Page 1 of Instant Bond

CAM

THE BELL FASTENEDabove the door of the café let out a cheery ring as we stepped through it. I nearly sighed in relief at the crisp blast of air conditioning. The walk was only a handful of blocks, but the August heat was brutal. Not that my six-year-old son seemed to notice, practically wiggling with excitement the whole way. He’d just attended his first week of first grade, and was already getting glowing reviews from his teacher about how helpful and attentive he was.

We stepped into line behind a tall, broad-shouldered guy with dark blonde hair in an expensive-looking suit.

“What are you going to get, Daddy?” Ty asked. He’d already made his decision based on the television ad they’d been bombarding us with a dozen times a day for the past week. The limited time summer menu boasted lemonades and smoothies, as well as specially decorated pastries.

“I’m not getting anything,” I said. “This isyourspecial treat.”

Truthfully, I could barely afford that, but I’d make it work. Ty was so well-behaved compared to the screeching monsters I usually saw in the park or at the school, I couldn’t help but try to spoil him in any way I could. I was pretty sure that having to deal with an unruly brat on top of everything else would probably push me over the edge of sanity. Being a completely broke single parent was bad enough, plus the fact that we had no living family members to help with anything. Even with my two jobs, we were struggling, living completely month to month. Sometimes week to week.

“You can have some of mine,” Ty offered. Unable to stop the smile from crossing my face, I laid a hand on his head, fingers carding through the soft locks of hair. It was an unremarkable shade of mousy brown, identical to mine. We also shared the same olive-toned skin, which tended to bloom into a warm tan with even minimal time in the sun, and the same hazel eyes.

“That’s okay, baby. I’m not hungry.”

The guy in front of us finally reached the counter. He ordered an iced coffee and a donut to go, the same donut that Ty wanted. It was filled with blueberry jelly, and the top was iced and decorated to look like a bright yellow duck. He swiped his card and gruffly thanked the cashier before stepping to the side to wait for his drink.

When I opened my mouth to order, I received a gentle elbow in my side.

“I wanna do it,” Ty murmured pointedly, as if the idea of having his order given by his dad was fatally embarrassing.

“Go ahead.”

“I want one ducky donut and one strawberry lemonade, please,” Ty said confidently. The cashier’s expression turned to a light grimace in response.

“I’m so sorry, but we’re actually out of the duckies for today.”

“But he got one.” Ty pointed over at the man in the waiting area. His comically obvious gesture seemed to get the man’s attention, and he began to watch our exchange. He had a powerful build, and strong, masculine features. Definitely an alpha. His expression was intense and intimidating. I felt heat rise to the surface of my skin, and purposely turned away from him so he wasn’t in my peripheral vision.

“I’m really sorry, but that was the last one,” she apologized again. “We still have the chocolate puppy rolls if you’d like one of those.”

I knew that Ty didn’t really like chocolate, but because of the magically ingrained politeness he possessed that I was so grateful for, he did not voice that particular opinion to the minimum wage cashier.

“We can come back and try again tomorrow,” I told him, but the obvious disappointment radiating from him was a huge bummer. I knew that for a six-year-old, a single day could feel like forever. Hell, it was still like that for me when I was waiting for a new episode of my favorite show or a new volume of a webcomic to drop.

“Okay,” Ty sighed, defeated.

“Oh, no.” The alpha to our side seemed to finally realize the issue. As he spoke, I finally forced myself to notice him more definitively, and shifted my gaze in that direction. “Did I get the last one of what you wanted?” He stepped back over to us, holding out the wax paper bag to my kid. “You can have this one if you want,” he said. His expression was friendly and non-threatening as he spoke to Ty, but when he raised his pale blue gaze up to me, I felt an instinctive jolt tense my muscles for a brief moment.

To my shock and embarrassment, I felt a little tug of arousal low in my stomach, as if my body felt the need to remind me that I was an unmarked omega. Like I needed a reminder of that.

“No, that’s okay. You got here first,” I answered, trying desperately not to stammer. I didn’t usually care about alphas, whether they were hot or not. I knew from experience that developing crushes as such a young single dad was just begging for disappointment and heartbreak. But for whatever reason, this man’s eyes seemed to pierce me all the way down to my core. “We’ll just come back tomorrow.”

“I don’t mind,” he responded. His smile was sincere, with perfectly even, white teeth that smacked plainly of the privilege of childhood braces. “There’s another of these stores right acrossthe street from my office, so I’ll just run through there.” His words were friendly, but the intensity of his stare made me want to squirm. I’d glanced at myself in the mirror before the walk, so I was pretty sure I didn’t have anything smeared on my face.

His suit was well-tailored to his form, and his shoes were shining without a single scuff. His strong jawline was shadowed with stubble, highlighting his ridiculously handsome face. I felt myself cringe a bit as I wondered what he thought of my faded t-shirt and secondhand sneakers, before remembering that I wasmaybe possiblyunfairly judging someone who was trying to be nice to Ty.

“Well, if you really don’t mind…” I trailed off, unsure what else to say. I wasn’t used to anyone doing favors for me.

“Yes!” Ty pumped his fist in the air before gratefully taking the little bag with the donut inside. “Thank you!” He chirped out, without needing to be reminded. An angel in the chaos of my world.

“No problem, buddy.”

“A-at least let me pay you for it,” I said, fumbling in my pocket.

“Don’t worry about it,” he responded offhandedly. It looked like he was about to say something else, but the cellphone in his pocket let out a series of ringing sounds. “Excuse me,” he grumbled, whipping it out and bringing it to his ear.

Ty tugged at a belt loop on my jeans. “You still have to buy my drink,” he said.

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