Fanged secrets a m m mpr.., p.3
Fanged Secrets : A M/M Mpreg Romance, page 3
“We’ll have to expand the clinic if we do that. I would say we’d turn one of the mating moon houses into his office, but there’s not many left.”
“We’re going to have to build more. We could pull Manny off the library and get some up in a few weeks if we had to.”
“I’d rather avoid that if we can,” Bobby sighed. “We have a librarian coming now and Liam’s determined to have it. He’d relent for housing if we needed it, though. Just right now---”
“He’s pregnant and you want to make him happy,” I chuckled. “I get it. I’d rather keep him happy too if we can. Besides, Manny has to start on that greenhouse and then after winter and the thaw he and Eston will be setting up fields. That’s going to be the important part. At least we’ll have bodies to help with that.”
“That’s if they’re willing to work or if they’re not dumbasses,” I said.
“You think everyone who grew up in a city is a dumbass.”
“No, I think most people who grew up in cities don’t know how to grow food and I stand firm on that being an important life skill. If everyone works everyone eats. If everyone doesn’t work, we’ll have to convert to having a grocery store and still feed people who don’t have jobs. It’s better if everyone works for the good of Heartville. We’re a pack. We have to keep acting like it and make newcomers feel welcome enough to join in. I know you’ve been busy with Dara and Cade and everything, but I’ve talked to a lot of them. A few of them are even afraid to come outside at night because the woods are close by. Let’s face it. We’re the more affordable option compared to the larger groups. Some folks came here just because of that.”
“Do you think that’s going to be a problem?” Bobby arched a brow as we stared out of the kitchen’s big picture window.
“Not at all. I think they need a lot of help and reassurance, but they’re the ones who London didn’t give a shit about. Yeah, yeah. I know, Cade would disagree, but they were lower income, and those folks always get overlooked. Here, that doesn’t matter. They’ll have what they need and more as long as we can work as a pack.”
“And what do you think we need to do to make that happen? I’ve known you long enough that you don’t give speeches without having a point. Eventually, you’ll realize you can just tell me what you think and I’ll listen without the speech.”
“Shut up, sappy sire,” I said and shot his reflection in the window a bird. “I think we need a community center, and we need to have a village-wide meeting to let them know all of this. Probably a you and Liam speech thing. And I know it feels like forever off, but we should start letting people sign up to help with the farming. We’ll vet them and let Cade vet them too, because they’ll work so close with Eston, but it’s time to start lining all that out.”
“We’ll put a community center on the list. The library will have meeting rooms.”
“Big enough for everyone?” I arched a brow. “Might be time to build a town hall too.”
“Shit,” Bobby swore under his breath and looked down at his boots. “You’re probably right. We hadn’t planned on getting this big this quick. Fucking Mundanes Before Magic. I’d like to ---” He stopped. “Nothing can be done about them from here. After we get the new guys settled in, I’ll talk to Liam about getting a group together to plan out the next steps.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said and pulled my shirt off over my head.
“What are you doing?” Bobby looked at me like I might kiss him.
“I just spotted the ass tail of that limping buck. I’m going to go get lunch,” I said and inside me my wolf wagged his tail.
“Come on then,” Bobby said and took his shirt off too.
***
By the time, Liam pinged Bobby on their mating link that he was almost back to Heartville we had the limping deer skint and cooking the smoke pit behind my house. Nem and Adrian had wandered over and we left them to watch the pit while we went to meet Liam, Starry, and the newcomers in the parking lot.
My wolf wagged his tail all the way there. He was excited to meet someone we shared roots with. We weren’t related. There were so many vampyric families in the Rook and Feather Coven that they could marry each other. Still, he had problems. I was born a problem. The wolf and I were likely to make a new friend.
Bobby stood akimbo for the three minutes it took Liam’s truck to come into view. The back was loaded down with moving crates strapped in. I ran down a list of folks in my head that might make quick work of that for them and poked them over the pack link to get their asses out here and be useful.
