Gilbert Read Online Free PDF Page A

to hell. Gilbert went under the door, examining the vehicle. The driver was gone, and he smelt something besides his mate, but he wasn’t sure what the heck it was. It was fucking rank, though, and he cringed when it registered—poop.
    “Oh hell.” Gilbert dropped onto his butt beside the car. He scrubbed his hands over his face as he tried to rid his nostrils of that scent. “Just my luck I get a mate with stomach issues. God.” Okay, if his mate had eaten something bad, well, that’d explain the stink. Except now Gilbert could smell pee, too and he absolutely could not fathom what the hell kind of mate Fate had given him, and panicking was sounding like a damn good idea.
    Especially when the crying started. Gilbert froze, not even drawing a breath, as he scrambled to put the pieces of this puzzle together. Once he thought he had it figured out, he was more terrified than he’d ever been before.
     
    * * * *
     
    Jihu wanted to weep. Jesus, he was exhausted, and scared, and hurt, and…and he didn’t know why his son was crying—and he really needed to pick out a name for the baby! “Argh!” Jihu threw up his hands and tried to unfasten the car seat straps. He had managed to get the baby into the damn thing, he should be able to unfasten it.
    Once Ye-sun hadn’t shown, Jihu had no choice but to take off. He was so confused. Ye-sun had helped him, yet Jihu was afraid to truly trust him. But, he guessed he didn’t have to. He’d probably never see the man again.
    “Come here,” Jihu murmured, his frustration fading as he lifted his son into his arms. “Oh, yuck!” Jihu thought his entire face must have wrinkled. Fucked-up shifter senses or no, he could still smell the nastiness coming from the dripping diaper. “No wonder you’re screaming. I’d scream too, buddy.”
    Jihu carried the baby over to the nearest flat surface then turned back around for the bag. The diaper bag. He’d seen some in there when he’d had to stop and fix a bottle—and hadn’t that been a particular initiation through fire as a parent? Thank God for directions and pre-measured bottles of water. Luckily it seemed the little one didn’t care what temperature his formula was served. He’d slurped down the stuff in no time. And promptly started hollering.
    And from there had come Jihu’s first diaper-changing lesson. Now he got to refine his skill…if you could call using half a pack of wipes and ruining a formerly good diaper skill. He’d get it right quicker this time though.
    Jihu was concentrating so intensely on what he was doing that he didn’t even hear the garage door opening. His pulse had been roaring in his ears when he’d first arrived here. He and the baby had both taken a nap, Jihu on the floor beside the car seat his son was strapped into. Somewhere, he’d heard a parent had to nap when the baby napped, and Jihu was well past worn out. Arriving here to find his half-brother gone had been both a letdown and a relief.
    At least Ye-sun had left directions in the car explaining how to work the GPS and what address to enter. And he’d left a set of keys to the house that he’d said Bae had given him, just in case he needed to leave the lepe. Jihu wondered how Bae would feel about it being an unknown sorta-sibling instead of his known and obviously loved brother popping into his house. He guessed he’d find out as soon as Bae came home.
    Unless Bae’s mate came home first. Yikes. That could be really bad. Bae probably wouldn’t kill me, but his mate — he could be another story. There’s no guarantee Ye-sun was able to contact Bae and warn him of my arrival. And no guarantee Bae will even tolerate me here, or the baby.
    Jihu tried not to sniffle or let any tears fall as he cleaned up the mess stuck to the infant. How in the world something so little could make such a disaster, and smell so bad on top of it, was beyond him.
    And how he could look into those beautiful eyes and feel like he’d loved this child