The Real Thing
Lucien
THE VAMPIRE LUCIEN watched the petite, attractive, Chinese woman walk into Gregor’s suite at The Biltmore.
She smelled of ylang-ylang, five spice, ginger, love, and fear.
“Mrs. Jin, we’re delighted you’ve joined us,” Gregor greeted, keeping a nonthreatening distance as he did so and her eyes darted about the room, taking them all in.
“Please, come in,” Gregor invited, continuing to stay removed even as he swept an arm to indicate the living room of the suite. “Shall I order some tea to be brought up before I do the introductions?”
She tore her eyes from Callum, who was sitting on the arm of the couch next to his wife, Sonia, and looked up to Gregor.
“Please.”
Her voice was strong and Lucien was impressed. It entirely masked her fear.
She still reeked of it.
“See to that,” Gregor muttered to one of his lackeys, the only one in the room. A human—well-built, undoubtedly skilled, but still only human.
The man left and Mrs. Jin stopped well short of the seating area.
Gregor came to stand several feet from her side. “Allow me to introduce myself first. Although I did so at your restaurant, I did not do it fully. I’m Gregor. I’m a member of The Vampire Council, the working party which carries out the wishes of The Vampire Dominion.”
She was looking up to him, and when he finished, she nodded.
“Now, may I present my son in a more formal way than how you received at your restaurant,” Gregor continued. “This is Yuri.” He swept an arm to Yuri, who was standing by the window.
“Mrs. Jin,” Yuri murmured, then said in a way that made Gregor look sharply at him, which was to say in a way that was far from genuine, “Delighted to see you again.”
The woman took Yuri in astutely but made no reply. She simply inclined her head.
She read his tone.
Lucien looked to Callum and saw Callum’s eyes to him, his jaw hard, indicating they had the same thoughts.
Yuri was a pain in the ass.
Lucien returned his attention to Gregor when he again spoke.
“And also with us are Lucien.” Gregor tipped his head Lucien’s way, then gave her the information she needed in hopes of inciting trust. “Lucien is the mightiest of our vampires. By his side is Leah, his human bride.”
She reacted to that, her body gave a small jolt, her eyes darting between Lucien and Leah. Lucien saw a note of sadness pass through her gaze, the origin of which he couldn’t guess, before she dipped her chin to them.
“Mrs. Jin,” Lucien murmured from his place standing beside the arm of the couch.
Leah, sitting in it, said, “Lovely to meet you.”
“And this is Callum, King of the Werewolves, and his queen, Sonia,” Gregor carried on.
“Pleasure,” Callum said low.
“We’re all very happy you’ve decided to come and meet us,” Sonia stated.
Mrs. Jin remained silent even as she nodded to them.
“Please, if you’d like, take a seat,” Gregor invited.
She hesitated, looking around the room, before she moved to take the armchair across from the couch where Leah and Sonia were sitting, Lucien and Callum flanking.
Gregor moved to one of the other four armchairs, his to the narrow end of the coffee table, the wide edge facing the couch and Mrs. Jin’s chair.
“I hope you don’t mind me sharing that we’re most disappointed you have not brought your, erm . . . ward,” Gregor noted cautiously.
Mrs. Jin watched him as he spoke, but she said nothing.
Lucien sighed.
She was exceptionally cautious, which meant this would take some time. Time they did not have.
Leah heard his sigh. He knew it when she reached out a hand and touched the back of his.
Leah’s movements caught Mrs. Jin’s attention and she watched this gesture, keeping her expression clear.
“Could I ask what your ward’s name is?” Gregor requested.
She looked back to him and finally spoke, “I would prefer to be asking the questions, if you don’t mind.”
Gregor threw out a hand invitingly. “Please.”
“Are there others like you right now in Serpentine Bay?” she asked.
Gregor answered immediately, “We have those with us to attend to necessary matters, but they’re all human. The only immortal beings with our party are Yuri, who you may have guessed is a vampire, Lucien, Callum, and Sonia.”
She looked swiftly to Sonia, then back to Gregor when he continued speaking.
