by Lynn Hagen
Maverick nodded, filing that bit of information away for a later use. This was better than a community of misplaced elves. At least these men looked large and able to do long hours of labor. “I’m not going to ask you for a cut. What you grow is your own. Your profit is yours.”
Mr. Lakeland’s eyes rounded as he looked at his sons and then at Maverick. “Are you sure? We don’t mind giving a percentage to pack.”
Maverick shook his head as he sat forward. “Mr. Lakeland, I have enough money to take care of my pack for a very long time. I refuse to take it from the sweat off of a man’s back. Keep it. Invest it back into the community if you want. But as far as pack dues, we don’t have those here in Brac Village.”
“Well hell,” one of the sons said in amazement. “I like it here already. Got any fine-looking single men around here?”
“Chauncey!” Mr. Lakeland chastised his son.
Maverick chuckled. “He’s fine.” Maverick chuckled as he turned to the son speaking. “None that I’m aware of. Everyone in this house is taken.”
“Well damn, guess I’m back to my hand.” The large man sat back on the leather sofa like he was aggravated and miffed.
“Chauncey!”
The son didn’t look the least bit contrite. Maverick liked them. “Then by all means, buy your house. I’m not going to tell anyone about you. I want you to have a chance to fit in and make friends. Of course my Beta and Commander will know.”
“Of course.” Mr. Lakeland nodded.
“I’ll even give you room to run.”
They shook hands with Maverick as the Lakelands stood. “Welcome to Brac Village.”
He walked the family out and stood at the door as he watched them climb into their truck. He hoped he made the right decision letting bear-shifters move here.
“We need those medical records.” Nicholas stood in Maverick’s office arguing. “He’s getting sicker, and I don’t know what to do for him. Not even the wolf physician can help. He’s clueless when it comes to vampires.” He dropped into the leather chair, looking helplessly at Maverick.
Maverick picked the phone up on his desk and dialed, hit speaker phone, and then laid the phone back in its cradle.
“Hello, Maverick,” a smooth voice spoke.
Maverick leaned onto his desk, wondering why it seemed so crazy around here lately. “Christian, were you able to obtain Gabby’s records?”
The prince of vampires sighed. “The doctor says he was strictly forbidden by Gabriel’s father to release them. He won’t go against his own leader’s orders, but said he would treat the young one if you brought him to his office.”
“No fucking way,” Montana growled. “That sounds like a setup to me.”
“I agree,” Christian said. “It’s too risky. His father is still on a rampage about him, wanted him dead, not thrown out. Why, I’m not sure.”
“You’re the prince, demand them,” Maverick stated irritably.
“You know as well as I do that politics get in the way. I could make him come here, and you could bring the young one to my manor.”
Maverick looked up at Montana.
Montana didn’t like any of this, but his fireball was getting sicker and no one had a clue why. He couldn’t risk losing his mate, but if anyone tried anything… “Fine, but if any harms comes to my pumpkin, I’ll kill everyone, no discrimination.”
“Pumpkin? I look forward to meeting the young one.” Christian chuckled.
“When can you get the doctor there?” Maverick asked the prince.
“I’ll have him here within the hour.”
“See you then,” Maverick said.
“Oh, goody, I’m looking forward to it. Is Keata coming?” Christian asked with a hint of excitement.
“Only if Cody can play with your entrails.” Maverick chuckled and hung up.
“What was that about?” Montana raised a brow.
Maverick shook his head. “When the mates snuck off to a club, that’s when we discovered the vampires had moved into the city. Christian took an instant liking to Keata, wanted him for his own.”
Montana was shocked at this bit of news. He knew shifters were very protective of their mates. “I’m surprised Cody didn’t kill him.”
Maverick sighed as he sat back in his chair. “You’ve no idea.”
Two SUVs pulled up to the manor, the Santiago brothers pulling up behind them on their motorcycles.
