Fanged secrets a m m mpr.., p.5
Fanged Secrets : A M/M Mpreg Romance, page 5
“Statistically there was more chance of you being a wolf. A lot of wolves paired off in the Other World from what I’ve seen of true-mate responses, but I always knew there was a chance. For all I know, I’m more in Grady Moore’s soul group than the Hemlock Wolves.”
I cringed at the name. Almost all vampires did. The fire went out of Daniel’s eyes.
“Sorry. It’s ----”
“I get it,” he said as his hands disappeared from my hips.
“No, come back here, please,” I said and caught his arm before he stepped too far away for me to reach.
“His name is scary,” Daniel shrugged. “I get it.”
“His name is sad. His name shows that the biggest vampire society stateside was corrupt. It was evil. It was messed up and it failed him – because it was set up to fail him. We wouldn’t have been possible there. You know what they’d have done --- you over a bowl and ----” then the world blurred over again.
The bowls of blood were back. The bowls were filling with naked men hanging from above them. Blood rained down over me until a sharp bite brought me back to the present. I came back to reality stretched out on the sofa we walked past on our way to the kitchen with Daniel on top of me.
“I’m----”
“Shhhh……” Daniel whispered in my ear. “I don’t think we can talk about what we were talking about.”
“It’s like my ancestors are in my blood,” I whispered.
“That’s where they live the longest,” he whispered back to me. “I know what they did. We all know what they did. They lured shifters in by hook or crook or by their true-mate responses and drained them. I know that. That’s why Grady left. It is sad. He wanted more. He was so fucked. He’s not someone anyone can have too much sympathy for because he lost his fucking mind and soul somewhere along the way. To start with all he wanted was to save his mate.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wasn’t sure if they were blood or salt, and I couldn’t wipe them away because Daniel had my limbs pinned under him.
“But we’re here. We’re not part of them – past or present. We’re Hemlock. You grew up in the territory, right?” He whispered.
“Yeah. A couple hours from Mage Street itself where the academy is,” I nodded.
“You’re Hemlock. I’m Hemlock. They don’t have any power over us. They don’t even exist anymore and if the Ash and Phoenix Coven go that route, we’ll take them out too. You’re safe and I’m safe.” He looked around. “I’m fresh out of shirts to clean your face with. I’ll be back---”
“No!” I said, wanting to grab onto him. “Just lay with me for a few minutes, please. Like this. Except maybe give me my arms.”
“Shit! Sorry, mate,” Daniel said and wiggled around until my arms were free.
After shaking the blood back into my fingers, I wrapped them around him. He nuzzled into my neck, his chin rubbing above the shoulder he bit earlier.
“Sometimes I wonder,” I whispered to him the thing I never even told Irwin. I swallowed hard because speaking the thought aloud after all this time felt like sacrilege. “Sometimes I wonder,” I tried again, “if my dad was a shifter. I know my DNA says he wasn’t but if he was a shifter, it would make so much sense why she gave me away. I mean, maybe he got away. Maybe he is out there somewhere. I’m not wanting to hunt him down. It’s just a nice thought to think about. Only now, it’s like her fear – whatever fear she had is in my veins, living on in me, and making me thrash around and cry blood and feel like I’m losing my fucking mind some days.”
“He could’ve been,” Daniel said, wiping my face with his and then wiping his hands on his pants. “I mean, the crossing of wolf and vampyric DNA is only beginning to be studied at Hemlock Academy. The crossing with other shifters really hasn’t been studied at all. If they didn’t know I was his son,” Daniel skipped saying Grady’s name this time. “They wouldn’t have known which markers to look for. Though, I think I have the answer.”
“To what?” I laughed. “There are so many questions hanging in the air.”
“Well, to your visions. I think we have to find your mother. If she left you, there has to be some record of her. If she’s alive maybe, it’s just genetic memory or one of your parents had the sight. If she’s dead --- well, maybe her fear is living in you.”
