Page 21 of Alpha Dragon’s Mating Contract (Babies For Broken Dads #3)

UNFORTUNATE COOKIES

They arrived at Nood’s Good early enough that it wasn’t busy yet.

In the day, the restaurant was bright and airy, with large windows in the front and cozy wooden booths filling up the space.

A zen water feature tinkled in the middle of the restaurant, soft lights shining down from the ceiling.

Fake bamboo plants dotted the place. Paintings decorated the walls, including a majestic wave, and. ..

“Is that an octopus... courting... a woman?” Walren asked incredulously.

Raptor grinned. “Are you not familiar with that piece? It’s by the same artist who painted The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.” He nodded at the wave painting.

Walren’s attention kept drifting back to the octopus painting. “I’m glad it’s not in full view of the entire restaurant,” he said weakly. Just the hallway leading to the office.

He followed Raptor past the empty booths to the kitchen in the back. Chefs were busy at work there, chopping and prepping various ingredients for the lunch crowd.

“Want a tour, sweetheart?”

“If you don’t mind.” Walren bit his lip. “I mean, if it’s not a bother.”

“Naw. You’ll never be a bother. A few minutes won’t set us back by too much.” Raptor wrapped his arm around Walren’s waist and led him through the kitchen. The chefs continued to work, adding to the piles of colorful vegetables on the stainless steel counters.

“We prep the ingredients for the lunch crowd here. Noodles are boiled in this pot, and this is the bone broth we use for most of our ramen bowls. I lived in Japan for a few years to sample all the ramen I could find. Then I apprenticed under a master chef until he was satisfied with my ramen-making skills.” Raptor looked exceedingly humble through it all, despite how much work he must have put into his restaurant.

“That sounds amazing. And the food you made last night was delicious.”

Raptor puffed out his chest then. “Want a fortune cookie?”

There was a bowl of fortune cookies next to the kitchen doorway. “Fortune cookies are not part of Japanese culture.”

“They’re not,” Raptor agreed. “But fortunes are part of Japanese culture; it’s just that the Japanese get their fortunes from temples, instead of a cookie. There are, however, fortune cookies sold in some regions of Japan.”

“I would’ve said you’re stealing the fortune cookie idea from the Chinese, but someone told me they’re not part of Asian culture, either.”

Raptor laughed. “They were invented in the United States by Japanese immigrants, supposedly. But I don’t know how it became a staple of the Chinese restaurants here.”

“Have you ever opened one?” Walren asked.

“Of course! But not recently. Here, we can each open a cookie right now.” Raptor grabbed two cookies from the bowl, handing one to Walren.

They both tore open the wrappers; Zebbie tried to grab Walren’s cookie from him.

“What does yours say?” Raptor asked.

Walren stuffed his cookie halves into his mouth, unfolding the slip of paper. “‘When your Love Cuc—”

He choked, coughing cookie crumbs all over the kitchen floor.

When your Love Cucumber grows to its fullest size, it will spray like the Fountain of Eternal Cum. It will throb to the pulse of the universe and our love will blossom like the pink rosebud of my body welcoming you home.

“Um,” Walren said, horrified.

“Why? What did you get?” Raptor leaned in before Walren could crumple up the fortune and hurl it into hellfire. “Aw! That’s so sweet!”

“That’s... sweet?” Walren squawked. He couldn’t imagine reading that aloud to his boss. “What does yours say?”

Raptor cleared his throat. Dramatically, he read, “‘My love for you erupts like Mount Penus when it’s a century backed up and you’re the first person to clean out its pipes. My love is so grateful, so thankful, it will fill you up so full. ’”

Raptor had broken into song by the last line. All Walren could do was cringe.

“You’re giving this to your customers?” he yelped.

The alpha had the grace to look sheepish. “Well, no. This seems to be from that new batch I ordered for some very exclusive customers, but there must’ve been a mix-up.”

“Has no one lodged a complaint?” Walren asked incredulously.

“Strangely enough, no. Hmm.” Raptor went over to the bowl of fortune cookies, picking through the pile. Then he turned. “Who added this latest batch of cookies?”

One of his sous chefs grimaced. “Uh, Hassel. This morning.”

“Ah, my stalwart minion.” Raptor cackled and began filling a takeout bag with the offensive cookies. Except he wasn’t scooping them into the bag by the handful—instead, he was picking some out and leaving the rest behind.

“How can you tell them apart?” Walren asked, inching closer curiously.

“There’s a lil dick printed in the corner of the wrapper.” Raptor flipped over one of the cookies to show Walren the splotch of pink. “Looks like we still have plenty of the regular ones.”

“Phew,” Walren said.

