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BONUS POV: SOREN

Soren

Soren was just about to sneak one of the tasty little hors d’oeuvres Roman had left at the dining room table when he heard Danny calling from the kitchen. “Soren!”

He didn’t usually enjoyed being called to heel like a mangy dog, but there was a note of panic in Danny’s voice, so Soren left the tempting plate behind him and sauntered into the kitchen doorway.

He’d heard Jay arrive, of course, and now his little vampire friend was cozy in the kitchen with Rome and Danny.

“Soren!” Jay greeted happily. “Are you joining us tonight?”

“Just this once,” Soren told him, leaning against the doorjamb.

It wouldn’t do for people to expect his presence at these things every single month.

It would become unbelievably tedious unbelievably quickly.

“Only because Gabe is working and all my going-out clothes are in the wash. And I suppose I don’t mind Jane Eyre . Wuthering Heights is better though.”

“But it’s so sad ,” Jay protested predictably.

Sweet, tenderhearted Jaybird, wanting even his fictional characters to have their happy ever afters.

Luckily Soren didn’t share that affliction. He shrugged. “But everyone is so delightfully mean and unhinged. It’s absolutely divine.”

“Jay, sweetie,” Danny interrupted, his voice all gentle and soft the way it always was when he was speaking with Jay. “Tell Soren what you just told me.”

“I didn’t make the bagel bites,” Jay obediently told Soren, raising the plate he’d brought in demonstration. “I just heated them up from a box.”

Well, thank Christ for that. The last time Jaybird had brought a homemade quiche, Soren had almost chipped a fang. How could baked eggs get that hard ? It was a question for the ages.

“What? No, that’s—” Danny shook his head, although he didn’t raise his voice. “No, sweetheart. Tell him about the café.”

“Oh!” Jay brightened. “I have a new regular, and he smells really, really good.”

“What do you think about that, Soren?” Danny asked, pointed as all hell.

Ah, the regular.

Soren had met him the day before, if it was the human he was thinking of (and he was sure that it was). The guy had been huge—tall and muscular—and pretty damn hot (although not as hot as Soren’s Highness), with his fuck-off-and-die energy and fuckboy man-bun.

And he’d looked at Jay like he was dinner.

If Soren hadn’t known better, he would have thought Jay’s regular was the vampire of the pair, with the way he was practically licking his chops as he stared at Soren’s little friend.

Smitten, clearly. And he’d gotten so very surly when Soren had snuggled up against Jay, taunting the big lug with their closeness.

All in all, it wouldn’t have been all that surprising—Jay could charm the pants off more people than they gave him credit for—except for the way Jay had responded. He’d seemed…susceptible to the human’s soft-spoken words.

Usually, any flirting went way up and over Jay’s head. But the way he’d looked at that man…

Soren had just assumed Jay was finally getting horny enough to go for it with someone, and had actively encouraged him to do so. But liking the guy’s scent enough to tell them about it without prompting?

Soren studied Jay now. One of his oldest friends, for all that they’d spent so many decades apart. “Are you talking about the mobster, Jaybird?” he asked.

Jay frowned at him. “He’s not a mobster. You’re being prejudiced against Russians.”

The guy definitely was a mobster. He’d had the vibe, when he hadn’t been making moon eyes at Jay. Soren hadn’t been able to help teasing Jay about it, if only because Jay had gotten so adorably defensive over his new friend.

“He’s Russian?” Danny asked, shooing poor, innocent Ferdy out of the kitchen, just because the little pup was trying to sneak a snack. “Like, full Bond-villain accent?”

“No accent, but he called Jay ‘kotyonok.’” Soren’s lips curled into a manic grin. “It means ‘kitten.’”

Jay’s cheeks were bright pink now. “I like when he calls me that.”

Soren couldn’t help laughing. “Yeah, I bet you do. Does your new friend know you can understand him?”

“He hasn’t asked.”

Danny was frowning at Soren now. “You think he wouldn’t like that? Like Jay’s in danger?”

Oh, sweet, pure-of-heart Danny. He couldn’t help mothering all of them, no matter that they were hundreds of years older than him.

Soren waved a careless hand in the air. “What could a mobster possibly do to a vampire?”

“He’s not a mobster,” Jay repeated, and there was some real temper behind his words now. “He’s my regular, and he lets me call him Alexei, and he smells like cupcakes, and I like him.”

Soren caught Danny’s eye again. It was clear what Danny suspected. And it was rare for Jay to ever lose his temper. Extremely rare. Whatever else, he felt strongly about this Alexei character.

And Soren hadn’t smelled any cupcakes.

Soren sighed, studying Jay again. “You think?” he asked Danny, responding to their unspoken conversation. “The odds of it all. So unlikely…”

Could Jay really have found his mate here in Hyde Park? The third vampire to do so?

Jay cocked his head at them, his sweet little brow furrowing. “What are you two—”

Luckily, Roman chose to step in before he could begin any sort of interrogation. “Johann,” he said, his voice abnormally soft. “Why not help me set these plates up in the living room?”

The two of them left the kitchen, Jay still eyeing them suspiciously, and Danny whirled on Soren. “Unlikely odds or not, shouldn’t we…do something?” He was whispering so quietly he was basically inaudible, never mind that Rome was dutifully distracting Jay in the other room.

“Do what, exactly?” Soren asked.

“I don’t know.” Danny nibbled at his lip, considering. “A talk, maybe? With Jay?”

Soren gave him a look. “The birds and the bees, Danny? Really?”

“Sort of!” Danny hissed, apparently not amused by Soren’s antics, not even a little bit. He held his breath for a moment, waiting to see if Jay had heard them, then whispered again, “It’s a big deal to find a mate.”

Soren placed his hands on Danny’s shoulders, giving him a light shake.

“Danny. Cutie. Darling. Jay has been sheltered, yes. And he can be a bit naive, perhaps. But he’s not a child.

And he’s not clueless. If this handsome mobster is his mate—and that’s a big if—we should probably let him come to terms with it on his own. He’s not going to do anything rash.”

At least, Soren didn’t think he would. Although, he couldn’t help but picture it again, the way Jay had been looking at this Alexei character at the coffee shop.

He’d been beaming at him, of course, the way he did with all his customers.

But there had been a flash of…hunger in Jay’s eyes.

Something Soren wasn’t used to seeing in his sweet, somewhat obvious, dear friend.

It was easy to forget sometimes that Jay had a vampire inside him, whispering the same dark urges to him as theirs did to the rest of them. But he did, didn’t he? And by all accounts, that thing wanted the mobster. Badly.

And when one’s inner vamp wanted something, it was a very hard battle to keep them from it.

Soren should know. He hadn’t been able to stay away from Gabe, no matter how much of a lost cause he’d believed it to be.

But it wasn’t up to the rest of them to fight that battle for Jay, especially if a fated mate was involved. All they could do was support him.

And perhaps keep a closer eye on him than usual.

As the doorbell rang, their other book club members apparently arriving, Soren gave Danny one last reassuring pat. “It’ll be okay, cutie pie. We won’t let anything bad happen.”

Soren would make fucking sure of it, actually. Jay had been given more than his fair share of misery in his long life. He’d come to Hyde Park for freedom and safety and a chance at a new life, and Soren would make sure he got all those things.

And if those things included the mobster, well…

So be it.