CHAPTER TWELVE
The men stayed at the checkout to finish the lengthy transaction. Henry waited until the ladies were safely out of sight before pulling out his wallet. His bear had been grumbling nonstop since the moment he’d heard that someone else wanted to provide for their mate. His animal just wasn’t having it.
“I’ve got this,” Henry said, trying to hand his card to the cashier before Parker could pay.
“But I told Michelle to learn to spend my money, and she will freak out if she learns that I didn’t buy the stuff for Grace like she wanted me to,” Parker said.
He attempted to hand his own card to the cashier who was now looking more amused than bored. She probably wasn’t used to people fighting over who got to foot the bill.
“So don’t tell her,” Henry grunted.
There was a slight rumble in his throat, and very quickly his animal went on the defensive as it prepared for the coming attack. His bear always had been a little paranoid, which usually helped keep him alive, but in this particular situation it would only get his ass in trouble. Fortunately, Parker must have sensed how close his bear was to erupting, because he stepped back away from the register and halted his attempts to pay.
“What’s going on that you aren’t telling me?” Parker asked firmly.
To the human ear it sounded like a softly uttered question. But they weren’t simple words. He’d place the full command of his Alpha Itan status behind the question, and for Henry to have resisted would have been a full blown act of subordination.
“I need to care for her. Me being able to provide for her is the only thing keeping my animal under control until I can convince her to . . . that I’m . . . you know . . .”
“Holy crap. Is she . . . ?” Parker’s words trailed off as Henry nodded yes. “Well that certainly explains how you’ve been acting! I never thought I’d see the day when you finally settled down.” Parker whistled appreciatively.
“You can’t say anything to Michelle or to Grace,” Henry pleaded. “Grace is very skittish. She’s been hurt before, and I don’t think she trusts me yet, at least not enough to, you know . . .”
“My lips are sealed,” Parker said.
“And I’m still waiting,” muttered the cashier with a bored sight.
Henry apologized and handed her his card at the exact moment Parker withdrew his own. Human ears wouldn’t have detected when she whispered “weirdos” under her breath, so they chose to ignore her.
“Thanks, Itan.”
Parker clapped Henry on the back exuberantly and then dropped a bomb on him. “You’d better claim her fast, because once the clan learns there’s an unmated female up for grabs they are going to be beating down your door to get at her.”
Henry paled as he took the receipt from the cashier, and it wasn’t because of the four digit total. What the hell was he going to do about all of those other unwanted bear suitors? He doubted Parker would allow him to kill them all, which was exactly what the beast inside of him wanted to do with all of the competition. He struggled to come up with a more diplomatic solution.
“Do we have to go?” asked Henry, hating just how pathetic he sounded. One day wasn’t enough time to convince his woman to spend the rest of her life at his side, and it certainly wasn’t long enough for her to understand his primal need to bite her to seal the deal.
“’Fraid so. Sometimes it sucks to be the Itan.”
“Yeah, well being the clan’s enforcer sucks even more right now. You have nothing to worry about anymore. You’re already mated.”
“I know. Isn’t it wonderful? I’m the luckiest man alive. Of course, it wasn’t easy. I almost died in order to win her.”
“Well if anyone tries to take Grace from me they are going to wish they were dead,” Henry muttered as he began to loop all the shopping bags over his wrist.
“That’s the spirit!” Parker laughed. “Now let’s go find our women. I’m starving.”
Henry was hungry too, but the only thing he was interested in wasn’t on the menu. What he longed for was even sweeter than a fruity slushy. He wanted to sample the unique flavors of Grace’s lady bits.
***
They’d had to take their snacks to go because Michelle said that she and Parker needed to make sure that the house was clean for the party. They weren’t fooling anyone. The way the two of them were looking at each other it was pretty obvious that they couldn’t wait to tear off each other’s clothes. With all his money the man probably hired a professional cleaning service.
All those hormones must have been contagious. Because as soon as Parker shut the door behind them, Grace set down what little remained of her bright blue slushie and launched herself into his arms. Twelve kisses later they came up for air.
“Woah, there. Looks like someone had a good day.”
“Michelle is my best friend in the whole world,” Grace admitted while she nibbled on his ear. “I can’t believe she bought me all those beautiful outfits. My clothes!”
Grace pushed his arms away and jumped down, rushing over to where her many purchases were clustered together in the entryway. She grabbed a couple bags and raced to carry them to the guest room and began reverently hanging them up in the empty closet.
When she’d finished organizing the contents of the first two bags she turned to go back to the foyer and retrieve the rest, but while she’d been focused on hanging everything up, Henry had brought in the remainder of the purchases. He helped her put everything away and her joy in simple tasks was infectious.
Never before had he seen someone so thrilled about deciding which drawer would be the best for socks and which would be better for bras. His bear kept nudging him to tell her that he was the one who had paid for the clothes, but he wisely ignored the beast. He hadn’t slammed down his credit card for the thanks, he’d done it because providing for his mate gave him the type of contentment he’d never even known existed.
The only thing better than caring for his mate was when she let him touch that beautiful body of hers. Suddenly he felt almost jealous of all the new clothes. If she hadn’t cared so much about them getting wrinkled he was positive that they’d be naked and sated already. He quickly learned to roll her socks just the way she liked in order to speed the process up.
Get ahold of yourself, he chastised himself silently. He didn’t know what was wrong with him lately. It was like he’d reverted back to being a gangly teenager. All he could think about was sex, sex, and sex. All he needed now was a rash of acne on his face and for his voice to start cracking again when he attempted speech. Maybe he’d start bumping into furniture too. He’d been very uncoordinated back in the day thanks to nonstop growth spurts.