Gilbert by Bailey Bradford Page B

earlier.”
    Jihu had seen babies being burped before. He hoisted Daniel up onto his shoulder and softly patted his back.
    Gilbert shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. Jihu waited, wondering what he was hesitating over saying. Finally, twin spots of purple bloomed on Gilbert’s cheeks and he cleared his throat. “Um. I don’t want you to think I meant it about the puppies. I love those buggers even though they tried to eat the living room.” He gestured and Jihu looked, only then noticing the damage to the trim and the lack of couch cushions. The puppies really were destruction on eight legs.
    “Maybe it’s not a question or a worry you have, but just in case it is, and you’re not sure about asking it, I love kids.”
    Jihu turned back to Gilbert. How had he known one of Jihu’s fears? “I figured you’d be happy about having a mate—what shifter wouldn’t be? But the instant family part, I wasn’t sure…”
    Gilbert crooked his arm and Jihu placed Daniel in his hold. “I just assumed I wouldn’t have kids, unless my mate, if I met him, agreed to adopt. I’d like more, actually, just to clarify.”
    What could he say to that? He didn’t know if he wanted more kids or not, but he suspected he’d be happy to let Gilbert have his way in the matter. Jihu had never even thought about kids until he’d learnt that he’d successfully impregnated someone. Then the weight of it, the fact that he had fertile sperm and would be bred to every viable female possible if the baby was carried to term and born healthy, that was when he began to realise how the lepe leader intended Jihu to spend his life. He’d wanted much better for his son. He’d wanted freedom.
    “Why don’t you go shower and I’ll find you some clean clothes to put on?” Gilbert offered. “I want to check you over first, and little bit here needs a diaper change, then I’ll tuck him in his carrier. It’s all right for him to sleep in it. I’ll meet you in the bedroom.”
    “Okay.” Jihu felt as if he’d walked into an alternate universe. This was so different from what he knew, and Gilbert’s easy acceptance was a balm to his battered soul. Jihu’s leopard was bitching at him, wanting a full mating and claiming, and Jihu hoped the cat would be satisfied with Jihu being the one being taken. Needy beast aside, the man in him wasn’t ready to do something so similar to what he’d been forced to almost ten months ago. But letting Gilbert fuck him, that was a definite yes in his book.
    The bathroom was decent-sized, not like the tiny showers in the facility he’d shared with the three other shifters who were products of forced breedings. Why were they even born when they’d been treated like a nuisance? Jihu couldn’t comprehend the drive to keep their species going, and pure Amur, when he’d seen so much disregard for the individuals.
    As Jihu stripped, he looked over the bruises and scrapes he had. Nothing too bad. There were needle marks on his arms, and he counted them. Thirteen . He’d been locked in that damn room for thirteen days. How long would it take for the drug to wear off? Jihu missed his enhanced senses. It was like losing a hand, and it made it difficult for him to trust what he felt, what he saw and experienced with his human senses. Who was he kidding? His mind was a fucking mess.
    He darted a glance at himself in the bathroom mirror. He was still scrawny, short, and bony. If Gilbert weren’t his mate, he probably wouldn’t be attracted to Jihu at all. Although, he did have a nice cock, and sometimes he thought he wasn’t ugly, not his face, anyways. It was hard to believe that right now, with the ugly bruises on his jaw and under his eyes. “Ugh.” Jihu left off looking at himself and used the toilet.
    Once he was in the shower, Jihu groaned as the hot water worked on his sore muscles. He hadn’t realised how much he ached, or how scuzzy he was. How had Gilbert even touched him when he hadn’t bathed in too