Mathlin swallowed. “Tell me more.”
The man loped over to him. He had white hair and a wizened face, sharp eyes that studied Mathlin intently. “He’s looking for a live-in helper to be his hands—his don’t work right now. You might have met him before? He’s part of this pack. Titan. He owns the bakery, Twin Buns.”
“Oh!” Mathlin had passed the bakery briefly, during Crush and Killian’s car chase. He had never stepped inside though. “I thought only one of Titan’s arms was injured.”
The man winced. “He broke his other arm this morning. And he has some orders that need to be filled urgently.”
Mathlin cringed in sympathy. “I... I might be able to help with that.”
“Really?” The man perked up. “Even with the adult tasks?” He held his loose fists in front of his hips as though he was holding a very long sword handle, and jerked his hips back and forth.
Mathlin’s face grew hot. “Uh. I... I guess I could do that too. It’s not like I have an alpha.”
If Titan belonged to the pack, then Mathlin would have an excuse to hang around without being chased away.
“Great!” The man clapped his hands briskly. “I’m Hamilton.”
Hamilton took off his casual suit. He tucked his clothes into the pouch of a black harness and slipped the harness over his head. Then he shifted into a huge pterodactyl.
“Climb on,” Hamilton said.
Mathlin checked to make sure Jannie was secure in her chest carrier. Then he clambered onto the pterodactyl’s back, and gripped the harness tightly. “I’m secure! Or as secure as could be. I hope we don’t roll off and die.”
Hamilton cackled. “Prepare yourselves for the Ride Of Death!”
He took off into the air with broad, sweeping strokes. Jannie squealed. Mathlin squawked and quickly decided that he preferred his feet solidly on the ground.
“I’m not a bird!” he cried, clutching the harness with white knuckles.
“It’s okay,” Hamilton yelled back. “One day, I’ll take you and Titan up into the skies, and both of you can shriek and grab at each other like one of those adventure comedies. It would be a great first date. Well, maybe I can tie Titan to my back, and you can both gaze at the stars.”
The trees and cabins fell away beneath them. Everything looked so tiny now.
“This is like a horror movieeee,” Mathlin wailed.
“I’m having the time of my life!” Hamilton whooped.
It was far too long before the pterodactyl finally landed. Hamilton laid himself flat on the ground, and shifted back into a man.
Mathlin rolled off his back and crawled away, blubbering with relief. “I could kiss the parking lot. This is the love of my life.”
“If that were the true love of your life, you would be sucking the parking lot’s face right now,” someone rumbled.
Mathlin froze and looked up.
An alpha stood at the entrance to the bakery, his left arm in a sling, his right arm hanging limply by his side. From Mathlin’s perspective on the ground, the alpha washuge.He had kind hazel eyes and dark brown hair, full lips and a strong jaw. Actually, he was really handsome. Not to mention his broad shoulders and muscular body. His loose shirt hinted at a set of full pecs, and his thighs filled out his gray sweatpants.
“Why do you have to wear gray sweatpants?” Mathlin blurted. “Don’t you know everyone can see your bulge?”
Then he froze, wondering why the hell his mouth had let that slip.
Hamilton cackled. Titan raised an eyebrow, his lips curving into a grin.
“I mean, I did not see any bulge at all!” Mathlin hurriedly said. “No bulge, just a flat front of your pants where there are no suspiciously long shadows that try to suck in your eyeballs. Like a black hole. No, I don’t mean the one in your butt.”
He froze again, thinking back on the things he’d just said. And now he wanted to smack his forehead against the ground.
“Oh, hell, you can just bury me right now. ‘Here lies Mathlin, the loose-lipped stray cat whose eyes are bigger than his stomachandhis butthole combined.’”