Montana pulled Gabby from the backseat. His mate was curled up into a ball, and his skin was paler than usual, his pupils black. Montana hated the weakened state Gabby was in. All his protective instincts wanted to hurt whatever was harming his mate, but how could he fight the unseen?
“Do we get to burn this place to the ground?” Tryck Santiago asked as he swung his leg over his bike.
“You just might,” Montana muttered.
“Only if you replace my damn Fudgesicle,” Maverick said as he walked by.
“I told you your name wasn’t on it,” Tryck argued as he followed them up the walkway, his brothers right behind him.
Montana rolled his eyes. They had been arguing over the ice cream for six months now. He would buy Maverick the damn factory if he didn’t have to hear one more word about it.
Montana carried his mate into the manor, the prince showing them downstairs and into a bedroom. “The doctor is here. I’ll send him in.”
Montana nodded and laid Gabby down onto the silken sheets. He sat with his back against the headboard, rubbing his hand over his mate’s back. Four other warriors had come with them, aside from Maverick and the brothers. If any shit jumped off, he would get his rifle from the SUV and pick off every threat in sight.
“Oh my,” the doctor said as he entered the room. “Poor, Gabby.”
“I was told to ask you what blood type of blood you were giving him by our resident doctor,” Maverick said to the vampire physician.
“He was on O negative his whole life. What has he been taking now?” the doctor asked as he set his medical bag on the bed and looked down at Gabby.
Maverick looked over at Montana. “I’m O negative, so why is he sick?” Montana asked as his hands skimmed over Gabby’s back.
The doctor ran his hand over Gabby’s hair. Montana growled at the gesture. It may have been concern, but he was still newly mated, and any other man touching Gabby was irritating at best. Nicholas examined his mate, but at least Montana knew who he was.
“Are you his mate?” the doctor asked as he pushed Montana’s leg aside and began to examine Gabby.
“Yes, now answer my question,” he bit out.
“It may be that he is receiving shifter blood now. The prince has informed me that he mated a were-creature.”
Montana’s heart sank. He had done this? Had his blood infected his fireball and made him sick? He cursed fate for being so cruel. It didn’t make any sense to him. Why would he be paired with Gabby if his blood couldn’t sustain his pumpkin? “It has to be something else.”
“Let me finish examining him.”
Montana sat there beating himself up. He ran his hand over Gabby’s little orange spikes, wishing he could take his pain away. His mate whimpered as he rolled around holding his stomach. Montana felt so damn helpless. There was nothing he could do.
The doctor finally stood and cleared his throat, looking over his shoulder at the prince then back at Montana. “Was he recently burned?”
“Is that what did this?”
“I’ll take that as a yes. Did you two copulate while he was healing?”
Montana’s hairs rose on the back of his neck. Why didn’t he like the sound of that question? He nodded, looking first at the doctor then over at the prince, who stood there looking stunned.
The doctor looked back over at the prince and then grabbed his bag. He whispered extremely low. Not even Montana’s superior hearing was able to pick up what they were saying. He became agitated. “What the fuck is wrong with my mate?”
The prince held u
p a hand at Montana, finished talking with the doctor, and then thanked the man for coming. Montana looked over at Maverick then down at his mate. He pulled Gabby into his arms, rocking him back and forth as dread settle over him. They could deal with whatever it was, as long as he wasn’t going to die.
Christian approached the bed. “He’s my son.”
Even in Gabby’s weakened state, he was shocked. “How?” he asked as he turned over in Montana’s arms.
“Apparently your father isn’t your father.” Christian paced the room. He stopped, looked at Gabby, and then continued pacing.
Gabby’s head was in a whirl. How could this man be his father? Images of the cruel man who had raised him swam through his mind. This couldn’t be.
Gabby looked more closely at the man. He didn’t look anything like him. Not that he had looked like his father either. He was told he had his mother’s looks. Something his father had punished him for all of his life, and now he found out the sadistic bastard wasn’t even his sperm donor?
