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Jamie looked both pleased and intrigued by the idea, and something in Luc warmed—not only at having his mate experience what it was like to have someone excited for, rather than fearful of, his abilities, but also at hearing talk of Jamie turning as if it was the inevitable choice.

And it was, wasn’t it? Danny and Gabe had kept control of themselves after turning. They were able to live in their hometown and spend time with their ailing mother. Luc had all the information he needed. What else could possibly hold him back?

He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of the front doorknob—which they’d locked behind them earlier—jiggling.

Jamie looked to Luc nervously. “Maybe Monique’s back?”

But Luc wasn’t even surprised when in the next second, the front door burst open, wood splintering all along the edges.

He and Roman were up in a flash, their mates pushed behind them. Jay remained seated in his chair, looking up in curiosity from the book in his lap, seeming more or less unconcerned by the arrival of two strange, hostile vampires.

These fucking twins .

“Well now, what the fuck do we have here?” That was Fox speaking, Luc was mostly sure.

He at least knew their names now, from their last conversation.

Although Luc had liked the monikers Jamie had come up with—Tweedledum and Tweedledick—he couldn’t exactly use them to their faces.

And while their visages were still almost impossible for him to differentiate between, there was a subtle distinction between their voices.

Plus, Fox was always the asshole of the two.

“Were you raised in a goddamn barn? It’s rude to just break down someone’s door.” Jamie’s accusation rang out from directly behind Luc’s ear.

“It’s rude to promise not to drain our humans and then leave a body practically on our doorstep,” Dane said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You left it where ?” This time, Jamie’s voice was a whisper. Although, considering they were surrounded by vampires, chances were high everyone in the room had heard him anyway.

Luc had most certainly not left a body on the vampire twins’ doorstep. He’d taken the drained corpse into the desert, hoping to at least delay the finding of the body by the self-appointed vampire sheriffs of this town.

Which meant there must be a second corpse.

If Luc hadn’t been sure they had a feral vampire in town before, he certainly was now.

He could feel Jamie poking his head out from behind him. It was almost laughable, really—Luc’s body didn’t hide him all that well anyway, seeing as how they were almost the same height.

That was okay for the moment. While Luc’s monster was on high alert with the twins’ arrival—coiled and tense within him—it wasn’t nearly as amped up with rage as the first time they’d barged into Jamie’s home.

Mostly due to the fact that he and Jamie had reinforcements now. No matter how bitter relations between him and Roman may be, Luc knew his former friend wouldn’t side with two strangers over him in some bullshit territory dispute. It just wasn’t Roman’s style.

And, if it came down to it, the twins were here for Luc, not Jamie.

And Luc would allow himself to be ripped apart a thousand times over before he let anyone harm a hair on Jamie’s perfect head.

Dane started to list offenses off on his fingers while Fox postured in what Luc assumed was meant to be a menacing manner next to him.

“We tell you to leave; you refuse. We tell you to keep your fangs to yourself; you start a killing rampage. And now you’ve brought more bloodsuckers to our territory? What exactly is your end game here?”

“He didn’t kill anyone,” Jamie protested, always willing to defend Luc against perceived slights.

“No one asked you, human .”

Luc growled at that. Fox had a fucking death wish; that was for sure.

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Danny scolded from behind Roman.

“Mind your fucking business.”

“Speak to my mate like that again and I’ll rip out your vocal cords,” Roman said.

“ Enough !” Luc let his monster out into his voice, enough to ensure all these badgering idiots—Jamie excluded, of course—were silent before he continued at a much lower decibel. “There has been a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah. Like I said, he didn’t kill anyone.” Jamie tried to step out in front of him, and Luc allowed the compromise of standing side by side, a firm hand on Jamie’s arm, ready to pull him out of danger at a moment’s notice. “Luc found the body that way. He didn’t drain anyone.”

Dane cocked a disbelieving brow. “And you just left it out in the open?”

Jamie looked to Luc with a question in his eyes before turning back to the twins when Luc shook his head in answer. “Well, he didn’t find that body, I don’t think. He found a different one, okay? But he didn’t kill your dead body either.”

