by Stormy Glenn
Kane’s eyebrows shot up as he chuckled. “Baby, you’re not dead.”
“Yes, I am.” Samuel was positive of it. “You wouldn’t be talking to me if I wasn’t dead.”
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Samuel began to have his doubts about his death when he saw Kane’s features tighten in anger. His dream man shouldn’t be getting angry with him. That wasn’t the way this was supposed to go—unless he was in hell.
Had he been that bad?
Samuel was too tired to cry. Besides, what would it accomplish if he did? It wouldn’t get his father’s approval or keep his brother from torturing him. It certainly wouldn’t keep Fallon’s coven from attacking him.
And he already knew that Kane didn’t want him.
No one tried to stop Samuel when he pushed himself to his feet.
He swayed for a moment and reached out to grab a barstool to steady himself. When he looked around the room, several men were staring back at him, all with anger on their faces.
The last face he saw was Kane’s as the man stood up in front of him. Kane didn’t look any less angry than anyone else. Samuel couldn’t keep his hysterical laughter locked behind his lips. His life had sucked, and apparently, so did his death.
He just couldn’t catch a break.
Samuel pushed Kane’s angry face from his mind and turned his attention to the largest man in the room. “Aren’t you going to kill me?”
“Is that what you want, Samuel?”
Samuel shrugged. What did he care?
“Why did you come back here after I ordered you not to?”
Samuel’s eyes flickered to Kane for a moment and then went back to Fallon. “Does it matter? I’ve invaded your territory without your permission and after you ordered me out. By our laws, you have the right to kill me.”
Was he going to be tortured for all eternity? Why didn’t Fallon and his coven just get it over with? If he wasn’t dead now, was he going to be tortured until he begged for death? He was already close to doing that.
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“Did your father send you here, Samuel?” Fallon asked.
“No.”
“Does he know you’re here?”
“I doubt it.”
“I see.”
Well, what in the hell was that supposed to mean? “Look, are you going to kill me or not?”
“No.” Fallon rubbed his chin as he stared intently at Samuel like he could see right down into Samuel’s soul. “I don’t believe I will.”
“Fine.” Samuel turned and stumbled toward the door. If Fallon and his coven weren’t going to kill him, Samuel knew who would.
“I don’t believe I said you could go, Samuel.”
Samuel stopped at the door and leaned his head against the hard wood as he waited for Fallon to say something more. Samuel didn’t say a word because he really had nothing to say.
“Since you’ve seen fit to disobey my orders, you will have to be punished.”
Well, that was more like it.
Samuel turned, eager for his misery to be over. When two of Fallon’s men stepped forward and grabbed his arms, Samuel didn’t fight them. He couldn’t. The last of his strength had drained out of him and he could barely walk.
He heard Fallon murmuring to Kane as he was escorted past the guy, but he couldn’t hear the words that were spoken. And he didn’t want to look to see if Kane was staring at him. Watching the anger on Kane’s face a moment ago was enough for him. He seriously doubted that he would ever see anything else.
The tenderness and pleasure that had lit up Kane’s face the one night they had spent together would forever be burned into his memory, but he knew it wasn’t real. None of it had been real.
And that was maybe the biggest reason Samuel was ready to end everything. The things he thought he had seen in Kane’s hazel eyes were just in his imagination. Kane had shown his true colors when
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Samuel had returned and tried to talk to the guy, to explain why he had run off, and Kane had dismissed him like he didn’t matter.
That seemed to be the story of his life.
When Samuel was pulled into a small room with a single bed in the corner, he didn’t argue. He didn’t fight. He just stumbled over to the wall and slid down to the floor, pulling his knees up to his chest.
When the two men walked out of the room and shut the door behind them, Samuel dropped his head against his knees and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep, or death, to take him. He wasn’t particular.
Samuel didn’t know how long he had been sitting there when he heard the door open and shut. It could have been minutes or hours. He was too tired to lift his head to see who it was. And he really didn’t care.
“I’ve brought you some food, Samuel.”
Samuel shuddered when he recognized Kane’s voice. He didn’t want to see Kane, not anymore. “I’m not hungry,” he whispered. And he wasn’t. He had stopped being hungry ages ago.
“You need to eat, Samuel.”
He didn’t need shit, but he wasn’t about to argue with Kane about that. Samuel just shook his head and buried his face deeper into his knees.
“Samuel.”
Samuel heard the floorboards creak and knew that Kane was squatting down in front of him. He could practically feel the warmth radiating off of the man. He so wanted to dive into that warmth and let it surround him, but that wasn’t to be.
“Damn it, Samuel!” Kane snapped. “I’ve had enough of this. You will eat if I have to force feed you myself.”
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Samuel was surprised when he actually felt a sliver of amusement flicker through him. His head swam when he lifted it to stare up at Kane. “Fuck you.”
“Not until you’ve had a bath,” Kane replied. “You stink.”
When Samuel tried to roll his eyes, his entire head rolled to one side.
“I doubt you have the strength to get it up anyway.” Kane pushed himself to his feet and walked to a door on the far side of the room, one that Samuel hadn’t seen before.
