by Scott, Talyn
Heath raised a skeptical brow, no doubt thinking they were ruining perfectly good fish with sesame seeds. “You’ll be bringin’ me a couple o’ plates of that, then. Though doona bother to sear it or encrust it.”
“Two plates of raw tuna?”
“Certainly.”
After shaking her head a couple of times, she openly stared. Their server was quite aroused and extremely nervous. Typical human reaction around celestial beasts who looked damned fine, but poor Sayer was worn to the bone. And females, especially those of the human persuasion tended to be aggressive where he was concerned. Heath cleared his throat and politely pointed her in the direction of their third companion, so they could wrap up their ordering.
She tucked a curl behind her ear and glanced at the Habaline mixed-blood. “Oh, sorry, what would you like, sir?”
Heath raised a warning brow so Sayer would stop staring out, acting as though he was down for the count. They were sitting in the middle of an upscale restaurant with many, many people looking on - as if the world didn’t have anything better on the agenda than to stare at the three of them - and proper decorum was a must. “Perhaps you would like what we ordered, Sayer,” he interjected, which was the whole menu, and that was light eating for grown werewolves.
“Ale’s, um, beer’s fine, thank you.” Sayer handed her his menu and tried to make eye contact, but he just couldn’t bring his line of vision up. She completely stalled out; raking her eyes over his powerful torso while taking in his gleaming dark hair. So black and thick it challenged the stormiest nights, its longest pieces touching his collar in artful layers. He swung his face to hers, wisps brushing his sharp cheekbones. “Thank you,” he repeated so she would close her gaping mouth and leave him in peace. After a few uncomfortable shifts in his seat, he leaned his back against the richly padded booth and closed his nearly iridescent eyes hidden behind his tinted glasses.
She confirmed, “Just a drink?”
Jayce reigned in an irritated sigh. Sayer was only part vampire, yet survived entirely on blood, though he didn’t have to. “Bring him your best steak – rare,” he responded with a smile that seemed to have melted her panties. She went on her way as he tapped frustrated fingertips against the linen tablecloth. “You do have to order whether or not you eat,” Jayce explained when she was out of earshot. “Why raise suspicion?”
“Like we’re really fitting in here,” he said with an exaggerated eye roll. Tinted glasses or not, the Alpha witnessed his disrespect. “Look around you,” Sayer dared to go on. “The women are salivating as well as some of the men. Those men who aren’t riveted on me, longing to be in my bed, want to kill me for taking their females’ attentions away.” His perfect face crumpled. “Do these humans not stay faithfully mated?”
“No’ all,” Heath answered.
“Never heard the like,” he scoffed, muscles in his square jaw knotted and released with his increasing tension.
Heath smiled patiently. “Let’s just say you’ve been a wee locked up, no?”
“But still…”
“No’ all humans are faithless, just some,” Heath qualified.
“What will I do with my human, then?” He stared across the restaurant, his focus on Gage. Eerily, Gage lifted his face to him, meeting his eyes. His blonde head gleamed under the artificial lights, garnering just as much unwanted attention as Sayer. “If my Azure lifts her skirts for another human, I will go...”
“Bat-shit crazy?” Jayce offered.
“Okay,” Sayer said with a shrug, but his expression said he’d already reached that point some time ago.
Heath answered a few texts before Gage finally rejoined them, scooting in next to Jayce. He’d picked up everything with his immortal hearing while on the phone with Bren. He and a sleepy Tatum had arrived at the penthouse to keep Azure company. Sure, he had numerous werewolf guards in place since he would never leave his mate unprotected, but she didn't need to know that. And the thought of other males being around what was his while she was in heat made his blood boil. So if Tatum and Bren could give him a measure of peace while he was at this blasted meeting, he would welcome it, taking whatever he could get.
He leaned forward, fiddling with a teaspoon. “I know it’s only been a month or so since you’ve been freed from the camp,” he said in an inaudible voice that humans wouldn’t pick up on, hating using the word camp to describe something as vile as the Scottish underground, breeding colony. Yet he didn’t want to inflict more emotional pain on Sayer. Apparently, he had lived through enough. All males of their breed were ruthless warriors. Any amount of physical pain was never enough to deter them. Emotional pain was another story altogether. “Taking into consideration your most recent captivity, do you think it has anything to do with that camp?”
