Page 47

Soren

“ S top nosing at that.” Soren pulled his yarn away from Ferdy’s snout, glaring at the puppy.

The little mutt kept thinking Soren’s crochet supplies were some sort of dog toy in disguise.

Soren was almost done with this top, and if Danny’s pet ruined it, Soren was going to be forced to commit doggy murder, and then Danny would be mad at him, and then Roman would murder Soren for upsetting Danny, and it would all just be one terrible mess.

He considered flashing his fangs for additional deterrence, but he’d already learned the puppy was completely unfazed by any of them going full vamp in front of him.

It turned out humans were much easier to intimidate than dogs.

“Shoo.” Soren motioned with his free hand. “Go find your daddy.”

“Am I the mutt’s daddy?” Soren glanced up to see Roman leaning against the doorway, looking much too amused at the scene in front of him for Soren’s taste.

“No,” Soren replied, narrowing his eyes at his longtime friend. “Danny’s Daddy. You’re Papa. Much more suitable for your advanced age.” He grinned broadly at the annoyed look on Roman’s face.

“You are older than I,” Roman argued.

“Yes, but I look younger, and that’s what counts.”

“Ridiculous,” Roman sighed, his expression pinched—a familiar sight where Soren was concerned.

“You two heading out soon?” Soren asked cheerily, ignoring his friend’s displeasure. Roman would get over it in two seconds. He was used to Soren’s ways.

“When Danny returns from the care home,” Roman answered, tucking his hands into his pants pockets. Soren eyed the other vampire’s outfit skeptically. Why anyone would want to wear a full suit for an entire day on an airplane was anyone’s guess.

He shrugged internally. To each his own. “Well, have a blast. Bring me back lots of souvenirs. I want something pretty. Or delicious. I’ll accept either. Or both.”

Roman hummed noncommittally, eyeing Soren with a weirdly intense look. It made Soren’s skin itch.

“Three weeks with my mate all to myself,” Roman finally said after another long minute of staring.

Soren hummed, turning back to his crochet hook.

He wasn’t entirely sure whether Roman’s words were meant to be a pointed statement.

Soren had been living in the same house as the two lovebirds for over a year now.

He did his best to stay out of their way, and neither gave any indication they wanted him to leave, but maybe Roman was trying to casually meander his way into a verbal eviction.

“All right…,” Soren drawled when Roman didn’t elaborate. “Are you about to start telling me your horny honeymoon daydreams? Because I’d rather not. No offense.”

Soren had already overheard enough of those two going at it to last a million lifetimes.

Roman shook his head. “I would be very…upset…if a lack of control over things at home were to distract Danny from this honeymoon,” he said, his voice staying deceptively mild. “I want his full… attention .”

Christ. Roman really was a possessive beast.

Although Soren couldn’t really blame him. Roman had been lonely for a very, very long time, and Danny had been his surprise salvation. Not to mention his destined mate, the tether to his humanity.

Lucky bastard.

Not every vampire found their fated mate, the one whose soul would bond to theirs, preventing them from devolving into a feral state. And what if the one they did find didn’t like them one bit? That was a dilemma Soren was very…invested in…at the moment.

Soren put down his crochet, folding his hands in his lap, giving Roman his most sincere look. “I promise we’ll take good care of the little doggie.”

“And you will ensure Gabe visits their mother.” Roman made it an order, not a question.

Easier said than done, but Soren nodded anyway. “I’ll make sure of it.”

There was another long silence, Roman searching Soren’s face for something.

“What?” Soren finally snapped, his patience wearing thin.

Roman cleared his throat. “This fascination you have with the brother. It will not be a problem?”

Soren supposed he should have been expecting this, but that didn’t mean he had to play along. “What fascination?” he asked innocently, batting his lashes. “The man’s boring as dirt.”

Roman’s lips pressed flat. “I know you still follow him sometimes.”

Soren didn’t deign to reply to that particular statement. Honestly, it was more than just sometimes, but what was this, an intervention?

Roman gave a heavy sigh at his silence. “Just… Keep your distance.”

Soren arched a brow. “You know the two of us are living together for three weeks, right?”