When Kane opened the door and walked inside, Samuel saw a sink and a toilet and realized that it was a bathroom. A moment later he heard water come on and knew that there was a shower inside the bathroom as well.
Kane walked out of the bathroom and straight toward Samuel.
There was a determination in Kane’s eyes that sent apprehension racing through Samuel. He could see that the man was planning on getting his way.
When Kane reached for him, Samuel tried to struggle away, batting at Kane’s hands. In his weakened state, he couldn’t even fight off a human. Before he knew it, he was standing in the shower without a stitch of clothing on his body.
Samuel felt tears mingle with the hot water as it cascaded down his face. Kane was being gentle as he scrubbed Samuel’s body clean, but it still felt wrong. And Samuel didn’t understand why Kane was even doing what he was doing.
Maybe Fallon wanted a clean body to torture.
When Kane’s hands moved over his ass, shame flooded Samuel as his cock filled. Apparently, Kane had been wrong. He could get it up.
Samuel just prayed that Kane didn’t notice it, and if he did, that the man ignored it.
Once Samuel had been scrubbed from one end to the other, Kane pulled him out of the shower and dried him off. Once Samuel was
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dry, Kane pushed him down onto the toilet seat and proceeded to dry his hair.
Samuel didn’t give a single note of protest when Kane brushed out his hair or lathered up his face and shaved him. But he did start watching Kane. At first, he wanted to know what kind of game Kane was playing. And then he was curious as to what Kane was thinking because nothing showed on his face.
When Kane grabbed his hand and drew him to his feet, Samuel followed the man back into the bedroom. He felt a little bereft when Kane left him standing naked
in the middle of the room and walked out the door.
Before Samuel could decide what he was going to do, Kane was back with a cotton shirt, a pair of sweatpants, and some socks. He helped Samuel get dressed and then pushed him down onto the bed, pulling the blankets up to his waist.
Silence continued to hang in the air as Kane grabbed the tray he had brought in earlier and sat down on the side of the bed. Kane held a glass of red liquid out in front of Samuel’s face. Samuel could smell the blood inside the glass, and despite his desolation, his stomach rumbled at the succulent scent.
Kane held the glass of blood up to Samuel’s lips and tilted it forward. Samuel could either drink or get drenched. When Kane’s eyebrow arched, Samuel swallowed until every drop was gone.
Kane set the glass on the tray and grabbed a napkin. He wiped Samuel’s mouth and then grabbed the tray, standing to his feet.
Samuel watched Kane stare down at him. When Kane’s lips pressed together and thinned, Samuel turned his head away, not wanting to see the man’s anger.
“Go to sleep, Samuel,” Kane ordered. “I’ll be back in a few hours with some more blood.”
Samuel waited until he heard the door close behind Kane before he gave into the tears prickling his eyes. Samuel rolled to his side and shoved his hand into his mouth to keep his sobs to himself, but they
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were so rough and hard that they racked his body until exhaustion finally took over and pulled him away from his sorrow.
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Chapter 5
Kane set the breakfast tray down on the small sideboard in the hallway and slumped back against the wall. He could hear Samuel’s muffled sobs through the door, and they tore at Kane’s heart. No one should feel that much misery, especially not his Samuel.
Kane knew he had contributed to it. He just didn’t know how.
When Samuel had disappeared, Kane had felt like his heart had been torn out of his chest. It hadn’t started beating again until Samuel walked back through the front door of his bar.
But the Samuel that had returned to him was not the same one that had left. His Samuel had been sweet, shy, and so eager to please that it made Kane’s teeth ache. The Samuel in the room behind him was filled with so much misery and heartache that Kane wondered how the man could stand it.
Only by locking his emotions away behind a mask of fury had Kane been able to deal with the man without railing at him for giving up. Because that was exactly what Samuel had done—given up. Kane could see it in his eyes. Samuel fully expected to die when he came back to the bar and started a fight with Fallon’s men.
And Kane would be damned before he let that happen.
He pushed away from the wall and grabbed the breakfast tray, carrying it down the hallway to the kitchen. He dropped the dishes off in the sink and then walked to the main room of the bar where Fallon was sitting in his usual booth.
Kane scooted into the booth and stared across the table at the coven leader. “Tell me how to get through to Samuel.”
Fallon arched his eyebrow.
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Kane rolled his eyes. “Just tell me what I need to know, Fallon.”
“Why is it so important to you?” Fallon asked. “The boy is in my territory, even after I told him to leave. He started a fight with my coven. By our laws, I have not only the right to punish him, but the right to kill him if I feel the need.”
Kane growled and clenched his fists. “You’re not going to touch a hair on Samuel’s head.”
Fallon leaned forward, looking more menacing than Kane had ever seen him. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t rip Samuel’s head off and deliver it to his father.”
“Because he’s mine!”
Kane blinked and sat back in his seat. He hadn’t expected to say that. He hadn’t expected to feel it. But he had and he did. Samuel was his and had been from the first moment he had spotted the man inside his bar.
And Kane would even fight the alpha of a vampire coven to keep Samuel.
“He’s mine, and I am not giving him up.”
