Page 37

Chapter 36

“F ucking hell. You two fucked and got toothy? No one ever tell you to use protection?”

Gordon didn’t quite trust what he was hearing right out of Heath’s mouth. “Pro-protection?” he asked. “Like a condom?”

Maxim cooed.

“Like a muzzle,” Heath said.

Gordon’s eyes met Heath’s. Heath was in need of hydration, and a few aspirins would have probably done a lot for him, but he was apparently serious.

“I…I don’t understand.” Gordon clenched his fists, but then Adler put his hand over Gordon’s, the werewolf’s touch warm and soothing. He massaged the back of Gordon’s hand as if trying to relax him.

Heath groaned and rolled his eyes, and Maxim petted his son’s head.

“Rest, darling. Well, Gordon, Heath is right. Perhaps not about the muzzle, although to each their own. However, a true mate bite looks like that. It’s quite unusual—and takes far better if the vampire half of the couple chomps down on the werewolf. You know how rare mate bites like that are among wolves, and what you two share is quite a bit rarer still.”

Adler straightened in his chair. “He’ll be able to hear my thoughts when I shift during the full moon, won’t he?”

Gordon shivered. Telepathy. I remember that. Doesn’t it run both ways with a mate bite? Fuck me, I’m so fucked.

Maxim shrugged. “It’s not like I’m an expert. But there are some traditions that see werewolves and vampires attempting true mate-ship the kind of which you have achieved without so much as even the subtlest of pushes.”

Heath snorted. “You call setting them up subtle, old bat?”

“Oh, hush, darling, lest I enable your budding drinking habit.”

“I don’t have a—ah, fuck it, but I’m not paying you that twenty though.”

“It was five times that, dear. Have some more coffee.”

Adler cleared his throat. “About Gordon biting me. Sweetheart, I didn’t want to show you because I didn’t want to scare you, but where you bit me yesterday…” He held out his arm and pulled the sleeve back.

Heath snorted and poured himself more coffee. “A muzzle for each of them.”

“Aw, it’s too late for that now, Heath.” Maxim leaned forward in his chair to peer at Adler’s wrist.

Gordon was barely listening to them. He stared too, taking in the pale bite mark on Adler’s writs where his own teeth had torn into the flesh to drink because Adler had offered, and eagerly so, and because Gordon had wanted it. I did this. Why the fuck did I do this? I should have just kept sex and food separate like a normal person.

“Oh. Adler, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Gordon reached for Adler’s wrist with both his hands and cradled it, not daring to touch the bite mark.

The werewolf chuckled. “Don’t be. Look, I really like you. And I care about you. Ah, what I mean is, this? It feels right. Feels like I was always meant to protect you, which is what I’ll do.” He leaned forward. “And I meant what I said. I want you to keep feeding from me. Unless I’m not enough.”

“Hmm, probably beneficial,” Maxim said. The hunter looked thoughtful, which made Gordon uncomfortable.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Maxim shrugged. “Well, my understanding always was that such a bond as you have forged strengthens the werewolf. Adler, you might be able to turn at will or for longer past the full moon. To answer your earlier question, I’m not sure about the telepathy. The romanticized boon in your bond is an extended lifespan for you, Adler, but by those accounts I am familiar with, it will take some time for the mate bond to settle and for its effects to become clear.” He grinned at Gordon. “You, Gordon, should find Adler’s blood more fortifying than anyone else’s. Some of the things I’ve read make it sound like you might need werewolf blood more than human blood now, but that was from a Mongolian source that had been thrice translated, so I cannot be sure.”

Heath looked at Maxim, his coffee cup steaming in his hand. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but thanks for warning me about letting werewolves bite me, Dad.”

“Hmm, what did you just call me, Heath, dear? I didn’t hear. Say it again for me, please.”

Heath rolled his eyes. “Old bat.”

“I still don’t…I didn’t plan for this,” Gordon said. He wasn’t sure whether to feel guilty or whether to be scared. Things were so easy in the morgue. Field work sucks, and socializing…socializing led to this. He looked into Adler’s eyes, light brown and full of love. I want , Gordon thought, though what exactly he desired from the werewolf, what precisely, he wasn’t sure, not yet.

A rumbling in Adler’s chest, barely above the hearing threshold, reined in Gordon’s pounding heart, at least a little.

Maxim poured Gordon some coffee. “No one ever plans for love, Gordon. Love is like a starved mosquito. After keeping you awake through half of the night, it will simply latch on once you finally find sleep, and the itch will remain deep in your skin for long days after.”

An itch in my skin. Is Adler an itch in my skin? Gordon was glad to have Adler, who was holding his hand and leading him all the way from the elevators to the exit.

They had left Heath and Maxim to their bickering or bonding. Gordon felt numb more than anything.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said when Adler held the door for him.

“Huh?”

“Bite you. What if—” He looked at Adler’s eyes that were still full of affection, looked away. “My maker taught me all the important things. He stayed around and made sure I could feed myself, made sure I knew where to go if I needed a donor or if I got into trouble. I’d already interned at the Forum, so that part of it was easy. But he also left me with a way to contact him. If living gets to be a chore, reach out, he told me.” Gordon walked outside, then stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, hating how the muggy air made his loaned shirt cling to his skin. “Adler, what if you live very long and start hating it? It’ll be my fault. I mean, I chose this. I made an informed decision, and I don’t regret it, but I just fucking bit you during sex, and now you are…”

Gordon felt his knees give, his legs trembling, the tremors going from there to all the rest of his body. Hah! I shouldn’t have been afraid of him! I’m the scary one. I’m the one who uses and takes and doesn’t think. What I did might have hurt him in ways neither of us can even understand yet.

“Sweetheart?” Adler held him up, strong arms around Gordon, keeping him from falling. “I know you don’t need it but breathe.”

Gordon swallowed bile. “It’s the sun.”

“Oh, right.” Adler hightailed it all the way to where his car was parked and helped Gordon inside, then rounded the hood and got behind the wheel. Rather than start the engine, he leaned over the middle console and put a hand on Gordon’s cheek. “Better?”

Gordon leaned into the touch. “It’s not really that sunny out.”

“I noticed.”

“I did something to you I can’t undo. Vampires don’t do this. We don’t make another without consent or thought.”

Adler smiled. “I consented. And I bit you first, so stop worrying about it. Plus, I’m not a vampire. It sounds more like I might be some kind of super wolf.”

Gordon shook his head, unable to succumb to humor. “But that’s not the same, it’s—”

“What if I can read your mind during the full moon, hmm? Did you consent to that?”

Gordon groaned. “I really don’t want to think about that.”

“I love you.”

Gordon huffed. “Oh, shut up, Adler.”

“But I do. I want eternity with you. And I want to protect you. I want you to be happy. What I said about providing for you, that is still true.” He exhaled, slowly. “Since it’s not really that sunny, are you fine being outside?”

Gordon shrugged. “I guess.”

“Want to go to Seneca Park with me? There are shady paths there. We can talk. About your corpses and your wigs, and about all those special editions. You are my mate, Gordon. I want to know everything about the things you love until I am one of those things. If I do get more time with you, I’ll take it. Any day. I’d let you bite me all over again too, so you can stop feeling guilty about it already.”

Deep down, Gordon knew he had built a wall around his heart a long time ago. When he looked into Adler’s face and saw nothing there but love and joy, the wall crumbled. Just a little.

“I think the park would be fine.” If you’re there, it will be fine.