Learning to Love [Half-Demon Mates 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove)

by Sydney Lain

  “Your brother hurt you?” Gunner asked.

  Shea nodded. “Family. They always think they know best.”

  “I’ll kill him.” The cold promise in Viktor’s eyes scared him. Not for his safety, but for Henry. He wanted them to hate Henry, but not rip him into small pieces.

  “My brother’s selfish but he’s family. I might be angry, but I still love him.” Shea bit into a piece of bacon, but he couldn’t taste it. “He’s all I have, but I can’t forgive him.”

  They ate the rest of their meal in silence. This time Shea made sure he didn’t finish before them.

  “The food was good,” Shea said. He should’ve said that sooner, but the awkward silence had him reaching for his teeth to check for food stuck in between them.

  “I’ve been cooking for over a hundred years. Eggs are nothing. I can’t taste that well. Flavors are muted. I looked for items that have strong flavors like cheeses, limes, and wine.”

  He lifted the mug and tasted the coffee. It was black, bitter, and not very good.

  “Gunner, the coffee’s good.” It sounded like an afterthought.

  “It’s instant. I’ve never used kitchen equipment. Viktor instructed me.”

  The warm look his two mates gave each other no longer bothered him. He thought about Gunner’s words. Everyone used kitchen stuff. No, hunters weren’t like everyone else. They were modern day slaves, bred and created to follow orders.

  “Gunner, thank you for saving me. I should’ve said it before, but thank you.” He turned to Viktor. “Thank you for helping him.”

  “Mate, there’s no need to thank us for saving you. We protect each other.” Viktor’s hand balled into tight fists. “I won’t fail either of you.”

  “I can protect myself,” Shea said, not wanting to become a burden.

  Viktor held up a hand to stop him, but before he could speak, Gunner interrupted.

  “If we’re in trouble, would you help us?”

  Shea nodded.

  “Would we have to thank you?”

  Shea thought about it. “No, I’d do it because you’re mine.” It was hard to be wrong, but he could admit it.

  “We feel the same way,” Gunner said.

  Viktor nodded.

  “So, what now?” Did he go home and stop by for sex? Gunner would probably live with Viktor, but Shea didn’t trust the wolf to move in and be civilized.

  “You’ll move in here. Gunner and I talked about it. He doesn’t own anything, but you have things to pack.”

  “Move in. Are you asking or ordering?”

  “Neither, I’m telling you what’s going to happen.” There was no doubt. “I’ll make arrangements to have someone pick up your things.”

  “If I decide to move in, I’ll pack up. No hired help is folding my underwear.”

  “It’s too dangerous. Hunters are looking for the wolf shifters in the city. They’ve identified you.”

  Shea stiffened. “What about Henry? He’s a shifter.” One of the hunters took his wallet. They knew his address.

  “The man that turned you. Let him fend for himself. You owe him nothing,” Viktor said.

  “I can’t let him die.” Henry did almost kill him, but he was still his brother and if anyone was going to kill him, it was going to be Shea.

  “You want to risk our lives to help the man that destroyed your life?” Viktor asked.

  Shea opened his mouth to argue but stopped. Viktor had a point. This was his problem. He couldn’t ask them to help save Henry. It was too dangerous. He was a wolf shifter, not a human. He was stronger than before. It had to be enough. Viktor waited for him to argue, but Shea wouldn’t do that. If he fought them now, they’d never give him a chance to escape. Henry had hurt him. No, Henry killed the man he’d been. That made him number one on his mates’ most hated list. Shea nodded and pretended to let it go.

  “What am I going to do? I need merchandise to sell. Those assholes ruined my phones. I can’t hold down a job.” Shea gave them a problem they could solve, something else to focus on.

  “Sorry, mate. No selling stolen phones on the street corner,” Viktor said.

  “It’s too dangerous. They’ve caught you twice,” Gunner added.

  “So I am supposed to sit in bed and look pretty?” They might be stronger, but he wasn’t a frail doll that needed to be guarded.