“You know Liam and Starry could move those boxes in one trip in their sleep,” Bobby said. “They’ll tell you that too.”
“Yeah, but Liam’s pregnant and we need folks greeting newcomers. Make them feel welcome right from when they pull into the parking lot.”
“You’re turning into your dad.”
“That’s impossible. Mark’s a bear. So, I can’t turn into Papa Bear. Besides, I don’t have kids either. So, not a dad. Not a bear. Thus, I’m not turning into him.”
“There are worse people to turn into,” Bobby shrugged and started toward the truck as Liam killed the engine.
I sniffed the air and looked around the parking lot. No one was out here, but I always felt naked standing on the pavement. My wolf froze inside of me examining the two new scents. One was a wolf. That was Shepard’s friend, Irwin. He smelled like most Hemlock wolves. He was a bit on edge but most folks arrived here that way. He was an omega like Shepard and that meant he had even more reason to be on edge. Not here, but in some places that meant safety wasn’t always guaranteed.
My wolf blinked and tugged my concentration away from the omega wolf. He annoyed me like that sometimes. I always took a special interest in other wolves because there was a better than not chance that my true-mate would be another wolf. He was more interested in the vampire whose scent wasn’t quite out of Liam’s truck yet.
The four men piled out and Bobby kissed Liam like his mate had gone on a trip to the moon instead of a few hours away to the airport up in the rodent territory.
“Sheesh,” Starry said under his breath.
My wolf’s tail wagged faster and faster and he stood up ready to pounce. I almost asked him who he was going to pounce, but then it hit me. The wind shifted and hit me just like the scent of the buck had hours ago. Only this new scent didn’t hit my belly. It hit everywhere. It was as if every atom inside of me got shaken up like a fistful of dice.
“MINE!” My wolf howled inside my head.
I shook my head as if I could shake him free from invading my thoughts. He was insane. Irwin was definitely not our mate and he was the only omega wolf around.
“Not him!” My wolf growled.
Then I saw him: Shepard. He wore sunglasses and stood a head over his wolfy friend. He had dirty blonde hair and shiny lips as if he just licked them. Lean muscles rippled under his t-shirt. I swallowed down another howl from my wolf as I tried to meet his gaze through his sunglasses. He smiled – it lit up the whole parking lot. I opened my mouth to say we should get him out of the sun. Vampires did okay in the sun if they’d had enough blood, but I had to protect him. Maybe it was the sun that set off his episodes.
I took a step forward but before I reached him, he faltered, swayed, and tilted forward toward the ground. His friend swore under his breath and turned to him. Only I was faster. I landed mostly on top of him, but with my palms cradling his head. His sunglasses fell askew, showing bloody tears leaking from his eyes.
“Fuck!” Irwin swore again and dropped to his knees.
“I got him!” I growled.
“Move over! Your fat ass is going to squish him!” Irwin swore at me, and I growled.
“Daniel!” Bobby snapped.
He was right. Under normal circumstances it was never okay for me to growl at an omega who just arrived in Heartville, but these weren’t ordinary circumstances.
“Bobby, he’s true-mate responding,” Liam said, but his voice was far away as Shepard’s lean muscular arms started thrashing.
Keeping his head cradled with one hand, I caught his arms one by one, tucked them against his body, and held them in place with my knees.
“Are you fucking serious?” Irwin growled, turning to Liam.
Both Bobby and Starry stepped in front of the pregnant dragon.
“I’d prefer if no one fought right now,” I growled, pressing my forehead to Shepard’s.
I knocked away the glasses with my face to get closer to him. The smell of tangy copper filled the parking lot. Soon help would arrive to move their belongings and I wasn’t sure if I was okay to see anyone while my mate was thrashing around on the pavement.
“Come on, mate. Come on. Whatever you’re seeing isn’t in the real world,” I cooed to him. “Come back to me. Come on.”
Shepard thrashed under me again, this time with his full body. I settled my weight harder on him to keep him still.
“Come on, sweetheart. You can hear me. You smiled right before you fell. I’m here and you know me, and I know you.”
