“Help you,” he said without hesitation. “I could smell your distress even over the crowd.” He took a deep breath and rested his hands on his hips, dropping his dark gaze to the ground before he looked back at me. “I understand you have no reason to trust me, but youaresafe with me, Rylan. I promise you that.”
The crazy thing was…I believed him.
His gaze went soft the longer I held it.
“Now, is your car here?”
I shook my head. “I don’t have a car.”
He nodded like he’d expected as much and took the smallest step forward. “Will you come inside? I’ll get you something to eat and we can clean up that scratch you just gave yourself.”
Lifting my hand to my forehead, I flinched when my fingers hit the tender spot. When I pulled back, the tips had a small smear of blood on them.
My hands started to tremble. Should I give this man my trust? Even for a little while?
Part of me wanted to run, but the terrified and hungry parts were winning. I was just so tired and maybe it was the omega bits of me, but in that moment I wanted nothing more than to collapse against my mate and let him take care of me.
What I did was give him a small nod. “That’d be okay.”
Shep let out a big breath, like he’d been holding it his whole life. “This way.”
***
SHEP
The walk back to the bar felt surreal.I had a mate, and he was here,repeated like the sweetest mantra in my head. I wanted to close the few inches of distance between us as we approached the back entrance, but I held myself in check. Rylan was here, but he was ready to run. I refused to give him even the smallest reason to think he couldn’t trust me.
“This is the employee entrance.” I reached out and punched in the code on the keypad connected to the doorknob. “There’s a big crowd in the main part of the bar tonight for the fights. I didn’t think you’d want to walk through it.”
He swallowed, looking from me to the door and back. “I appreciate that.”
Once the door unlocked, I turned the knob and pulled it open, stepping back far enough to give him plenty of space. He looked inside and, after a moment, stepped over the threshold and into the back hallway. This hall was the passage to all the areas of the bar—the main room, the stockroom, the kitchen, employee bathroom, and my office.
“If you head straight, that last door on the right leads to the kitchen. There’s a little break nook in the back with a table. We’ll get you settled there and I’ll have Dave make you something. We’ve got mostly bar food…chicken wings, burgers, pretzels, that kind of thing. Anything sound good?”
He lifted a hand to his flat midsection and even over the muffled din of the bar beyond the farthest door, I could hear his stomach rumble. How long had it been since he’d eaten?
“Um,” he finally said, as we approached the kitchen door. “Maybe something not too greasy?”
I gave him a soft smile. “You got it.” I pushed open the kitchen door and was immediately hit with a wave of heat and the delicious smells from the orders Dave and Julio were filling. I led Rylan to the left, and the semi closed off nook we used as a break room. There wasn’t much there—a square table with four chairs, a mini fridge, and Thorn’sNespressomachine because apparently regular drip coffee wasn’t good enough for him.
Pulling out one of the chairs, I motioned for him to take a seat, then went to the mini fridge. I grabbed a bottle of water and a can of soda and set them on the table in front of him. “I’ll go talk to Dave and he’ll bring something over. Then I’m going to change clothes, and I’ll be right back with the first aid kit. Okay?”
Rylan’s blue eyes were still wide, but his scent, which was so potent to me even in a space competing with all the kitchen smells, had calmed even more. “Okay.”
I gave him a nod and turned to walk away, but his voice stopped me.
“Shep,” he said, meeting my gaze when I turned back to him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Rylan.” I headed into the kitchen proper before I did something stupid like pull him into my arms and ruin the tiny bit of ground we’d managed to cover.
“Boss,” Dave groaned as soon as he saw me. “What have I told you about having your boobs out in my kitchen?”
“I know, I know,” I apologized as I went to where he stood on the line. “Listen, my mate is back at the table. Can you fix him something not greasy to eat, please? I’ve gotta grab a shirt and the first aid kit.”
“Yourwhat?”
“My mate.”
