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A small hand landed on the back of Gabe’s neck. Delicate but strong. Firm. Immovable. “Breathe, Highness.” Soren’s voice, without its usual teasing notes, was sweet and smooth. Like cool water on a hot day.
Two things you can smell.” Gabe spoke without thinking. “The ocean. Pine trees.” Soren arched a brow at his words, but Gabe was too exhausted to be defensive. “That’s what you smell like. Like if the sea met a pine forest. And, um…cold. I don’t know how a person can smell cold, but you do.”
So many people thought Gabe—high school football player, former prom king, ICU doctor—was some kind of alpha male or social butterfly, but in truth Gabe liked to listen more than he liked to talk. Liked being able to focus on someone else instead of pretending to have it all together.
Soren nodded, hoping the heat in his face wasn’t a sign that he was blushing, because that would have been just…fucking embarrassing.
“It took her a few years, but she got it together again, and I was able to go back to being a teenager, more or less, but I was…resentful. For a long time. My dad was my person. I was grieving. And suddenly I had to be a parent too?”
“Do you know what, in my very long life, I’ve considered the most troubling of human emotions?” Gabe stared back at him. “What?” “Shame.” Gabe’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Had he been expecting Soren to condemn him for his anger? “Shame infects every other emotion it touches.”
Gabe laughed. “No, I am an asshole. I pretend to be a carefree one.”
“And why don’t you think people will like the real Gabriel Kingman?” Gabe cleared his throat, toying with the bottom of Soren’s shirt. “Um…because he’s a coward? He pretends to know what he’s doing, but he’s really just, like, terrified all the time?” “What are you terrified of?” “I don’t know. Just…everything. It always feels like something awful is about to happen at any moment. I’ve always struggled with it, but it’s gotten worse this past year.”
“Baby?” Soren questioned, finally calling Gabe out on the pet name that kept escaping every time Soren got his hands on him. “Fuck. Yes. I don’t know.” Gabe was practically delirious with pleasure. “Baby. Brat. Baby brat.”
It means something to me. To feel safe. And don’t put yourself down. You don’t have to be the big, bad protector to be a worthy partner.” Soren grinned his manic grin, and Gabe’s heart lightened just a little to see it again. “I’ve got that part covered.”
A feeling of immense satisfaction washed over Soren. That’s right, he thought smugly. This one’s mine. My human. My mate.
First he had to tell Soren…love things.
Soren’s stomach turned as a million different memories fought to push to the front of his mind. Memories of Hendrick’s hands on him. Memories of pain and humiliation and his choice being taken away from him.
Hendrick had touched Gabe. He’d hurt him. He would pay for it. Soren would make sure of it. He’d pay for all of it. Soren just wished he’d been better prepared. This motherfucker deserved a slow, painful death. But that might not be possible at this point. Soren knew one thing though. Only one of them was getting out of this situation alive.
“I was supposed to tell you love stuff,” Gabe found himself blurting out. “Love stuff?” Gabe couldn’t see Soren’s face, but a rush of fond amusement came through the bond.
Gabe shifted uncomfortably. “It’s just…you’ve been through something. With someone who has a history of…taking without consent. I can wait.” Soren stared at him. Gabe flushed at the scrutiny. “You really would,” Soren said, long seconds later, awe in his voice. “Newly turned, the baby vampire inside you raging for its mate, and you would…wait for me. To be ready.”
Soren’s smile softened at the edges, but heat blazed in his eyes. “I trust you to touch me,” he continued. “I trust you to fuck me. I trust you to love me. I know you won’t use your strength against me.”
Gabe looked around them, as if maybe a local lube peddler would pop out from behind one of the trees.
“It’s a relief in some ways. Letting go. Letting it in. You’re a vampire. So’s my brother. Now I am too. One big happy monster family. So the world is more magical and confusing than I gave it credit for…so what?” “I can’t tell if I’m annoyed or turned on by this change in attitude.” Gabe grinned at him. “Knowing you, it’s both.”
Relaxing. Cool. Totally Gabe’s strong suit.
Point is, I pick the house. I buy the house. You just sit there and look pretty.” Gabe’s frown deepened. “I’m a doctor.” Soren shrugged. “Be a doctor and look pretty, then.”
Soren giggled. “And your childhood home is little. And quaint.” “You’re little and quaint” was Gabe’s super mature response. Take that, vampire.
