Rue:Thanks Dad.
Jupiter:My planet might be baby weird, but it’s full of…
Dad:Jup, please don’t mention babies and sex, I beg you.
Jupiter:LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL I’ve found your weakness Dad!
Dad:Maybe so, but you aren’t too big to get your ass paddled, and it won’t be for fun.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kari
He ignored his pinging phone, sitting on the table next to his elbow, when he realized it was just the alphahole chat. Kodi had assured him that neither Laken nor Jupiter had thought anything about his reaction—overreaction?—to Rex’s assault on Bowie.
How is it an overreaction? You should have let me rip his hands off.
Kari couldn’t disagree when it was what he’d wanted to do after seeing at the hospital exactly what injuries Bowie had sustained. The police had detained Rex after they’d gotten the report from the doctor and seen the camera footage. They could clearly see Rex’s attempt to choke the life out of their boy.
It had taken considerable control to watch the footage and contain his wolf. The ranting and threats the man couldn’t seem to stop throwing at everyone added weight to their cause to stop his release, pending further investigation. As far as Kari wasconcerned, they should throw the damn key away now that he was locked up.
Kari pinched the bridge of his nose to stem the tension headache that came every time he thought about getting to Bowie too late. It didn’t help when he had known Rex was a loose cannon and stupidly sent Bowie outside alone, leaving him vulnerable to attack. The only upside to all this was that he’d finally confessed how he truly felt and since then, Bowie wandered around wearing this bemused smile and a dreamy eyed look that, if he hadn’t already fallen head over heels for the guy, would have made him a lost cause to the love that swamped him.
The freedom of the confession came with something far more pressing—the desire to take things further. Except Kari had a wake-up call of another kind at the hospital. The police had asked some pretty invasive questions about Bowie’s relationship with Rex. What Kari had learned was that they’d never been intimate with each other—yay for that. Only it brought with it more questions than answers as to the reasons why. Yes, Bowie came across as shy and innocent, that was who he was. Kari now suspected it was more than that and that Bowie hadn’t been intimate with anyone. This drove Kari to hold back on his desire to move things along, when Bowie could be—most definitely—inexperienced.
Kari was a passionate man. An all-or-nothing kind of guy. It could be too much. But would it be too much for Bowie?
Why don’t you just ask him? You’re the one always going on about talking.
What if I scare him off after everything he’s been through?
He saw us attack a man, and he pounced on us afterward. We are way past believing we scare him. We don’t.
His animal had little patience with him right then and went off to sulk when Kari remained uncertain. And okay, he couldn’targue with his wolf’s logic. He was deflecting because he was scared.
Instead of digging into his own psyche, he pretended to focus on the email he’d opened minutes ago in another attempt to work on the backlog that was growing daily. Except his attention drifted to Bowie, napping on the couch. The nightmares Bowie suffered from had lessened in frequency. Kari still encouraged him to have a daytime nap when he got a sleepy-eyed look mid-afternoon.
His gaze lingered on the flushed cheeks, and the fan of inky eyelashes highlighting the golden skin. The projection of vulnerability gave Kari a solid thump to his chest. He could spend hours just staring at Bowie when he was sleeping—which was exactly why he was so far behind with his work.
The lump at the back of Bowie’s head wasn’t as big, and the bruising on his ass and elbows was paler. It was now a greenish color rather than the awful purplish black it had been. Each time he helped Bowie shower, something he’d insisted on doing to check that he was healing, the proximity left Kari with a sizable erection. And though he wore pants—ones he’d purchased to contain his cock—it didn’t conceal his reaction. He never acted on it, regardless of how Bowie’s gaze lingered on him. Most days, he was usually semi hard before they stepped into the shower. It was torture, but Bowie’s needs always came first.
Automatically, he reached for his phone on the first ring. Pausing to make sure Bowie didn’t stir, he stood and strode out of the room, accepting the call while shutting the bedroom door behind him.
“Where are you?” barked Booker loudly, making his ear ring. “You aren’t answering in the group chat.”
Kari rolled his eyes skyward, taking the phone from his ear and switching to speakerphone while going into the group chat to see what he’d missed.
“I don’t live with my phone in my hand when I’m busy, Booker.” He skimmed through the messages, cursing internally at Booker’s comments, grateful that neither Laken nor Jupiter had mentioned what had happened.
“You can’t be that busy or you’d be in the office,” he fired back, grumpily.
“Some of us can work from anywhere. What is it you need from me?” Kari sat on the edge of the bed he used, re-reading the group chat when something caught his attention. He’d gotten distracted and hadn’t gone back to why Bowie hadn’t had a heat. Knowing that Rex and Bowie weren’t sexually active raised more questions. Did Bowie use heat blockers? And if he did, why if he wasn’t having sex? Or was he in a heat club? Kari shut that thought down, hating the idea of some unknown alpha touching Bowie.
“—the file is missing the information.”
“What?” he asked, confused from not paying attention.
“You so busy you can’t even bother to listen to me, too?”
