Chapter 3 The Contract
THE CONTRACT
Titan swallowed the first response that came to mind. “I’m not jerking off while I watch you. For one, I can’t use either of my arms.”
Mathlin looked down and winced. “Oops.”
“We’ll have to discuss that. For now, let’s move this indoors before someone else finds us out here. Everdin’s gossip is going to spread like wildfire.”
Who knew what she was telling her friends and neighbors?
Worse—how long would it take for the news to reach Titan’s pack?
Titan shuddered at the drama that would explode from such a juicy piece of gossip. “C’mon, I need to send a message.” He winced as he got to his feet. “Fuck, the ground is hard on my knees.”
“Does that mean you’re growing old?” Mathlin blurted. And promptly hid his face in his hands. “One of these days, you’re going to fire me for something I said, and it would be so offensive that I would agree with you.”
“I highly doubt that would happen,” Titan said drily.
Mathlin followed him into the bakery. While Titan located his phone, Mathlin shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Sorry about the gossip. I had no idea what else to say. But... you can pretend that Jannie is yours, for now.”
Titan swallowed. “That’s very generous of you.”
Before his injuries, he had been helping to care for the pups in his pack. But he had never gotten the chance to pretend that a pup was his.
This was... dangerous.
He couldn’t bring himself to turn down Mathlin’s offer.
In the kitchen, Titan bumped his nose against his phone; it unlocked with his face. “Open pack chat,” he said. The phone navigated to the chat he shared with his packmates, and he used voice-to-text. This was something he had already been doing since his hands were always covered in flour.
Titan
Hey. Just wanted to let y’all know. I told Everdin a white lie. Please play along. Don’t blow my cover.
Crush
What’s the lie? So we can make sure our stories match.
Titan
Sigh. She caught me licking the parking lot. Mathlin was with me and he told her I did it to earn his forgiveness. Because supposedly his pup is mine.
Vigil
You have a pup?
Titan
Please read the rest of my text
Gavric
LOL Why were you licking the parking lot???
Titan
It was a challenge from Mathlin. Everdin caught us at the wrong time
Dad
Oh? You have a surprise pup?
Titan
NO!! It’s a lie! But Everdin thinks its real. If any of us are asked about it, please maintain the lie. Please?
Papa
We didn’t teach you pups to lie.
Titan
I know that. But I don’t want Everdin to realize that Mathlin had lied on my behalf. Her gossip might kill my business. And Mathlin didn’t know that about her before he lied.
Vigil
What kind of special challenge was it, anyway, that had you licking the ground?
Titan
Mathlin claimed that my parking lot was his alpha, and kissed it.
I told him a proper kiss involved tongue. He challenged me to lick it
Crush
... Wow.
Papa
So you Frenched your parking lot
Gavric
I feel like this could be a movie
Titan
It was just one lick!
Dad
That’s what the pups always say. (eyeroll emoji) (laughing emoji)
Crush
I believe the right phrase is “just the tip”
Papa
This can’t be a long term solution. What are you going to tell Everdin 6 months from now? 12 months?
Titan
Mathlin should’ve moved on by then. I’ll tell her it didn’t work out and he took the pup with him. For now, he’ll be working for me as my hands. Hopefully help heal me too. I’ll give you updates when I have them.
Dad
Careful, pup. Don’t get yourself tangled into a heartbreak.
Titan
I’ll try.
Titan closed the chat and looked up. Now that the most time-sensitive problem had been solved, there were a few more things to iron out. He looked around and found Mathlin back on the sales floor.
“Math—” he began to say.
Then he realized that Mathlin was showing his baby the colorful pictures on the walls.
“This is a rainbow,” Mathlin cooed. “It’s a pretty arch of light in the sky.
I wish we could climb on it; it would be such a great slide.
This is a tiger, it’s trying to dance under the rainbow.
Everyone says tigers are fierce, but they haven’t tried to rub a tiger’s belly.
Tigers would roll over for more belly rubs. ”
The baby wriggled and smiled; Mathlin cuddled her more snugly against himself.
Titan swallowed, desire coiling through his stomach. Mathlin was really great with his child.
It didn’t help that Mathlin was so much smaller than Titan. He had bright orange eyes—Titan had never seen anyone with orange eyes before. Mathlin’s light brown hair looked soft, and he was thin, almost starved.
Titan wanted to make him some food. Feed him a little so he wouldn’t look so hungry.
But his arms were crap right now.
“Hey,” Titan said. “Have you had breakfast?”
Mathlin looked over, all wide-eyed and innocent. “No. And I hope you don’t mean a breakfast sausage because cannibalism isn’t my thing.”
His gaze dropped to Titan’s crotch.
A beat passed. Mathlin glanced at Titan in horror. “Let’s pretend I didn’t say that to my future boss.”
Titan coughed lightly. “No, I meant actual food. There are some snacks in my fridge, and quite a few eggs in there. They were delivered right before the accident happened.”
“Eggs!” Mathlin perked up. “Do you have ice cream?”
“In the freezer. Help yourself.”
Instead of going for the eggs, Mathlin turned to the freezer immediately. He gasped at the single commercial-sized tub. “Do you only have one flavor?”
“It’s my favorite. Peanut butter.”
“Of course it is,” Mathlin said. Then his mouth grew pinched, and he shoved his hand over it. “Um! That wasn’t a dog joke?”
“Sure,” Titan said dryly. “You’ll have to get it out of there yourself, obviously. I apologize.”
It went against all his instincts to watch Mathlin struggle with the round, paper-wrapped tub. Titan ached to help him. It would be so easy to grab that tub and heft it onto the counter—if his arms weren’t injured.