Christian sighed, looked over to Maverick, and then down at Gabby. Hesitation and irritation clearly written on his face. “My age is a well-guarded secret, and for a good reason. If the elders found out, I would be brought into their circle, something I have fought to stay away from.” Christian began to pace again. Gabby watched how the man’s raven black hair veiled his face as he walked back and forth. If this man was truly his father, he was very handsome. Why couldn’t he have inherited his looks?
“I am revealing to you things that could have me killed. I trust that it will go no further than this room?” He stopped in front of the Alpha and Tryck. Gabby wondered why the warrior was in the room with them.
Maverick turned to his right, a smirk on his face. “Get out, Tryck.”
Tryck snorted and shook his head. “Not on your life.” He rolled his eyes and sighed. “I secretly swear not to tattle.” Tryck crossed his heart and then crossed his fingers in front of everyone, a knowing smile on his face. “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”
Christian cocked his head at Tryck. “You are a strange one.”
Tryck flipped him off. “Your mamma.”
Maverick grinned. “I won’t hold it against you if you kill him. Hell, I’ll pay you.”
Gabby lay in Montana’s arms confused as hell. What was wrong with these men? He was the young one, yet they were acting like five-year-olds.
“I am two thousand years old.” Christian paused and looked at each person in the room before continuing. “The original vampire.”
“Dayam. Is it true you had to club women over the head to get them to sleep with you?” Tryck asked.
“Not just women.” Christian grinned.
“Can we get back to what’s wrong with my mate, or do I have to throw holy water on you?” Montana snapped.
“Myth,” Christian informed them. He walked over to Montana, knelt down in front of them, and spoke to Gabby. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember who your mother was. Being as old as I am, and who I am, I’m sorry.”
Gabby shrugged, the old wound opened again at the thought of a woman he never knew. “I killed her.”
“What?” Montana pulled back, staring wide eyed at him.
“My father, or should I say, the man who claimed to be my father, said I killed her when she was pregnant with me, sucked her dry from the inside.” Gabby wiped at the tears that always sprang up when speaking or even thinking of her. It seemed strange to him to miss someone he’d never met, but he did.
“The doctor confided in me once he realized I was your father. Gabby, you didn’t kill her. The man who raised you did. The doctor had to do an emergency caesarian section to get you out.”
Gabby’s whole world turned upside down. He could handle the fact that this man was his father. He didn’t like the bastard who raised him anyway. But the news about his mother was shocking.
His entire life he was told he was a murderer, and now to find out that bastard had done it? He wanted his head on a platter. Anger rolled through him, and Gabby’s vision turned red. He wanted blood. He hissed through his teeth, feeling an evil veil blanketing his mind. Vengeance was all that mattered.
“Gabby.” Christian snapped his fingers in front of Gabby’s face, his anger quickly dissipating.
Blinking a few times, he turned to the man. “How did you do that?” Gabby asked in awe. His anger was gone. Only thoughts of his mate were now in his mind.
“Family secret.” He winked.
“He told me that your mother sought shelter with the coven, and was granted the right to live there. But then your father was enraged when he found out that she planned on running with you as soon as you were delivered. He knew you were mine. She told him this much. He wanted you for his own, so he silenced her and raised you as his own. I honestly don’t know why she never came to me. I would have taken her in and cared for her.”
“This still doesn’t explain how the doctor knew Gabby was related to you.” Montana pointed out.
Gabby looked at his newfound father for the answer to that question. He felt odd thinking of this man as his father when Christian looked no older than thirty, odd because the bastard who pretended to be his father, the one who raised him had always been the one in his mind when he used the title.
Christian laid his left hand on his hip, tapped his chin with his left index finger, and pulled the side of his mouth up in thought. “You were sun-poisoned. That’s why you are so sick.”
“But…I feel a ‘but’ rolling around somewhere,” Gabby said as he spun his hands above his head.