  Gunner squeezed his hand. “Shea, I’d like to explore this relationship. I don’t have a job either. I’ve enjoyed the last few days. Felt almost normal. It’s not something we have to decide now.”

  Shea moved to Gunner’s side. He wrapped an arm around his mate’s neck. “I want to be with both of you, but I can’t sit around and do nothing. Viktor might be rich, but I’m not. And I need space. I’m not used to the wolf. He craves things and I can’t resist those urges. I want to be touched and have lots of sex.”

  “Stop resisting,” Viktor ordered. “I like that part of you.”

  “I’m not an animal.” That was why he needed space, so if he did something embarrassing, like started to chew on Viktor’s slipper, no one would see him.

  “If you leave, we’ll follow. It doesn’t matter if we live here or with you.”

  Gunner nodded in agreement.

  “My place doesn’t have running water. Most of the time the heat doesn’t work.”

  “I was born in the slums and raised in a whorehouse. Believe me, I’ve lived in worse places than your rundown apartment,” Viktor said.

  “I shared a room with at least three men. It wasn’t much,” Gunner said.

  Both situations sounded worse than his home. “Fine, I’ll move in.” He’d lost the first battle before realizing the war had started. The next battle would be his. “This place is huge.”

  “I’ll give you a tour,” Viktor said.

  Shea shook his head. “Can I look around on my own? I’d like to discover the floor plan and take my time exploring each room.” He gave them a small smile.

  “That’s acceptable.” Viktor looked at Gunner. “We’re going to talk about the Organization and hunters. If they’re experimenting on nonhumans, we need to stop them before they learn too much and start to endanger us.” Neither man bothered to look at Shea. He wasn’t going to be included in that discussion. They hadn’t even invited him, but that was okay. He had his own mission, to slip out and warn Henry. Gunner reluctantly agreed with Viktor’s plans. When they left the room, Shea counted to two hundred and then slipped out the back door. He had no money and a good twenty-minute run back to the city.

  Chapter Nine

  Gunner’s mouth hung open. The office had bookshelves covering three walls. It would’ve been impressive without the extra-high ceilings. The books went all the way to the top and brought the space up to a whole new level. A ladder slid along the side, a necessity since no one could reach up twenty feet to the top shelf of books.

  “You like to read?” Gunner asked. Anyone who owned all these books had to enjoy reading them. To his left, he studied the large leather sofa and a table with a reading lamp on it. There was an indentation in the seat and books piled on the floor.

  “I’ve read every book here. Some are hundreds of years old. Over there are the Latin books. I have a section of Russian and French books. I despise translations and like to read material in their original language.”

  “How many languages do you speak?” If he was reading them, he had to speak those languages.

  “My mother spoke Russian and barely any English, so by the time I left her, I was bilingual. Latin was easy to pick up, then I expanded to French and German. I plan to start learning Asian languages. I’ve already memorized one thousand kanji.”

  Viktor was in a class by himself. Gunner’s education was basic. He never enjoyed reading. The books that were allowed dealt with murder and killing. He knew how to kill a man five ways with a toothpick, but couldn’t name more than five classics.

  Viktor sat at the desk and booted up the computer.

  “What do
you do?”

  “I’ve done a lot of different things. I owned newspapers, furniture factories, and warehouses. I’m also an investor and accumulated a lot of wealth investing in stocks. Another half-demon is a master of numbers. Damon understands market trends and has made me a very wealthy man. Now, I own Devin Security.”

  Every professional killer or government agency had heard of Devin Security. Governments used them to protect foreign leaders, but also for jobs under the radar like stealing from someone and assassinations. They were like a private CIA firm.

  “Your group is made up of nonhumans?” He asked, but already knew the answer.

  “Yes, my security teams are mostly nonhuman. Vampires, elves, half-demons, ghouls, wizards and even an angel.” Viktor sighed. “We try not to interfere with the human world. Sometimes nonhumans get too cocky, so we step in to keep them in line. There’s a reason a demon doesn’t rule the world. It’s because groups like mine step in.”

