“What the hell happened to your phone?” Axel’s voice came through the phone all high and tense.
“It…” Alfie began.
“Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I was going to call Ro and—”
Before Axel could complete his sentence, Alfie interrupted, “You didn’t, did you?” Gosh, he didn’t need another shitstorm, and that was what Ro would rain down. Ro was super protective, and not only that, he was super nosy. But he would almost certainly tell their mum—mostly because he was a sucky liar, though.
Axel paused for a second. “I didn’t, but I was going to if I didn’t reach you soon. What did you say happened to your phone again?”
“I didn’t,” Alfie sighed, “but the battery died, and I forgot my charger.”
“Forgot your charger where?” Axel asked. “Where have you been Alfie? What’s going on?”
Alfie groaned… “It’s a long story.” Alfie glanced at Malachi, hoping his brother heard what he wasn’t saying. “Malachi says he’s going to bring me to you?” Alfie checked. Okay, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust the man… even though he shouldn’t since they had just met. “He seems nice.”
When he met Malachi’s gaze there was a smile on his face.
“He’s a good guy,” Axel replied, “So is his brother Malek… my fiancé… uh, you’ll meet him when you get here…” Axel cleared his throat. “Uhhm, I have some stuff to tell you.”
“Okay,” he replied.
“Yeah, you’ve just got to promise not to freak out,” Axel continued.
“When in the history of the world has telling someone not to freak out, led to them not freaking out?”
“I just mean… you should… you know… you should just keep an open mind…” Alfie’s brother was sounding all weird, and he had his soothing teacher voice on.
“Fine… whatever. Gosh, you’re being weird.” Alfie was tired, and he wanted to be far away from the first place Rupert would think to look for him.
“Well, okay, could you hand the phone back to Chi? Malek would like to speak to him,” Axel said.
“Axel wants to speak to you.” Alfie stuck his hand out to Malachi, and the man’s fingers grazed his. It was like he’d stepped in a puddle with a downed power line—he felt it in every inch of his body. Alfie quickly pulled his hand back.
Apparently, his body hadn’t figured out the meaning of guyatus… because all he wanted to do was crawl into Malachi’s lap and rest his head on the man’s broad chest.
Alfie closed his eyes and sighed. Yeah, this wasn’t a fairy tale; he had to save himself. There would be no prince coming to save him.
Although… well, Malachi had come…
Alfie squeezed his eyes shut tighter—no Malachi thoughts.No guys, Alfie. That’s what got you into this shit in the first place.
He tuned back in and paid attention to Malachi’s conversation. He heard the word “mate”… and “tell him later”… and “food”… but he couldn’t put everything together, so he tuned the man out again.
Although the food part sounded good. He was starving, but mostly he couldn’t wait to cuddle in bed with Axel, down a Ben & Jerry’s or three… and maybe give in to the tears he’d been keeping at bay since he realised that Rupert was not only a cheating little shit, but also a coward of a man.
Seven
Malachi
“What time do you think you’ll get back?” Malek’s voice came through the phone.
“Once we get on the M6, two hours, give or take, depending on traffic,” Malachi replied.
Even though he was speaking to his brother, his gut was churning. Malachi was doing everything he could to hold his wolf back. Everything in him wanted to hurt whoever had dared lay their hands on his mate, and heknewit was a person. He wasn’t buying the man’s accident excuse, not for one second.
He’d seen that flinch from his mate when he’d tried getting his attention and tapped him on the knee. The man had damn near jumped out of his skin. For a split second, Alfie had forgotten where he was, and wherever he’d disappeared to hadn’t been good.
“Malachi… Chi…Chi!” He heard his name being called, bringing him back to his conversation. “Your emotions are heightened and all over the place. What’s going on?” He could hear the concern in Malek’s voice through the phone.
