Page 13 of Soren

God, he hoped he didn’t burst into tears.

Soren’s gaze was steady, searching. After several long moments, the vampire removed his hand from the back of Gabe’s neck.

Gabe did his best not to mourn the loss of that steadying grip.

“We’re not doing this today,” Soren declared.

Gabe felt his panic rising again at the words, but also a sense of…relief. Still, he protested. “What do you mean? We have to.”

Soren tossed his head regally. Ironic that the vampire always called Gabe “Highness,” when he acted like a little demonic prince himself. “We don’t, actually. Wait here. Stay calm.” He got out of the car.

Gabe did stay, waiting in the car while Soren walked into the care home, but he hated himself a little for it.

Why couldn’t he dobetter?

Heshouldhave been doing better. He’d been visiting his mom regularly with Danny. Roman used his vampire compulsion to help their mom with her dementia, a skill Danny had learned now too. Sometimes it helped her remember who they were; sometimes it only served to keep her calm and happy. Either way, it had made the visits more bearable to Gabe than they’d been in the past.

Which was why Soren was with him now. To use his compulsion to help continue their visits while Danny was on his honeymoon.

Because the visits were still…tough. Gabe’s feelings were always complicated when it came to his mother. The woman who had raised him with love, only to leave him to fend for himself much too young. He always felt raw in her presence, flayed open by the emotions she elicited in him. He should have known the prospect of showing that vulnerability in front of Soren would set him off.

Because instead of doing better, Gabe had been getting worse. His world had stopped making sense a year ago. His anxiety kept building; his emotions kept spiraling. He felt like he was…pretendingall the time. Pretending to have it together. Pretending to be happy. And he was terrified of anyone seeing through it.

And now here he was, failing his family.Again.

Gabe was pulled out of his thoughts by Soren opening up the car door. “She’s fine,” the vampire reported, scanning Gabe’s face like it would give him answers to his mental state. “Happy and calm.”

“Um, okay.” Gabe felt lost, unsure of his next steps. “What now?”

Soren climbed back into the driver’s seat with catlike grace. He turned to Gabe, arching a brow. “We’re going out to breakfast.”

That wasn’t what Gabe had been expecting Soren to say. He’d been thinking it would be something along the lines of, “I drop you off and go do my own thing, loser. Obviously.”

Who wanted to hang out with someone who’d just had a complete meltdown in a parking lot?

“Breakfast?” Gabe repeated stupidly.

Soren’s answering grin was bright and fierce.

“I’m craving pancakes.”

four

Soren

AbellrangasSoren led Gabe through the door of his favorite diner.

At some point during the drive over, the bigger man had grabbed Soren’s hand, seemingly without noticing, and now he was still clinging to it like some sort of lifeline, his usual cocky swagger completely gone. The rare sign of vulnerability was doing very strange things to Soren’s heart.

A large blonde woman with Sheryl on her name tag led them both to a corner booth.Excellent. It was an incontrovertible fact that booths were infinitely better than regular old tables and chairs.

Rudy’s was a breakfast spot Danny had introduced Soren to, on one of the few occasions he and Soren had been on their own together. Soren was fond enough of his friend Roman’s adorable mate, but he wouldn’t say he and Danny had a lot in common, necessarily. Danny was sweet, compassionate, caring. And Soren was…Soren.

One thing they did share, however, was love for a good greasy spoon.

Soren reluctantly let go of Gabe’s hand as they sat in the booth. It was so rare the human allowed any physical contact between them. Soren was tempted to try to pull Gabe over to sit on his side instead. But that would probably be pushing his luck.

Soren ordered coffee for himself and Gabe and ignored the menu in front of him. He had it memorized at this point.

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