“You know what I mean…”

Soren was saved a response by the sounds of Danny returning home. “I’m here!” Roman’s mate called across the house. “I’m ready! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

The look on Roman’s face changed so quickly it was almost amusing. Gone was the harsh skepticism he’d been directing at Soren, replaced by a softness that Soren had never thought to see on his friend’s face.

“I have our bags in the car already, little king,” Roman said, reaching an arm out to his mate. “Your mother was well?”

Danny joined Roman in the doorway, greeting Soren sweetly before answering, “She was as well as can be expected these days.” He turned to Soren again, his doe eyes pleading. “You’ll take Gabe tomorrow morning to see her?”

“She’ll be in good hands,” Soren promised. He meant it. Even if Doctor Muscles was a stubborn dick about it, Soren would make sure their mother had regular visits. He wouldn’t tease Danny about something like that.

Other things though…

“You two have fun fucking each other’s brains out.” Soren grinned in delight as Danny blushed immediately. The baby vampire really was too cute for words.

The pair left for the airport shortly after, leaving Soren alone in the little house. He stared at his crochet, unable to muster up his earlier enthusiasm for it.

What was the point? What was the point of any of this?

Soren had been in Hyde Park, Colorado, now for over a year, the longest he’d stayed in any one place in almost two centuries. He was a sitting duck.

Roman didn’t need him there, even if he and Danny acted happy enough to have a permanent roommate.

Ostensibly, Soren had stayed to be there as backup if Lucien decided to return, at least at first. But that psycho vampire had clearly moved on.

Soren should too. He couldn’t lie to himself and say he was staying just for friendship’s sake anymore. Danny and Roman were clearly safe.

He sighed dramatically, sprawling onto his back on the couch.

Denial was so dull .

He knew why he was staying—why he couldn’t make himself drive out of this town and never look back. It was just incredibly embarrassing to be so captivated by one boring human man.

One boring human man who’d made it clear he thought Soren was an annoyance at best and a monster at worst.

One boring human man who’d been doing his best to avoid Soren for over a year now.

One boring human man who happened to smell and taste like the most delicious thing Soren had ever encountered.

And as much as Soren knew it was pointless—that three weeks in close proximity to Gabe wouldn’t be enough to change the stubborn human’s mind about him—he couldn’t help that his inner vamp perked up at the thought of having the human so close.

It was very much interested in getting closer to Gabe.

In fact… Soren sat up, a wide grin stretching his lips.

He knew exactly what he was in the mood for.

Soren waltzed into Death by Coffee, stopping briefly to wipe his heeled boots off on the entrance mat. Spring was finally showing its face in Hyde Park, and while the warmer weather was nice enough, it meant the last round of winter snow was melting, leaving slushy puddles all over town.

Another thing to be grumpy about, if Soren was feeling inclined to be grumpy.

Spoiler alert: he was.

He waited impatiently in the admittedly short line at the counter. The barista at the register, a short redhead with amazing taste in jewelry, was one Soren knew by name. Alicia.

How pathetic—Soren was an actual regular somewhere in this Podunk town.

“Soren,” she greeted when he arrived at the front of the line, her brown eyes twinkling under her purple eyeshadow. “Your usual?”

“Sure thing.” Apparently Soren was worse than a regular; he was a regular with a “usual.”

It was true enough he came here for one particular tooth-decaying concoction. Not that Soren, stunning, ageless vampire that he was, had to worry about tooth decay…

“I don’t know how you do it,” Alicia said, drizzling caramel into a cup of ice. “This much sugar and caffeine and I would be up all night.”

What a bitchy thing to say. It was almost enough to make Soren like her.

He was tempted to tell her he was an immortal predator who sucked the blood out of humans for sustenance and thus his metabolism worked a little differently than hers, but it wasn’t worth the effort. She’d think he was kidding anyway.

He paid for his drink and took a seat at a table facing out toward the street. He kept his gaze firmly out that window, humming quietly to himself.

There was another reason Soren liked this particular coffee shop—besides the silly goth name and the caramel, chocolate, and whipped cream coffee creation he’d become addicted to—and that was the view.

The big front window looked out to the gym across the way. And while Soren liked to tell himself it was worth it just to ogle the various gym bros coming in and out of the place, the truth lay closer to the fact that it was the same gym a certain someone visited before his shifts at the hospital.

That certain someone, regular as fucking clockwork, exited the building just as the barista was placing Soren’s order on the table.