“No. The vampire who captured me claimed bigotry.” He shrugged, tugging a piece of long, dark hair behind his ear. “I smelled his lies easily. The fact that I am what I am had nothing to do with my incarceration. But I pretended deference. He thinks I take his word as truth.” He laughed coldly, revealing a seed of revenge planted so deeply it made Gage shiver. “Foolish. Foolish. Vampire.” The vampire’s death was coming by Sayer’s hands, anyone could see that.
They stopped when the server neared, waiting until she dispensed the drinks and a few of their platters. After they all had thanked her, she sashayed away, trying to interest them - any of them. But she wasn’t having any luck.
“Heath said you picked up on a name,” Jayce prompted after taking a long drink.
“Two names: Tare and Collin.”
On that, Gage sputtered, swallowing air with his wine. “Tare?”
“Ah, see, just as I thought.” Sayer ran a knuckle over the cleft in his chin. “Tare’s not much of a bigot, after all. But he has his sights set on vengeance, and you’re headlining his show.” His eyes met Gage’s. “Best you explain our predicament, co-mate of mine. They got Azure away from me once already. Immortal fire is impossible to fight, don’t you know?”
“Heath,” Gage struggled with his voice, “do you remember the attack -”
“Yes,” he answered before Gage finished. “The attack that ended future attacks. The exact one that forced our two factions – vampires and werewolves - to make peace in order to avoid senseless bloodshed. They drank our young that night,” he whispered low, closing his eyes at the memory. “We lost generations. One of the many reasons are numbers are so low now. Those ancient vampires loved to drink our little females to death. Felt juiced on the power.”
“Maestru put a stop to that. Along with Ciaran and my father,” Jayce interjected. “They’ve long accepted that drinking our young is an abomination,” he seethed. “And we won’t tolerate it.”
“This is personal, Jayce,” Gage interjected, getting down to brass. He looked each of them in the eye; Heath already knew what was coming next. “I killed Tare’s mate after I fucked her.” He waited for them to absorb that bit of info, and then, “right in front of him. She set me up, shagging me nightly. They followed my carriage, easing through the miasma without issue. I shed her blood for our younglings. But hers never covered the loss of our young, nothing can.” And didn’t he blame himself daily for the deaths of those children? Didn’t he hate himself when he stared at his reflection every morning, thinking that if he hadn’t fucked Clarice he would have spared generations of werewolves?
Jayce’s heavy palm landed on his shoulder, giving him a slight squeeze. He hadn’t realized he’d shut down. Not something he should do in public, especially after his recent attack. He had a new mate to protect and needed to stay on his toes. “Obviously, Tare has been waiting patiently for me to find my mate. Now he’s ready to exact whatever revenge he has planned.”
“By God, let that no’ be a mate for a mate,” Heath whispered softly, tipping his glass to his dry lips.
Gage steadied himself. “Sayer, the night I scented her in the clubbing district, what happened?”
“I took her for a
cocktail before heading to the Everglades gala. Wanted to get to know her before I had to network as the humans call it, for Jordan Marketing,” he said, inclining his head Jayce’s way. “I had been trying to court her for weeks, nothing was working. Whenever I caught Azure’s luscious scent wafting from my roomie’s clothes, or if she stopped by, I was drawn to her - a primitive drive there was no denying. Of course, she ignored me, laughed off my advances since she found our age difference a nuisance.”
“Yeah, it’s backwards here,” Gage explained. “You’re twenty-one, and Azure has ten years on you. That makes her insecure. It works out for human men, though. It’s expected among their wealthy. In fact, they call their younger females trophy wives.”