“He can’t fucking hear you!” Irwin growled. “He can’t hear during this shit and ---”
Then I did the only logical thing. Shepard thrashed under me again and again. If something in his blood called him off into some far-off world of terror-inflicting visions, then taking that blood away would make it stop --- at least for now.
They extended from my gums. Usually, I never brought them out around other people. They were my and my wolf’s secret weapon. Only saving my mate from the terror inside his head was worth the exposure. I bit through his red t-shirt and into his shoulder, careful to avoid his claiming gland. I’d bite that later when he was ready. For now, I was certain one bite would bring him back to the reality the rest of us shared. His blood flooded into my mouth and Irwin shouted something that I did hear.
He must’ve made for us again because nearby he hit the pavement tackled by Starry.
“I’m here,” Shepard’s voice rang out beneath me, and I stopped biting him.
“Get him off him!” Irwin growled nearby, his voice sounding close to a shift.
“Ir?” Shepard croaked.
“Shep!”
“I’m okay! I’m okay!” Shepard repeated the two words like a mantra as I raised up enough to pull my shirt off and wipe away his bloody tears with it. “He’s ----” The words caught in his throat and for a second, I thought another vision would assault him. “He’s my true-mate, Ir.”
“Daniel, your eyes are red,” Bobby said matter-of-factly.
I grabbed Shepard’s discarded sunglasses and asked if he minded if I borrowed them. He shot me a confused look and shook his head. I slid them on right as the others arrived to help. I stayed where I was, but let go of Shepard’s arms. His hands found mine and we stayed frozen as the others gave us wide berth and unloaded the truck. He grabbed my shirt and wiped away the spots of his blood on my face before any of the new arrivals saw it.
Starry pushed himself to his feet and Irwin crawled over to us.
“Are you okay?” I asked the omega wolf.
“Yeah. Fucking hell. I feel like I’m a fucking pancake, though,” he said, rubbing his ribs.
“Sorry, but you did go to tackle Daniel,” Starry shrugged, turning to help unload the truck.
I focused on breathing and not leaning in to kiss Shepard like he was the only person in the world. That was hard. His taste still danced on my tongue and I wanted to slip that inside his mouth and never come up for air.
No one said anything else to us until all the helpers were gone with Starry on their heels to ensure everything safely arrived at their new house.
“I’m not talking about this right now, Bobby,” I announced before he could ask questions.
“I have questions,” Liam said. “Not about --- er--- that, but how did you know that would stop the vision?”
“Can we go inside and talk?” I asked. “This isn’t the place or ----”
“Liam, take them to the house. I’m going to take Irwin over to Dara to make sure Starry didn’t crack a rib on him,” Bobby said.
I had a lot of explaining to do later when I was alone with Bobby. Of all people, I should’ve told him my secret, but my parents didn’t even know. It’s not like I had to drink blood. No one looks at a wolf weird for eating a raw kill and that provided more than enough blood to keep my fangs at bay.
I stood up slowly and whispered an apology to Shepard about his maybe-injured friend.
“Irwin’s very protective of me. We’re best friends, but maybe more than that – like brothers. We both have--- Never mind. I have a weird thing. Obviously.”
I held out my hand and he took and allowed me to pull him to his feet.
“I didn’t know there were---” he stopped and stepped closer to me. “I didn’t know there were any other vampires here.”
“Not really. Just me. I’ll explain later. Liam didn’t know either,” I said, trying to reassure him that no one lied to him.
“I gathered that. Your Alpha or leader or whoever he is smelled so fucking surprised. Everyone did,” Shepard nodded.
“Are you okay to walk? I can carry you,” I offered.
For a second, he stepped close, and I thought he’d take up my offer. Instead, he pressed up onto his tiptoes and pressed his lips to mine. My eyes drifted shut and I felt my fangs disappear. My red eyes were probably gone too. Whatever urge his vision called up in me was chased away by his soft sweet kisses.