“Perfect!” Fox threw up his hands. “That’s two humans drained since you came to town.”

“I’m telling you it wasn’t us ,” Jamie bit out.

“Yeah, no.” Dane shared a glance with his brother. “We don’t believe you.”

“How do we know it wasn’t one of you two?

” Jay’s question, posed from where he remained seated in the living room chair, stopped the twins short.

They both looked him over slowly, as if just realizing he was there at all.

He seemed unbothered by the attention, his small face placid as ever.

“How do we know one of you isn’t going feral secretly and the other is trying to cover it up? ”

Fox scoffed at his theory. “Impossible. We’re already tethered.”

“Where are your mates, then?” Jamie asked, the excitement in his voice indicating he thought they were winning this round.

The twins shared a look. “We’re tethered to each other.”

It took a few seconds for the two of them to realize how everyone in the room was looking at them, Luc included.

Dane blanched. “ What ? No.”

Fox shot them all a death glare. “Fucking gross . Jesus.”

When everyone continued to stare, Fox threw up his hands for the second time. “Do you all really know nothing about yourselves? Not all tethered bonds are romantic, people. Bonded souls don’t have to be literal mates.”

Jamie gave a soft whistle. “Well, damn.”

“We’ve been stable since the day we were turned,” Dane muttered, clearly pissed at all of them for their assumptions.

“And—” Fox shot a wink at Jay. “—we can fuck whoever we want.”

Jay shook his head. “No thank you,” he said politely, looking back down at his book.

Dane smacked his brother on the arm, for once earning his own death glare from his asshole twin. “It’s cool to educate you and all, but the point is, it wasn’t one of us.”

Luc hadn’t really thought it was, but he was at least somewhat amused by the distraction. And it was a revelation, of sorts—he’d had no idea that bonded souls could be platonic. As far as he knew, neither had anyone else in the room, other than the twins.

Had Evrard known? Had he known about bonded souls at all?

“Well, it wasn’t us either.” Jamie looked a second away from actually sticking his tongue out at the twins. Saucy thing.

Fox looked around the room. “You all believe him?” he asked, gesturing to Luc. “I mean, look at him. I’ve never seen him without his fangs out. I’ve never once seen his human face. Even if he didn’t kill these two particular humans, it’s only a matter of time before he does it with someone else.”

“Then I’ll turn,” Jamie offered, his voice firm with conviction. “Right here and now.”

Luc felt a wash of coldness run through his core, his stomach heavy with the sensation.

Was Jamie really offering that right now?

The love Luc felt for his bold, courageous mate in that moment was overwhelming…

but so was the fear. All Luc could see was a future where he crushed his beautiful flower under the weight of his brutality.

Jamie—lovely, bright Jamie—slowly growing to hate him over the years, faced with Luc’s undeniable malevolence.

Because Jamie would hate him one day, wouldn’t he?

Given enough time, everyone did.

“No,” Luc found himself saying, panic tightening his chest in a viselike grip. “Not that.”

Jamie turned to him with shock in his eyes. “No?” he asked Luc in disbelief.

“No.” Luc tried to keep his voice firm, not wanting his panic revealed in front of all these witnesses. “Not yet. Not—not now.”

The hurt flashing across Jamie’s face was unmistakable, as was the anger that followed seconds after.

His jaw clenched, and when he spoke, his voice was choked, raw.

“Figure out your own vampire drama, then. This human is going to bed.” He turned to the twins.

“You two can let yourselves out, right?”

Luc swallowed through a new thickness in his throat as he watched his mate stomp down the hallway, his bedroom door slamming a moment later. He turned helplessly back to the vampires in the room.

Danny was giving him a pitying look. “You fucked up.”

Luc already knew he had. He felt it, his monster raging within him for denying them what they both wanted. What Jamie wanted.

Fox turned to his twin, clearly exasperated by this turn of events. “How are we actually mixed up in relationship drama right now? Fucking fated mates. Every single time.”