I didn’t say anything right away. I held him tighter and pulled him down onto me like a weighted blanket that held me down to earth and in the present moment. I didn’t want to go away again. I was tired of losing my mind over and over again.
Eventually, though it was only midafternoon, I fell asleep under Daniel. His crushing weight was exactly what I needed as I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Ten
Daniel
Shepard’s face looked so peaceful in his sleep. All the worry from the visions disappeared and he even smelled calm and at peace. I needed to get up. I needed to pace or run. Maybe I needed to go hunting again. I needed to do anything that would line out my thoughts. Usually, I’d call Bobby, or I’d poke over the group link. Well, not for vampire stuff, but I never really had many vampire problems before now.
I drank when I hunted. Mostly deer blood. Once there was a wild bear who wandered too close to Mage Street while I attended the academy, but those were free game for hunting. I got blood and half our dorm block got bear stew. I still had that fur on my bed. His blood tasted of power and the hunt. Bears were good eating, but it didn’t feel right going around and drinking other predators all the time. So I never sought them out.
I didn’t want to leave Shepard, so I didn’t. I held onto him and tried hard not to think about how the Rook and Feather Coven’s evil deeds still echoed through lives today. Not all of Grady’s in vitro breeding farm kids turned out as happy as me. Some of them had issues that they still fought with. I was lucky that Felix and Mark were such good parents. I was never treated like the spawn of a monster.
I pulled my little bit of the pack link shut around my mind, but that only grabbed Bobby’s attention more. My phone vibrated in my pocket. I didn’t need to see the text to know it was from him. I didn’t need to open the group link to know he was en route. I still wasn’t in the mood to talk about my fangs. I didn’t want to answer questions or to see that look on his face again. If it weren’t for Shepard, I would’ve darted out the back door past the small crowd in my backyard waiting for the deer to be ready. I could’ve escaped to the woods under the guise of hunting, but I wasn’t leaving my currently sleeping, disabled by visions, mate alone in a new place when his best friend wasn’t even here.
So, I let my bit of the pack link slide open again and pushed myself upright so that I sat straddled over Shepard’s legs for a minute. He didn’t stir as I pulled down the throw from the back of the sofa and covered him up. Bobby’s shadow played through the front window, but he didn’t knock and wake Shepard up. Instead, he just waited.
“Best to find out what’s changed now,” my wolf piped up into my thoughts. “If we need to go somewhere else, we should know now. Shepard would do okay at the Sanctuary. His friend too.”
I shook his words away. Heartville was my home now and I wasn’t giving it up that easily. Instead, I grabbed a shirt from the bedroom and headed outside. I walked past Bobby, in the direction of the woods without saying anything. He followed behind me, catching up only once we were in the thick of the trees.
“Go ahead,” I stopped, stepping off the path. “Say what you need to.”
“I didn’t know you thought so little of me,” Bobby said, arms crossed as he leaned back against one of the giant redwoods.
“What? Bobby, I hate to tell you this AGAIN, you may be the heir of the Hemlock Wolf Pack or half-heir or whatever. Maybe you prefer Little Hemlock King since that’s what the fay call you, but the whole world doesn’t make their choices with you in mind.”
Bobby growled and I growled back. We’d been in our fair share of fights. Usually over stupid stuff that resolved quickly.
“This has nothing to do with that,” Bobby finally said, shaking his head as if his wolf had a fly in his ear.
“Then don’t make it about you! It’s not about you!” I shouted.
“Shut up before the guards come this way!” Bobby growled through gritted teeth. “With everything going on we have to present a united front!”
“Oh, and that’s so hard now that you know, huh?” I growled back, lowering my voice.
“Now that I know you don’t trust me?” Bobby spat out the words.
I shook my head. My fingers itched to ball up into fists.
“Then why?” Bobby asked. “Why not tell me?”
“Why does it matter so much? You knew who my bio-sire was! You knew!” I growled. “And you know how vampires get treated! Doctor Lee Hemlock is one of the best doctors in the territory. He’s working at the school clinic with his mate. That’s fine, but how many times have students and maybe faculty decided to wait for another doctor at the school’s urgent care? And that’s just one thing – that’s a vampire who is a doctor! A fucking doctor, Bobby!”
