Chapter 42: Opportunity of a Lifetime

Dean's POV

The click-clack of the keys on the computer seemed thunderous compared to my relatively quiet surroundings. Now that it was late at night, I felt one of the biggest cons of being a teacher. The loss of what was once free time to grading assignments and reading emails.

I was only so fortunate that the university I worked for had certain spells intact to make my job easier. Yet, I still felt all of the work drain my energy.

I pulled back from my laptop, sighing when I found that I was nearly finished with my emails. At that thought, my mind drifted off to my boyfriend, my mate, Sebastian. It was frustrating to admit that our relationship was rockier than I would have liked.

Things just kept showing up and making it so that Sebastian felt the need to question my feelings or loyalty. The worst part was that I was often the cause. Whether I tried to be or not, it happened. I was having a hard time figuring out how to avoid them.

But . . . I would try. Even through all of the difficulties and issues that came up, I was falling for the younger man. Even if it was hard, the moments where I touched his hand, saw his smile, or heard him ramble made everything completely worth it.

A wide smile had just fallen on my face, and I didn't feel any need to wipe it off. With my new, revived mood, I decided to take a break from checking emails to grading some more of my students' work. Since it was simple homework, it didn't take long to finish what was leftover from the previous day's work.

Now, pretty worn out, I desperately wanted to close my computer and continue working tomorrow. I would have, I really would, but I just had a feeling that it would be better to finish growing through my emails.

Even as I made that decision, I was grumbling about my hardworking nature as I reopened the email tab. The first couple of emails were simple enough, minor things reminding me of subscriptions or news and they barely took any time at all to reply to if I had to.

It became interesting when I came upon an email sent to me the previous week. The sender seemed familiar and after staring at the name a bit longer, I realized who it was. My eyebrows raised when the name came to me, and I found myself confused as to what they were contacting me about.

The woman who had sent the email was an old associate of mine. Her and the organization she worked for often did a lot of research and digging, starting the long process that came with dealing with species on the field. Then, they would contact those like me who could go on the ground and finish the work.

It has been several years since I had worked with them, they were the first organization I worked with and I had plenty of reason to be grateful to them. If it weren't for them, I may never have been as successful as I am and definitely not an immortal. The question now was why they were contacting me.

I had announced over a year back that I was taking an indefinite break from the field to teach, which was another passion I had in relation to interspecies work. They certainly should have known that I wasn't going to go.

But . . . they may have a reason for contacting me regardless of that. Maybe it's important. Maybe it's special.

Those thoughts pushed me to open the email, eyes widening the more I did. It was special. My ex-associate began the email by clarifying the fact that she knew I was taking a break. But, she felt the need to ask me anyway. Her team had been doing research as they usually did, but they came upon a shocking theory.

There was a chance that they had discovered traces of a society that would point to the possibility of vampires and feii being the most closely related species in the association. This would be a huge discovery since they currently believed that vampires were more closely related to shifters and humans while feii were more distantly related to the rest.

And she wanted me to be the lead correspondent in the field research. My jaw dropped and my hands quickly went to reply with a completely bolded "absolutely!"

But, I stopped them when a name suddenly came to mind. Sebastian. Our relationship was brand new, and the two of us had been making plans for projects we can pursue together for the next ten years. This could take months, years, possibly decades to complete. While I was immortal, Sebastian wasn't. The time needed to secure our bond and have him alive with me forever would be taken up by the research.

And, putting that all aside, Sebastian may be seriously hurt to find out that I was leaving him when I promised to stay by his side forever. All of this considered, it would be terrible for our relationship if I went. I had to decline. I had to say no.

My hands reached for the keys again, but I stopped them from typing a thing. I had considered everything, but I wasn't saying no. Why?

Maybe, my love for research and discovery was stronger than I thought. Or, I feared that I would be saying no to the opportunity of a lifetime. Either way, I changed my answer.

Instead of responding with a definite no, I found myself giving a more open answer.

"I will have to get back to you on my availability, but it is not a no."

I didn't even have the dignity to add a "yet" in my head. I wanted to go so badly.

But, I was not sure if I could.

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Hey guys!

I hope that you liked the look into Dean's perspective in all of this. I wrote it as I am at this camp so it may not be published for several days afterwards. I wrote it on 5/30/19 so I guess we'll see.

Update, I didn't end up getting enough service 'till today, where I spent a ton of time sleeping in the car (ROAD TRIP!) and getting through the mountain of notifications.

Anywhore,

you

So many things to consider and so little time to do so.

Anywho,