More Than Pride Read Free Page A

down his bowl.
    “Hey, are you all right?” Evin reached across the counter and covered Chester’s hand with his own. “I didn’t really hurt you when I grabbed you, did I?”
    It had been easier to ignore Evin when Chester thought he was an ass. Chester blinked back tears over Evin’s concern.
    “What’s going on?” Dillon’s sharp tone had Chester spinning around to face the lion.
    Dillon’s narrow-eyed gaze sent chills down Chester’s spine. The lion shifter looked like he might rip Evin apart.
    Instinct he didn’t understand had him stepping between the two men. The heat level rose in the room as Chester felt both of the men on either side of him. Their clothes rubbed his cock and ass and his body hardened at the proximity of so much sexy male. He took a deep breath and inhaled Dillon’s luscious scent. He might not survive this infiltration mission, but he wasn’t going to go down without being beneath the lion shifter at least once.
    The feel of Evin’s jeans brushing against his bare ass made Chester nervously scoot closer to the lion shifter. Dillon wrapped an arm around Chester and swung him to the opposite side of him. Dillon shoved clothes at Chester. “Here, go and get dressed.”
    Chester bit his lip. His gaze swung back and forth, judging the mood between the men.
    “It will be fine.” Dillon stroked Chester’s hair and rubbed the back of his neck in a soothing manner.
    “Okay.” Chester bobbed his head up and down.
    Unwilling to leave the two men alone, he walked over by the wall and began to pull on the simple jeans and T-shirt that were the staple of any shifter’s closet. Almost every shifter house had extra clothes in a variety of sizes to accommodate visitors.
    A pair of groans had him looking up. Two sets of eyes were focused on Chester. He gulped, feeling like prey to larger, more dangerous predators. He’d already experienced that once today but for some reason in human form it was much sexier. He wouldn’t mind being pounced on by the sexy men before him.

1
“Um, thanks for the clothes.” He focused on Dillon, who unsettled him less than the owl shifter.
    Dillon’s smile brightened the room. “You’re very welcome, kitten.”
    Chester growled. “I’m not a kitten.”
    Evin smiled. “You are almost more of a kitten in your human form.”
    Dillon laughed.
    Chester walked over and kicked Evin in the shins. It only made him grin. Chester scowled at the owl shifter.
    “Eat your stew.” Dillon pointed back towards the bowl. “You look like you haven’t eaten in a while. I’ll get you some too, Evin.”
    Returning to the fridge, Dillon put together another bowl of stew and popped it into the microwave. The kitchen remained quiet with nothing to be heard but the sounds of the microwave and the scrape of Chester’s spoon across the bottom of his bowl.
    Chester didn’t argue with Dillon’s assessment of his hunger, but he also wasn’t going to explain his captivity and how he’d barely escaped with his life. His brother hadn’t been so lucky. He swallowed back the tears along with the stew. He couldn’t focus on Garfield now.
    He needed to keep focused.
    Dillon wrapped an arm around Chester and pulled him protectively into his arms. “Are you all right?”
    Chester nodded but didn’t speak. He couldn’t talk through the lump in his throat. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had shown him any tenderness. His parents had died when he was young, and Garfield had been a good brother but was not a warm person.
    The ding of the microwave saved him as Dillon felt the need to play host and fetch the food for Evin.
    Chester put his bowl in the dishwasher as Evin polished off his food with lightning speed. Chester obviously wasn’t the only one who hadn’t eaten for a while.
    “Don’t smother him,” Evin muttered after putting his own bowl in the dishwasher.
    Dillon roared like the big-ass lion Chester suspected he was.
    “Hey, big guy, I’m just trying to