“I can walk,” he whispered when he pulled away. “Just so you know, Irwin will have to live with us. We promised to live together forever. We never imagined meeting our true-mates, but I can’t imagine leaving him alone.”
“We’ll make it work,” I said, but my wolf wasn’t thrilled about the overbearing omega coming into our home.
Chapter Six
Shepard
The three of us sat around Liam’s kitchen table. I recognized the room from the video calls we shared leading up to my move here. Daniel moved one of the chairs so that we sat right next to each other. Our hands met and our fingers entwined. I was still a space cadet. I was always a space cadet after a vision. It was the shortest I’ve ever had – maybe three or four minutes long.
I couldn’t stop looking at Daniel as Liam set the table with lemonade, cookies with fancy pink icing, and sandwiches. I almost didn’t hear him ask if I wanted ice. Ice was fine. No ice was fine. As long as Daniel didn’t let go of me everything would be just fine.
“How long do you think Irwin will be?” I snapped back to reality.
“Not long. He didn’t smell broken. Maybe bruised,” Liam said, a guilty look dancing across his face. “Starry, might’ve overreacted.”
“No, Irwin could’ve caused some damage. He’s taken plenty of self-defense courses,” I said. “He just didn’t know what was going on. I opened my mouth to tell him and then the world blooded over so to speak.”
“Do you want to wait on him and Bobby?” Liam asked.
I almost said I didn’t want to wait on anyone. I didn’t want to be here in this kitchen. I wanted to find a bedroom or a shower. I wanted to crawl under Daniel’s skin and live there. I wanted to find some time to wrap my head around the fact my true-mate was here in the flesh. He was right there in the parking lot as if he was just waiting for me to show up. Also, he stopped the vision in its tracks. One minute I was watching some poor man being drained of his lifeblood and the next all I could think about was the heavy weight of his body against mine and his lips pressing around the bite he left on my shoulder. Maybe he was the cure, and the cause didn’t matter anymore.
“We probably should,” Daniel answered. “I’m sure they’ll have questions. There are still things I’m not going to talk about. I’m sorry, Liam, but I think Bobby’s going to be pissy for awhile.”
“We’ll deal. We always do. I sorta thought maybe this was coming,” Liam said and stopped short.
“You had a vision of this?” Daniel asked.
“Not exactly. Nothing that happened out there. Just --- it was short, and nothing was too clear. So, I didn’t say anything.”
“I like the future to be a surprise,” Daniel nodded.
“I’d like the past to be a mystery,” I chuckled and squeezed his hand.
“I’m alive,” Irwin announced as he followed Bobby into the kitchen through the house’s back door. “My side is bruised, but my ribs are intact. The doctor here is cute, but he’s like married twice already. But I booked us appointments at his husband’s salon for when it opens up soon.”
I opened my mouth unsure of what to say. I didn’t mind a salon day but thinking that far ahead felt impossible with my hand all wrapped up inside of Daniel’s.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said. “We’ll talk about the rest of it later.”
Irwin pulled a chair over and squeezed in on my other side. He looked Daniel up and down and I opened my mouth to tell him not to say anything asinine. Only he didn’t say anything. He just reached across me and over the table to shake Daniel’s free hand.
“You come with a stellar reference from the healer. A lot of healers are ignorant about vampyric medicine, but they tend to be good judges of character. If Dara says you’re helpful and trustworthy, I’ll trust him. He’s a healer.”
“Thanks, I think,” Daniel blinked at him.
Bobby didn’t join us at the table. He stood leaning against the counter with his arms crossed.
“Where’s your baby?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Over with a friend in the garden. The kids are chomping down on the veggies and stuff that didn’t get gathered up. Soon the fall wind will kill them off anyway,” Bobby said matter-of-factly. “He started out with Adrain,” he added, glancing at Liam, “but he kept trying to climb into the pit with the deer.”
I scooted a little closer to Daniel to escape the scent of Bobby’s irritation.
“Cool it, Bobby!” Liam said, his voice light.
Bobby glanced at Liam and his scent lightened.
