Page 2 of Brock’s Mate

He heard footsteps coming around to the trunk, and flexed all his muscles, giving a mighty heave. The ankle bonds broke, and then the wrists. He gathered his legs under him.

There was an electronic beep and the trunk popped. Brock thrust himself to a standing position, banging the trunk lid open, and ripped the bag off his face.

Standing in a half-circle around the back of the car, arms folded and with identical determined looks on their faces, were four of his crewmates. Plus one adolescent dragon, in human form.

That explained the spells. Sneaky assholes.

Brock stared down at them. “What the actual fuck?” he demanded. Then he saw where he was.

The parking lot of the Lynx’s Den, Callie’s road house. Over the door was a huge, glittery, brightly lit sign that read:

Valentine’s Dirty Speed Dating Spectacular!

Tonight, February 7th

Get a Dirty Date for Valentine’s Day!

Speed dating? He looked back down at his crew. “Oh, no,” he said.

“Oh, yes,” said a curvy dark-haired woman, all the way to the right of the circle. Jaeda Monroe, one of his childhood best friends, clearly turned traitor.

“Fuck no. Absolutely not.”

Nobody moved. Brock wondered if he could turn wolf, jump over them and take off before Dragon Boy cast another spell.

“This is an intervention.” That was Mari Jiang. Short, also curvy, and Asian, she was a sweet-tempered peacemaker. Except when she was a stubborn and determined pain in the ass.

“I don’t need an intervention.”

Jaeda and Mari looked at each other. Jaeda shook her head. “He’s in denial.”

Mari nodded. “It’s sad.”

Brock looked at Titan, Mari’s mate, a six-foot-eleven polar bear shifter with long silvery hair and spooky eyes. “You’re supposed to be my friend,” he accused.

“You’re not happy,” Titan said in his low, rumbling voice. “And you’re not getting laid.”

“Well, there’s nothing you all can do about that, because I’m not dating, and I’m not sleeping with any of you. No matter how much you beg.”

The girls rolled their eyes. Damien Fernandez, the last member of the kidnap team and his other supposed best friend in the crew, gave a grin at that. “With enough whiskey I might give it a shot, but only because I know you want me so bad. Except Lila would eviscerate us both.”

Damien was a straight Latino lion shifter and crazy about his mate—who was perfectly capable of eviscerating them—so Brock took that for the trash talk it was.

Damien said, “You brought this on yourself. You won’t go on any of Remy’s dating sites.” Remy McCall was Jaeda’s mate, who loved to try to fix up his single friends online by making outrageous, utterly untrue dating profiles for them.

“You won’t come to the bar and pick up women,” Jaeda said.

“Right,” Brock said. “Because that’s the way to a happy and fulfilling love life.”

“You just sit in your room and mope,” Mari added, as if he hadn’t spoken.

Brock was insulted. “I do not mope! I’m a naturally serious person. I brood. Brooding is a thing. Some women find it sexy.”

“Only if they see it,” Jaeda pointed out. “Which they can’t, when you’re in your room moping.”

Brock looked again at the sign over the roadhouse door. “I’m not going in there.”

Dragon Boy—otherwise known as DB—said, “I can always do another binding spell. And then Titan can carry you.”