Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 30353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“N-no, of course not,” the man answered shakily.
Oh. Well, shit. We must have misjudged the situation, so I asked, “Do you have a baby?” Fatherhood wasn’t something I envisioned for myself; I preferred being a Daddy over a dad, but I trusted Fate and her pairing. Whatever this man needed, I would be there for him. However my family and pride were to grow, I would be blessed.
“No,” he answered quickly, before clenching his eyes shut as if he’d made a mistake.
“Then it is for you,” Enzo beamed, and the precious boy’s cheeks burned red. I hated that he was embarrassed, but he looked so sweet.
“No, I’m an adult,” he insisted as he shrank into himself.
My brother and I were quick to reply, “So?”
The young man’s wide eyes were full of curiosity as they bounced back and forth between us. But it only lasted a moment before he took off running towards the end of the aisle.
Enzo and I blinked at each other in surprise before starting after him, yelling, “Wait!”
Enzo chucked the pacifier over his shoulder as he ran in front of me. The cardboard package smacked me right in the face, and I scowled even though he couldn’t see me, though surely he felt the slap I placed on the back of his head as I ran past him.
Our mate would have been easy to catch. He was quick, but as shifters, we were much quicker. We could have easily reached him and scooped him up, but things weren’t that simple. Because as he was running away, he was gaining attention from other shoppers and employees; probably because he was yelling for help, saying two huge guys were chasing him.
Of course, that put all eyes on Enzo and me; angry, judgemental eyes from everyone around us. Our man ran to the side of a female employee, who pulled a walkie-talkie from her pocket and spoke into it. Within moments, a pair of security guards were stomping towards us.
They didn’t scare me. My brother and I were bigger, stronger, and tougher than they were, but I didn’t make a move against them. I was frozen in place by guilt and anguish, put there by the look of panic on my beautiful mate’s face. We scared him to the point that he felt he needed protection from strangers.
“Come on, you two,” one of the security guards said as he took me and Enzo by the elbow. “I don’t know what the hell you were doing, but you’re leaving now.”
My brother gave a low growl of warning, but I whispered so that only he could hear me, “Stop it. We will never get to our mate if we’re in prison.”
A sigh signaled his agreement, and then the guard roughly led us towards the exit. I looked over my shoulder as I walked, watching my mate’s pale, frightened face until I could no longer see him.
Before they kicked us out, the guards took our photos and told us that we were banned from the location. Then they accompanied us to our vehicle, and stood watch as we backed out of our parking spot.
“We can’t leave without our mate!” Enzo grumbled as I put the truck in drive.
“Of course not. We just have to make these assholes think we are.” I drove slowly across the lot and towards the main road, watching the guards in my rearview mirror. When I made a left turn, the duo finally turned around and went back inside the store.
Enzo laughed as I made a U-turn in the middle of the street before pulling back into the lot of the department store, taking a spot on the far side of the asphalt with a good view of both exit doors.
But when I put the gearshift in park and turned off the engine, he wasn’t laughing anymore. “Did you see his face? We terrified him.” I slowly nodded, my heart dropping at the memory. “Why does our whole pride suck so hard at this?”
I huffed a laugh at his question before mulling it around. Why was it that only Cedric seemed to have good luck when it came to first impressions with our mates? Probably because he was the only one of us who had enough sense to think before he acted.
“I think we get too excited,” I answered with a shrug. “We know our intentions, but we forget that these guys are human and don’t have the same instincts that we do. We want to get close to them quickly, but they end up feeling attacked.”
“That makes sense,” Enzo nodded. Not to brag, but I was totally the smarter brother. “But we’ll make it right.” He sighed again and turned a goofy smile towards me. “He was gorgeous, wasn’t he?”
“He was the most beautiful man I could imagine, which is why we’re in trouble.”