“We are well aware your ward will be able to sense us and we didn’t want to have a retinue of vampires in Serpentine Bay causing him alarm. Callum, who commands the wolves, has agreed with this and is also here without any of his people.”
She nodded once and pressed, “No others?”
“I believe that the others discovered the hard way they were woefully unprepared to successfully complete their mission and they’ve retreated. Yuri, Lucien, Callum, and myself have moved extensively and frequently through Serpentine Bay since we arrived, including this morning, and we’ve sensed no others like us.”
“And what precisely is their mission?” she asked.
“I’m afraid, Mrs. Jin, that what I’m sure you already know is the truth. They wish to see an . . .” Gregor paused, then finished, “end to your ward and/or his mate.”
“Why?”
Gregor drew in breath through his nose and his tone gentled considerably when he replied, “It’s your ward’s right to know this, Mrs. Jin. I mean you no disrespect, but it’s also his right to share it with you once he knows it. Or not, as he wishes.”
“This is not going to happen that way,” Mrs. Jin returned. “It will be me who decides if I wish to share what’s happening with my . . .” She paused, as if struggling, before she said, “ward.”
“If you allow him up from his underground cell long enough to learn,” Yuri put in smoothly, the words said with no inflection, but they were still ugly.
“Yuri,” Gregor spoke quietly but sharply.
“I know your play, Father, but you know I don’t agree with it due to the fact that this woman keeps her vampire in a pit under a Dumpster, shameful and hidden away,” Yuri bit back.
Lucien tensed in preparation to take care of Yuri so he couldn’t fuck this up, and he felt Callum do the same.
However, they both looked back to Mrs. Jin when they heard her soft laughter.
“Yes,” she said softly, mirth still in her expression. “My sons tease him often about his preference for space. Mostly my youngest. However, that is what my eldest son prefers.” Her gaze sharpened on Gregor. “And I’ll correct you, albeit belatedly. He is not my ward. He is my son.”
That morsel glided through the room and Lucien sensed both Leah’s and Sonia’s relief, not to mention Callum’s and his own.
“And as his mother,” Mrs. Jin continued, “it is my responsibility to keep him safe. Three nights ago, he was not safe. His mate was not safe. My sons rushed to their brother’s side to offer him aid, and they were not safe. I am an old woman. I cannot do that. But this, meeting with you in an effort to understand what has befallen him, I can do.”
“I understand, Mrs. Jin, and I will say it gives us great relief to hear your loyalty to one of our own,” Gregor replied. “However, we must encourage you to ask your son to come here so we can speak to him personally.”
“You don’t understand, Mr . . .” She shook her head, appearing unfamiliar with her sudden uncertainty, proving she was a woman who wasn’t often that way. “Gregor. My son is exceptionally protective of his family. He finds you a threat. I can only assume you’re aware of his abilities, and him having these, he feels, even as my other sons are highly skilled and very strong, he’s the only one who can protect us. He’s keeping us safe by not putting himself in harm’s way.”
Lucien studied her, noting she didn’t realize she’d given something away.
Her hybrid was not there, but she was, and they were far more a danger to her, a woman who could not defend herself, than to him, who had proven able to defend himself very well.
He didn’t know she was there.
But Lucien knew, when he found out, he would not be happy.
“We do understand, Mrs. Jin,” Callum put in quietly, cutting into Lucien’s thoughts. “We understand intrinsically. For that is wolf.”
“I’ll ask you to explain,” Mrs. Jin stated, and Lucien felt his stomach tighten.
She had no idea.
Which meant her son had no idea.
Lucien couldn’t imagine not understanding his nature. The idea was abhorrent.
The third of The Three didn’t. He’d lived however long his life was, and considering his maturation it had to be over a century, not knowing.
Fuck.
Callum had realized this too, thus he explained immediately, “The wolf is about his pack. All about his pack. There is nothing more important than their safety and nurture. The werewolf is the same. His,” he dipped his head to his mate, “or her family is all-important. I don’t know how long he’s had his mate, but I can imagine you’ve noticed that this instinct is significantly heightened when it comes to her. This is because she represents the second half to the whole of the family unit. Protection of her is vital. To put it simply, a male wolf lives for that. He will eat, drink, sleep. But he exists for his mate.”