“I wouldn’t have let them treat you like that!” Bobby growled back at me.
“First, you couldn’t have stopped them! You’re one dude! Two, we have each other’s backs, but I don’t need you to protect me from assholes! I can take care of myself!”
“You think I would’ve told someone?” Bobby asked.
“No, but things leak out. That’s what happens!”
“And now?” Bobby asked.
“I don’t care who fucking finds out now! What happens to me is irrelevant! Shepard needs help! I don’t care if I have to tell every fucking person I meet I’m a vampire – he’ll have it!”
“What happens to you is not irrelevant,” Bobby said, shaking his head. “Not to me. Not to your pack!”
“What do you think would’ve happened when we came out here, Bobby? If everyone knew what would’ve happened? Having a fanged best friend doesn’t earn anyone popularity points! Having a fanged second in command? I didn’t want to make your life harder than it was!”
“Oh, but the world doesn’t revolve around me, huh?” He said, shaking his head, but the anger was fast draining from his voice.
He stepped closer to me. The fight was nearly over, and we were shifters. Shifters had to touch each other after a fight if they were still friends. It was buried in our genetics. We could fight against it, but we almost always lost.
“You and the pack. What we’ve built here. It was about all of that, Bobby! All of it! All the good things that happen on Hemlock Mountain and Mage Street don’t change all the bullshit! You’ve seen it too! Life here is easier – simpler. More back to our roots and people are doing so well here. Why would I want to endanger that vision that we held?”
“I told you everything,” Bobby said stepping yet closer to me.
His hands found my sides and I mimicked his posture, my fingers gripping him too.
“Everything, Daniel. Even the awkward time I tried to sleep with a girl because I thought everyone was bi. My dick didn’t work. She sobbed thinking she was too ugly for me to get it up. I told you that shit.”
“Bobby,” I said his name because I didn’t know what to say that I hadn’t already said. “I didn’t want to be a dark mark on everything.”
“You say you’re dealing with this just fine, but you don’t, or you wouldn’t say that.”
“Well, excuse the fuck out of me. I’m sorry I can’t control everyone’s reaction to vampires. I forgot I was an old god from the Other World. You should’ve reminded me because me --- I deal with my past just fine. It’s the rest of the world who has a fucking problem.”
“Fuck them! I mean it! Anyone who says anything. If--- when people find out and start talking about it – if they don’t like it, they can leave. Liam will agree with me. He, Starry, and Leo have vampyric friends back in the GB territory. We have your back. We have Shepard’s back. You’re not alone. When I saw that --- that you didn’t tell me it was as if you were walking around fighting this huge fight like no one had your fucking back and that fucking hurt. Then you say not even your parents know. So, you were fucking --- Daniel,” he shook his head. “You’re my best friend but sometimes you are such a dumbass!”
Somehow, we moved closer while we talked, arms wrapped around each other’s middles and our foreheads pressed together.
“We’ll keep it under wraps as long as we can,” Bobby said. “You’re right, though. If it helps Shepard, we’ll have to deal with whatever aftermath comes our way. He’s your mate. He’s family. Just don’t do anything stupid, Daniel. Don’t run off or some stupid shit.”
“This is my home. This is my pack. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I heard what your wolf said.”
“All wolves fear banishment on a primal level. You know that. We’re pack creatures.”
“Fuck them. Fuck all of them and what they think. The days of all of us running around caring what everyone else thought died with Ignatius Hemlock. Granddad’s long dead. My Dad is getting better at being an actual human every day. Uncle Sky – well, he’d eat someone for talking smack about you,” Bobby chuckled. “That is if Rune didn’t curse their nipples off first.”
Bobby kissed my forehead. It was soft and tender. It was akin to wolves licking each other’s faces as a bonding exercise.
“This is why everyone used to say we were fucking,” I chuckled.
