Page 24 of How to Rescue Your Surprise Baby

“You can’t take us with you?” Ivo looked indignant.

“Not without knowing the risks.” Telos shook his head. “I’m here to plant a tracker with you and gather intel. My team can’t storm this place without any information. Well, we can, but we’d like to minimize the damage. I can’t secret an adult away with me.”

“You’re taking your baby.” Ivo glanced at Estie.

Telos shrugged awkwardly. “If I can. We’re coming back for all of you, though. We gave Pinks our word.”

“Fine,” Ivo said, his eye narrowing.

Telos hugged Estie again. “I’m going to scout around. Be back soon. Don’t make trouble, Estie.”

Telos shifted into a mosquito and flew to the heavy steel door, dropping to the crack between the door and the floor. When he saw no movement beyond, he left the room, following each hallway until he knew the layout of the building. Then he slipped outside to count the number of guards. The building was in a thickly forested area with a gravel road leading away. Some of the doors were shut, some weren’t.

When he’d found out all he could, Telos returned to the room and shifted into a pterodactyl.

The omegas jumped.

“What—?” Nat frowned at Telos, looking confused.

“I like being a pterodactyl. Dinosaurs are cool. And you’re going to learn that they’re super cool,” he told Estie.

Actually, Telos couldn’t wait for Estie to grow up and get all excited about dinosaurs with him. They could be a pair of triceratops, or T-rexes, or stegosauruses, or...

“Anyhow, I need to find a set of keys. Any requests while I’m out there?”

“More food would be nice,” Walren said.

“Gotcha. I’ll see what I can do.” Teloshadfound a pantry, but without the keys, he couldn’t get foodintothe cell.

He turned back into a mosquito and began tailing the kidnapper with the keys.

Waiting was boring work. Telos flitted from room to room, watching as the man grew steadily drowsier. When hours had passed, the man began to stand in one spot in his patrols, nodding off.

The other kidnappers were in similar states of drowsiness. They hadn’t had reason to be watchful. Telos needed to keep it that way.

When the key-keeper had sat on a chair and dozed for five full minutes, Telos shifted into a small black monkey. He crept up to the kidnapper and carefully eased the keys from the man’s belt loop, straining his ears the entire time in case someone else walked in on him.

No one did. He clutched the keys tight against his chest to minimize their jangling, then slipped into the pantry and shifted into his human shape.

The bottles of water crinkled on his way back to the cell. The loaves of bread got a bit squashed, but there wasn’t time to feel bad about it. Telos returned to the cell and unlocked the door, stepping inside quickly.

Four curses sounded behind him. When he turned, he found the omegas staring at him, mouths hanging open.

Walren cleared his throat. “Wow.”

Telos set the food down next to them. “Hide the bottles if you can. It’ll look like too many if they look closely.”

They were staring at his naked body, he realized.

He huffed amusedly. “Sorry, guys. There’s someone else I’m interested in.”

“Lucky them,” Ivo muttered.

Telos shrugged. “He doesn’t know. It’s been two hundred and eighty-nine years, and he doesn’t return my feelings.”

At that, they looked horrified.

“How could he?! You should look for someone else,” Killian said.

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