Page 12 of Alpha Dragon’s Mating Contract (Babies For Broken Dads #3)

A MILLION SOCK PUPPETS

Walren hadn’t been sure what to expect when they pulled up at a tall iron gate flanked by dense, equally tall hedges.

Sure, he had been to Ace’s mansion, which was just next door.

But Raptor had made it sound as though he’d given his own mansion a major overhaul—because of Walren?

It didn’t make sense.

The iron gate swung open.

The first things Walren saw were two towering statues on either side of the driveway. They were cylindrical at the base, with weathered—veiny?—ridges going up their sides, only to be swallowed by oversized burlap sacks.

But those weren’t ordinary burlap sacks. In fact, there were faces on the sacks—a monkey on one, and a pig on the other. They looked like theater props, or like something people would carry down the streets during a festival.

“Sock puppets,” Raptor said airily, gesturing as they drove past.

From there, the strangeness only continued.

Raptor’s mansion was surrounded by a vast grassy field, dotted by wildflowers and trees. Scattered throughout were other colorful ‘sock puppets’—shorter statues that had been swallowed by pillowcases with googly eyes.

Or sports team mascots that looked as though they had just stepped off the field.

“Did you... buy those mascots?” Walren blurted.

“Of course! We most definitely did not steal them,” Raptor said primly.

Walren hunched his shoulders. “I’m really sorry about, um, the cucumbers last night—”

“Oh!” Raptor turned away from his driveway to look at Walren in surprise. “No, that wasn’t aimed at you. Ace and I are fans of this comic book character who steals some cool things. Once, he stole an entire government airship. ”

Walren stared. “Is it me, or do you sound jealous?”

Raptor grinned. “Who doesn’t want to accomplish something so movie-worthy at least once in their life?”

“Me! I just want a normal life,” Walren said.

“Awww, you’re adorable,” Raptor said fondly.

“I’m not!” Walren’s cheeks heated up anyway. He looked back out the window.

As they drove, Walren realized that the mascots and googly-eyed pillowcases all faced the driveway. None of them were close to each other, but together, they were the most unnerving welcoming committee.

“They’re kind of creepy,” he mumbled.

“Hmm. I didn’t mean to freak you out. What would make it better?”

“If they all stopped looking at us at the same time!”

“Huh,” Raptor said. “I’ll have Hassel fix that.”

The SUV pulled to a stop. Walren dragged his eyes away from the rows of smaller sock puppets—they lined both sides of the driveway and surrounded the courtyard—only to realize that they were in front of Raptor’s mansion.

The mansion was two stories of quaint brickwork and pretty French windows.

Instead of the elegant iron wall sconces, Walren’s attention was snared by the sock puppets dangling from the eaves.

More sock puppets lined the window sills, and higher up on the windows, odd shapes had been suctioned to the inside of the glass panes.

“Are those sock puppets too?” Walren asked, aghast.

“They’re all sock puppets!” Raptor replied cheerfully.

“I meant the weird shapes stuck to the windows. They look like they’re hanging off the glass.”

Raptor bobbed his head. “Yup.”

“That’s... a lot of sock puppets.”

The alpha coughed. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

“There’s... more?” Walren turned to stare wide-eyed at him.

Raptor’s laugh was almost hysterical. “Yes. There’s more.”

Not all of the sock puppets were the same, though. There were several elaborate ones that looked like animals, monsters, or people.

Then there were others that looked like plain white socks with huge googly eyes stuck on them.

The more Walren saw, the more confused he felt.

Was this... an obsession? With sock puppets?

“Why are they all looking at me?” he whined, extremely reluctant to get out of the car. “I don’t want them to watch me, it’s creepy.”

“I’ll fix that immediately,” Raptor said. “Hassel!”

The double front doors burst open.

Instead of a person, a giant yellow bird leaped out of the mansion, complete with long neck, long orange legs, and a cartoonish face that Walren vaguely remembered from his childhood TV shows.

“That... That can’t be...”

“Giant Bird,” Raptor said sagely. “Hassel prefers to take that form when he’s not actively assisting me.”

Walren stared at the bird strutting down the mansion’s front steps. “I feel like my life has just gotten really weird.”

Raptor smirked. “Welcome to my life.”

“Chef Master!” Hassel crowed, flapping his fluffy yellow wings. “What can I do for you this fine morning?”

“The sock puppets,” Raptor said. “Rotate them so they’re not all facing the same direction. Walren finds it creepy.”

“Ah.” Hassel ruffled his feathers. Come to think of it, his feathers looked rumpled and limp, similar to the exhaustion Raptor himself displayed.

Walren carefully climbed out of the car, turning toward Hassel. “You stayed up late too, didn’t you?”

