distant and surly all day. Even when we go to their grandmothers’ house for dinner. The meal feels eternal. Allen’s mothers are as polite as always, and it’s good to see them, but what would they think if they knew I took a second mate? I’m their son’s alpha.
By the time we get back home, my night with Lu seems like a dream. Did I really make love to him with such abandon? Did we really cuddle in our animal forms? Do I really get to see him again tonight?
And more importantly, how exactly is that going to work? I Skype for work all of the time. But it’s one thing to interview people about the history of polar bear shifters where my kids might overhear. It’s quite another to have a sexy conversation with Lu.
Which is how I end up in the storage room in our basement, not far from where I found the fish-sharing tray last night. The kids are put to bed for the night, there’s a towel stuffed underneath the door to muffle the sound, and my wireless earbuds are synced. The camping equipment I’m sitting on isn’t the most romantic background, but it will have to do.
I press the call button and wait.
It takes Lu a few moments to connect.
“Hey.” He’s sitting on his bed in a big, cream sweater and thick socks. His long legs are still bare.
“Hey. How are you?”
He smiles. “I’m good now. How did it go with Jesse?”
“I don’t know. They… acted like a teenager.” I can’t help but laugh. “Which I guess makes sense because they almost are. But it’s Jesse, you know? They’re usually such a great kid. I don’t know what happened.”
“That is unusual for Jesse. What was the problem? Did they not like the venues you were taking them to?”
“No. The venue was fine. They just didn’t want to have a party at all. They started saying all of this negative stuff about Pebble Gifting Season too. I had no idea they felt that way. I don’t know what to do.”
Lu thinks for a moment. “I know that penguin shifters don’t discuss a child’s gender before the reveal, but if Jesse is an omega, maybe this rite of passage is making them miss their dad.”
Maybe that’s true, even though Jesse is an alpha.
“We don’t need to discuss this in detail right now. How was your day?”
Lu shrugs. “I painted and tried to get Mary interested in her potty. The usual.”
“Whoa. Is Mary old enough to be potty trained already?”
“Supposedly. But she’s not motivated at all. I even bribed her with stickers.”
I whistle. “Getting out the big guns already, huh?”
He laughs. It’s a happy laugh—almost a giggle.
“This is nice. To talk about the kids,” I say.
His face grows serious. “‘The’ kids, huh?”
I guess that makes it sound like we’re living together as mates. God, if only we could.
“I wish you were here right now, Lu.”
“Where is here? You look like you’re in a dungeon somewhere.”
I pick up the laptop, and give him a 360 view of the storage room. “Apparently, this is where I hide when I want to have clandestine escapades with my secret mate. It also happens to be the home of my Christmas tree and tent.”
He bites his lip. “Clandestine escapades, huh? What does one do on an escapade exactly?” He slides his fingers underneath the hem of his sweater, slowly lifting it up to give me a glimpse of something black underneath. I wish I could be the one to take that sweater off of him and see what secrets it’s hiding.
“Are you going to tease me?” I ask.
He gives me a shy smile. “Maybe?”
I prop up my laptop on a nearby shelf and sit back against the rolled up sleeping bag. “Okay. I’m game.”
His fingers keep working up his leg, his eyes locked on me. He glances down when he gets to his hip. At that point he turns around and glances over his shoulder.
There’s a confidence I haven’t seen in Lu before—a power. I couldn’t look away, even if I wanted to.
And I definitely don’t.
He grabs the neck of his sweater this time, bringing it over his head to reveal what looks like a corset for the lower half of his torso. It cinches at the waist with black ribbons that criss-cross along Lu’s ass and tie into bows that dangle down his thighs.
He sways his hips back and forth, almost like a dance. Then lowers his chest to the bed, raising