Page 18 of Cupcake

Huh, Dean could appreciate the human’s sentiment. He placed his finger over his mouth in the universal sign to be quiet.

The human’s eyes grew before he nodded. He pushed himself up off the floor using the wall to get momentum.

Casting his magic around, Dean knew they were screwed. The invisible barrier around the human wasn’t just to keep him in place. If Dean tried to grab the human, then the witches somewhere in the house would be alerted.

“I can’t get out,” the human said, waving his bound hands.

“Barrier,” Dean supplied. Noah had been correct. They were fucked. Dean had to get to the human, but it would give them away.

“But can you break it?” the human asked.

“I can,” Dean replied. “Not without alerting them.”

“So,” the human said. “Can’t you just pop us away from here? Like how you got in?”

He could but then the witches would be harder to get to the next time. Dean was going to have to move fast, and this would be dirty.

“When I grab you, I’ll transport us outside. I’ll need you to stay with my friend. Keep your head down. No matter what you hear or see. Understand?”

“Dude, if you get me out of here, I’ll do whatever you say.”

That was going to have to be good enough.

“What’s your name?” Dean asked. He couldn’t keep thinking of him as the human. That was just rude.

“Stryker.”

Dean nodded. “Okay, Stryker. You might get sick when I transport us. Try not to throw up on me, please.”

Stryker snorted. “Sure, man. Whatever.”

Dean gently pushed his magic at the barrier, testing the strength. The oily residue of black magic made Dean shudder. Strong. Angry. The witches put up this barrier daring someone to try and break it.

Well, challenge accepted.

“Pull your mask up,” Dean ordered. He’d find out why the human had a mask to begin with later.

Stryker pulled the black mask up. The face painted white almost like a skeleton. Pretty cool actually.

“Ready? Dean asked.

“Ready.”

Dean used magic from his core and threw it at the barrier. Immediately the black magic burst out. He turned to hide his face before he grabbed the human and transported them out of the basement.

Chapter Five

Six Weeks Later

Dean

Why was his boy sleeping under that same tree again? Three days after Dean had returned home, he couldn’t resist stalking his unclaimed mate. He hadn’t gotten up the nerve to approach Logan or Axel or anyone else in the family. Hell, he hadn’t even reopened his bakery yet.

He just needed to be close to Logan.

Without the possibility of him being rejected.

Dean hadn’t taken his cell phone with him when he’d left. Technology nowadays was more than his limited experience could handle. He did know that he could have been tracked by the little device, so he and Noah had relied on burner phones when needed.