“Human societal expectations,” he muttered with exasperation. “They have it all turned about. I’ll never fit in here. Anyway, she's the only female I have ever wanted to touch. And when I reached for her before leaving the car, she responded to me so sweetly. Her body pressed to mine like she couldn’t stop herself. After giving her time to stop me, I slid my hand up her skirt and fondled her sex. It was so soft and welcoming. By instinct, I worked her into a lather, easing her body. The first orgasm I have ever brought out of a female,” he said in awe.
“You sure went for it, huh, Sayer,” Jayce whistled low in his throat. “When I was unmated, I always had to start with the small stuff like kissing and nibbling breasts. Of course, when Tatum went into heat, yeah, females get rowdy and work their bodies in the Were way, very instinctual. And enjoyable” – he wagged his brows – “if you know what I mean.”
Not ashamed for wanting only her, Sayer then added, “She's the only female I want to share my body with.”
Gage understood perfectly. When he’d encountered Tatum this afternoon, he still couldn’t believe the turnaround his heart had taken. Like a whiplash. And all he wanted was Azure, longed to run his tongue all over her body and bury himself deep inside his mate’s heat. So to do that, they needed a plan. He had to get to the facts so they could return to their female and start as they mean to go on. “So you petted her and drove to the Everglades, right?” He prompted him, trying to understand the point at which he was attacked. “After she climaxed.” When he was running on the rooftops like a madman, scenting what was his.
“Yes, we skipped the drinks and drove on. With every mile that passed, I breathed in her response to me, it was intoxicating. It scented the car; tunneled through my body where it dripped down my fingers until my shirt cuff was soaked. I felt a calling - a transformation. My hands were trembling, my muscles expanding, and my cock growing quickly.” His ebony brows popped over his glasses. “I was nigh in pain, excruciating pain. Wanted to sink my teeth in her shoulder and hold her down while I took her beneath me.”
“Sating your true female brings on the Beast,” Jayce explained.
“And satiate her, I did. She will always be first,” he vowed, “as all of her needs are before my own. And I,” he stumbled on the words, taking a deep breath to get them out, “I wanted to keep her safe.” He stopped, looking down, understanding what they were all thinking. Neither Gage nor Sayer had kept her from the vampires, which boded ill amongst their Pack. Females were to be cherished, not endangered, and most certainly not hunted by other factions. “I let her down.”
Jayce placed both palms on the table, staring him straight in the eyes. “No one knows what that feels like more than I do. And I am Alpha.” He popped his jaw and then asked, “So your Beast is claiming her as its mate?” The Alpha was making sure, since most mixed-bloods had chosen mates instead of celestially appointed ones.
“The Beast undeniably made an appearance. I tamped it down until we finished the gala. And…fuck me…at one point the moon struck me hard, and I chased her.” His breathing picked up. “I chased her through the bloody swamp without any consideration for what could happen. I went native, stupidly wild.”
Gage reached over, gripping his wrist. “You’re young. If that’s the only time you’ve ever turned wild, consider yourself accomplished. Keep going. We need intel to take Tare down.”
“Right. To answer you truthfully, Alpha,” he kept his voice low, swallowing thickly. “I hate saying, considering we’re discussing rogue vampires out for vengeance, but I consider Azure my Bride. I'm unequivocally in love with her, and I can't deny that it comes from my Species blood. It is custom for vampires to love their Brides immediately, is it not?”
“It is,” Jayce acknowledged. “But it sounds as though your Beast is in accordance, which is amazing when you think about it.”
“Those bastards took me down when I was set on claiming her. Ambushed me the same as Gage, since they are scentless, or one of them can hide their collective scents. Perhaps they are be-spelled.” He shrugged with forced casualness, pretending to drink his beer. “I don’t accept Species genetics wielding that kind of power. But the one called Tare produced immortal fire, burning me brutally, and I was out before I could think of protecting Azure.”
“You can recover from immortal fire?” Gage gasped.
“After a measure and when I feed, yes.”
“You’re certain the rogues allowed your escape?” Heath inquired.