She allowed her eyes to round with wonder for the barest of moments before she hid her reaction and said softly, “Thank you for that explanation.”
“I’ll be happy to share more with you, and your son, should he trust us enough to meet with us,” Callum replied.
“And I’ll be happy to share those traits he has that are vampiric,” Lucien added.
Strangely, when her eyes came to Lucien as he spoke, they dropped to Leah briefly before coming back to Lucien.
This he read.
The third of The Three had a mate who was as The Prophesies foretold.
A human.
“There is much he needs to know,” Lucien told her and held her eyes as he carried on, “And not simply about what occurred three nights ago.”
She understood him and didn’t wish for him to know that, this being why she looked to her lap.
Lucien felt Leah’s fingers curl around his and hold fast.
She sensed it too.
“We don’t wish to alarm you further than you and your family have already been alarmed, Mrs. Jin, but I’ll tell you now, it’s urgent we speak to your son and his mate,” Gregor told her. “There are matters they must know, and the sooner they know them, the better.”
Mrs. Jin looked to Gregor, allowing, “I’ll speak with him again.”
“Please,” Gregor replied, “be convincing. As you know, the threat is very real. In an effort to establish trust, we have not approached again but kept our distance. However, we cannot leave. And we cannot because they will try again, Mrs. Jin. They will bring reinforcements and they’ll try again. And even if we have the mightiest of vampires, with King Callum holding his position as sovereign of the wolves because he’s by far the strongest of them all, we still fear without our own reinforcements, the threat they will bear when they return could be overwhelming. And if it is, that would be catastrophic.”
Lucien sensed her escalating panic, even as she endeavored to hide it when she implored, “Then, please, share that with me.”
“You’ve most assuredly earned our loyalty with what you’ve shown our brother,” Gregor told her gently. “But I’m afraid it’s his right to hear this and we cannot withdraw that right, even for you.”
“Then I’m afraid I’ve had the bad manners to request tea when I cannot drink it, Mr. Gregor, since it’s clear I should get home to my family,” she returned.
“Of course,” Gregor murmured, standing as she did the same. Callum came up off the arm of the couch out of respect and Mrs. Jin’s eyes moved to him when he did so, taking that in. “I’ll show you out,” Gregor finished.
She looked back to him, then back to those on and around the couch, dipping her head in a small bow before she followed Gregor to the door.
“We hope we hear from your son and his mate soon, Mrs. Jin, and further, I have the opportunity actually to share tea with you on some occasion in the not-so-distant future,” Gregor said as farewell at the door.
“We share this hope, Mr. Gregor,” she replied. She looked to the room, nodded to Yuri, then moved out the door Gregor had opened.
He closed it behind her, and when he turned to the room, Sonia noted, “I think that went well.”
“It did, mostly, outside my son needing to learn some diplomacy,” Gregor returned, his eyes to Yuri.
“I do believe, Father, that my defense of one of my brethren was not taken negatively by that human,” Yuri retorted.
“You couldn’t know that when you opened your mouth,” Callum put in with annoyance.
“No, but it’s done and it caused no harm so there’s no point in discussing it now,” Yuri shot back.
“This is true, Cal,” Sonia said quietly.
Callum’s jaw got hard, which meant he kept his mouth shut.
Yuri turned to his father. “We know nothing about this hybrid. We don’t even know his name. He’s entirely off the grid to the point he’s wind. We can trace that family to Daytona. To Dallas. To Pittsburgh. Through this, he doesn’t exist, not in any of those places.”
“You can well imagine, considering it’s clear Mrs. Jin and her sons are loyal to him and wish him safe, why they would take precautions that his true nature not be discovered. We, ourselves, move frequently so that those around us will not come to realize that we don’t age,” Gregor replied.
“What I’m saying is, we do not know this hybrid. We don’t know his mate. We don’t know his nature. We don’t know their strengths or weaknesses or what they’re currently planning, including a possible attack on us, not to mention fleeing,” Yuri returned. “We should send a human, at least, to keep an eye on that restaurant.”
