Page 31 of Only Fangs

Mikael: Really? You were going to let that green-skinned freak fuck you?

Collin: He’s not a freak.

Mikael: He’s an orc!

Collin: Half-orc, and there’s nothing wrong with orcs.

Mikael: I don’t care what he is, he’s not good enough for you!

Collin paused, staring at the screen.

Was thatjealousyhe sensed from Mikael?

Mikael: You don’t have to fuck Zelos for the money. Just use my card. Let me take care of this.

Collin’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long moment before he replied, “Why do you want to do this for me? We’ve only met once and it’s not like we can get together again.” His head hurt as he typed the words, and not just his head. His chest ached too. There was clearly something here, between the two of them, and he wasn’t the only one who was feeling it. No matter how much he wanted Mikael, though, they couldn’thaveeach other, and pretending otherwise wouldn’t do anyone any good.

Mikael didn’t respond right away, but Collin saw the little dots that indicated that the vampire was typing. Finally, a long reply came in. “I’ve wanted to have you on my stream since the first time I saw yours. You were so honest and vulnerable and so damn fuckable. I could tell that you weren’t faking your reactions to anything, and that’s so rare on this platform. I chatted you up because I wanted to convince you to work with me, because I wanted to bite you. I should have stopped when you shot me down. It’s not polite to badger people the way I badgered you. The truth is that I simply didn’t want to stop talking to you. You never left my thoughts. I’ve watched all your videos multiple times. I’ve reread every message you ever sent me. I’m obsessed with you, Collin. Hell, the only reason I invited all those streamers to the masquerade was because I was hoping you’d show up.”

Collin read the words again and again.

Mikael had watched him that much? He liked Collin that much?

Collin’s pulse skyrocketed as his fingers touched the keyboard again. “You didn’t know that I’m mortal.”

Mikael’s reply came fast. “That doesn’t change how much I want you. You’re even more amazing irl than you are online and I hated having to leave your apartment. I got back here and I thought about streaming, about biting some other person and I just don’t want to. I wantyou,Collin.”

Collin closed his eyes, swallowing down a lump in his throat.

When he opened his eyes again, there was another message waiting for him. “I don’t know how we’re going to make this work yet, but I will find a way, so don’t say that we can’t get together again, and don’t go and fuck Zelos. I think I’ll have to kill him if you do and I’d rather not.”

A choked laugh escaped Collin.

“You’re crazy,” he typed.

“Crazy about you,” came the response. “Please let me do this for you.”

Collin exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face.

His thoughts were spinning, but one thing was becoming clearer than ever.

No matter how ill-advised it was, he wanted Mikael too.

His heart thumped loudly in his chest, and he took another deep breath, trying to steady himself before he typed, “All right. I’ll take the money, and I won’t contact Zelos, even though there is nothing wrong with orcs.”

“I don’t know about that,” Mikael wrote. “Orcs have green dicks.”

Collin rolled his eyes, but he was so relieved that Luna was going to be taken care of, that there might be a future in which he and Mikael could see each other again, he didn’t have it in him to be offended on behalf of orc kind. “Green is a beautiful color,” he wrote. “Good things are green. Vegetables are green.”

“You don’t eat vegetables with your ass.”

“I don’t eat Zelos’ dick either.”

“Yeah, you’d better not. You’d have no room left for mine.”

Collin paused with his fingers on the keys. “You’re promising me yours?”

“Next time we meet,” Mikael wrote. “I’ll find a way to control myself. If I have to pull out my own fangs, I will.”

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