Page 30 of How to Rescue Your Surprise Baby

It wasn’t working. Hilly-Billy yelped when Mav caught his arm, struggling futilely. Mav felt around for Hilly-Billy’s hand and wrenched the bags out of his grip.

Before Telos could react, Mav sank clawed fingers into one bag and ripped it apart. The double-wrapped shirt fell onto the floor.

Telos froze. Hilly-Billy looked over frantically for his next order.

“Pelican,” Telos said a second too late.

Mav yanked Telos off his head and flung him aside, at the same moment Hilly-Billy lunged for the shirt.

Both of them grabbed the shirt at the same time, yanking hard. The flimsy trash bags tore.

Mav’s shirt fell out, stinking of day-old cum, and Telos wanted the floor to swallow him up.

9

MAV’S REACTION

Telos considered shiftinginto a dust mite and completely disappearing from sight.

Then he caught sight of Estie babbling hungrily on his bed, and knew he couldn’t. He still had a mission to complete. He had a daughter to care for. He had to be a good role model for Estie, even though it made him want to claw his own face apart.

The things I do for you, baby girl.

He shifted back into a man, blank-faced, his heartbeat as steady as he could make it. “Yeah, that.” Telos waved airily at the incriminating evidence. “I had some nefarious plans for it. Good work; you stopped me before I could.”

Hilly-Billy was watching them, sagging contritely. “Sorry, Brother Master.”

“It’s not your fault,” Telos said. “It’s Mav’s fault. It always is.”

“What the hell,” Mav growled.

When Telos could not avoid looking at Mav any longer, he turned, giving the other alpha a cool glance. “I’m not sorry. Itwas going to be an elaborate prank. One in which you became the father of a thousand tiny annoying Mavs, descending upon you like a swarm of locusts.”

Mav opened his mouth to scoff. Except he paused, his scrutiny piercing Telos. “That’s a lie.”

Ah, fuck.Telos raised an eyebrow, turning to Hilly-Billy. “Get out of here. Take Estie with you. Feed her some formula. That’s the most important thing right now.”

He wanted to do all of that himself, but he couldn’t risk Mav walking out of this room, babbling everything to their team.

Hilly-Billy saluted, scooped up Estie, and fled.

It felt like Telos’ defenses were leaving with them. He raised his chin and looked Mav in the eye, breathing slow and even. “I’ve told you my plans for that shirt. Believe what you will.”

Mav glanced at the abandoned shirt on the floor. He studied Telos again, and that gaze stripped Telos down to his core. “If this were a prank, you wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail to stop me from finding out. You would’ve thrown that shirt at my face and laughed. Instead of feeling embarrassed. And horrified. Nothing makes you feel horrified.”

Maybe Telos shouldn’t have been surprised, that Mav knew him this well.

“Like you’ve seen me horrified,” Telos scoffed. “I do that all the time. Just not around you.”

Mav prowled closer, his attention sending a dreadful thrill down Telos’ spine. “This is something else,” he said quietly. “You wanted that shirt for yourself. Not a prank.”

Telos froze, his pulse fluttering in his throat.

“It adds up,” Mav continued. “You want to be pinned by an alpha. I felt that from you in the car.” He raked his gaze over Telos’ face, leaving tingles wherever he looked. Then he leaned even closer, so there were inches between their mouths. Barely above a whisper, “You want to be bred by an alpha. And you want that alpha to be me.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Before Telos could move, Mav pressed his large hand against Telos’ bare chest. Electricity shot down to Telos’ toes. Telos stopped breathing; something flickered in Mav’s eyes. And Mav dragged his palm down, a slow, steady movement that made his calluses catch against Telos’ pecs, his nails scraping Telos’ skin so his nipples hardened.

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