“It was what I hoped as well.” She laughed softly. “Though I would much rather have you as my pet, my favorite. My love.” She sighed and cupped my face with her cool palm. “Marco has grown impatient. I fear he pushes when he should bide his time.”
“Ha. Yeah, well, he’s gonna do what he wants to do, that’s for sure.” I nuzzled her throat above the temptation of sweet blood lying so close to my tongue. “I think even if he weren’t dying, he’d push me, just to give you a stronger edge.”
Her sigh whispered through me, soft and sibilant and beautiful. “Just so. I would have him by my side for eternity but, like you, he fears the turn, fears the strength it would imbue him with.”
I could understand that. Marco as a favorite was one of the most powerful men among the Vampyr, from what I’d heard. As a vampire, his strength would know few bounds. Even the queen wouldn’t be able to rein him in. If he lost control, it would take an army of vampires to stop him, and there just weren’t that many around, no matter what humans thought. Vampires weren’t stupid. They liked having a rich, diverse, and plentiful blood supply, so they kept their own numbers low. A vampire on a rampage wouldn’t care about such things, though. I knew all too well how impulsive base instinct was, knew firsthand what an unfettered vampire could do, through the cold man, yes, but also through Selena’s little stunt.
In spite of our differences of opinion on when and how I should become stronger, I liked Marco. I didn’t want him become a monster and I didn’t want Elizabet to have to witness it, either. It would kill her to see him like that.
I thought again of one. Marco was a fool to let that go, but maybe it was more a matter of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either path he travelled, he risked hurting Elizabet. I guess he thought that dying and breaking one, and with it his lover’s heart, was the lesser evil. “I wish there were another way. I wish he could be with you always.”
“As do I.” She pulled back enough that our gazes met. “Now, I find myself in the unenviable position of having to chastise you for breaking the bond between Darien and Devin.”
I scowled and sat up. “What about my bond with Devin? You chastise Darien for that?”
Her lips twitched slightly, though her expression remained stern. “Eric, dearling, one cannot go around asserting one’s will over others on every whim.”
“That was hardly a whim,” I groused. “Devin deliberately tried to break his bond with me over a stupid misunderstanding.”
Her head tilted downward in a regal nod. “And what of Zane?”
A flush of heat crept into my cheeks. Guilty as charged. “He kinda deserved it.”
“On this we agree. That will not mitigate your punishment.”
I went cold. Shit. She was gonna punish me for teaching Zane a lesson? Fuck that. The little bastard had threatened my wife. I wasn’t gonna let that pass, not a chance. If he did it again, I’d kill him. Jason snapped into my mind and with him came a churning tide of anger. Gianna, our love. Nothing could happen to her.
Elizabet’s hand whipped out and snagged my arm in a tight grip. “Eric, dearling, this emotional excess is hardly conducive to gaining control.”
I inhaled deeply, held it as I pushed Jason back. We really had to figure out the difference between thoughts and calls. “Yes, Mistress.”
“For your breach of Zane’s mind, I have fined you the sum of one thousand dollars, to be paid directly to him.”
I gritted my teeth and nodded. Whatever. As long as Zane didn’t forget the lesson I’d taught, I was willing to sacrifice a little money.
Though the loss of that thousand dollars would hurt. We were still looking for a house. Every penny counted right now.
“Zane will likewise be punished, now that I know of his trespass against your now wife.” She uttered the reprimand mildly. “As punishment, he forfeits the fine you paid, which shall be returned to you.”
Tension I hadn’t known I carried slid from me. Well, at least there was that.
“Additionally, he shall endure a full night from dusk to dawn upon the bed, without reprieve.”
Upon the bed. I winced. Yeah, I knew what that felt like. “Won’t that push him into turning, the way it did me?”
“Hardly, dearling. Zane has been a good little pet and only taken a smidgeon of blood. If his own were not so rich, I would break his contract.”
Oh, that would be just dandy. Then I wouldn’t be bound by the Vampyr’s laws when I went after him and stopped the problem that was Zane once and for all.
