Page 107 of Echo and the Homicidal Sea Panda

“And the back door lock?” Ed asked. “And the stuck latches on the guest bedroom windows?”

Mael nodded. “Yes.”

Ed offered a small smile. “They were very well done. I’ve repeatedly offered to come fix them, but he wouldn’t let me. I’m glad you convinced him.”

“No convincing,” Mael replied. “I just broke in one day and did it.”

“Broke in?”Joanna asked, her hand going to her throat.

Mael eyed her hand.I knew it. Pearl clutching.

“Joanna,”Ed said, eyeing her. “Let it go. He snuck in to do something nice for our son.”

Joanna pursed her lips.

Ed focused on Mael. “Well, thank you for taking care of it.”

“I plan on taking care of things from now on,” Mael murmured.

A hint of a smile shone on Ed’s lips. “Enjoy your lunch.”

“Yes, sir,” Mael said before nodding to each of them. He smiled to himself as he turned and raced up the stairs.

Echo was sitting up in bed, rubbing his belly with both hands when he returned.

“You’ll never guess what I just did,” Mael said, shutting the door.

“What’s that?”

“I think I moved your dad an inch or two toward liking me.”

Echo’s jaw slackened.“Whaaaaat?”

Mael laid the tray in the middle of the bed and slid in himself. “He just asked me if I was the one who did the stairs and repairs. He seemeda tinybit impressed.”

“It’s more than a tiny, I can assure you,” Echo said, pride in his small smile. “Considering how much he flipped out about me being mated to an orca, if he brought it up, he’s pleased.”

Mael handed over the ginger ale and toast. He also ended up sharing bites from the sandwich Echo claimed he hadn’t wanted. While they ate, he recounted some of the highlights from his travels. The waterpark warehouse Kaiden had been hidden in had been several miles away from the water’s edge. They’d had to sneak through the city in the darkest hours of the night and came close to police seeing them several times. They’d pilfered some clothing hanging to dry, but it wasn’t easy to find things that fit a pack of six-to-seven-foot men, which meant they’d snuck in the shadows half-naked. It had felt very much like they were the Wet Bandits in their breaking and entering to free Kaiden, especially since everything was in Chinese, and they couldn’t speakorread the language.

Their laughter over their bumbling later shifted to more kisses that grew hungrier by the second. Once the tray was lowered to the floor, he slipped back in beside his little dolphin and continued those languid caresses. The feel of his mate’s hands slipping inside his sweatpants to stroke him threatened his sanity. Echo stroked him to hardness, eager for round two. When he climbed on top of Mael, he angled both cocks toward his bottom.

When it became clear what Echo planned to do, Mael tensed. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve been training while you were gone,” Echo murmured, grinning. “I figured if you made it back alive, you deserved a reward.”

Mael laid back against his pillow, the desire to take over coursing through his veins, but he sensed Echo needed to be in control. He didn’t want to hurt his mate—or their babes.

After rubbing both heads against his slick-coated asshole, Echo impaled himself on only one shaft first. He rode Mael’s cock, groans falling from his lips. Once he’d worked his hole a bit, he paused and pressed the second head inside him. Mael nearly came from watching his cocks disappearing inside Echo’s tight, puckered hole. He grasped Echo’s waist, slowing his mate’s strokes, fearful he’d come too quick.

Mael wanted to savor Echo. After their long weeks apart, he needed more than another hasty, bumbling race to the finish line, no matter how much his body ached for release. They thrashed against one another, enjoying the slow, languid pleasure of being tethered, their bodies made one.

He touched every inch of flesh he could reach, relearning the contours, curves, and hollows of Echo’s body, particularly the newest one, swollen with the product of their last night together.

Seconds after Echo screamed his release, Mael followed him, roaring as he emptied inside his mate before the whispered words of adoration rolled off his tongue.

They drifted asleep holding one another tight in the afterglow.

Hours later, he was yanked from the bed and tossed to the floor. He rolled to his knees, searching the room. Echo screamed and fought as a dolphin shifter in a police officer’s uniform dragged him from the bed by his wrists. Three others surrounded them, eyeing Mael. Mael leapt for the bed to get Echo from their grasp. Two tasers hit him—one in the chest, the other in the arm. Volts shocked through his body, but he pushed forward.

---