“Do you not think with the extreme care they’re taking in protecting their son and brother that they wouldn’t notice a human doing something like this?” Gregor asked. “The only reason you knew where he stayed was that you moved about that building and smelled him. In their state, with what befell them three nights ago, I do not wish to think what reaction they would have to any threat, vampire, wolf, or human, including us, which they’ve made clear they perceive as a threat. We need to establish trust, Yuri, not shed blood.”
“Knowledge is power, Father,” Yuri remarked.
“We need know nothing except they are the last of The Sacred Triumvirate,” Gregor stated calmly.
Lucien tired of this back and forth and turned to Callum.
“Your wolves are close?” he asked, and Callum looked to him.
“Close but too far,” he replied.
“The hybrid can’t sense them, Callum,” Gregor told Callum something he already knew as they’d had this discussion two days ago when he and Sonia arrived. “And the enemy can’t know they’re in wait. But in case we need them, we need them close.”
“I have an excellent memory, Gregor, so there’s no purpose in repeating yourself,” Callum returned.
Gregor took no offense and looked to his son. “Our vampires?”
Yuri nodded curtly, visibly still impatient and annoyed. “They’re amassing fifty miles south of town, to the wolves’ north.”
“I have hope Mrs. Jin will impress upon her son that he should meet with us, but there may be a need to prove we’re trustworthy,” Gregor murmured like he was talking to himself. “I just hope the losses are few should that occur.”
“Me too,” Leah muttered.
Sonia looked to her friend and gave her a reassuring smile.
“We should have sent in the women,” Lucien noted. “Leah’s human. She would be no threat and might be able to establish camaraderie with The Third’s mate.”
“Again, no use going over old ground,” Yuri said.
“I’m not,” Lucien replied. “I’m mentioning it again because it’s still a play we can make.”
“And you wish your bride and my sister to go into the den of a hybrid vampire werewolf who doesn’t trust his own kind enough that he’s dispatched every one he’s encountered, save one who didn’t meet that fate only because he ran away?” Yuri asked.
“I’d trust The Third with my wife because he did the same thing I would do if someone had touched her. He tore them apart. Even if he doesn’t know who he is and all that means, he’d not harm Leah if she caused no threat. No one could say the same for those he slayed,” Lucien retorted.
“Give them until tomorrow,” Gregor cut in before things escalated as the look on Yuri’s face said they would. Then again, Gregor had raised Sonia since she was a child, Yuri a part of that, so he too was protective of the woman Yuri called “sister.” “Then we’ll discuss Leah and Sonia being involved.”
“I’ll reiterate at this point,” Leah said, “I’m all in.”
“Me too,” Sonia threw in.
Lucien sighed and looked down at his bride, who was looking at Sonia. “I have a taste for some Chinese food anyway.”
“Me too,” Sonia repeated on a grin.
Lucien moved his eyes to Callum, who had dropped his head back and was looking at the ceiling.
“He’ll sense you as wolf, Sonny,” Yuri reminded her.
“I know that, Yuri,” Sonia returned. “And he’s half wolf. He’d never harm a she-wolf that he senses as anything but a threat. And, it goes without saying, I’ll be no threat.”
“You can’t know that,” Yuri fired back.
“I live with wolves, Yuri, one in particular who is king because he’s the shining example of all the rest,” Sonia volleyed. “I can know that.”
Yuri clamped his mouth shut when Gregor ordered, “Enough. Tomorrow we’ll discuss this again. Today we hope that Mrs. Jin will talk sense into her . . .” His lips curled very slightly, then he said, “Son.”
Lucien felt Callum’s eyes and he looked that way.
What he saw was that Callum was hoping.
Lucien was too.
The time was nigh. The last of The Three had been found.
That meant they were all destined to save humanity from being enslaved by immortal beings.
Or they would die trying.
And they needed to get on with it.
One way or another.
Abel
“So, why don’t you have an accent?”
This came from Delilah, who was lying naked on top of her naked werewolf vampire.
Suffice it to say, they had not gone down to their space to think on a change of mind of staying in Serpentine Bay and putting the lives of everyone they loved at stake. They also had not cuddled close and shared their histories.