The butler gave Walren a long, piercing look. “Huh.” Then his smile grew, and he turned to Raptor. “He’s perfect. ”

“I told you!” Raptor said with a tired grin.

“Alright,” Hassel said, cheering up. “Rotate the dic—I mean, the sock puppets so they’re not all looking at you like they’re getting ready for a bukkake scene.”

“What’s buk—bu...” Walren scrunched up his face.

Raptor gave him a sly look. “Boo-ka-kay. That’s the Japanese pronunciation. Are you sure you want to know what it means?”

“So innocent,” Hassel crowed.

“I’m not innocent!” Walren protested.

“Well, you made a baby. So you’re not completely innocent.” Raptor licked his lips. “Bukkake is a thing in porn where—”

“Crap,” Walren said, hurriedly covering Zebbie’s ears.

“—someone’s on their knees, surrounded and waiting to be splattered with, ah, cream from several... spouts.”

Walren wrinkled his nose. “That sounds kind of demeaning.”

Raptor shrugged. “Hey, it’s a kink for some people. Last I checked, you didn’t seem to mind being covered in my cum.”

“I wasn’t on my knees when you did it,” Walren said. Then he blushed when he realized Hassel was listening in.

“Okay, none of that for you. Good to know.” As though they weren’t talking about something really intimate, Raptor went over to a row of sock puppets, turning them so they faced away from Walren. Whatever they were sitting on remained stuck in place, though.

“You don’t mind that Hassel heard all of that?” Walren blurted.

Then he could’ve kicked himself, because Hassel was a shapeshifter—all the Butler Brothers were.

And shapeshifters had one of the best hearing amongst all the species; it was why Raptor and his friends all employed a Butler Brother for security.

Which meant that Hassel would hear whatever sounds Walren made in Raptor’s bed.

Hassel flapped his wing dismissively. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. I’ve heard Chef Master jizz himself countless times. In fact, I can even tell by sound which cocksleeve he’s using—”

Walren stared in horror.

“—and let me tell you, he has been jerking off to you for a while.”

For several seconds, no one said a word. Then Raptor turned to Hassel, red-faced, and hissed, “Shut up!”

But he wasn’t denying it.

Walren blinked rapidly. “M-me?”

Raptor rubbed his hands on his pants, avoiding Walren’s gaze. “Um, yes? You are very attractive, pumpkin.”

“But we only started... things... last night.”

“We met for the first time a few months ago,” Raptor said with a self-deprecating smile. “I didn’t forget you. But I also didn’t think it was appropriate to approach you so soon after you were kidnapped.”

“But I puked on you,” Walren wailed. “Or is that in your fantasy, too?”

Hassel laughed so hard, he hid his head under his wing and fell over. Raptor flipped him off.

Slowly, as though he was afraid of scaring Walren away, Raptor inched forward. “No. I just remembered you needing me.”

“Oh,” Walren mumbled.

“I would like to please you,” the alpha murmured, his voice dropping. Warmth curled low in Walren’s belly. “Let me show you.”

Walren finally met Raptor’s eyes. Raptor smiled; Walren’s stomach flipped.

“Buh buh buh!” Zebbie said, wriggling and kicking.

Then he farted, and it killed the tension in the air.

Raptor laughed. “Let me give you a tour of my home.”

“Okay,” Walren said, his face still red.

He promptly forgot his awkwardness the instant he stepped into the mansion.

He had thought the sock puppets on the windowsills were overboard.

Nothing prepared him for the sock puppets inside the mansion. Ghost puppets floated along the foyer walls. Princess puppets hung from the chandelier like airplanes. Rows of octopus puppets lined the grand staircase, where the steps met the railings.

“Is this a kink?” Walren whispered.

Elsewhere, Hassel howled with laughter.

“Chef Master wraps them around his cucumber,” Hassel yelled.

“I do not!” Raptor yelled back.

Zebbie yelled and babbled along with them, even though he didn’t have any idea what they were saying.

Raptor gave Zebbie two thumbs up. “You’re going to grow up chattering away like my favorite comic book character.” To Walren, he added, “This is the hallway bathroom.”

There were sock puppets on the toilet’s water tank. Some were stuck along the edges of the mirror, and a group of large and small sock puppets had gathered at one corner of the counter.

Then there were the puppets on the wall. Those weren’t sock puppets exactly; they were actual clothes glued to the walls, with magazine cutouts of celebrity faces sticking out of their necklines.

Walren had never seen anything like this.

It was insanity.

“How...? Why...?”

“I’ll tell you at the end of six months,” Raptor said, sticking out his pinky finger. “I promise.”

Walren squinted at the finger. Then he carefully hooked it with his own.

The warmth in Raptor’s pinky surprised him.

“Like my finger, pumpkin?” Raptor purred.

“It’s so warm,” Walren blurted.