Page 15 of Wolfgang

He thought he did a fair job of keeping his continued irritation to himself, right up to the point where Johann reiterated Roman’s earlier absurd assertion. “But that’s not your decision.”

Why did people keep insisting on this fact? They were categoricallywrong. Whether Wolfe’s transforming mate knew it yet or not, they were already bound. Eric belonged to him, body and soul, gifted by fate itself. Wolfe and his beast had known it from the very first sighting; everyone else could either get in line or face the consequences.

And there should have been a way to point that out to Johann calmly—dispassionately, even. Instead—

“He’smine,” Wolfe found himself growling. His beast was ready to pounce, to swipe little Johann off their doorstep and rip apart any of his friends who dared come to his rescue.

He was losing it, clearly.

Wolfe had always—always—handled Johann with kid gloves. There had never been any reason to act otherwise. The cloyingly sweet vampire was traumatized to the point where only the smallest amounts of decency and surface-level kindness were required to guarantee his friendship and loyalty, a fact that Wolfe had always taken full advantage of.

Still, not even Johann had the right to try to remove Wolfe’s mate from his grasp. No one did.

But Johann stood his ground—despite the growl, despite the rage he must have seen on Wolfe’s face—an act Wolfe might have admired if he weren’t so irritated by it. “That’s his choice, Wolfe. You know that.”

Did he?

He’ll choose us, Wolfe’s beast insisted, its hackles raised by Johann’s verbal challenge.He will.

Wolfe said as much to Johann, and when he still insisted one of his party be allowed inside to verify that, Wolfe came as close as he ever had to snapping his little friend’s neck, just to teach him a lesson.

But that would be counterproductive, especially with the three other vampires lurking in the background, watching their every move. So Wolfe did something he despised.

He compromised.

“When he awakens,oneof you may speak with him.”

Johann, beaming like Wolfe had offered to make him Eric’s vampire godfather, immediately offered himself up as liaison, an offer which Wolfe immediately refused. “No. You’re too tainted by trauma. You’ll frighten him unnecessarily.”

It was true. There was too much baggage there—if Eric showed even the slightest bit of fear, Johann would be trying to rescue him in an instant. Neither was Alexei the appropriate choice, seeing as how Wolfe had taken his human life by force a little over a week ago. No, Johann’s mate wouldn’t leave the necessary positive impression.

But Roman’s lovely nurse mate, Danny… He and Eric worked at the same hospital. Perhaps it would be comforting for Eric to see a familiar face. And comfort would be good, would increase the chances Wolfe’s mate would agree to stay without coercion. Danny was also happily mated to Roman, despite unfortunate circumstances surrounding his transformation. He would be perhaps more inclined to encourage another happy union, even if Eric’s first knee-jerk reaction upon awakening was one of fear.

And if not…

Well, Wolfe would have to come up with some alternative plans of action.

“Your nurse friend with the lovely eyes. When the good doctor awakens, they may speak. Will that appease you?”

He resisted yet again lashing out when Johann insisted on them all coming in the morning, rather than waiting for Wolfe’s call. It would be inconvenient if Eric didn’t wake before then—less time for Wolfe to get into his head without their interference.

But ah, well. These were the consequences of acting on impulse.

Still, that was plenty of capitulations for the moment. It was time to return his attention to where it belonged.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said, already in the act of shutting the door on Johann’s startled face. “I have some preparations to make.”

He stood here behind the door for another few moments, listening as Johann returned to his friends, as Danny agreed to speak with Eric in the morning, as Roman suggested Wolfe may be more trouble than he was worth. An annoyingly astute observation, really. Wolfe could only hope Johann’s sentimentality for their past decade of friendship would buy him some time. He just needed things to…settle a bit.

“See what you’ve done?” he taunted his beast as he turned to the stairs. “Now they’ll be trying to take him away from us.”

We won’t let them, his beast insisted, hackles rising yet again.

“No,” Wolfe agreed, ascending the steps. “We won’t.”

Wolfe had plenty to do. He had the painters to call and defer, Tobias to check in on (he didn’t trust that little weasel to leave them alone as promised), financial preparations to make.

But despite his list of tasks, he nonetheless found himself wandering up to the room where both he and his beast wanted to be. He drew up an armchair next to the bed and began making his calls from there, never taking his eyes off the figure resting so peacefully.

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