They’d gone down to their space and fucked all afternoon.
And most of the evening.
Now, finally, Delilah had had enough and wanted to talk, this being only thirteen short hours after Abel suggested they do just that when they woke.
He wasn’t complaining. He had a more than healthy sexual appetite and it would factor that the mate destiny chose for him would have the same.
Still, he was glad they were finally talking and not fucking. They needed to get to know one another.
She was also wearing him out, albeit pleasantly, and that had never happened in his life.
“Would you like something to eat before your interrogation?” he asked.
“You swiping that lemon chicken destined for someone else’s table between round four and five was enough for me,” she answered. “And by the way, your crazy-cool speed is awesome when it comes to theft, which is something we’ll be talking about too . . . your non-messy ‘business.’”
She said the last word while pressing her tits deep into his chest since she’d lifted her hands to do air quotation marks.
He moved his hands from her ass to wrap his arms around her and replied, “Yeah, we’ll talk about that. But as to your lead question, you’re in a country for a century, pussycat, your accent tends to fade.”
“Mm,” she purred. “So do the boys speak Mandarin too?”
“They did. Ming, Jian-Li, and I all spoke it as well as English while they were growing up. As they got older though, they rebelled. Wanting to be like the kids around them, not wanting to be different, not understanding the importance of history and embracing your culture, even if your family decided years ago to leave the old world behind, they quit speaking it and stopped responding to it.”
He tilted his head on the pillow, tightened his arms, and held her gaze before he shared the rest.
“I think they all regretted doing it when Ming died, but that made it worse for some reason. It was like they didn’t want that reminder, the rebellion against the father they loved. Especially since Ming thought their understanding and respect for their heritage was important. I’ve no idea how much they take in now. They never use it.”
“That’s sad,” she noted.
“It is,” Abel agreed.
Since it was sad, and he was learning Delilah wasn’t about sad, she changed the subject.
“So, you speak very, well . . . contemporary,” she remarked.
He got her, so he explained, “You adapt, Lilah. I don’t talk like I talked when I first learned English, or when we endured the sixties, or that valley girl bullshit, though I never talked like that.” She grinned and he kept going. “You soak in what’s around you. You probably don’t talk like you did ten years ago either.”
“This is true,” she muttered, her eyes dropping to his shoulder.
It was Abel’s turn for questions.
“Where did you live?”
Her gaze shot back to his and she let out a surprised giggle before her question shook with the same. “What?”
“Before we met, where did you live? Where is the life you’re leaving behind?”
Her eyes went huge before she burst out laughing, her head falling so she could bury her face in his chest, her dark hair all around, her mirth vibrating through his skin, his flesh, straight into his heart.
Another dream come true, seriously so much better as the real thing.
Christ.
His arms tightened further.
She jerked her head back. “I can’t . . .” She choked, giggled again, then made another attempt. “I can’t believe you don’t know that about me.”
He grinned into her laughing face. “Well, I don’t.”
“New Mexico,” she answered, gulped back more laughter, and went on, “Between Santa Fe and Taos, but I work in Santa Fe.”
“What do you do, bao bei?”
“I’m PA to a lady who owns a string of boutiques,” she replied immediately. “Two in Albuquerque, two in Santa Fe, one in Taos. They’re pretty successful. She travels around a lot, dealing with things hands-on, going to buying shows, shit like that. I manage her travel schedules. Make reports of how the shops are doing. Stuff like that.”
She drew in a breath, her face turned pensive, and she kept going.
“She’s nice, but the job isn’t that great. Kinda boring. The same thing over and over again. She pays me okay. I do better than some of my friends.”
Her attention sharpened on him, and when she continued, she did it openly if still somewhat guardedly, as if needing to tell him what she was going to tell him but doing it concerned about his response.
“I didn’t go to college. School just wasn’t for me. Neither my mom nor my dad lived in a great part of town with a good school system. So Dad says it was because I was smarter than the system and I was bored.” Suddenly, she grinned. “I like that he thinks that, but he knows better. So do I. It was mostly me being my father’s daughter, hating authority, schedules, assignments, people telling me what to do.” She shrugged. “That said, it wasn’t a challenge and I got good grades. Just didn’t want to buy into more even though Dad said he’d put me through college if I wanted to go.”