  “You said the world didn’t matter, but you fight to protect it.”

  “It doesn’t. I don’t care about governments and human suffering. I’ve seen the worse of humanity. But I hate demons. That anger has never left me so I relished it. The team was originally created to stop a demon from using a nuclear bomb to destroy half the world. After that we kept peace. I don’t get involved in the everyday missions. I just don’t care if a ghoul has broken into a Switzerland vault. Dimitri handles that aspect of the company. I help out when needed. But I go after the demons.”

  “Dimitri?”

  “A vampire that joined me to stop the slaughter of his kind by ghouls.”

  There was so much of this world that he didn’t know. Viktor wasn’t as cold as he led them to believe. He was a warrior. What had Gunner been doing with his life? Murdering innocents just because they weren’t human. That was nothing to be proud of. If things continued, Viktor would’ve come after the Organization and probably killed all the hunters. He collapsed in a chair.

  “Tell me about the Organization,” Viktor said in the tone that made Gunner’s blood boil.

  He almost jumped to attention, but he resisted the urge to stand. Now he understood the brash and commanding tone. Viktor led a private army. His very existence commanded respect and obedience.

  “We’re created in labs. Hunters are mostly human, but we’re stronger and heal faster. No hunter exhibited anything more than that.” Gunner thought about that. If a hunter had more power, they would’ve been either killed or studied. “I’m not sure what we are?”

  “Does it matter?” Viktor asked. “I can buy a few labs and study your DNA, but then what? You can’t change it just like Shea can’t change being a wolf shifter.”

  “It matters. You know your past. I’m just a test tube experiment.” Was he a real person? Gunner existed inside this room. He felt things, but without being born, he was just a science project.

  Viktor nodded. “If it matters, then we’ll search for the answers together.” Viktor rubbed the back of Gunner’s neck and the ex-hunter felt less alone in the world. Was he supposed to say thank you? Those words didn’t seem like enough to express his gratitude.

  “Let’s start with the hunter group in the city. I will visit them and make sure they understand that this is my home and they’re not invited,” Viktor said.

  “Why?” It didn’t make sense. “You told Shea that it was over. Our lives weren’t worth sacrificing.”

  “I have no intention of involving you or Shea, but our wolf shifter won’t stay locked away forever. He’s going to want to go out. You’ll probably want to go as well. Both of you have been identified. The streets are dangerous. So I will remove that danger.”

  Viktor’s promise warmed his heart. The half-demon’s assessment was accurate. Shea would only listen for so long. Actually, he was surprised that Shea didn’t put up more of a fight. Soon, he’d demand to go out. How long, a day or two? No, Shea wouldn’t wait that long.

  “Shea’s not the type of man to wait for permission. He gave up too easily.” The wolf shifter had followed him for weeks. He was stubborn and persistent. Gunner stood. “Let’s find Shea.”

  “He’s exploring,” Viktor said. “We need to find the hunters.”

  “Shea’s not the type of man to wait for us to take care of this.” Gunner headed for the door.

  “Shit,” Viktor said. His thoughts followed the same path as Gunner’s.

  After fifteen minutes of searching, they met in the main hall.

  “I don’t feel him through the bond. He’s blocking us,” Viktor said.

  Gunner nodded. He didn’t know how to access the bond. He felt Viktor and Shea when they were close by, but Viktor was able to read more than their location. They stared at each other. Viktor’s eyes glowed with rage. Neither of them said another word, because they both knew that Shea was gone. The wolf shifter probably left to warn his brother about the hunters and neither of them knew where he lived.

  * * * *

  After an hour and a half, Shea reached his neighborhood. The streets lacked the normal bustling activity that accompanied the end of the workday. He sniffed the air. Something was off. Shea shook off the uncertainty. Early evenings weren’t dangerous. His brother attacked him just before dawn and the hunters captured him just after midnight. Shea slowed. He ambled up to the apartment building. There was nothing inside accept three pairs of socks, two pairs of jeans, a couple of shirts and Henry. Hunters wanted to trap wolf shifters and they had his address. The angry part still living inside screamed at him to walk away. Let Henry feel the horror of being hunted. One minute he’d be a man on the streets and the next a victim. Then the more sensible part set in. Henry lived two floors above his apartment. Unlike him, his brother could afford a better place, but he refused to move without Shea, so they both suffered in poverty. He continued up the apartment steps. Not even Henry deserved hunters.