Elizabet left after gaining my promise that I’d stop exerting my will over people just because they pissed me off. She was right. I really did need to find a better way to deal with life’s little mishaps. On the other hand, that promise wouldn’t stop me if I found myself in a dire situation. I’m pretty sure she knew that, too.
Chapter Four
I hadn’t asked her about Devin, hadn’t wanted to remind her that I’d deliberately needled the Alpha of the Greater Atlanta werewolf pack. She likely hadn’t forgotten, but I didn’t want to be punished again.
Once had been more than enough.
I left not long after she woke me, made a half-hearted attempt to find Dev before I left, but ultimately let it go with a single text that went unanswered. I’d probably scared the bejesus out of him or maybe I’d scared some damn common sense into him. Either way, I figured he needed time. I was willing to give him some, to a point.
I made it back to Atlanta for my only class of the day, then went home to the tiny apartment Gianna and I shared, with Jason as our occasional third until basketball season ended. When I let myself in, she was curled up on the couch in the living room, a textbook open on her lap and a highlighter in her hand. She’d piled her hair up into a loose knot on top of her head. Tight curls sprang in every direction from it. I tugged at one as I pressed a swift kiss to her neck. “Hello, wife.”
She cupped my face and smiled. Gianna had a beautiful smile, open and charming and full of life, just like her. “Hey, sweetheart. How was Elizabet?”
“Tasty as ever.” Ha. A joke. Vampires, tasty? Contrary to popular belief, budding astrophysicists have a sense of humor. Corny, maybe, but it’s there. “She sends her love and made me promise to tell you not to worry about Selena anymore.”
Some of the tension bled from Gianna’s expression. “I know you’re the one taking care of her, Eric. Don’t pretend you’re not.”
“I’m doing my part.” Which was true enough, though I’d managed to block a lot of what I’d done to Selena from Gianna. Her constitution was a little weakened by the pregnancy. It didn’t take much to send her running to the bathroom to empty her stomach. “When’s Jason getting home?”
“Don’t know if he’ll make it back tonight. I went ahead and started dinner, though.”
“Mmm. I smelled it two floors down.” I smacked her cheek with a playful kiss. “That’s why I married you, you know. Your Italian grandmother’s recipes.”
“And here I thought it was because you loved me.”
I pretended to think it over. “Nope, definitely the recipes.”
“Oh, you.”
The doorknob rattled. We both turned toward it as Jason came inside dressed in sweat stained athletic clothes. He dropped his backpack on the floor under the coat rack and pushed the door shut in one move. “Hey, guys. Something smells great.”
Gianna rolled her eyes at me and murmured, “And here comes the walking stomach.”
“I resemble that remark.” Jason yanked his sweatshirt off, taking his undershirt with it. “Tell me I have time for a shower before supper and I’ll love you forever.”
“You’ll do that anyway,” she said mildly. “But yeah, go ahead. It’ll wait for you.”
He ambled over and dropped a kiss on her mouth. “You’re the best.”
I pushed myself off the couch. “You mind if I hang out with you while you’re cleaning up?”
A soft glow sparked in Jason’s piercing
blue eyes. “Not a bit.”
“Vampyr business,” I told Gianna as I stepped around her, which was true enough. “We won’t be long.”
She settled back into the couch with her textbook. “Take your time, oh lovers mine.”
I followed Jase to the apartment’s one and only bathroom. Sweat rolled down his back in occasional rivulets as if he’d come home straight from practice, which he probably had. His shorts rode down slightly, revealing a thin strip of the black athletic undies he wore beneath.
I loved seeing him in those undies. They melded themselves to his toned body from his trim waist to a couple of inches above his knees. Him in those was almost as good as him naked. As soon as we reached the bedroom, he toed off his shoes, yanked off his socks, and stripped off his shorts, leaving those marvelous undies in place. I tried to move my eyes away from his tight ass, really I did.
Ok, not too hard. Even a mostly-hetero guy like me has to admit Jason’s body is godlike. Tall and muscular and rock hard. Every man I knew wanted a body like that. Me, I was short and slender and graceless. Sometimes I envied his build, yeah, but mostly, I just enjoyed it.