Nothing about this surprised him, but two things about it troubled him.
He started with the hardest.
“You seem okay with leaving your life behind,” he noted carefully.
She shrugged. “I am, but I’m not. I don’t have a job I love, though I dig my apartment and will miss it. But it was just a place to live and I didn’t suspect I’d live there forever. So I guess now’s the time I’ll be saying good-bye to it, though I hope there comes a time when I’ll get my stuff back.”
Abel decided that time would come soon, no matter how he had to manage it.
Her sadness filtered into her features and he braced before she went on.
“I’ll miss my friends. That’ll suck. And I hope we get to a place where they can be back in my life, even from a distance. But I’ve been waiting for you my whole life and I learned early that life is not a tiptoe through the tulips. Shit happens. Life changes. If it’s important, you deal.” Her eyes grew soft on him before she gave it all to him. “You’re important. So I’ll deal.”
Her words meant he gave her another squeeze and he did it lifting his head to touch his mouth to hers, to show her just how much they meant.
Her eyes were softer when he dropped his head back to the pillow.
She knew what her words meant.
“Until just now, you haven’t mentioned your mother,” he remarked.
The grin left her face entirely.
Not a good sign.
He gave her yet another squeeze. “Lilah?”
“Mom and I aren’t tight. She . . .” She shook her head. “She and Dad didn’t get along and neither of them hid that from me, but she was bitter about it and she really didn’t hide that from me, even knowing I totally adored him.” She bit her lip, pausing before she carried on, “She also knew about the thing, that thing we share, that feeling of missing something. She thought I was crazy.”
His brows drew together. “Crazy?”
“Bona fide take-me-to-three-shrinks crazy.” She’d lifted up three fingers but dropped them when she finished, “I was in therapy for four years.”
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “She also tried to have me medicated.”
Her breath blew into his face in a whoosh when his arms contracted at her words.
He forced himself to loosen his hold, but his voice was dangerous when he asked, “Medicate you?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed hesitantly. “She was convinced I had an eating disorder and other mental disorders besides.” She curled her hand at his neck, her thumb sliding along the column of his throat in order to soothe him as she assured him quietly, “Dad stopped that part of my therapy before it ever happened, baby. I never was on meds. He totally got what was happening to me. I mean, not totally, but he didn’t think I was crazy. Just missing something I’d eventually find.”
Abel was beginning to understand her bond with her father.
“So you grew up with her and him?” Abel asked, and Delilah nodded.
“Yep. They had joint custody at first. But when Mom started the whole ‘you’re whacked in the head’ thing, Dad stepped in. He was never a fan of having me only half the time. But when that happened, he fought for full custody. Even got a real job to pay for it.”
Yes, he was beginning to understand their bond.
“I moved in with him when I was fifteen,” she shared. “But I’d pretty much checked out on Mom way before then. If I wasn’t at Dad’s house for his week, I was with my friends. Mom and me never really recovered from that even though I didn’t cut her out. I just keep . . .” Her head tipped to the side as she thought how to finish, then said, “Distant.”
Abel said nothing, mostly because he didn’t want to say what he had to say. That being that a mother not attempting to understand her daughter, instead sending her to others who would force asinine theories (he’d been with her for days and his woman had no eating disorder and certainly no mental ones) and unnecessary medications on her, was no mother at all.
She must have read this in his expression because she defended her mother by stating, “It isn’t like what I felt was normal, Abel.”
“Your dad seemed to get it,” he pointed out.
“Dad loves me,” she replied.
“As should your mother,” he returned firmly. “No conditions, Delilah. I know. I turned from a puppy into a human who tried to sink my fangs in her flesh, and still had a mother who took me on, loved me, and accepted me, no conditions. In fact, I had two.”
“I see your point,” she muttered.
He was glad because he had another one to make which was almost as important.
“For your safety and everyone else’s, she does not know about me or about us. When you start to break ties down there, she doesn’t get the story and you share it with others in a way it won’t get back to her.”