Ugh, the human was so predictable. It almost took the fun out of stalking him.

Soren smirked to himself. Almost but not quite. Because sweet Jesus, the man was unfairly good-looking.

It was incredibly annoying.

Gabe’s muscles were gleaming lightly with sweat from his workout, his dark curls held back with a headband. He looked like a European soccer player, not some small-town, all-American doctor.

Could Soren really be blamed for wanting to take a bite out of him?

Alicia followed his gaze out the window, smirking slightly at Soren. “Oh man, he’s hot, isn’t he? I went to high school with him. He’s a doctor too. Whole package.”

“Mm.” Soren chose to take a sip of his drink rather than answer with real words. He hadn’t considered that the workers here might have noticed the specific purpose of his favorite viewing spot, but maybe little Alicia had been paying closer attention than he’d thought.

Bliss washed through him, dimming his annoyance at having his ogling pointed out. Humans had come such a long way with their uses of sugar. It was one of Soren’s favorite things about the present day.

Alicia leaned in closer conspiratorially.

“You know,” she whispered, “the new girl hooked up with him when he first moved back to town.” She pointed to her coworker, a pretty blonde girl Soren hadn’t seen before, manning the espresso machine.

“Cammie said he rocked her world. She was a total mess when he ghosted her.”

Well. How interesting .

Something dark pulsed in Soren. He stared at little blonde Cammie, feeling a familiar manic grin gracing his lips, and he briefly wondered how terrible it would really be if he committed murder in this coffee shop.

Tempting. Super tempting. But it was probably a bad idea. Danny would inevitably be pissed when he heard about it. And a pissed-off Danny would lead to an absolutely murderous Roman.

Soren sighed into his coffee, uncaring that Alicia was waiting for a response from him.

It wasn’t worth the risk, really.

Especially considering Soren hadn’t actually murdered anyone since his first accidental killings in his early, bumbling days as a vampire.

Little Cammie would live to see another day.

Alicia, belatedly realizing he wasn’t the right audience for her gossip, returned to her post at the counter. Soren sipped his drink, trying not to sulk. She’d taken all the joy out of seeing a sweaty, tank-topped Gabe walking to his car.

Whatever. Soren sat up straighter in his seat, tossing his head back.

He refused to be brought down by this. He wasn’t just another townie lusting after the local doctor.

He was a dark, dangerous predator, doing what dangerous predators did best. He couldn’t help that his vampire instincts urged him to hunt and stalk his prey.

And that his stupid inner vamp was fixated on one prey in particular.

Sure, Soren still had to feed regularly, and Gabe wasn’t exactly on the menu—at least not yet —but that side of things was more about survival than fun lately.

And Soren lived for fun.

Or at least he used to, before he set foot in this stupid town.

The problem was that Gabe kept him at arm’s length.

He made sure Soren wouldn’t be there when he came over to Danny’s for family dinners.

He sat as far away from Soren as possible those few and far between times they had to be in the same room together.

And he very pointedly ignored Soren’s various flirtatious comments, refusing to even look Soren in the eye.

As if Soren would stoop so low as to compel him into bed.

And yes, maybe Soren occasionally teased the human mercilessly just to get a rise out of him. But wasn’t that what everyone did when they had a crush?

It was almost enough to make Soren think Gabe really was immune to his charms. Soren hadn’t ever seen the human romantically involved with a man, for that matter. Maybe Soren was barking up the wrong tree entirely.

But…no. He’d caught the way the human eyed him when he thought no one was looking. There was a heat to his gaze that Soren had centuries of experience translating. The human was not immune.

And rightly so. Soren was a goddamn catch.

Plus, would fate really be so cruel?

It was a stupid thought. Soren already knew the universe was a vindictive bitch. He had no reason to expect good things to come his way. Roman and Danny’s happiness was the exception, not the rule.

Still, Soren was tired of this standstill.

So he decided, sipping his liquid sugar, he’d do something about it.

He wasn’t some mooning townie. He was Soren fucking Iversen. He could seduce one measly human.

He had three weeks to try, anyway. If Gabe still hated him by the end of it, then Soren would admit his instincts were off. He’d move on. Leave this town like he should have already.

He didn’t let himself think about what he’d do if Gabe decided he didn’t hate Soren.

Soren would cross that bridge when he came to it.