AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Beast couldn’t help but be relieved. “Let’s just take things one day at a time. That’s the only real option.”
That seemed to appease Marcus. He nodded. “Okay, okay. One day at a time.”
Beast smiled. He already knew this wasn’t going to be easy. But they were both willing to compromise and try. That meant something. That meant a lot.
“Do you always eat at three in the morning?” Marcus pushed his eggs around on his plate. “I thought you just said coffee. I don’t think I can eat this. My stomach isn’t even awake yet.”
Beast grabbed Marcus’s plate. “I have no problem making it disappear.”
“You did not just steal my food.” Marcus scowled.
“You’re the one who said you weren’t hungry,” Beast argued. “I’m just making sure the food goes to a good home, like my stomach.”
Beast put Marcus’s plate back in front of him, and Marcus gave it back. Like Beast would turn it down. “What do you want to do with our day?”
Marcus’s eyes lit up as he smiled. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh? We’re pretending like last night didn’t happen?”
“Maybe,” Beast said slowly. “But I think it’d be better if we just try to move on and get used to the idea slowly. We did just agree to take this one day at a time.”
Marcus nodded, and Beast knew that he had just made the right decision. After he polished off both plates, he washed the dishes then headed for the shower. It might only be three in the morning, but Beast was wide-awake now.
When he was alone in the bathroom, he sat on the closed toilet and stared at his palm. He had a mate. He might have reacted calmly to this, but his mind was still blown. That snarky, sexy, compact-sized human was his mate.
A small amount of panic began to set in, but Beast swallowed it. There was no use running for the door. No matter where he went, the truth would follow him. Marcus was his, and Beast didn’t run from his responsibilities.
They still needed to figure out who recorded that alley scene, and Beast wanted to check to see if anyone had broken into Mr. Blight’s cloud.
There was also the matter of Nelo.
And if Eleazar was to be believed, which Beast didn’t, trouble was in town. He still thought the vampire was just using them to spy on Nelo. Why? Beast had no flipping clue. Not when Eleazar could have just used his own men to accomplish that.
Something else was going on. Beast just knew it and felt it in his gut. Eleazar was using them as pawns, and Beast wanted to know why.
Another question. Why had Mr. Blight sent Lance to spy on Marcus? He could have just fired Marcus and washed his hands of this. Instead, he’d sent a lowly worker to follow another employee.
Nothing made sense.
* * * *
As Beast showered, Marcus sat on the side of the bed staring at his hand. Fuck. He was mated. He should have been given an award for his performance. He’d acted nonchalant about it, but boy, he was the one panicking. He thought for sure Beast would bounce, but Marcus was the one who was ready to run.
It was one thing to sleep with one of the hunks in the pack, another matter entirely to be bonded to one. “It’s like a shotgun wedding, only I’m not pregnant,” he muttered. “Why do these things keep happening to me?”
Not that Marcus wasn’t attracted to Beast. He was. He even liked the guy on a friendship level, but this? It wasn’t as if he could call Brooklyn or Elliot. They were both mated, and seemingly happy, so they would be of no help.
Lance came to mind, but Marcus barely knew the guy. It truly sucked when his friendship pool was so limited. He was the one who’d taken Brooklyn to a nightclub after his friend had broken up with his douchebag boyfriend, and Brooklyn had found Kieran.
Elliot had come to visit, and he’d found Cyrus.
Now Marcus was mated to Beast.
“Stop overthinking this. Like he said, take it one day at a time.” But Marcus felt like he needed to take it one second at a time, because that panic was trying to take hold. His anxiety level was rising, and he found it suddenly hard to breathe.
“Don’t go there. Don’t do this to yourself. Drink a glass of wine, laugh, and pretend all is right with the world. It’s what you always do, sweetheart.”
Standing, Marcus walked out of his bedroom and headed into the kitchen. He couldn’t remember why he’d come in there, so he simply stood there looking around.
Beast walked in, a towel around his waist. Damn, the guy was one fine piece of eye candy. All those muscles, that long, sexy beard, and droplets of water clinging to his tanned skin.
