by Lynn Hagen
Chapter Two
Gabby could feel eyes boring into him. He gulped, not sure what to do. Extending his hand, he waited for the man with the multi-colored hair to give him back his syringe.
These two men didn’t understand how life threatening throwing his very last needle away was. If he didn’t have it back, he wouldn’t be able to inject his insulin. He could die.
The man pulled his hand back, refusing to give it to Gabby. His eyes bore into Gabby’s, as if trying to read him. Finally he shook his head. “We can get you more.”
Gabby watched as the man walked away with his last precious needle in his hand.
His very last one.
What if they couldn’t? Gabby needed that. The man couldn’t just throw it away. He wanted to protest further, but his body started craving something else now. He began to scratch his throat, the other thirst inching into him a little more. Once again, his throat began to dry. He knew the signs, but what could he do about it?
“I’m going to take you home. There’s a doctor there that can help you.” The large man lifted Gabby into his arms, cradling him close. As much as Gabby craved the touch, he was afraid what the closeness may do to his very sanity.
Gabby tried to think of anything that would distract his mind. “What’s your name?”
The man chuckled deeply. “I didn’t tell you, did I? It’s Montana.”
Montana, Gabby liked that name. Gabby curled up into Montana’s arms, feeling the effects of the insulin kick in, which only made the other thirst more noticeable. When he was in the diner feeling disoriented and nauseous, the thirst for blood had taken a backseat, but now that it was taken care of, the pulse in Montana’s neck was calling to him, which spoke volumes about his thirst for blood.
Gabby had never drank from the source in his life.
“Come on, pumpkin, let’s get you strapped in.” Gabby held his breath as Montana leaned over him to buckle the seat belt. His skin smelled delicious. He had to bite his bottom lip not to take a tiny taste. Montana kissed him on the forehead before pulling back and shutting his door. What was he going to do?
The lingering aroma swirled around his head, making his teeth ache to take one little nibble. Just one. Maybe he could accidently fall over the seat and his teeth could accidently hit a vein. Just accidently of course.
Montana climbed into the truck, his aroma beckoning Gabby to sample it. The smell of the man was strong in his lungs, making him bite back a whimper.
Gabby twisted his hands in his lap as he stared out of the side window, watching the small town slip away into country scenery. It was breathtakingly beautiful. His coven had resided in a congested city where more food was readily available to the full-blooded vampires.
They would never move out here because they would starve to death. There were fewer people here as well. The vampires would be more noticeable if they fed off of a town this small.
They pulled into a forested area, a large estate looming in the distance. Gabby’s eyes bugged out at the sight of the enormous house. His coven’s own house wasn’t this big, and there were plenty of them to crowd the place.
“Okay, pumpkin, we’re here,” Montana declared as he shut the truck off and got out.
Gabby unsnapped his seat belt as Montana walked around the front of the truck. He got out, his eyes glued to the house. It was dark out now, the house sitting in shadows, but Gabby could see in the dark, could see all the cameras watching them. One by the door moved around to follow them as they made their way up the front steps.
Gabby stepped back, and the camera moved to follow him. He stepped to the side, and the camera followed him again like a little white robot head.
Montana laughed. “That would be Nero, our resident electronic geek. He likes to have a bit of fun with the cameras.”
Gabby just nodded as he followed Montana into a large foyer, his eyes sweeping throughout the place. It was just as magnificent from the inside.
When someone came toward them, Gabby slid behind Montana. He may be half vampire, but the other half was definitely chicken. Growing up in a coven full of people that would rather hurt him than talk to him, it made him skittish.
“Is this him?”
Montana pulled him around, Gabby lowering his eyes to look at his feet. He wanted to get out of here, didn’t like being around strangers. “This is Gabby.”
The man squatted in front of him, “Hi, I’m Dr. Nicholas Sheehan.” The man shook Gabby’s hand. “Call me Nicholas.”
Gabby stole a peek at the man, seeing just how kind his eyes really were. He relaxed a little in the man’s presence. Just like he began to relax in Montana’s.