He shut us into the bathroom and cut the shower on before stripping off the undies and dropping them into the laundry hamper. His dick stood at half mast, as massive and beautiful as the rest of him. “You coming in?”
I leaned against the bathroom counter and shook my head. God, yes, I wanted to be with him. Desire and need snaked through me, and my own dick went well past half mast into stiff and ready. If it weren’t for Gianna sitting in the next room waiting supper on us, I’d already have him on his knees in front of me or maybe bent over the counter with my cock shoved up his ass, fucking him hard. “Marco sends his love.”
Jason snorted as he stepped into the shower. “I see the little green monster’s gotten hold of you again.”
“Yeah, well.” What could I say? Along with taking a wife and a favorite, I’d discovered I don’t like to share. Maybe it was an only child thing. “Selena’s been whipped and caged.”
“I gathered.” He ducked his head under the spray, scrubbed his face with his hands. “Some of the stuff you floated through her head was pretty gruesome.”
I shrugged and watched him lather a washcloth with soap as fatigue echoed through our bond. Practice usually left him wrung out physically, sometimes mentally, too. I really should be in there washing him off, helping him until his energy rebounded. I curled my fingers into the edge of the counter, holding myself in place. “If it keeps her away from Gianna...”
His nod was calm, though his eyes went hot. “That bitch ever comes near Gigi again, I’ll kill her myself.”
“I think there’s a line,” I murmured. Me, Jason, Marco and Elizabet, and no telling who else. Of course, Jason and I would stand together against all comers, especially where Gianna was concerned. “You can deliver a warning in person next month.”
“Be happy to.” He finished washing, reached up and yanked the curtain back a couple of feet, leaving me with a clear view of his beautiful body. “Take your shirt off and wash my back.”
My fingers slipped to the top button and made quick work of the fastenings. I knew what he wanted, could feel the need pinging through him right on the tail of his weariness. Being a pet came with some wonderful benefits. Increased strength, a greater tolerance for pain. Probably the best part was a raging libido. Jason was a sexual creature by nature. Becoming a pet had only intensified his sexuality. Don’t know what he’d done to satisfy himself before becoming my favorite, but now, he eased the need with me and Gianna.
Helping him wasn’t all that much of a hardship.
I dropped my dress shirt into the laundry hamper on top of his athletic underwear, stripped off the undershirt I wore, and dropped it in as well.
He handed me the washcloth and turned his back to me. “Want me to kneel?”
A short joke. Har.
He flashed an irreverent grin at me over his shoulder and braced his hands against the shower wall. I curved one hand around his hip, steadying him, and scrubbed his wide back with the washcloth. He groaned when I hit a spot below his left shoulder blade. I did a quick peek into his internal workings and found a sore muscle.
“Back rub later?” I offered.
“Doubt we’ll have time.” He yawned and arched against my hand on his back. “Gotta study. Test tomorrow.”
God, I’m ready for basketball to be over.
The thought/feeling startled me. “You ok, man?”
“Yeah, just tired. Hand me a towel, would you?”
I grabbed one while he was rinsing off, unfolded it. And prodded gently through his mind as I dried him off, searching for the real reason he was so tired today.
He cupped my bare shoulders, squeezed gently. “I can feel you doing that.”
I gave a half laugh. “You’re not supposed to.”
“I’m your favorite, Eric. I can feel everything you do.” He yanked me to him, catching the towel between us. “What you did to Selena, your conversation with Marco, the gauntlet you leveled at the Alpha.”
I grimaced. Why had he reminded me?
“I feel all of it, every single last bit,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to block that.”
His eyebrows furrowed, making him look as fierce as his Viking ancestors. “Well, don’t.”
“Come on, Jase. It’s wearing you out trying to juggle school and basketball and us.”
“And I’ll get used to it. Eventually.”
I shook my head and stepped back. “Stubborn man.”
“Ditto.”