Christian dropped his right hand and walked once again over to Gabby. “But, the family trait seems to be surfacing.”
“Can we stop with the fishing for answers and just spit it out? I only have another seven centuries,” Montana snapped at Christian.
Christian narrowed his eyes at Montana. “You’d be hesitant, too, if all your little secrets were coming out. Excuse the hell out of me.”
Tryck chuckled. “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry.” He cupped his hands by his mouth.
“Does he really need to be here?” Christian looked over at Maverick.
The Alpha slid his hands into his front pockets and leaned against the wall, a sarcastic smile on his face. “I told you, but nobody listens. Cash.”
Christian turned his back on the Alpha and the instigator. He sat on the bed and smiled at Gabby.
“You’re ovulating.”
Gabby jumped quickly from Montana’s arms. Mr. Badass had fainted. He stared up at the man claiming to be his new father. “You said what!”
“It’s something my offsprings are born with, the ability to reproduce whether they are male or female. You’re asexual. The way your eyes have turned onyx is an indication that you are ovulating. It’s a closely guarded secret. But there are ways to prevent conception.”
“Oh, there better be. If sleeping beasty here passes out just from the news, then I can just imagine what would happen if I…oh, hell, I can’t even say it. You could have passed on your black hair or your height, but no, you had to go and make me a bigger freak than I already am. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? Check between my legs, seriously. I have a penis,” Gabby snarled as he pointed to his groin.
He was already an orange-haired, green-eyed, diabetic, motormouth vampire, and now he could have children? “Anything else you want to fuck me over with?” Gabby yelled at the ceiling. “Because I’m about done with all this bullshit.”
“Who’s he talking to?” Tryck asked Maverick.
Maverick shrugged.
“Wake the hell up.” Gabby grabbed Montana’s shirt in his fists, shaking the man until his mate moaned and shook his head. “Take me home.”
Gabby turned to Christian. “Thanks a lot. I grew up in a coven that hated everything about me, a father that looked at me every day as if he wished he’d drowned me at birth, and on top of all that I inherited diabetes. Talk about a loser. I finally find someone to
love me despite all my quirks, and you have to go and ruin it.”
Gabby wiped at the tears. He wasn’t going to give this man the satisfaction. He was so angry right now, the angriest he had ever been in his life. He had friends now, people who wanted to be around him, but now they would look at him as nature’s joke.
“I’m not one of nature’s mistakes!” Gabby screamed at everyone in the room. He covered his mouth with his hand, fighting back the hysteria. No matter what his coven had said to him, he wasn’t a mistake. He was someone special. He had to be. To hell with them all.
“And give me that damn recipe for the contraceptive. I am not having a baby,” Gabby added when Montana finally stood. Gabby’s anger escalated at the wide grin on Christian’s face.
“You have a backbone. I like that.”
“Normally I’m a big chicken, but I’ve finally found something worth holding on to, and your little family secret is threatening it, so yeah, I’m downright pissed. And I’m gonna stop talking right now because you are only making me angrier the longer I stand here.”
“Do you want me to burn it down?” Tryck asked Gabby as he pushed off of the wall he had been leaning against.
Gabby twisted his upper body, looking over at Tryck. “Do what you want. I’m going home.” He grabbed Montana’s hand and pulled him up the steps. The big lug just followed along still in a stunned state. Men!
“Wait,” Christian called out.
Gabby never looked back. “For what? You want to tell me something else I’m cursed with? Keep it to yourself. My fun-filled day at Chuck E. Cheese is over,” he yelled out.
“The doctor left your medical records in my office.”
“Who cares?” Gabby waved a hand over his shoulder as he pulled his mate out of the front door.
“I swear, I thought being gay and engaged to a woman was bizarre. Living in the Brac pack beats that, and everything else I’ve ever experienced hands down. Now hop up on the table.” Nicholas patted the exam table with the white crinkly paper pulled over it.