Page 75

Soren

S oren paused midstitch, crochet in hand, listening closely. Ferdy was normally a quiet dog. Soren had hardly ever heard the little mutt bark, other than that one time Ferdy had seen a squirrel on one of their forest runs.

But now the puppy was barking up a storm.

“Ferdy!” Soren yelled, projecting his voice to carry through the bedroom door. “Hush!”

The frantic barking continued.

Soren sighed, stretching his neck to glance at his phone on the bedside table. It was close to seven in the morning. Gabe was due to be home. But Ferdy didn’t bark in alarm every time Gabe got back from work.

Something else was going on.

Soren climbed off the bed, tossing a shirt over his bare chest. He’d been lounging , damn it. “Hush, puppy!” he yelled out once more. It had zero effect.

Soren was down the stairs and at the front door in an instant, shepherding a barking Ferdy off and shutting him into the living room on the way, just in case.

He opened the door, ready to laugh at his own paranoia once he saw it was just some forest critter or stray cat sending the dumb dog into a frenzy.

What Soren saw instead made his blood run cold.

Hendrick was standing there, a bruised and bleeding Gabe held in front of him.

Literally held .

Gabe was dangling almost a foot off the ground, Hendrick keeping him in the air with one hand on the back of his neck. Soren’s vamp was out and taking control in an instant, its eyes zeroing in on every detail.

There was Jay, his crumpled form sprawled to the side of the porch.

Snapped neck, most likely. It was one of the quickest ways to incapacitate one of their kind for a short period of time, especially if one could take them by surprise.

Gabe was…not unharmed but alive. There was blood, yes, but most of it seemed to be coming from his nose. Broken, maybe.

Soren scanned his human quickly. No obvious bite marks, no severed arteries. But his right leg was twisted at an odd angle, and his eyes were open at half-mast, the glazed look in them suggesting he was in a high level of pain.

Soren struggled to keep himself calm. He hated seeing Gabe looking so helpless. Hated it with a passion that had his blood boiling.

His human was strong . He was brave, no matter what his insecurities said to the contrary. Hendrick didn’t have the right to even look in Gabe’s direction, let alone harm a single hair on his head.

The vampire in Soren wanted to tear, wanted to maim, wanted to rip Hendrick’s head off for hurting his mate.

But he couldn’t. Not yet. Gabe was alive. He was more or less whole. But he wasn’t anywhere near out of danger yet.

Hendrick himself barely looked rumpled. No surprise there. One human wouldn’t be enough to slow him down, not with Jay out of the way. And judging from his position, Jay hadn’t been able to put up much of a fight before going down.

Soren turned his focus to the enemy. Hendrick’s broad face held a smile, but his dark eyes were flat. Cold. A snake’s eyes. He was dressed out of character, in flannel and denim. Clearly an effort to blend in.

It shouldn’t have been enough. Soren should have been able to track his scent, if Hendrick had stayed in town. He should have been able to find him before now.

“Apologies,” Hendrick said, not sounding sorry at all. “I roughed up your friend a bit here. He doesn’t seem to like me very much.” He gave Gabe a little shake in emphasis, his body swaying in Hendrick’s hold.

“Fucking asshole,” Gabe mumbled, his speech coming out slurred. Soren wondered if his mate had a concussion. Heat flushed through his body at the thought.

Soren watched closely as Hendrick’s knuckles whitened, the larger vampire’s grip tightening on Gabe’s neck. Hendrick could snap that neck with just that one hand, if he wanted to. Humans were fragile. So fucking fragile.

And Soren’s human was being held by a monster.

Soren made a choice. “Gabe,” he said sharply. “Shut up.”

Soren ignored the hurt in Gabe’s eyes at his words, focusing on Hendrick instead. Hurt feelings could heal. A broken neck could not.

Not for a human, at least.

Soren could feel his body trembling and could only hope it was subtle enough Hendrick wouldn’t notice.

Soren should have known better.

He’d been going out every night Gabe was at work, allowing himself to be seen about town, hoping to draw Hendrick out again. He’d thought the lack of response meant Hendrick had moved on. Figured out Soren was more trouble than he was worth.

Clearly Soren had been wrong. Hendrick had instead found Soren’s weakness, his one fucking weakness, and he was holding it in one palm, ready to crush it at a moment’s notice.

Soren took a deep breath, pushing his vampire back. Brute force wouldn’t help him now, not with Hendrick so much stronger than he was. Soren needed to think. To plan.

He felt his fangs recede, knew his eyes were returning to their natural pale blue. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but Hendrick’s smile widened anyway, the cretin clearly pleased at whatever he saw in Soren’s face.

“I’ve been thinking,” Hendrick said slyly. “I don’t like how our last little talk went. Clearly, I’ve been keeping you on too long a leash. You’ve gotten…confused. Forgotten who you belong to.”

I don’t belong to anyone . The words were on the tip of Soren’s tongue. But he took one look at Gabe’s golden eyes, wide now with fear and frustration, and he held them back. To anger Hendrick would be to risk the one thing Soren cared about more than his own sorry hide.

