Page 4 of Alpha Dragon's Mating Contract
But nothing moved in the shadows beyond.
I can’t believe my luck!Walren slipped into the building and closed the door, groping around in the darkness to find the deadbolt.
He locked the door and slowly backed away, half-expecting his pursuer to come crashing through the door.
Then he remembered that shops sometimes had security cameras.
Oh, gods! I broke into a building! I’m an intruder!
Maybe the shop owner was going to find him, and kidnap him.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! What do I do?
Now that his eyes were adjusting to the darkness, he looked around for a place to hide. Only to realize that he had stepped into... a closed restaurant.
Light streamed in from the windows, illuminating the upside-down chairs on the tables, the paintings on the walls.
Then it hit him: He was in arestaurant.Surely there was food somewhere.
Walren froze, his stomach gurgling.
Was this Nood’s Good? Were there delicious things in the kitchen?
He held his breath and crept around, his eyes growing used to the darkness.
There were no windows in the kitchen. No one could see him from the street. He kept his movements slow anyway, gawking at the shiny steel counters.
With increasing dismay, Walren realized that he did not see any food.
It felt a bit like a nightmare, to be honest.
It’s not as though the chefs took all the food home,he told himself.The fridges are running. Maybe there’s stuff in there.
Carefully, he went up to one of the huge fridges. He heaved open a giant stainless steel door, only to find several tubs of... stuff.
Stuff that was almost freezing.
Walren whined. He couldn’t eat anything so cold; it would freezehim.
Maybe he could heat up something on the stove?
He went over to the huge industrial stoves and realized that he didn’t know how the knobs worked. He couldn’t risk exploding the kitchen.
“It’s either cold food or nothing at all,” he whispered to Zebbie, completely disappointed.
Zebbie babbled and wriggled against him.
Maybe Walren could find something to nibble on. He needed to eat so he could replenish his milk supply.
He opened another fridge and—to his delight—found trays of fresh produce. There was so much of everything: leafy greens, eggplants, bell peppers, cucumbers...
Walren moaned. He stuffed a thick cucumber into his pocket. He stole a luscious red bell pepper, reverently squeezing it. Already, he could smell its sweet juices, and imagine its thick flesh between his teeth.
He grabbed a handful of spinach and crammed it into his mouth, chewing quickly. When he had stuffed another two handfuls past his lips, Walren closed the fridge and shuffled awkwardly to the far corner of the restaurant, away from the doors and windows.
He painstakingly tucked himself and Zebbie under a table.
Only then did he feel safer, hidden from the security cameras that he couldn’t see.