Montana led Gabby up a flight of steps and down a hall, pushing a bedroom door open. Gabby stepped back, unsure of what was going on. He’d been fooled before when he followed blindly. It taught him a valuable lesson. He looked up at Montana and saw the large man smiling kindly down at him.
“No one is going to hurt you, pumpkin. Doc just needs to examine you.” Gabby nodded, terrified the humans would find out who he was, or rather, what he was.
He inched into the room, looking around to make sure no one was waiting on them. When he saw they were alone, he walked in.
His hands grabbed Montana’s arms as the man lifted him up and sat him on the bed. He was reluctant to let the large man go. As silly as it sounded, he was the only one Gabby trusted. They’d only met, but Gabby felt a closeness with the man already.
“Have you been a diabetic all your life?” Nicholas asked.
Gabby nodded at the doctor. He could feel his hands shaking as the doctor listened to his heart, checked his pulse, and then began to check his ears and eyes. The doctor stuck a tongue depressor in his mouth and made him say ah.
He heard the gasp. The intake of breath that told him what the doctor had discovered.
Looking up, he pleaded with his eyes at Nicholas.
“I need to do a more thorough examination. Could you step out, Montana?” Gabby felt relief at the doctor’s words. The vampire doctor had been kind to him, making him believe all doctors cared. He hoped he wasn’t wrong and that Nicholas was just as kind.
Montana glanced at Gabby and then the doctor, skepticism on his face as he asked. “Why?”
Nicholas cleared his throat, taking a step closer to Gabby. “I need to check more privately.”
Gabby watched as Montana grunted and mumbled but then left them alone, closing the door behind him.
Nicholas stood there for a moment watching the door and then turned around to look down at Gabby sitting on the bed. “Does he know?”
Gabby shook his head.
“This is not good.” He watched as the doctor stepped back, pulling his phone from the clip it had been attached to. He punched in a few numbers and then put it to his ear, watching Gabby the whole time with a kind smile on his face. He spun around, giving Gabby his back as he talked into the phone. “Maverick, I need you up here.”
More strangers. Gabby didn’t like this one bit. He wanted Montana but was afraid to ask for him. “Who’s Maverick?”
The doctor turned back to him, a gentle smile on his face. “He’s the Alpha.”
Gabby gasped, horrified at the statement. “I’m in a house of wolf shifters!”
Montana paced up and down the hall outside his bedroom. He could have taken his mate to the exam room, but the little fireball already looked nervous enough. His mate needed to be comfortable. The exam room, in his opinion, was too sterile in feeling. Gabby needed to feel relaxed.
What could be taking so long? His anxiety level rose when he watched Maverick walk up the stairs, open the bedroom door, and close it in Montana’s face. He heard the lock engage. What the fuck was going on?
He paced some more. Had he given his mate the wrong dosage? The syringe was already filled, filled by Gabby, so it must have been right. The man had been a diabetic his whole life. Surely he knew what he was doing.
Montana ran his hands over his
smooth head. Maybe they had waited too long and the medicine didn’t help. He was clueless when it came to diabetics, knew nothing about it. He would go online and research it, find out all he could so he could help his mate with it.
The image of those fire red and orange spikes on his pumpkin’s head made Montana smile. His mate was beautiful. His eyes were so large, they dominated his face, the size making the green more noticeable. And, he still wanted to romp around in the back of his truck. The pull was strong. Montana was going crazy waiting out in the hall.
He stopped pacing when the door opened, expecting to see Nicholas and be waved in. But Maverick came out instead. “Follow me.” The Alpha didn’t say a word as he stared at Montana, waiting for him to follow orders.
Had something happened? Montana reached for the bedroom door, determined to find out what was going on. That was his mate in there, and he probably was looking for comfort from Montana. A large hand landed on his, stopping any attempt at opening the door. “Not until we talk, Montana.”
