Page 26 of Thrown into the Mob

Madd opened the fridge. Someone had stocked it with fresh food, and there were similar containers to the ones Madd’s grandpa had given us in the car. He pulled one open and dipped the spring rolls in sauce. He licked his fingers, and I stared as he lapped off the sweet-and-sour sauce. My skin prickled with heat, but I couldn’t look away. I gulped and was also tempted to grab his hand and lick off the sauce myself.

He caught me watching and held out the container.

I wasn’t hungry. My situation was precarious, even though he and I were technically mated. My father and Evander must’ve been fuming, and nothing was resolved. Though I might snatch a few hours of sleep, that pair would have been up all night and wouldn’t sleep today, planning on what to do next.

But the mark on my shoulder throbbed, and Madd’s burn must’ve been even more painful, despite his beast’s healing ability. A new mate mark was designed to hurt because it was a reminder of a different reality. But my mate had been wounded, and he’d experienced blood loss and dizziness. He needed rest.

“Go to bed.” I jerked my head at doors I assumed were bedrooms.

He looked down the corridor. “Right.”

We’d mated one another a few hours ago and now we were not making eye contact. My dragon objected to us being apart, but I was in no mood for arguments.

“You take left and I’ll take right?”

“Huh?” That was only the second thing he’d said since we arrived.

“Bedroom.”

Madd didn’t move or speak, and one of us had to.

“I’ll take the one on the left.”

He replaced the container in the fridge before heading down the corridor and opening both bedroom doors.

“This one has a better view.” He glanced back at me. “Not that we'll be looking at the skyline.”

“Take it.”

With his hand gripping the handle, he wished me good night and went inside. The click as the door closed sounded like the end of my old life, and I had no idea what the new one looked like.

I went into the other room and sat on the edge of the bed. It was clean and comfortable and didn’t smell of anything. That was new because since we left the compound, everything had smelled of him. It was safe, but it was as though I’d lost a part of me.

My dragon was rummaging around inside me. I wasn’t worried he’d take his scales without permission because it wasn’t the frantic circling he did in the compound or the rage he’d experienced in the study. He was restless and uneasy because like me, he didn’t know what to do next.

I showered and put on sweats from the closet. I lay on top of the covers because I was prepared for dragons to show up. I didn’t have a home and wasn’t sure what tomorrow would look like or where I’d lay my head. I rubbed the mark on my shoulder. My mate was in the next room, and we were bonded, but I didn’t know his favorite color or how he took his coffee. Did he even like coffee?

With both hands behind my head, I studied the uneven paint in one corner of the ceiling. It’d been touched up, and I wondered if the damage had been caused by a water leak. Thinking about mundane objects and events took my mind off my mate, who was so close that if I breathed heavily, he’d hear me.

My beast stopped pushing me because the urgency had passed, but he was pestering me to go to Madd.

And say what? I’m scared of the dark?

Pfft.

Madd was moving in the other room. Like me, he’d taken a shower, and he got into bed. And then there was nothing other than the rustle of the covers.

I thought about Father. The compound could be rebuilt, but his anger would be focused on me, the omega he’d never forgiven for taking his mate’s life. And now I was bonded with a wolf shifter from a family he’d been fighting for decades. He’d see it as a betrayal, but I suspected Evander would consider it theft.

And Madd was in the next room with my mark on his skin. A necessary move that Flint had told him to do because it provided cover.

Around two in the morning, I gave up on sleep. Madd’s door was open, and he was awake because he sighed and turned on the lamp.

“Conrad?”

I froze. “Yeah?”

“Come in.” He had his injured shoulder propped up on a pillow. “Can't sleep either?”