The silence of the pack house reflected well the emptiness he felt inside. He came to a sudden halt when he walked past Talan’s study and found the alpha pair kissing. It wasn’t that he’d never seen them kiss before, but this time he saw the entire interaction. He understood that, while Adrian allowed Talan to control the kiss, he could end the encounter at any time. Talan would never touch his smaller partner with the intent to harm and he trusted Adrian to tell him if they had any problems. They were a matched pair in every way and their kiss was a thing of beauty. 3After a moment the alphas separated and two sets of lust-filled eyes turned towards Dillon.
“Can we help you with something?” Talan asked.
“I need an assignment away from the pride.” As soon as the words left his lips, he knew that was the best approach. He couldn’t stand to be there as Evin and Chester mated and became a bonded pair like Talan and Adrian. He wanted both of his mates to have the best and maybe that shouldn’t include Dillon.
He tried to stand strong beneath Talan’s hard examination and Adrian’s gentler concern.
“What happened?” Talan asked.
“I-I don’t want to talk about it.” Dillon’s throat tightened as tears threatened to choke him.
“How do you feel about wolves?” Adrian asked, changing the subject.
As neither of his mates was a wolf shifter, Dillon had a ready answer. “I adore wolves.”
Adrian’s brilliant smile soothed his battered spirits. “My brother is having some issues with hunters. We think the ones Evin came to warn us about are starting with my brother’s pack. We want you to check it out and let us know your opinion of the situation first-hand and report back to us. Kade can’t leave to check it out because my sister-in-law is pregnant.
We’d appreciate it if we could send someone we trust. An impartial observer.”
“It’s not that we don’t believe the wolves—we just need someone who has some experience in scouting things out,” Talan interjected.
Adrian nodded. “What do you say?”
“I’ll do it.” It was the perfect solution. He could step away for a few days and still be close enough if his mates needed anything.
“Great.” He turned to go but was stopped by Adrian’s soft question.
“What do you want me to tell them?”
He didn’t turn back to face the wolf shifter as his shoulders tightened. “Tell them to enjoy their bond.”
He didn’t return to his room—the less he saw of his mates loving each other without him, the better off he’d be. Dillon grabbed a set of keys off the key rack by the front door and didn’t look back. 3
* * * *
Evin’s heart ached for Dillon but it also hurt for whatever was eating away at Chester.
Torn between two lovers, Evin chose to talk to the more fragile of the pair. He had no doubt Dillon could handle anything thrown his way but Chester looked as if he’d already had one too many things weighing down his soul.
Since Dillon had already given him permission to enter, Evin spared little time in popping the bathroom door off the hinges and walking inside. Steam billowed around him as he approached the shower. The sound of sobbing reached his ears.
Pulling back the curtain revealed Chester curled up in a ball at the bottom of the enormous shower. There was probably room to fit an entire pride of lions in there. Evin crouched down to Chester’s level.
“Hey, are you all right?” He wished he could blame Dillon for this catastrophe but he’d watched the lion shifter closely and he hadn’t seen that Dillon had done anything wrong.
“I-Is D-Dillon mad?” Chester’s teeth chattered and his entire body shook despite the scalding water temperature.
“No.” Dillon had looked devastated to Evin, but not angry. He kept that opinion to himself. “Come on out of there. We have to talk.”
Chester shivered. “P-promise not to hate me.”
“Promise.” Evin didn’t know what was eating away at the younger man but obviously it was something he thought was terrible. Considering his apparent youth, Evin doubted it could possibly be as bad as Chester was acting. “Now, let’s get you out of there.”
Straightening up, Evin turned off the water before helping Chester to his feet. Evin’s mind kept drifting back to Dillon and how broken he’d appeared at Chester’s rejection.
Chester gave him a grateful smile when Evin handed him a towel. “Thanks.”
“We’ll have to go get Dillon so we can all talk. I won’t have him thinking we talked behind his back.”
Chester shivered again.
After making sure Chester was completely dry, Evin took his hand and led him back to the bedroom. 3Chester whipped his head around as he searched the area. “Where’s Dillon?”
“I don’t know.” A sinking sensation filled Evin’s chest. He couldn’t lose one of his mates…not when he’d just found him.
“Get dressed. We’ll see if we can find him.” Since they hadn’t officially mated with Dillon, they didn’t have a psychic link between them. Evin had no idea where the lion shifter might have gone but he knew whom to ask.
A few minutes later they left Dillon’s bedroom. Evin found Talan and Adrian sitting in the kitchen with a stack of pancakes piled in front of them.
Evin stopped in his tracks when Talan shot him a blood-chilling glare.
“You know where he went, don’t you?”
“Apparently to get away from his mates that he worried he was traumatising,” Talan responded. “He said you two were better off without him.”
“Oh, no!” Chester exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his waist. “This is all my fault.”
Evin wanted to make him feel better but he couldn’t push the lie past his lips. It was Chester’s fault. If he hadn’t had some sort of meltdown when Dillon
