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Fox wasn’t going to push, but he wasn’t going to back off either. Not if Colin wanted them, if it was only fear holding him back. Fox didn’t know what this pull was, but he didn’t feel like ignoring it. Not when they could all be on the verge of something really good.

He and Dane deserved something good, didn’t they?

Fox stalked through the front door, anger curling in his gut. He’d been halfway to the ocean when he’d felt Dane’s unhappiness wash through the bond, a sharp burst of despair followed by heavy lassitude.

What had those smug fucks said now?

He rushed past the living area, ignoring Amelia’s sarcastic hello as he bolted up the stairs to their shared room. He found Dane lying face down on the bed, a black-and-white movie on the screen.

Definitely depressed, then.

“You’re pissed,” Dane said listlessly, not looking up at Fox’s entrance.

“You’re upset,” Fox countered.

Dane said nothing, his fingers twisting in the comforter as he watched his movie. Fox crawled onto the bed, careful not to brush against his twin as he lay down on his stomach, mirroring Dane’s position. When Dane was in a mood like this, he wouldn’t accept physical comfort from Fox.

Stubborn asshole.

“What happened?” Fox asked, only to be answered with more silence from Dane. “They say something shitty to you?” he pushed.

“It wasn’t even that bad.”

Fox waited him out. Eventually Dane sighed heavily. “Just Joshua saying something about us sharing a bed. It was the lack of defense from everyone else that pissed me off, I guess.”

Except Dane never got pissed off with them, was the thing. Fox could take his brother’s anger. What he hated was this sadness. This listlessness.

“We haven’t even done that since the beginning,” Fox pointed out.

When they’d first turned, when it was clear they were bonded to each other from the get-go, they’d needed…

closeness. They’d slept in the same bed, cuddled up together often, had needed to be in the same room what felt like at all times.

It was like regressing back to their youngest childhood, before they’d run away from home, when anything outside of their own shared bedroom had been frightening, so-called parents who couldn’t be trusted not to be violent or cruel.

It had eased, eventually, that need for each other.

They now shared a room but not a bed; they could be apart without pain.

The cuddling had stopped, after years of snide comments and odd looks from the other den members, who all seemed to assume intimacy had to be sexual, never mind that they all should know better.

“He wasn’t talking about sleeping, Fox,” Dane said quietly, still not looking at him.

A hot flash of rage had Fox seeing red. “That motherfucker.”

Screw Joshua. He’d probably said that shit where Dane could hear on purpose. He’d been sniffing around Amelia and was pissed she’d rather have Dane in her clutches than his sorry ass. Never mind that Dane didn’t want to be in those clutches in the first place.

This fucking den. By all accounts, Fox and Dane should have been lucky, falling into this situation. They were part of a stable den, made up of mostly bonded pairs who maintained meticulous control over the few unbonded members still seeking mates, like Joshua and Amelia.

Unbonded vampires were notoriously unstable, becoming more so the longer they went without a mate. If they remained unbonded long enough, they could go feral, driven to mindless rage and hunger by the vampire part of themselves. They could be put down like dogs by others of their kind.

Having stable pairs around seemed to help mitigate the decline. Joshua wasn’t feral. He was just a dick.

So Fox and Dane had a permanent home and their share in the communal wealth.

It would have been good—really good—if they’d had a “normal” romantic bond, with someone besides their own twin.

Platonic bonds existed, sure, but they were rare, and they weren’t often with family members.

And romantic fated pairs seemed to have a real hard time conceiving of a bond that didn’t involve wanting to jump their bonded’s bones with every breath.

And it was starting to affect them both. Dane especially. He was self-conscious showing Fox affection, or seeking any sort of comfort from him. It was making both of their devils restless, itchy and petulant the more Dane tried to push against the bond.

“Dane.” When his brother kept watching his movie, Fox tried again. “ Dane .” He caught Dane’s eye as his head finally turned toward him. “It’s time to go.”

“Where are we going?” Dane asked, sounding like he couldn’t care less what the answer may be.

“No,” Fox corrected. “It’s time to go .”

They were leaving this fucking place. Today. Fox wasn’t going to let it mess with his brother’s head any longer. They were fine just as they were. Fuck anyone else who said differently.

Dane cocked an auburn brow at him, unimpressed. “The question still stands. Where?”

“Wherever the fuck we want.” Fox jumped off the bed, energized at the very thought of it. “We take our share of the finances, and we find our own house, just the two of us.”

Dane didn’t answer at first, turning his head back to the black-and-white couple on the screen, who’d come together in a passionate (over-the-top, in Fox’s opinion) kiss.

And that was the shitty part of it all, wasn’t it?

Because Dane did want love. Romantic love.

He would probably kill for the type of bond they were surrounded with in the den.

And Fox had ruined it for him, just by existing.

He couldn’t take it back. He wouldn’t even want to if he could. But he’d do everything in his power to make his brother happy regardless. The rest of the world could just fuck right off.

“You know it’ll make us exactly what they think we are,” Dane mused. “Outcasts. Freaks.”

“Good,” Fox said firmly. “I’d rather be an outcast than a catty little bitch like Joshua.”

Dane’s lips twitched at that, the almost smile lightening some of the tightness in Fox’s chest. “He is a catty little bitch, isn’t he?”

“We’ll find a place. We’ll make a home. We can do what we want, live how we want.” Fox waggled his brows. “Fuck who we want.”

They’d realized long ago they both preferred men, but it had only been after turning that they’d discovered the joy in taking a partner together, the rush in placating both their devils at the same time.

But they hated bringing partners home, with all the judgmental shits about, who always wanted to joke that Dane and Fox were fucking each other, not just whatever human they’d brought home for the night.

A flash of something like hope crossed Dane’s face before it died just as quickly. “But it’ll only ever be fucking, won’t it?”

“What?” Fox scoffed. “We’re hot. We’re charming. You think we can’t get a boyfriend?”

“I think the chances of someone surviving the shock of dating not just one but two vampires is unlikely. And what if it did work out? We watch them grow old and die?”

“We could always turn them.”

Dane glared at him. “Then we watch them go off and find their fated mate? We’ve already bonded. It won’t be either of us.”

Nothing Dane was saying was untrue, but it wasn’t a problem they were going to solve that very moment. Not with Dane in a mood like this. Fox made a big show of rolling his eyes. “You’re a real downer today, you know that?”

Dane threw a pillow at him.

Fox dodged it easily, then sat at the edge of the bed, giving Dane’s shoulder a poke. “I don’t have all the answers. But I know we’re not gonna find them here. We’re leaving. We’ll figure out the rest later.”

Dane didn’t exactly look enthused, but he did turn off the movie. He cast a sideways glance at Fox. “It really doesn’t bother you?”

Fox shrugged. “What’s to bother me?”

He didn’t share Dane’s natural pessimism. He didn’t know how it was going to work, but he’d decided long ago that fate owed them. And if not? Well, they’d been given a shitty first hand and had made the most of it, all on their own. They’d do it again.

It was them against the world, and Fox knew which one he was betting on.