His fingers twitched. Mathlin wrangled the tub onto his hip, then the counter, and carefully pried it open. Both he and his baby looked inside; Mathlin’s eyes seemed to sparkle.
“I love ice cream,” Mathlin whispered.
“The scoop’s in this drawer. Bowl too.” Titan stood by one of his workstations; Mathlin found them easily with his help.
When Mathlin returned to the tub, he struggled with scooping the ice cream; it was too cold. Titan had never anticipated anyone but himself being here; he’d never accounted for someone weaker dealing with his frozen tubs of ice cream.
“Let it sit out for a bit,” he said apologetically. “It’s warm enough that it won’t take long to soften up.”
Mathlin pouted but set down the scoop.
Titan’s phone rang. He turned away to answer it. “Yeah?”
“I left a present for you out front,” Hamilton said, and paused. “Hmm. Maybe I should’ve brought it to your cabin instead.”
“What did you do?” Titan thought about picking up his phone, but his arms... He left it on the counter and headed outside.
Hamilton had shifted into a giant pelican, perched proudly on top of two duffel bags.
“You know I can’t carry that,” Titan said.
“Aww, shucks. Guess I’ll have to do it for you. You owe me! Get that contract straightened out.”
“Will do. What is in those bags?”
The pelican grinned. “Mathlin’s things. That’s why you need the contract, because I’m moving his things to your place.”
Titan sighed. “You’re insane. Amazing, but insane.”
“That’s why you love meeeee!”
“I do. Thanks.” With a fond smile, Titan returned to the bakery’s kitchen, only to find Mathlin with a huge mound of ice cream piled into his bowl.
Wait, what?
He hadn’t left Mathlin alone for longer than two minutes. That much ice cream took a while to soften.
Mathlin had his baby tucked under his shirt, and he was furiously working the ice cream in the tub. When Titan stopped next to him, Mathlin jumped.
“What are you doing?” Titan asked, baffled.
Mathlin had smoothed layers of ice cream up the sides of the tub, and he was still hurriedly doing so with the scoop.
Titan glimpsed a smudge of black—a scorch mark?
“Did you set fire to the ice cream?” he asked incredulously. When he sniffed, he caught a hint of smoke in the air.
Mathlin blushed bright red.
Titan peered into the ice cream tub again. This time, he noticed more scorch marks all along the inside of the tub wall, mostly covered up by ice cream. “You don’t have to hide them,” he said. “Put that back in the freezer; we have more important things to take care of.”
“Like what?”
“A contract.” Titan waited for Mathlin to fumble the ice cream back into the freezer. Then he nodded at the office.
Mathlin carried his bowl of ice cream there, licking the towering mound as he walked.
Titan had seen nothing like it. He waited for Mathlin to enter the room, then stepped in himself and sat behind the desk.
Mathlin glanced around at the mess of papers, shoving a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.
“It’s as though you forgot that offices can be tidy, too,” Mathlin blurted. Titan stared at him. Mathlin froze and turned red again. “Ignore me!”
“I can’t.” Titan snorted. “Right now, I’m going to give you a rundown of what I need. I assume that you’re willing to work for me as a live-in helper.” Mathlin nodded. “I’ll need help with anything I can’t do with my arms. Things like cooking, dressing, showering—”
“Will I have to wipe your butt?”
“No, thank fuck. I installed a bidet a few months ago. If you could help with the bakery, that would be great. The healing too. But there’s something more urgent than that.”
“Hamilton did say you have some urgent orders to fill.”
“Yes.” Titan paused and drew a deep breath. “There’s no dignified way to say this. I sell my semen.”
Mathlin’s eyes grew completely round. “People buy your jizz?”
“Apparently, yes. And I have a few orders that are due.”
Mathlin’s gaze dropped—but the desk was covering Titan’s crotch. “So you need me to help you get the cream out.”
“Yes.” Titan’s face grew warm. “I was handling it with one arm, but without both of them, it’s next to impossible.”
“Okay.” Mathlin nodded solemnly. “I’m no virgin. I can do it.”
Then he looked down again.
“Wait. It doesn’t have to go inside me, right? I think you might be too big to fit.”
Titan swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. “No, I’ll just need you to use your hands. The sooner we can get started, the better—I need some time to build up to the next load. We have seven to fill.”
“Seven? In one day?” Mathlin squawked.
“No. Twice a day, three times at most. I have spelled vials to store it in. Those have to be brought into town for testing, before I can package and mail them.”
“That’s a lot of things you need hands for,” Mathlin said sympathetically.
“I’m sure there are people who have managed without working hands or arms,” Titan said. “I just don’t have the time to learn it all in a few days.”
Mathlin shoved another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He’d been eating the whole time he was seated. “So... do you want to start on the cream collection now?”
“Maybe set down your pup first,” Titan said dryly. “You’ll be living with me for the duration, by the way. You’ll get your own room and bed, and a crib for your pup. That works for you, right?”
Mathlin nodded and stood. Then he looked down at his bowl, and frowned. “Where did all my ice cream go?”
His bowl was completely empty. Titan stared. “Didn’t we just sit down?”
“I think my stomach is a black hole for ice cream,” Mathlin said mournfully. “All the ice cream in the safehouse was gone. Crush kidnapped us when we went out for ice cream. And I ate all of Ottis’ too. He was mad at me.”
“Tell you what. Help me with my groceries, and you can have as much ice cream as you want.” Titan hesitated when Mathlin lit up. “Within reason. Please don’t eat me out of house and home. I’m—I’m trying to save up.”
“What’re you saving up for?” Mathlin eyed him, bright-eyed and curious.
“An omega,” Titan mumbled.
“You want to buy an omega?!”