Page 69

Wolfe tried again. “If you had turned out to be unsatisfactory… An idiot, say. Irritating to be around. I would have changed my mind, were I able. But you’re not.

You… please me. You’re beautiful to look at.

” Wolfe smirked at Eric’s blush. “You’re also intelligent, eager, needy in a way that suits me quite well.

I believe you’re also kinder than you give yourself credit for, but that doesn’t mean much to me.

Except it may temper my more…aggressive instincts.

And I suppose I should be grateful for that. ”

Wolfe held his breath, waiting for a response. It wouldn’t be enough, would it? He wasn’t saying any of it in the right way.

But then Eric’s lips were on his, kissing him unprompted. Nothing filthy, no tongue or hungry noises. Just a soft touch of his mouth.

Eric pulled away, smiling at whatever he saw in Wolfe’s face. Their bond wasn’t exactly sweet and soft, not like before. But some of the sourness had left it. “Okay, weirdo. Take me home.”

But Eric’s strange, solemn mood still hadn’t lifted upon their return.

Wolfe found himself missing the anger, the petulance.

Those he could recognize—enjoy, even. But this…

subdued sorrow? If that was even the correct diagnosis for what Eric was feeling.

Wolfe didn’t know. He couldn’t recognize the emotions pulsing through the bond, this new heaviness in the pit of his stomach.

For possibly the first time in his extended life, Wolfe had some modicum of regret for the way he was.

He simply wasn’t equipped for emotional nuance.

The best he could think of, after getting Eric settled in the sitting room, was distraction.

He’d prefer the sensual kind. And though barely twelve hours had passed, it felt like it had already been too long since they’d last enjoyed the embrace of each other’s bodies.

His beast agreed. Touch our mate. Taste our mate. Fuck our mate senseless.

Talk to me when you have something new to say. But Wolfe would only have been too happy to oblige. To get down on his knees and take another taste of his mate’s cock, to help Eric lose himself in pleasure. But it was hard to believe his advances would be welcome at the moment.

It had been easier in the beginning, when Wolfe had only ever known Eric’s discontent. But he’d tasted Eric’s happiness now. He knew the contrast, and he wanted it back , damn it.

His strange need for it made him wary, more cautious with his words and actions than he was used to being. He didn’t want to set their relationship back any further.

So he brought out the book of paint samples to the sitting room. “Help me pick out colors for the main bedroom, darling.”

Eric turned from where he’d been staring into space. “Weren’t the painters already supposed to come?”

Wolfe set the samples on the coffee table, standing off to the side. “I’m afraid they were…delayed.”

“All right.” Eric leaned forward on the love seat, running through the samples more flippantly than Wolfe would have liked. “You really like green, don’t you?”

“When it’s the right green.” A dark, deep green. That of shadows dancing on a lake. Eric’s green.

Eric had barely been looking for a minute before he pointed to a selection. “Okay. This one’s good.”

It wasn’t, not at all. The paint swatch he had pointed to was all wrong. Too bright, too garish. Wolfe hummed noncommittally. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

Well. That hadn’t provided as much distraction as he’d hoped. He replaced the book with one of tile samples instead. “Now these, pet.”

Eric didn’t even glance at it. “You hunted tonight,” he said softly, staring off into space again.

“I did.”

Eric turned in his seat to look up at him. “Tell me about it.”

Wolfe hesitated, if only for a moment. Was this some excuse to feel more disgust for him? Was Eric searching for more proof that Wolfe was a monster? Too bad, if so. Wolfe had behaved impeccably.

He sat down next to his mate on the love seat, folding his hands over one crossed knee. “Let’s see. I dropped you off for dinner. I went to a nearby park, one dimly lit and out of the way—”

“I want to sit on your lap,” Eric interrupted, the words almost running together in his haste to say them.

Wolfe found himself genuinely, truly speechless.

Eric’s cheeks were flushed a dusky pink. “Nothing sexual. Just while you tell me about the hunt. I want to be sitting on your lap.”

Yes. Always.

Wolfe got ahold of himself quickly. It wouldn’t do to let Eric marinate in his embarrassment too long. “Of course, darling,” he purred, uncrossing his legs and patting his thigh.

Eric shuffled onto his lap slowly, as if he’d never done so before.

He didn’t sit crosswise; he placed his back to Wolfe’s front, widening his legs to drape them over Wolfe’s.

And then he did the most darling thing Wolfe had ever had the pleasure to experience: he grabbed Wolfe’s hands, dragging his arms to settle around his waist, and refolded Wolfe’s hands over his lower belly.

Eric made a soft noise of contentment. “There. Now you can tell me.”

Wolfe tried to find the words again. He swallowed against a dry throat. “A-A woman came by, she was running alone. I compelled her, told her to remain calm—”

“That didn’t work on me,” Eric interrupted again, relaxing his broad form back against Wolfe’s chest.