“Okay, honey,” she agreed.
Abel fell silent.
“Uh . . . speaking about that,” Delilah started, “for everyone else’s sake, what are we doing?”
“What are we doing?”
“About taking off,” she clarified.
Abel drew in breath and let it out, noting, “Their reaction was violent.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“Even more than I expected it to be.”
“Yes again.”
“And I haven’t even mentioned it to Jian-Li.”
Delilah made no response. She just pressed her lips together and widened her eyes, giving her unspoken opinion that Jian-Li’s reaction would be what it was going to be—that being even more volatile than the rest—and his mate didn’t even know Jian-Li very well
“Your father will follow us, his boys with him,” he stated.
She kept stroking his throat. “He will, Abel. To be honest, I thought he’d give in. When he didn’t, I was surprised. But even if I didn’t guess his response, I know one thing for certain about my dad . . . when he digs in, he digs in.”
Abel had that impression about Hooker Johnson too.
Not to mention his crew.
Abel looked from her to the ceiling, muttering, “Fuck.”
Delilah said nothing, and when this lasted for some time as he contemplated the ceiling, it occurred to him there was something about that he liked.
They were talking about something, it was important to both of them, it weighed heavy on their minds, and even as she lay atop him, when he needed a moment in his head, she gave it to him.
He’d met many women in his life, not all he fucked, obviously, but both varieties, this trait was rare. Especially if what was being discussed was something important and she might have her point to drive home.
On that thought, he tipped his eyes back to her. “What’s your vote?”
“Obviously my vote is not to have anyone I care about in danger, but that’s been taken out of my hands by the evil supernaturals who want us dead. It’s also been taken out of our hands by the people we care about, seeing as they’ve made it clear they won’t accept a decision that they don’t like. So I’m thinking we have no vote. Either of us. We have to give them what they need.”
“Which means they may sacrifice their lives?” he asked, but he wished he hadn’t when he caught her trying to fight a flinch.
His arms again grew tighter around her and he started stroking the skin of her sides with his fingers, something that worked and the flinch went away.
“That’s our sacrifice, baby,” she replied gently. “Our peace of mind for theirs. They need this to have peace of mind that they’re doing what they can do. To have all the time they can have with us, even if it’s short.”
On these words, she dropped her head and rested her forehead against his jaw. She took her own moments in her thoughts and Abel returned the favor, being silent and letting her.
After a while, she kept going.
“No one likes this situation. But the one thing we’ll all have as we go about navigating it is each other. So I guess that’s not a bad thing.”
She was not wrong.
And Abel had discovered something else about his destined mate.
Delilah Johnson was far from dumb.
Very far.
“Then we’re decided,” he muttered.
She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “Are we?”
He slid his hands up to under her arms and clamped tight. “Not sure we have a choice.”
“No,” she agreed.
He rolled her to her back with him on top, murmuring, “Think I gotta fuck you again.”
“Gotta?” she asked, her green eyes, which had been tinged with sadness, starting to light with humor, something he liked a fuckload better.
“Prefer to have my mind on your tight, wet cunt than this shit,” he answered.
“With this I wholeheartedly agree. Though, for my part, I prefer you to have things in it, rather than your mind on it.”
He dipped his head and grinned against her lips. “Goes hand in hand, pussycat.”
“Uh . . . speaking of your hands . . .”
She let that hang.
He did as told.
And it worked. Being all about her and her body and her noises and her sweet, tight pussy while she was all about him and his body and making him growl with her growing devotion to his cock. It was much better than considering their future, which was clouded with an unknown threat.
And it worked so well it lasted even after they both came. It lasted while Delilah purred and Abel held her and she shared snippets of her life—her friends, her apartment, what she liked to do, stories of her father’s and his friends’ antics—doing it sleepier and sleepier until she trailed off and he lost her to her dreams.
When he did, Abel closed his eyes, and with his mate tucked close for the second night in a row, he became lost to a dreamless sleep, her sweet voice, lilted with its natural husk as well as love and sometimes laughter, still ringing in his ears.