“He’s a vampire, Kane,” Fallon said. “That will never change.”
Kane’s upper lip curled back. “So, I’ll stock up on some vitamins.”
“Think carefully about your decision, Kane. Once you decide to accept Samuel, there will be no turning back. He will be yours forever. You won’t be able to change your mind if things get tough.
Denying Samuel once you accept him could kill him.”
Kane swallowed hard. “Why?”
Kane’s skin prickled when Fallon just stared at him. It was like the man was trying to see into his soul to see if he was worth all of the effort to explain things to him, or whether he should just kill Samuel and get it over with. Finally, Fallon sighed and leaned back in his seat, draping one of his arms along the back of the bench.
“All right, Kane, I’ll tell you. I suspect that you bonded with Samuel when you had sex with him. If that is true, then being
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separated from you is worse than any pain that I could ever even conceive of torturing Samuel with.”
“What do you mean bonded?” And why did that thought send his heart racing?
“When a vampire finds the one meant for him, a bond forms between him and his bondmate. We never know when we will meet our bondmate. There is no indication, no scent, or telltale sign that tells us we’ve met our other half. We don’t know until we sleep with them and the bond forms.”
“So, that’s why you guys are such complete sluts.” Kane snickered.
Fallon’s lips twisted into a half smile. “Probably. I’d like to say that we are all looking for our bondmate and fucking anything that moves in the hopes that we will meet him or her, but truthfully, my coven is full of a bunch of horny fuckers. They just like to fuck everything and anything. The search for a bondmate has nothing to do with it.”
Kane’s amusement slid away as he thought about what this bond thing meant for him and Samuel. If what Fallon was saying was true, then why had Samuel left him in the first place? Didn’t this bond mean they were meant to be together?
“If we’re bonded, then why did Samuel leave?”
“I can’t answer that, but I suspect he was afraid.” Fallon’s hand waved back toward the front door as if it meant something. “He’s been gone for nearly two weeks, and you can see the condition he was in when he came back. If you accept him, and allow him to believe in your bond only to turn him away, I have no doubt that Samuel will slowly deteriorate until he eventually walks into the sun and kills himself.”
Kane gaped. “The bond is that strong?”
“The bond is everything!”
Wow, this was some heavy shit, but Kane wanted Samuel more than he had ever wanted anything, even his own bar. And he was
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willing to do whatever it took to keep the man. He just needed to know what that entailed.
“So, tell me what I need to know, Fallon. How do I keep Samuel?”
“It’s simple, Kane, you have to accept him, fangs and all.”
“I do accept him.”
Fallon’s eyebrow arched. “Do you?”
“Yes,” Kane said without hesitation. The whole blood drinking thing was a little strange, but so the fuck what? Kane was probably just as strange as Samuel was in his own way. That wasn’t going to stop him from keeping the man.
“Then why are you down here instead of upstairs with your man?”
Kane’s mouth dropped open, but nothing came out. He hadn’t been expecting that. He thought he would have to argue with Fallon and convince the man to see reason. He never expected Fallon to cave so easily.
“What are you going to do about Samuel being in your territory?”
Kane would really hate to have to sell his bar and move, but he would if that’s what it took to have Samuel in
his life.
“I can’t have a vampire from another coven in my territory.
Samuel”—Fallon pointed his finger at Kane—“and you will both have to join my coven.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed. “What exactly does that mean?”
“As a member of my coven, you are protected from other covens.
If they fuck with you, they fuck with me, and I don’t take kindly to it.” Fallon suddenly grinned, and it was so cold that it sent a shiver of apprehension down Kane’s spine. “The vampires that killed your brother learned the hard way that I don’t have my reputation as a badass for nothing.”
Kane didn’t really want to know what Fallon meant by that statement, although he was pretty sure he already did. But still, he chuckled as Fallon’s use of the word badass. It sounded strange coming out of the big man’s mouth. “What else?”
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“You’ll have to swear fidelity to me as the alpha of the coven.
When in my presence, I am in charge.”
“Yeah, about that…” Kane grimaced. “I don’t do so well with authority figures. It’s one of the reasons I own my own bar. I don’t like having to answer to others.”
Fallon chuckled. “It’s really not that bad. There will be certain situations when I have to be in charge like when another alpha is in the vicinity, but other than that, do whatever the hell you want. I don’t much care.” Fallon’s finger tapped the table. “What I do care about is being disrespected, and through all of our dealings, that has never been a problem.”
“Okay, but what will it mean to Samuel?”
“Pretty much the same thing except I expect a little more respect out of him as he is a true vampire and understands the rules better than you do.”
“What about the other men in your coven?” Kane asked as he glanced at the others lounging around the bar. “How will they accept this?”
Fallon shrugged. “That’s the great thing about being the alpha. I don’t have to ask.”
“So.” Kane looked back at Fallon, not quite believing he was going to do what he was about to do. “How do I join your coven?”
“It’s simple really,” Fallon replied without missing a beat. “Every coven member has to be present, but we can just do it in the middle of the dance floor. It’s big enough. You have to be naked to show your willingness not to hide anything from your coven.”