“Screw them. They can think what they want. You’re my brother and I want you to know nothing can ever change that.”
We were quiet for a long moment. The wind whistled through the ancient trees and little forest critters scurried around. We were two wolves standing in the middle of a forest right at home.
“I need your help with Shepard. Maybe Liam’s group too,” I finally said.
“That’s why we brought him here,” Bobby laughed.
“No, I have an idea,” I said and filled Bobby in about what Shepard and I talked about.
“You’re right. We probably do have to find his mother. I hate to say it but after everything that went on with the Rook and Feather Coven there is a good chance she’s dead. That means summoning her. A better mate than I would know by now if that’s a new moon or full moon thing. I think it changes depending on what’s going on with the spirit.”
“We should probably make some calls first. If she’s alive I might be wrong.”
“I think that part we turn over to Liam. Somehow, he knows more vampires than we do.”
“Fuckin’ Grady Moore,” I laughed.
“May he find his mind in Frost’s Pit,” Bobby chuckled too. “Now, come on. Liam will wake up soon and that deer is nearly done. I want some of it before Adrain and Nem pig out on the whole damn thing. We hunted it and they’re hanging around the pit like it’s theirs!”
“Come on,” I said and slapped his back as we started toward home.
Chapter Eleven
Shepard
I woke up to the wolf who ran to clear out the freezer at the other house, setting down a plate of deer meat and potato salad on the coffee table.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you up. Daniel’s off talking to Bobby and I wanted to make sure you ate. I know first days in new places can be disorienting.”
“Thanks,” I yawned and hoped that blood wasn’t covering my face.
“Not a problem. Daniel might as well be one of my brothers,” Adrian shrugged. “Do you want a beer?”
“I don’t drink. That triggers up my visions too easily.”
“Soda?” Adrian offered.
“Yeah, thanks.”
The front door opened as Adrian disappeared into the kitchen. Daniel stepped through followed by Bobby. My mate’s eyes lit up when he saw me, and I turned into a pile of goo.
“I’ll get food. You be mushy,” Bobby said.
“Thanks, sappy sire,” Daniel said as he joined me on the sofa.
I kissed him. His lips were more appealing than the delicious aroma of deer meat wafting through the whole house. Our tongue locking was cut short when Adrian returned from the kitchen with a six pack of soda.
“For what it’s worth, Daniel, folks didn’t totally lose their minds when Kez moved here. Though, if someone wants to start shit, we have your back. Nem too. We’re not that scary,” he teased. “But that means you have Nicky and he’ll burn a motherfucker up when he gets irritated.”
“Thanks, Adrian,” Daniel grinned.
“You too,” Adrian looked at me. “You have a whole big new annoying family now.”
“At least the food is good here,” I chuckled. “Annoying family or not.”
A few minutes later, Adrian and Bobby filled the coffee table with food before disappearing into the backyard for good. We weren’t exactly alone, and I wondered where Irwin had gotten off to, but the one-on-one time with Daniel left me all warm and fuzzy as we chowed down. We took turns feeding each other bites of this and that. Everything tasted delicious and homemade. It’d been a while since I had a fresh kill of any kind and the gamey deer hit just the right spot.
“So, you and Bobby made up?” I asked when we were both too full to eat another bite.
“Yeah. We don’t fight for long. I talked to him about finding your mom too. I hope you don’t mind ---”
“Alpha, that’s why Irwin and I came here. If there’s a chance finding her can stop my visions, I think we have to follow that lead. Maybe we could’ve done that before if I could’ve --- If I was brave enough to tell someone what I thought.”
“It’s hard to be brave when you’re on your own. I know Irwin was there but---”
“A secret for a secret,” I shrugged. “You showed me your fangs and I told you my suspicions about my probably dead bio-mom.”
Irwin came out of the kitchen with a plate piled full of cooked deer.
“Do you mind me joining you?” He asked.
“Come on,” Daniel said before I could answer and scooted both of us over on the sofa to make room for him.