  His hand touched the apartment building door. He froze. Boots clattered behind him. Shea tensed. Slowly he turned around. He sighed with relief.

  Viktor and Gunner stood a few yards behind him. The half-demon’s blue eyes glowed. Gunner was unreadable, but the disappointment fluttered through the mating bond. He opened the bond and connected to Viktor. He winced. Anger didn’t even begin to describe Viktor’s mood.

  “Why did you leave?” Viktor asked.

  Shea was shocked that the half-demon could form words. Every inch of him burned with rage. The veins stuck out on his neck and his white blond hair stood up. He didn’t know how to face such intensity. He looked at Gunner and silently pleading for help.

  Gunner laid a hand on Viktor’s shoulder. “He’s safe.” The gentle touch brought sanity back into the half-demon’s eyes.

  “Why did you leave?” Gunner asked. The anger on the former hunter’s face tugged at his heart. Viktor thought he knew what was best, so Shea expected his anger. Gunner had a comforting calm.

  “My brother’s inside. I need to warn him. I can’t let the hunters hurt him.”

  “You risked your life to help a brother that attacked you. He turned you into a wolf shifter. That’s the man you’re willing to die for,” Viktor said in a tone that sent shivers down Shea’s spine.

  He lowered his head. “Henry turned me, but he’s still my brother. That won’t change.”

  Gunner moved toward him.

  “I can’t forgive him. If I was turned by accident, I could forgive him. But he took that choice from me. He thought it was for the best. But I don’t want Henry hurt or dead. If that happened and I didn’t try to stop it, then I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

  His mates were trying to understand. Viktor reached for their bond and Shea let him in. He let his anger and pain flow between them. He tensed at the intensity.

  “Why did you leave without telling us?” Viktor asked.

  “You wouldn’t let me go. At least not alone. And I won’t risk your lives.”

  “We’re mates,” Viktor said.

  “
But my decision endangered you. I’m not that selfish. The only life in jeopardy was going to be mine.”

  “Shea, Viktor didn’t mean it that way. We’re together. Your decision affects us.”

  “Gunner, I’m not a hunter. That’s what you’re used to, but I fight alone.”

  “We need to get inside,” Viktor said. “The sooner your brother gets this information the sooner we can get out of danger. This neighborhood isn’t safe. We’ll continue the conversation later.”

  “We…” Gunner paused. “The hunters are targeting the area. They know shifters are here.”

  “I’ve lived here for two years—” Shea said.

  Viktor cut him off. “Don’t remind me of the dangers you’ve taken with your life.”

  “He couldn’t afford a safer place. Shea didn’t live here because he liked danger,” Gunner reminded Viktor, who shrugged like that didn’t matter.

  Viktor reached out and patted Shea’s head like he was placating a child. Shea growled low in his throat. Viktor smiled.

  “Don’t treat me like a child. I’ve supported myself for years.” Shea reached for the hand on top of his head, but Viktor pulled away.

  “I get it,” the half-demon said.

  Did he? Shea pointed to the building. “This is all I’ll ever be. I’m not rich or someone that people wanted to hire. Even before the change, I couldn’t get a job. Being able to afford a roof over my head is all I could do. My clothes came out of dumpsters or secondhand shops. I’ve eaten out of garbage bins.” He opened both arms. “This is it. I’m not like either of you. Gunner had a job and talent to track people. Viktor you’re rich. I can’t compete with either of you.”

  “You’ve made choices. I was told what to do,” Gunner said. “I’m not a hunter by choice. I was born in a lab to fill this job. I envy you Shea. You know your parents and you earned this place on your own. I was given a bed. Told where to go.”