Page 16 of Stalk of the Town

“Your big heart,” he replied immediately.

I nodded slowly. I could see that now and that no matter how much distance I had put between us as I’d watched and yearned, in the end I couldn’t resist Fate. “I see that… do you?”

He slumped in the chair, looking defeated. “This… it’s different.”

“No, it’s not. Fate, she decided.”

Back to running his hands through his hair, he gave me a look of frustration. “He’s been abused… it was why I was going to interview him. Maximus came in and finally gave me all the pieces of the puzzle over the attempted abductions. The fucker I locked up and had to let go, he abused Leonidis.”

His voice was a pained whisper as he stared at me, but I felt he didn’t see me. I sucked in a breath at the scars I’d seen, and at how Leonidis had to have gotten them.

My hands curled into fists. I hated bullies. They were the world's worst scum. “He’s your mate. Fate gave him a protector—”

He fired out of his seat. “Too fucking late!”

I shook my head, disagreeing. “It’s not. He needs you now more than ever. This fight is far from over.”

Butch sank back down into his seat, his eyes bright with tears. “I hate that you’re right. Fuck!” His lips trembled before heclamped them together, something akin to fire sparking in his eyes. “When did you get to be so eloquent when, most of the time, you barely string two words together?”

“It’s what having a mate does for you. You need to try it.” I rose and waited at the side of his desk.

He stood a moment later, gritting his teeth with a determined look as he grabbed his baseball cap and slipped it on. “Looks like I am.”

Chapter Fourteen

Drew

You can do this.

You can!

“Ewww, what is that?” I complained, when goo ran over my hand as I sliced and diced at the sweats.

“How do I know?” Ricky muttered, not looking at where my hands were with the scissors, but at Burke while he rubbed at his belly.

“It’s baby goo,” Burke panted, rolling his body making it harder to be careful with the scissors.

“Can you hold still for a moment?” Sweaty with the effort of trying to keep the metal away from his skin was worse than the one time I’d considered exercise would be fun. It wasn’t!

“You try… and… keep still… when two… humans want to force themselves… out your ass.”

My thighs squeezed together right along with my ass cheeks at the visual. Okay, when he put it like that, maybe not.

I took a deep breath and bobbed and weaved with him, releasing a triumphant cry when I got them free, only for my gaze to land on his spread thighs, getting the full picture of what was happening. Again, why had I been upset to miss this with Tim?

I swallowed back the bile burning the back of my throat, because puking over Burke was not something on my to do list.

Where are you? I need you.That, I sent directly to Goliath.

When I got nothing, I shook my head, thinking about the conversation I was going to have with my stalk about blocking me. Everyone else was fine. Me, most definitely not. And I would make sure to make that point as soon as he took me home.

“Why are you thinking about sex when my mate is giving birth,” Ricky asked, scowling at me.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, although I wasn’t because this bunch had tortured me.

He huffed and rolled his eyes.

“When you two have quite finished,” Burke ground out through clenched teeth as he stilled, sweat slicking his curls to his head. “Is the doc coming?”

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