“Your mate is a human male?”
Mason looked up to see his best friend smiling at him. “Yeah. That a problem?”
“Not at all, man, as long as you’re happy.”
“Until my parents arrived and scared the crap out of Sebastian, I was fantastic. Now I have to tell him I’m a shifter and hope like hell he doesn’t run from me.”
“Dude, if this man is your mate, hewillunderstand.”
Mason jumped up and scoured the room for his shirt and shoes. “I have to go find him. Can you see yourself out?”
“Absolutely. I’m going to go and make sure your folks actually return to pack lands. Then go and help Nick reprimand Rochelle.” Garth clasped a hand on his shoulder. “It will be all right. Madame Eve knows what she’s doing. She wouldn’t have sent you Sebastian if he couldn’t handle everything.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you.” He didn’t wait for Garth’s reply, just took off out the door. Thankfully, it hadn’t been too long, and Sebastian’s scent lingered in the air.
He followed it down the stairs and to the reception desk, the strength of the smell increasing with every step he took. He checked to be sure no one was looking then leaped over the counter and headed toward the office, where the delicious aroma emanated from.
He raised his hand to knock, but before he had a chance, the door swung open and a red-haired female stood there glaring at him. Behind her, in a chair in front of the desk, sat Sebastian.
“Hurt him and I will hunt you down. Understand?”
He would have thought her words a joke if not for the knowing glint in her eye. Like she knew what he was and how he could be killed. “I understand. I will do everything in my power to make sure he is never hurt.”
She nodded then left without saying another word.
Mason stared for a minute, not daring to get any closer. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” As Sebastian looked up at him, his rage started to rise again. A bruise the shape of a claw spanned his neck.
Mason had moved to his knees in front of Sebastian before he even realized he made the decision to move.
“It’s fine, really. It looks worse than it is.”
“No, you’re not. He hurt you.” The urge to hunt down his father and teach him a lesson rode him hard, but it wouldn’t do any good. His father would still think he was right.Self-righteous son of a bitch.
“I promise it will never happen again.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” Though Sebastian spoke with conviction, his miserable expression told another story.
He wanted to argue, but it wouldn’t get them anywhere, definitely not naked.
“What do you say we go back to our room, order some room service, and talk things through?”
He waited patiently for Sebastian to answer. Dread settled in the pit of his stomach as the seconds ticked by with no response.
Suddenly, Sebastian stood and smiled. “Yeah, let’s go.”
***
Sebastian slid his keycard into the lock and, when the light turned green, pushed the door open. Keenly aware of the extremely sexy, possibly not-human, man standing behind him, he stepped inside and stopped short.
Flickering candles lit the small table, now in the middle of the room and set for two.
“Did you do this?” he turned and asked Mason.
“Nope, not me.”
He walked to a serving cart that held two domed dishes and noticed an envelope. He picked it up and opened it.