“What do you want, Hendrick?” Soren asked instead. “You want to hurt me? Pay it back? I’m right here.”

Hendrick shook his head, tutting softly. “No, angel. I simply want to…reconnect. I’ve missed you, you know.”

Soren’s stomach turned as a million different memories fought to push to the front of his mind. Memories of Hendrick’s hands on him. Memories of pain and humiliation and his choice being taken away from him.

Soren wanted to tell Hendrick he’d rather die than have those slimy paws touch him ever again, but he needed to get out of this situation. Soren needed Gabe to be safe. He’d worry about the consequences after.

“Shall we go inside?” Hendrick suggested, moving to push Gabe forward, into the house.

“No.” Soren crossed his arms, not budging from his position in the doorway. “No need. I’m bored of this town. Drop the human. Let’s go.”

Hendrick didn’t release Gabe. “You’ll go with me?” he asked, clearly skeptical of Soren’s capitulation.

“I’ll go,” Soren agreed. “Put the human down.”

“This human…”

“Was a distraction.” Soren didn’t look at Gabe, keeping his eyes on Hendrick’s. “A pet . I’m bored of him now. But it would cause…problems…with Roman and his vampire mate, if you were to kill him. They might follow us.”

It wouldn’t be enough to convince Hendrick Gabe meant nothing to Soren. Even if he could pull it off, the other vampire wasn’t above killing Gabe just for sport. As a punishment. Soren needed the bastard to realize Gabe’s death would be more trouble than it was worth.

“It’s not worth it,” Soren said. “Let’s go.”

“You don’t need to pack?” Hendrick taunted, not making a move to release Gabe.

“There’s nothing here I want.”

Hendrick didn’t move.

Soren’s gut clenched as he realized…he needed to bend. To make a concrete gesture that he was choosing Hendrick. He stepped forward out of the doorway, leaning over Gabe like the human wasn’t even there.

He pressed his lips to Hendrick’s. Lightly, keeping his mouth closed.

But his stomach churned at even that much.

Hendrick swiped his tongue against Soren’s closed lips, laughing at Soren’s shudder.

That was the thing with Hendrick. Soren didn’t have to pretend to enjoy it. Hendrick preferred it when he didn’t.

Soren leaned back before Hendrick could attempt to deepen the kiss any further. “You ready?” he asked. His voice came out surprisingly steady. That was good.

He could do this.

Hendrick finally— finally —released Gabe, tossing Soren’s human to the ground like a sack of garbage. Soren didn’t look to see him land. He was afraid, if he did, his inner vamp would insist on killing Hendrick right then and there.

And then they would all die.

He grabbed Hendrick’s hand and pulled him to a busted-looking Jeep in the driveway. “This your car?” Soren asked, pulling open the driver’s side before Hendrick could answer.

“So eager,” Hendrick tutted. “You’ll drive, angel.”

Behind them, Soren could hear Gabe pleading in a wrecked voice. “Soren, please. Don’t do this. Don’t go.”

But his human didn’t come after them. How could he? With his bent, most likely broken leg. Soren’s breath caught in his throat, the keys Hendrick had handed him poised at the ignition.

He didn’t have a choice. He had to go.

Hendrick made his way into the passenger seat, and Soren started the car. He didn’t want Hendrick to see him falter.

“That human seemed awfully attached to you,” Hendrick mused, sharp eyes on Soren’s profile.

“Humans are stupid that way,” Soren muttered. He drove them away, taking deep, steady breaths as he made his way out of the neighborhood.

Soren was in the situation he’d feared for so long. He was back in Hendrick’s clutches. He waited for the dread, the fear, the familiar feelings of worthlessness. But all he could manage was an immense relief, tinged with a sadness so deep Soren wondered if maybe somehow he was bleeding internally.

They were moving away from Gabe. Soren’s human would be safe. His mate would be safe.

That was all that mattered.

And under the relief, under the sadness, there was the rage . How dare Hendrick do this? How fucking dare he? To come back into Soren’s life. To try to take away one of the only good, true things to ever happen to him.

Hendrick didn’t have his old friends to back him up anymore. Soren didn’t have to play nice. Soren wouldn’t play nice. He just had to get them far enough away.

“Where to?” Soren asked, keeping his voice as neutral as he could.

“There’s a place I’ve been staying. It will do for now,” Hendrick answered. “So we can have a little…privacy. Just the two of us.”

Merging onto the freeway, Soren considered driving through the median, into oncoming traffic. Maybe he could cause some sort of explosion, like the movies. Hendrick would perish.

The world would be a better fucking place; that was for sure. But there was no guarantee in that. Either or both of them could survive a crash. Innocents could die. The odds just weren’t good enough.

Hendrick had touched Gabe. He’d hurt him. He would pay for it. Soren would make sure of it. He’d pay for all of it.

Soren just wished he’d been better prepared. This motherfucker deserved a slow, painful death. But that might not be possible at this point.

Soren knew one thing though.

Only one of them was getting out of this situation alive.