he was much better at doing it then Casper was. It was embarrassing. It was degrading, and honestly? It was a slap to his pride too. How long had he been working for the Guild? As soon as it was founded?

And yet Kellen had come in, like a wild storm, and slotted in as the missing piece that everyone needed. The Captain, Hill, Gunther, Green and everyone else.

Casper wasn’t the same.

He’d always known that he was...a little strange compared to the others. He had high compatibility, which meant that there were lots of Espers, Guilds, Centers, countries, etc. that wanted him.

But they didn’t want him.

They wanted his body. Not what he’d worked away at for years, defining himself as a good leader and competent Guide, no, they just wanted the inherent abilities lying inside of his body.

Which was why he had fallen for Captain Thatcher’s sweet words, his temptations like the damn devil when he’d first recruited Casper. He had said everything that Casper had wanted to hear.

A siren’s call, Captain Thatcher had wrapped around Casper like a snake, squeezing and injecting him with sweet, sweet poison until it was far too late for Casper to back out.

That...and Captain Thatcher had something else in his back pocket that Casper wouldn’t have been able to resist either. It was an...unfortunate situation, but over time, Casper had gotten used to it.

Until he was alone, in his apartment, separated from everything that distracted him from his own problems.

He had to sit in the fact that he was alone. A few people had reached out to check on him, and mildly threatened him, but that was it.

Not the person he wanted.

Loneliness was a close friend. One he had become intimately familiar with.

It wasn’t a friend he had personally chosen. Why would anyone willingly choose loneliness when there were other options?

But Casper, as he had always known, was stubborn. And his heart had become set on another. Someone just as stubborn as himself.

So he was lonely. Afraid that he would always be this way. Watching Kellen join the Guild and fill the spot that he himself thought that he would fill had really shaken him.

Not because he wanted to be with Captain Thatcher, Kellen could have the demon. No, it was because he thought he was going to be part of the first pair in the Saturn Guild. And that just didn’t happen.

In fact, he had a feeling he wasn’t even going to be part of the second, or third official pair in the Guild. With the way his love life was going, he was going to remain single for the rest of his life.

Exhausted, from the stress from work, from his own racing thoughts, Casper collapsed on his couch. He stared up at the ceiling of his apartment, the afternoon sky trickling in.

His apartment wasn’t anything to write home about. It was a basic, two bedroom home. It had a basic kitchen, with one bathroom. One of the selling features was the giant, large tub that sat in front of the window in the bathroom. A soaker tub, some called it. Casper was a sucker for a good soak. He loved water, and with how much he normally guided, it was a good way to calm his nerves after a long day.

He’d usually put on a cheesy tv show on his laptop and rest it near the tub so that he could watch it as he soaked his bones. Very few knew that Casper liked ’bad tv’. And as time went on, it felt like the list kept dwindling.

He needed the second bedroom as an office, because even when he went home, he still worked on a couple tasks. Things that he could do away from the Division. It also helped out when one of the new Espers got into their minds that they were a perfect fit.

Because Casper was single, powerful, and looked like a pushover.

He wasn’t an idiot. He knew who he was, and what he looked like. He was scrawny, with hair that never listened to him, big, silver rimmed glasses, and his height only added to his scrawny image. Even before he started guiding to the level that he was daily, he’d never been a big guy.

Another knock sounded while he was hesitating. _{fɾēewebnσveℓ.com}