“The cell was laughable. Believe me.” He rubbed a fingertip over the lip of his glass. “I’ve been in real ones, and that wasn’t it. They kept me weak for blood so I couldn’t heal properly. Knocked me out again, only to come back to consciousness tasting fresh blood in my mouth,” he explained carefully. “Species blood. The exact reason I haven’t neared my Azure. I won’t lead a trail of breadcrumbs to my girl.”
“Seriously, Sayer, they know she’s with me,” Gage said. “She’s safer with the two of us, than without.”
“They beat the two of us,” Sayer said, “and in one fashion or another, released us. And you say she’s safe.”
“Now, she is. Tare is toying with me, torturing, prolonging. It’s his way. I should know, it was once my way, too.” Then, he added cautiously, “But you should know that Azure was injured, as well.”
“And I scented a touch of vampire blood running in her veins.” Jayce’s mouth hardened into a tight line. “Not yours, though, definitely not yours, Sayer.”
“No, I didn’t feed her anything.” Sayer’s fangs were lowering at the thought of his Bride being injured in any way. “They hurt her and then healed her? For what purpose would this serve?”
“Can you calm yourself?” Gage asked, considering Sayer’s youth, his emotions were all over the place.
“Trying,” he hissed quietly. “Damage?”
“Her leg. Teeth. Lots of teeth.”
“They’d better run from me.” Sayer was nearly undone. Slipping from a dangerous edge only Habalines could walk. “Run while they still have legs.”
Chapter Eleven
“So close,” Sayer growled low, “so close to what’s mine.” He breathed deeply, shutting his eyes and leaning his head against the elevator wall.
Gage and Jayce had convinced Sayer to move in the new penthouse. He couldn’t endanger Azure any more than she already was. All thanks to fucking Tare. “We can sublet the beach condo to a second renter if you’d like.” Jordan Marketing owned that property. Sayer lived there for free, but benefited by having a roommate, which gave him additional income on the side.
“As a gift to Azure, we could permit her friend, Nick, to stay there rent free while he finishes his residency,” Sayer said, still keeping his eyes closed, though he’d removed his glasses.
He’d started managing a local pro-celebrity, doing an excellent job of it, too. He was young but incredibly smart. Not just from his immortal blood, but from that alien side of his. Habalines were so intelligent, they were frightening.
“Gage, you know I still don’t have the savings,” he added despondently. “I’ve been freed for scant weeks. Everything I have was bestowed by the Pack, by the Alpha.”
Sayer’s pride was in the way. The precise reason Gage hadn’t told him, as a co-
mate, he would fully support him financially. That wasn’t what a male wanted to hear. After centuries of working and investing, Gage was more than comfortable. Presently, he only worked to help the Pack, to manage and protect their assets so their race could continue and thrive. Soon, he was going to suggest putting Sayer through college, but now wasn’t the time. So he changed the subject.
“No longer will we have to be alone when we get home at night. We’ll have our own female to join bodies with in a decidedly werewolf way under the moon, someone to drink from and feed in return, someone to bathe and clothe. A mate to spoil rotten with our attentions just to see her smile, wouldn’t that make you feel like the best male walking the face of this earth?”
“I’ll do that and more,” Sayer laughed, opening those iridescent eyes. “My love for her is so pure, it’s one of many reasons I’m weak. I haven’t fed except for that vampire’s devious offering. After connecting with her, I don’t want the intimacy feeding entails with anyone but my mate.
Sayer’s professions of love hit him square in the heart. Eventually, Azure would love him, and he would love her easily. They’d whisper across the bed at night about utter nonsense and make babies while mating in the Sanibel Island marsh. Gage wanted that now, was ready for it. “You only drink from females?”
“Since, I was freed, yes.”
“In your camp,” Gage said carefully, “You only had males to feed on?”
“Understandable,” he snapped irritably, “since we weren’t to touch females.”
“She’s recovering from whatever happened to her. Did she have a limp before?”
Sayer flinched. “Never.”
“Umm, perhaps we should get her more Species blood,” Gage suggested. “It’s known to heal humans at an incredible rate.”
“Is it, now? Then she can have all I’ve got.”
“Not when you’re weak, and it’s diluted by Were and Habaline blood.”