Zebbie reached out with his little hand, trying to grab a crinkly wrapper. Raptor gave the baby a cookie but shook a finger at him.

“No melting the wrapper, or I’ll take it away,” Raptor said sternly.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Walren promised, his heart melting again.

Raptor tied off the bag of questionable fortune cookies. “So, did it work?”

“Did what work?”

“The pickup line cookie! Did it work on you?” Raptor gave him a hopeful look.

“It was terrible,” Walren admitted.

“Aww! I had more lines queued up.”

“Really?”

Raptor slipped a familiar pink book out of his pocket. 699 Pickup Lines For Your Wriggly Heart Muffin, by Dicky Mems. At the bottom of the cover, in a smaller font, Guaranteed to work!!!!

Walren’s jaw dropped. The pickup lines in that book were so terrible, it was legendary. All of the Butler Brothers worshipped Dicky Mems, and it was such an unshakable truth that even Walren knew about it.

Just that Raptor’s book had neon tabs sticking out from its pages. As though he had already marked out some lines he wanted to use.

“Do you really think those are romantic? ” Walren blurted.

Raptor grinned. “To some people, they might be.”

“I... I’ll try to understand them.”

Raptor lit up as though his birthday had come early. He shook the bag of pickup line cookies. “These are also by Dicky. The pickup lines came from his book.”

“Oh gods,” Walren whispered.

“I know,” Raptor whispered back. “It’s one of mankind’s greatest inventions.”

It’s not, Walren wanted to say, but Raptor looked so excited that Walren didn’t want to take that away from him.

Raptor wriggled his fingers, waving Walren over to the industrial fridges. “I haven’t shown you these! We store raw food in this fridge, and cooked food in this one.”

Then he showed Walren the vegetable fridge he had raided last night, and Walren blushed.

“Sorry,” Walren squeaked.

“Here.” Raptor handed Walren a cucumber. “Have a snack.”

Walren choked again. “But I—”

I threw a cucumber in your face.

“You’re welcome to let me handle your cucumber.” Raptor smirked. His chefs groaned; Walren turned to hide his face in Raptor’s muscular arm.

In his chest carrier, Zebbie babbled and kicked, reaching out to grab Raptor’s shirt.

“So adorable,” Raptor crooned.

He seemed perfectly content to stand there and watch as Zebbie tried to tug him closer. The sous chefs cooed over them. Walren blushed furiously.

“C’mon, let’s check out my office,” Raptor said. “I’ve got some fun things in there.”

“Like what? Please don’t tell me sex toys.”

The alpha laughed. “What’s that in your hands, then?”

Walren almost dropped the cucumber. “Not a sex toy!”

But he was very aware of the smooth cucumber skin against his fingertips, the firm weight of it in his hands. He remembered a cucumber sitting heavy on his tongue, pushing into his ass.

“Bet you’re thinking about it now,” Raptor drawled.

Walren groaned.

“One of my friends had his mate practice stretching with vegetables,” Raptor added gleefully. “But Elson was a virgin, and you’re clearly not. You didn’t have trouble taking m—”

Walren lunged. He smacked his hands over Raptor’s mouth, only to have the cucumber whack his boss in the eye.

“Oh gods!” Walren yanked his hands back immediately.

Raptor grinned. “Giving me your cucumber this soon, sweetheart? I can already tell that today will be a good day.”

“No,” Walren whimpered. “Where is HR when you need them?”

“Right here.” Raptor winked. He grabbed a teapot and dispensed some hot water into it, swirling it around. Then he emptied the cooled water into the sink, before refilling the teapot. “C’mon, let’s go to my office.”

Walren followed him. What else was he supposed to do, really?

The office was just as cluttered today, except all the furniture had returned to their original positions, the spelled playpen tucked away.

“Why do you even have baby things in your office?” Walren asked.

“Oh! Sometimes my staff needs childcare. I pay them enough to hire a babysitter, but occasionally, those babysitters have to take a day off. That’s when these supplies come in handy.”

Walren needed a moment to let that sink in. “You pay your staff a lot. I couldn’t afford a babysitter with my old job.”

Raptor shrugged. “Perks of working here.”

“Do you even turn a profit from this place?” Walren blurted. “Uh, I shouldn’t have asked that. Sorry, just ignore me—”

“Not much of a profit, no.” Raptor’s smile was wry. “This is a hobby.”

Walren couldn’t imagine how rich Raptor had to be, for a whole restaurant to be his hobby.

Raptor opened his mouth, about to say more when—

Crash!

Both of them jumped. The sound had come from outside the office.

They looked at each other. Then Raptor was out of the office before Walren could blink.