Page 20 of How to Rescue Your Surprise Baby

“Duke will decide.”

Telos had volunteered to join this mission because he was bored. That, and they needed a shapeshifter, and Mav had committed to the rescue, too.

But now... Telos had a whole other reason for it. If Pinks’ friends’ kidnappers were the same ones who had taken Estie... then he was very likely going to meet his daughter soon.

Maybe even by this time tomorrow.

He shoved down the nervous anticipation in his stomach, steering the car out of the forest. Mav glanced at him again. Telos continued to ignore him. The moment they reached the highway, he went over the speed limit—to cut short his time in the car with Mav. Because he could already sense all the questions bubbling in Mav’s brain.

It was a different kind of torture, knowing what Mav felt. Knowing Mav would never feel anything like affection toward him.

“You’re full of contradictions,” Mav murmured.

Telos stiffened, clutching the steering wheel.Think about Estie, think about Estie.“I’m not talking to you.”

“I wouldn’t have known this,” Mav continued as though Telos hadn’t spoken. “You feel things. You just bury it so it doesn’t match the expression on your face.”

Damn it. “I don’t do that all the time.”

Mav raised an eyebrow. “It’s enough for me to know you’re not the fool you pretend to be.”

Telos rolled his eyes. “I like being a fool. You said you’d stop judging.”

There was a pause. Then Mav asked, “Are you being a fool because that’s what I’ve said you are?”

Telos scoffed. “Don’t be so full of yourself.”

“You weren’t like this before.”

“Yeah, well. People change.”

He didn’t want to look too deeply into everything. Didn’t want to consider that maybe Mav was right. That he’d given up trying to impress Mav a long time ago, after he’d figured out he couldn’t.

Estie,Telos told himself.Estie, Estie, ESTIE.

Everything would be better after Telos rescued her. He would swing her into the air and admire the way she giggled; he would focus his thoughts on her so Mav couldn’t read him. She was saving him even before they’d met.

“Maybe we should—”

“No,” Telos growled. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Mav exhaled, glancing at Telos again. Then he folded his arms and settled back into his seat.

The discussion wasn’t over yet. Telos wished Mav would give up on it, but that alpha was really like a dog with a bone.

At least he had a daughter to distract himself with.

7

THE RESCUE

“C’mon,quit staring. This is fucking weird.” Telos painstakingly shoved himself into a sitting position, cursing the weak muscles of this form.

He’d shifted into a baby—roughly nine months old—and they’d fashioned his spelled shirt into a makeshift diaper, wrapping that around his hips. That part was fine. Whatwasn’tfine were the five alphas towering over him, gathered around the queen-sized hotel bed.

“It looksandsounds really weird when you speak in full sentences,” Ace said. He was a dragon shifter, muscular with black hair and sharp eyes. His brother, Raptor, looked almost identical to him. “Do you remember how to be a baby?”

“Ugh.” Telos scrunched up his face and wailed.

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