Page 70 of Alpha Dragon's Mating Contract
Next to the new omega, Walren was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, possibly the happiest that Raptor had seen him recently.
Raptor couldn’t help but watch his omega, the way Walren’s eyes crinkled when he smiled, the way his chapped lips stretched, a laugh burbling out of him.
“You’ll be going to the safe house with us, right?” Mathlin said.
Walren froze, his cheeks turning pink. “I, ah.” Walren glanced at Raptor, then back at Mathlin. “I’m on a contract with Raptor, actually. We just signed it yesterday, and I just moved into his place.”
Mathlin’s eyebrows jumped. He glanced at Raptor, his face full of questions.
Raptor was about to invite the questions when Candy poked her head back into the kitchen, frowning deeply.
“Boss?” she said. “Payment processors are down. Something’s up with the credit card companies and they don’t know when they’ll resolve it. We can only take cash payments right now.”
Raptor wanted to pull out his hair. First the window, and now this? “Seriously?”
“And, uh.” Candy shuffled on her feet, wincing. “Caitlin says she can’t make it for this evening’s shift. I’m having trouble finding a replacement.”
Raptor sighed deeply. “Fuck. Why is today sucking so hard?”
But it was only the beginning of his troubles.
19
WALREN GOES INTO HEAT
Walren draggedhis feet into the mansion, his eyelids heavy. “I’m so exhausted.”
“Same, sweetheart. Same.” Raptor shuffled in behind him, carrying Zebbie in his car seat.
Their day had gone to hell.
After Larei and the shattered glass window, after the credit card systems had gone down and Raptor’s server said they couldn’t do their evening shift, the power had gone out for a bit.
Raptor had to unearth his emergency power generators to keep everything running. Then, they had run out of mushrooms, and Raptor had to send a cook out to buy more, while he appeased impatient customers about the delay.
To make things worse, some of Raptor’s paperwork had floated into Zebbie’s playpen in the office. Zebbie had set them all on fire.
Then Zebbie had pooped, and used it to paint everything he could reach.
They’d had to call in Uriel for the second time that day, for a cleaning and disinfecting spell.
Walren had never been so embarrassed in hislife.
To make up for it, he and Mathlin had volunteered to split the missing server’s workload between them. Just that they had greatly underestimated how much energy the job required—being constantly alert, being nice to patrons, smiling at everyone... It had drained his energy levels to zero.
Right now, he didn’t think he could climb the stairs.
“Here,” Raptor said, holding up the car seat. “Grab Zebs.”
Walren scooped Zebbie into his arms. Then Raptor swepthimoff his feet and carried him upstairs.
Walren didn’t even squeak. He snuggled into Raptor’s warm, solid chest and let his eyelids droop. “So tired.”
“Me too.” Raptor brought them to Walren’s room.
Zebbie was already asleep. When Raptor set Walren on his feet, Walren gently laid his son in the crib.
“Zebbie’s good?” Raptor asked.