Against his better judgment, Montana followed. He glanced back at the closed door, wondering if he was making the right decision. Maverick led him to his office, waving his hand for him to take a seat.
Montana was too amped up, he didn’t want to sit. He wanted to run back upstairs and check on his mate. “I’d rather stand. Now tell me what’s going on with my mate,” Montana bit out. He had had about enough of this secretive shit.
Maverick rested his elbows on his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You just meet him?”
“Yeah, in the diner when I was having dinner. What’s that have to do with his diabetes?” He was getting scared. Was the Alpha going to tell him that his pumpkin’s diabetes was something life threatening? He could feel his body begin to sweat, his hands begin to shake as he rubbed them over his head.
“Nothing and everything.” Maverick blew out a breath, sitting back in his chair and looking him directly in his eyes. “He’s a vampire.”
Montana’s world tilted. His jaw dropped open as he stumbled back, his legs hitting the couch, making him fall down onto it. “No,” he whispered. Not his pumpkin. How could that beautiful man upstairs who had captured his heart in every sense of the word in such a short time be a blood sucker?
Rage tore through him at how cruel fate was. His mate was a fucking blood sucker! The word echoed in his head as white-hot fury consumed him. He stood as if an explosion had propelled him from the couch. His head fell back as a howl tore from his chest.
He spun around, his canines biting into his bottom lip as his vision blurred from pure anger at the situation. “Do what you want with him,” he snarled.
Montana stormed from the office, knocking things over as he made his way to the kitchen and out the back door. He shifted, his anger heightened when he realized that he had indeed fallen for the fireball in just a short time.
A blood sucker. Damn it.
His feet ate up ground as he moved through the forest, pain weighing heavy in his heart at the irony of the situation.
Gabby stared out of the window as the doctor drew blood. There was a large wolf howling and racing toward the forest. Was that Montana? The man probably hated him for not telling him as soon as they met.
Shifters and vampires weren’t known to get along. At least not from where he came from.
He felt like a part of him had left with the wolf, leaving him feeling cold and alone. Gabby couldn’t understand the feelings jumbled inside of him, feelings that had started to affect him since laying eyes on the big bald man in the diner. He rubbed his belly, wishing Montana was holding him again. He yearned to have those strong arms wrapped around his body, cradling him in his arms again.
Nicholas squatted down in front of him, his eyes smiling kindly at Gabby. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
Gabby blinked back the tears as he nodded, looking out of the window once more, but the wolf was gone.
“How can you be a diabetic and a vampire?”
Gabby shook his head, not really wanting to talk right now, which was out of character for him. He hadn’t acted like himself since meeting Montana. “I’m half vampire, half human. The blood that runs through my body is my own. Although, I do have to feed twice a month. With the vampire trait in me, the need is there. The thirst.”
“Do you need to feed? I don’t think my mate would like it, but if you need to…” The doctor held out his wrist and Gabby shrank back.
“No! I’ve never taken from a person. I’ve had one donor my whole life, and the doctor brings that person’s blood in a bag, heats it. I-I can’t bite you. I just…can’t.” Gabby became agitated. He needed to get out of here. The entire house was full of shifters. He wasn’t sure what they would do to him, and he didn’t want to stick around to find out.
“This doctor must regulate your medicine with the donor’s blood in mind. I need to know what you’re taking, the amount, and what type of blood you drank.”
Gabby shook his head as the feeling of hopelessness washed over him. “I don’t know the type. Can I leave, or am I a prisoner?”
Nicholas ran his hand through his hair, exhaling loudly. “You’re not a prisoner, but I don’t think you should leave. I can get you the things you will need minus the blood since I don’t know what type you need. Can you wait an hour until I can get it?”
Gabby eyes him warily, wondering if this was some sort of trick. He decided to trust the man with the kind eyes. “I can go after the blood. Promise it’ll be okay?”
Nicholas didn’t look pleased, but he nodded. “Maverick isn’t the kind of Alpha to hold you prisoner. He would never hold you here against your will.” The doctor took Gabby’s hands in his, as his eyes softened even more on Gabby. “What about Montana? Are you just going to leave him?”
