Page 9 of Heir

I glanced down at my naked torso and wriggled my toes on the wet concrete. Then I looked back to the person, whose voice told me it was a woman, a hundred yards down the street and on the other side. “Don’t have any.”

She shook her head before disappearing into her own building.

Maybe I needed clothes?

But my mate wouldn’t care, would she? Shifters didn’t give two shits about nudity. The humans were the ones who got their restrictive underwear in a twist over too much skin. They also had no tolerance for the cold though. Such an unevolved species really.

I glanced around until I spotted a still open bodega up the street half a block. Stalking forward while ignoring the pull to return to my mate. I opened the door for the bodega, causing it to jingle. The South Asian man behind the counter gaped at me.

“Clothes?” I growled.

He shook his head.

“Do you have a lost and found or something?”

Nodding in terror, he reached behind the counter, littered with scratch tickets, gum, lighters, and other stupid human shit, and plunked a cardboard box in front of me.

I grunted and rooted through it. Mostly sunglasses, a wallet with nothing in it, a glove, six socks that didn’t match, a pair of children’s swimming goggles, and a shirt. That would have to do. I pulled out the red, short-sleeve T-shirt and tugged it on. It was a bit tight. Actually, it was really tight and my biceps made the seams pop. It also hit me just below the sternum.

Better than nothing. I nodded at the clerk. “Thanks.”

The man hadn’t blinked or closed his mouth.

The door jingled when I opened it again and I made my way back down the sidewalk toward the Reinvention.

I waited in the shadows behind a squat bush, hoping that someone might enter the building and I could follow behind them. There appeared to be a buzzer system and since I had no idea what my mate was called, I didn’t want to buzz all the residents and wake them up. But I would if I had to.

My patience waned as time ticked by, my bear growling at me to go and claim her. To meet her and start our life.

Finally, a man with a fedora and brown wingtips sauntered past me and turned to climb the stairs for the front door. He hit one of the buzzer numbers and it rang twice before someone answered.

“It’s Sam.”

“Come on in.”

The door clicked, and he yanked it open. I waited two full heartbeats before I leaped up from my spot and raced to catch the door before it shut again. Sam was already on the elevator by the time I got there, wedging my big toe to stop the door from shutting just in the nick of time.

My mate’s scent was so strong now, I knew exactly how to find her.

I located the stairwell and went on the hunt.

Not the first floor.

Not the second.

Not the third.

She was on the top floor.

Heaving open the big door for the fourth floor, I paused and sniffed in either direction.

Left.

Her scent was so strong now, I was heady with excitement and desire. How long would we have to wait before we bonded? Before I claimed her as mine and we mated for life? Before we worked on starting a family? I wanted cubs so badly.

I stopped in front of apartment 405 and shut my eyes, pulling her sweet, floral, and spicy scent deep into my lungs. My cock twitched.

Smiling, I knocked on the door.

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