The Deputy and His Enforcer (Kincaid Pack #3) - Kiki Clark Page 0,61

raced over so he could examine the scar more easily. Right at the juncture where B’s neck and shoulder met, there was a very distinctive set of teeth marks left in his skin.

“Whoa. Kieran bit you?” He’d briefly met Bennett’s mate on Saturday and would not have pegged him as the type to get kinky.

“We bit each other,” Bennett said, releasing the collar of his shirt. It didn’t completely cover the mark, but Robson had never noticed it before on any of the mated pairs he’d met so far. “Shifter mates can bond to one another during sex by exchanging bites.”

Returning to his chair, Robson frowned at Bennett. “And this ‘magically’ links you? So can you hear Kieran’s thoughts or something?”

He heard snickering from the crowd, but he ignored them. These were the kinds of things he came to the class to learn.

Bennett shook his head. “No, but if he’s feeling a particularly strong emotion, I can feel it here.” He patted his muscular chest right over his heart. “But otherwise, it’s just like a warm feeling, letting me know we’re connected even if we aren’t physically together.”

“You can feel that right now?”

“Yeah.” He turned to the others and added, “It can be really strong—almost overwhelming—at first, but it fades within a few days so you know it’s there but it’s not disruptive.”

B took over things again, covering topics like the differences in shifter and human puberty. Right when Robson was beginning to wonder if he, Marcus, and the women should head back to the audience, he got sidetracked once more.

“I’m sorry, did you just say a knot?”

Chapter Sixteen

Marcus watched Robson get into his old Camry, Teresa tiredly sinking into the passenger seat, and drive off with barely a glance back at the rec center. When Marcus had tried to hold him back after the class was over, Robson had quickly made an excuse about having to get Teresa home while Patrick went to pick up their pup from the farmhouse. He’d slipped away before Marcus could come up with something to say to stop him.

Sighing, he stepped away from the window, turning back to the empty conference room.

Well, almost empty.

“Soooo. That went well,” Nico said, leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed and grin barely suppressed.

Marcus grunted, not in the mood for his teasing. His mate was freaked-out and alone all because Nico and Bennett had decided it was a good idea to talk about the things their stupid dicks did during the mating process. It wasn’t that Marcus didn’t see the value in young, unmated shifters knowing how their bodies worked, he just wished that hadn’t been how Robson found out.

“Come on, Marcus. It’s not like you would have told him yourself.”

He jerked his head up from where he was straightening chairs and snarled at Nico. “I would have.”

Rolling his eyes, Nico pushed off the wall and approached him, seemingly unconcerned with pissing Marcus off. “Really? You would have sat him down and talked to him about your wolf wanting to knot him if you topped?”

He tried to hold Nico’s gaze, but he could feel his face heating just at the words. When he actually tried to think about saying them out loud to Robson? “I wouldn’t have… without his permission.”

Both of Nico’s big hands landed on his shoulders, and he ducked down to catch Marcus’s eyes again. “Hey. I’m not trying to be an asshole, okay? But I know stuff like this is hard for you.”

That was an understatement. After his childhood of taunting and insults around every turn, Marcus had struggled to talk to anyone about personal things. Puberty, sex, and matings definitely weren’t things that were talked about in his old pack, and then he’d been shipped off and been surrounded by strangers—most of whom were much older than him. So trying to talk about such personal things now was difficult for him.

But… he would have, for Robson…

Right?

“What if he doesn’t come back, Nico?” Marcus flinched at the break in his voice, the raw fear crumbling the wall he kept erected between him and everyone else.

Nico snorted, shifting his hands to cup Marcus’s face. “Don’t be silly. That man is half in love with you already.”

Marcus sucked in a breath, hope trying to combat his terror at losing his mate.

“Just give him some time to wrap his head around things, then shoot him a text later tonight or tomorrow. Don’t let things become awkward.”

At Marcus’s unimpressed look, Nico laughed in his face and wrapped him