A Mate for Lu - Amy Bellows Page 0,53
ask.
Ed chuckles. “Think about it. What do you think I’m going to drag you out of bed in the middle of the night to do?”
I have a guess, but it’s ridiculous. “Bowling?”
“That’s right. Get your ass outta that bed. I got some size eleven shoes with your name on them back at the alley.”
For Ice’s sake. “Ed. It’s late—”
“Let me put it this way. You can get dressed without any more whining and carrying on, or you can ride to the bowling alley in nothing but your birthday suit. It’s a bit nippy outside, though. I’d recommend you at least put on some pants or your balls are gonna be mighty cold.”
If it wasn’t Ed, I’d take my chances and stay in bed. But he’s unpredictable.
I put on my clothes instead.
It’s a bit of a tricky process because, despite the dark, I don’t want to show off the outline of my naked body to the six masked people Ed has somehow persuaded to break into my bedroom with him.
Ed leads me out of the bedroom and through the hall. When we reach the front door, I stop. “Do you want to explain to me why you’re kidnapping me? What’s going on?”
Ed glances back at his masked companions with a wry smile. “It’s your initiation, of course. Can’t you recognize some light hazing when you see it?”
“My initiation to what?”
Ed opens the front door. “To the Cheating Bastards.” He gestures for me to step outside. “You didn’t forget that you’re not the first penguin shifter widower to take a second mate, did you? Well, we have a club. And we’re inviting you—no, forcing you—to join.”
One of the masked people claps a hand on my shoulder. “It’s alright. He forced all of us, too. You’re not alone.”
The voice is female. I recognize it. Megan. The alpha who lost her mate in a car accident. She stopped coming to the support group two years ago.
I didn’t know she took another mate.
There’s a white truck parked in the driveway of my house with a huge, pink ice cream cone stuck to the top. Ed opens the back where there are two benches drilled to the side instead of frozen desserts.
“Why are you driving around an ice cream truck that doesn’t have any ice cream?”
“You ask too many questions. Get in.”
Megan climbs up into the back and takes a seat near the front of the cabin. “C’mon. It’s weird, but you get used to it.”
The other five members of the club get in next. They look like they’re about to rob a bank, sitting next to each other in their ski masks.
Ed gestures for me to get in again. “Go on. We ain’t got all night.”
I climb in next to a thin man on the far end and sit down. Ed slams the door shut, which leaves the cabin in complete darkness until the engine roars to life, and a single naked light bulb flickers on.
Two male omegas across from me are holding hands. I guess they fell in love with another widower. That’s sweet. Just a few months ago, I think I would have judged them for that. How much things have changed.
“You shacked up with a polar bear shifter, huh?” Megan says. “That’s intense. Is the sex super kinky?”
One of the omegas holding hands rolls his eyes. “Forgive her. She’s been spending too much time with Ed. She forgets what questions are inappropriate to ask other people about their sex lives.”
Megan kicks his shoe. “Don’t pretend you’re not curious.”
I can’t see the omega’s smile because of the ski mask, but I can see the way his eyes crinkle. “Okay. Maybe a little.”
Six masked people stare at me, waiting for my response. Everything about this night is too weird for me to handle.
“Uh, the sex is good?” I tell them.
“Right on,” Megan says, holding out her fist to me in what I can only assume is a request for fist bump, even though we’re both in our late thirties.
“Sex is nice after you think you have to live the rest of your life without it, right?” The man next to me says.
Megan spreads out her knees. “You aren’t kidding. Celibacy was brutal. Before I found Judy, I was spending an obscene amount of money on porn. You would not believe how much.”
The room erupts in laughter. Someone calls out “here, here!” And another says, “Thank Ice for porn.”
“There was this one time I left this weird as fuck dragon shifter porno up on my