Gabby looked back out of the window, sadness engulfing him and threatening to swallow him whole. “He left me.”
Gabby scooted over as the doctor sat down next to him. “His best friend was killed by a vampire. Give him time to adjust to the idea.”
His stomach rolled as his head started to pound. Reality came crashing down around him at the knowledge that Montana would never want to set eyes on him again. “So he hates me,” he whispered.
“Not you per se, but he does have a chip on his shoulder.” Nicholas patted Gabby’s knee as he stood. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
Gabby curled up on the bed, feeling like his world was imploding. Montana had called him his mate. Gabby knew about mates. The vampires had them as well. Was that the aroma he smelled in the diner? Was that why he felt the need to be in the large man’s arms? The tears ran silently at the loss he felt. This wasn’t fair. He couldn’t help who he was.
He must have dozed off because the sound of the bedroom door woke him. Nicholas came in and shut it quietly. “I have what you need.”
Gabby rolled over and accepted the black pouch. His trembling hands unzipped it, and he was shocked. Inside where a ton of alcohol pads, five syringes, three more bottles of his insulin, and even a glucose meter. He had been kicked out before he could retrieve his. He looked up at the doctor. “Thank you.” He zipped it back up and held it to his chest like it was the most treasured item in his life, and it was.
Nicholas smiled at him as he put his hand on Gabby’s shoulder. “If you need more, come to the Medical Center on the other side of town. Ask for me, I’ll make sure you get what you need. I’ll have to examine you though. I would like to talk with the doctor who treated you, get your records.”
Gabby knew that was impossible. Not even he knew how to contact the man. Any time he needed him, someone else summoned him.
Besides, shifters and vampires didn’t get along. Even though Nicholas was human, he lived with shifters. “Thank you,” was all Gabby could offer as he walked out of the bedroom and out of the front door.
Montana sat naked on a fallen log, staring at the house, at the window his mate was behind. He twirled the twig around in his hand as
he thought of his best friend. He had hated vampires for what they had done for so long, that he wasn’t sure he knew how to let it go.
Gabby didn’t look like them.
Montana smiled. Not with those little orange spikes growing wild all over his head and those breathtakingly beautiful green eyes.
Was he really willing to give up his mate to let that hate fester inside of him? He thought of those green eyes peeking over the back of that booth, widening in surprise when he had been caught staring. Just that fast he had wormed his way into Montana’s heart.
The news had taken him by surprise, knocked him on his ass. His pumpkin a vampire? Montana sighed, confused as hell.
“Scoot over.”
He looked up to see the naked warrior, Tank, standing there. Being nude around each other didn’t bother shifters. They had grown up with it, were used to it, but damn, that side of beef hanging between Tank’s legs…
“Pervert, move over.”
Montana scooted over, wondering how the hell Tank’s mate handled that.
“You don’t get a choice in who your mate is, Montana. Gabby was given to you for a reason.”
Montana twirled the twig around, staring down at it as he thought of the little fireball. Could he get past the fact that his mate drank blood? His eyes glanced around as he licked his lips, watching the warm breeze dance through the leaves of the trees. It had felt good having his mate in his arms. He wouldn’t deny that. His breath hitched in a small laugh as he thought of the look on his mate’s face when he knocked the needle out of his hand. Pinch the fat. Montana smiled. His mate was far from fat, healthy, but not fat.
“How do you let go of something you’ve held on to for so long?” Montana glanced back down at the twig, missing his pumpkin already. He didn’t feel hate toward the little fireball, just confusion.
“Hold your mate in your arms and then repeat the question.” Tank squeezed his shoulder as he stood. “Go to him, Montana. If you don’t, you’ll regret it.”
Montana sat there wondering if Tank was right. He leaned forward and placed the twig on the ground before standing. He would talk with Gabby, see how he felt about him before making a decision.