We chatted while he pulled clothes from the drawer I’d designated as his (three people sharing a lone chest of drawers; must get house soon) and dressed, then joined Gianna for a quick meal of lasagna and salad. Afterward, we studied, me at the tiny dining room table, him and Gianna at opposite ends of the couch.
Well, I pretended to study. Mostly, I listened to them, absorbed their soft breaths and the faint flip of pages, measured the quiet against the sound of the late winter thunderstorm that broke overhead. For the first time in my life, I felt at home, really and truly. Don’t get me wrong. My parents are great people, but they’re so much older and already had a set routine when I came along. Now I had these two people and it was nice, comfortable, just the sort of relationships I’d dreamed of having when I was a kid thinking ahead to the future. Back then, that nebulous someday would include a beautiful girlfriend and a great guy friend, people who loved me in spite of my flaws, people who would accept my love and friendship without reserve.
In these two, I’d found all of that and so much more.
It dawned on me that I didn’t miss Dev all that much when I was with Gigi and Jase. Loved him, yeah, but didn’t really miss him. Maybe I didn’t need him so much after all.
Jason closed his textbook and repacked his backpack. I glanced at my watch and frowned when I saw the time. “You’ve still got a couple of hours before curfew.”
His mouth twisted into a smirk. “Thought you might have time for that back rub now.”
Back rub. Right. I caught the images coming from his mind and they weren’t nearly as innocent as a back rub. “You coming Gianna?”
“Mmm.” She highlighted a section of text without looking up. “You guys go ahead and get started. I’ll just be a minute.”
Jason dropped a kiss on her forehead as he came around and dodged out of the way of her shooing hands. He pulled me up from the table on his way to the bedroom, draped an arm over my shoulder. This close, I could smell his pheromones, wild and sharp and somehow spicy, not at all like the spice of Gianna’s. Hers were softer, gentler, almost sweet.
As soon as we crossed the threshold into the bedroom, he yanked me around and up, fastening his mouth on mine in a scorching kiss. I curled my fingers into the front of his sweatshirt and held on as he explored my mouth, nipping at my lips with sharp teeth, slipping his tongue in, feathering it along mine.
I let him lead as desire swept up and over me and our breaths panted out in near unison, let him take what he wanted from me. He backed up, lowered me onto the bed, yanked clothing out of the way. His mouth broke from mine, but not before I felt his canines grow into fangs. I tensed as anticipation whirled through me, and then he struck, scoring the skin above the pulse in my throat. His mouth covered the dribble of blood he’d raised and drew deeply, sending a pulse of electric need from there straight down to my dick.
I moaned and arched into him, pressed him closer with a hand to the back of his head. “That’s it, Jase.”
He hummed against my skin and a moment later, we zinged and surged. I gasped as our thoughts and feelings shifted and aligned, and the need burgeoned until it engulfed us both.
Gianna crawled onto the bed, her luscious café au lait skin glowing under the light drifting in from the living room. She settled against the headboard with her thighs spread. Her gorgeous pussy glistened below the gentle curve of her stomach where my child rested.
Jason lapped at my throat, closing the scratch he’d made there. He levered himself off the bed and undressed, his eyes glowing in the shadowed room as he revealed inch after inch of his beautiful body. “Dibs.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m her husband.”
“Only because she married you first.”
Gianna’s laugh rang out between us. “Are y’all gonna be like this for the next fifty plus years?”
Jason and I shared a grin.
“Oh, yeah,” he said.
“Definitely,” I agreed.
In the end, I acceded to his greater need. The thing is, Jason couldn’t be with us all the time, not yet. He wasn’t the one spending night after night next to her. He wasn’t the one she curled around when she slept. It wasn’t his child growing in her womb or his hand resting over the small life, protecting it, and it wasn’t his heart that had captured her.
But for a small twist of fate, it could’ve been. Knowing that made sharing her so much easier.
Plus, I was the leader of our little family. Ultimately, the responsibility for both of them fell on me. Jason was my favorite, Gianna my wife. Duty bade me please them. Love made duty an easy burden.
The Vampire's Pet (The Vampyr Book 1) Page 28