Captive Mate BL-Chapter 638: - - -

It was the start of a new week, and the men at the gym were still hard at work. Which meant that Caspian spent another day driving around, going on a walk wasn’t as fun because it had gotten colder, cold enough to make the walk uncomfortable.

He hadn’t realized how much Asher had put into the home gym until it was a full week and there were still workers going in and out of the mansion.

He supposed it gave him more time to practice driving before winter came and the roads became slippery with black ice.

Caspian had thought about going shopping, but there were still a handful of weeks before Lake’s birth, so he exercised some restraint.

He had already convinced Lake to go shopping with him later that week, this time for the baby.

And in his best friend’s ninth month, he would have free rein to buy as many gifts as he wanted for the baby.

The next day, he had had enough of driving around Asher’s estate, and after pestering his bodyguards for hours, he finally convinced them to let him drive around his mate’s turf.

Whittling down their reservations hadn’t been to get permission because he was essentially free to go most places he wanted; it had been to keep it from Asher. Because if there was even the slightest hint of danger, Asher would show up or try to keep him from going.

It was challenging to drive on the road with other cars, Keith sitting tensed up in the passenger seat like he expected Caspian to cause a ten-car pile-up.

Caspian ignored their grim expressions like the world was ending, just happy to drive around. He was essentially ready to take a driving test, but he still wanted to practice for another week or two.

At Moonstone, he was limited from doing or trying things because no one cared about him, but now, he was limited because everyone cared too much.

If even the slightest thing went wrong on his test, Asher would hear of it, and his mate would right away get him a driver or two, even though he already had two bodyguards who already did that.

It was just... he was protected so much that he wasn’t given the privilege of making mistakes. Because mistakes equaled danger, and he wasn’t allowed to be in danger.

When Keith and Peter hit their limit and urged that they return to the mansion, Caspian didn’t complain, knowing that he was sneaking around behind his mate’s back and stressing his bodyguards out.

Satisfied with being able to drive on a proper road, he didn’t bug his bodyguards again that day, getting comfortable in a living room on the first floor with a cup of hot chocolate and catching up on his crime shows.

-+-

Unaware of his mate’s antics, Asher was seated in his office, contemplating whether he wanted to skip out on another function.

He would rather go home to dinner to his sweet mate than socialize with assholes who just wanted a favor out of him, but he really couldn’t keep ditching important events.

Even Davian, who was well known for that, had turned over a new leaf. With Lake running the Mafia House, they were more influential than they had ever been.

They might be on good terms now, but that didn’t mean he could get complacent. The constant competition between the Mafia Kings furthered growth in Haines.

For someone who was known for being social, suddenly cutting everyone out would have a trickle-down effect that could have drastic consequences in the future.

The other Mafia Kings were also not his only competition. The endless gangs downtown were always seeking an opportunity to steal turf from a Mafia King and get the title for themselves.

But he would rather not take Caspian to the event, and it wasn’t just going to be for a couple hours. He would be holed up in one of his bass-thumping clubs until the early hours of the morning.

His door opened in the middle of his contemplation, Jael pausing at the door at the look on his face.

"Do I want to be here?" Jael asked dryly.

Asher clearly had a lot on his mind, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be involved.

"I have a function tonight," Asher blurted out without giving him an answer.

Jael immediately took a step back, "Yeah, I don’t." He answered for himself, deciding to go downtown to handle a casual job that the men could have done themselves.

Anything to not be stuck in Asher’s office while his boss handed him rhetorical questions and unsolvable problems. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

At Asher’s words, he had already figured out what was going on. Asher needed to attend an important event, but he also wanted to have dinner with his mate, and he didn’t want to take Caspian with him...

It was a dead-end.

The logical solution was to take Caspian along with him, but that wasn’t even an option, and Jael honestly had too much going on to get dragged into that.

It was up to Caspian to deal with his mate’s growing overprotectiveness, as long as it didn’t put the Omega in danger, Jael was going to turn a blind eye to it.

The sun’s lost its strength with every day that went by, but he didn’t lose his shades.

As he drove downtown, his attention went to the center console a couple of times. The mints in there had been cleared out and replaced with packs of cigs.

They were still unopened and seemed to have been that way for a couple days now. Almost like there was still a final tether holding him back to the promise he had made to the burning church.

They remained unopened this time as he got down from his car when he got to his destination.

As soon as he got out, one of the men walked right up to him to report even though they hadn’t been expecting him to show up.