Wolfe’s smile was hidden in Eric’s hair. “No, it didn’t. But my beast was less…recalcitrant this time. I fed from her quickly, healed her bite with my saliva, and sent her on her merry way.”

“You don’t kill to feed.” It was more a statement than a question.

“I’ve told you that already, pet.”

“But you have killed.” Eric was toying with Wolfe’s fingers. Not unclasping his hands, just petting along them, occasionally tapping them, as if to test their mettle.

It was pointless for Wolfe to ask himself whether to tell the truth. He never seemed to lie to Eric. “I have.”

Eric hummed his acknowledgment. “And you want to kill this kid. If he exists.”

Wolfe did not want . He would take no pleasure in that sort of execution. But the end result would be the same. “I won’t risk exposure,” he said firmly.

“Why not?”

Wolfe allowed himself one slow, deep inhale of his mate’s scent, letting the wisteria relax his tense muscles.

“Because I’ve lived long enough to know better.

I was human during the First World War. I was a Swiss citizen, so I didn’t fight.

But you couldn’t escape it either: the pointlessness and the cruelty.

Then I was turned shortly before the second, and I remained in Europe throughout.

I know what humanity is capable of. Death would be the least of our worries. ”

Eric was petting his forearms now, as if to soothe either Wolfe or himself. “Because we’re monsters, you mean. Humans will think of us as monsters?”

“We do not age; we can regenerate after injury. It’s my belief that we’d be taken, most likely as research subjects.

There are some fates worse than death, darling.

I won’t risk it. And I won’t let you risk it.

I will protect us, first and foremost.” Wolfe tightened his hold, reassuring himself with the firmness of his mate’s form.

“We’re different. Humans don’t take kindly to different.

The others have their morals. I do not. I will do anything to keep you safe. Do you understand?”

There was a long silence as Eric processed. Wolfe couldn’t ascertain much through the bond, at least nothing new, as far as emotions went.

“Jay’s a vampire,” Eric eventually mused, seemingly out of nowhere. “That cute little barista. He drinks blood to survive. He hunts like you do.”

Wolfe did his best to contain the surge of jealousy he felt at the phrase cute little barista . “Yes.”

“Show me.”

“Show you?” Did Eric think he carried a photograph of Johann on his phone?

“The bite.”

Oh, but Wolfe’s beast liked that idea very much.

Taste our delicious mate?

Eric took Wolfe’s silence for hesitation. “Unless…is that gross? Drinking from another vampire?”

Wolfe cleared his throat. “Not gross, no. Intimate.”

A shock of lust from his mate, tightening Wolfe’s own belly and making his cock twitch. Eric clearly liked that word: intimate . He’d had both too much and too little intimacy in his life.

Wolfe could fix that.

He could fix everything, if only Eric would let him. He’d tear down any obstacles to Eric’s happiness. Touch him whenever he wanted. Reassure him when his misperceptions of self got the best of him. Allow him the time and space to learn what he enjoyed.

It could be that easy, couldn’t it?

And Wolfe would even let him keep those friends.

Not only because they were another barrier between them and what might harm them, but also because Eric clearly needed some sort of community, some sort of touchstone for this new reality.

It burned Wolfe that he alone might not be enough, but that was normal.

Not everyone had his single-minded intensity.

Wolfe unclasped his hands. “All right, pet, stand up.”

He could feel Eric pouting.

Wolfe smirked. “For the demonstration, darling.”

Eric stood, his back still to Wolfe.

“Turn around.”

Eric did as he was told. His green eyes were even darker than usual, his mate clearly aroused at the thrill of the hunt.

Perfect creature.

Wolfe rose and stalked forward. “I came around the front, too quickly for her to startle away. Eye contact is key, during compulsion.” He grabbed Eric’s chin with one hand, holding that green gaze to his. “There we are.”

Wolfe let the beast out as slowly as he could, allowing Eric to watch the transformation up close.

It made his beast preen, to be the center of their mate’s attention.

“When you have a hold, you reassure, you soothe.” He licked at dry lips, avoiding touching his tongue to his fangs. “You’re not afraid, Eric. You’re calm.”

“I’m not afraid. I’m calm.” Eric repeated his words dutifully, as if under real compulsion.

“Perfect, darling. There are many options for where to bite. I chose her wrist. The neck can be seen as—”

“Intimate,” Eric finished for him, a shiver running through him at his own word.

Wolfe smiled, slow and genuine. “Quite.”

But Eric didn’t offer up his wrist. He tilted his head, displaying the taut line of his neck for Wolfe’s perusal. “And then you bit her,” he prompted.

Wolfe hovered, inches from the pounding pulse of that delicious nectar. “And then I bit her.”

He waited for the punishment, for the tease. No touching. Don’t enjoy yourself.

But Eric remained as he was, on offer. It would be foolish to hesitate, when such a choice delicacy was on display. And no one had ever accused Wolfe of being foolish.

He bit in.