Page 22 of Wolfgang

Eric glared at him. “Why does that make you smile?”

Wolfe’s smirk deepened. “I haven’t seen that side of you yet. Petty.”

“How many sides of me can you possibly have seen?” Eric asked, feeling petulant again. Just how long and how closely had Wolfe been watching him?

Wolfe half shrugged a single shoulder. He looked aristocratic even doing that. “Only the surface levels, I suppose. A friendly people pleaser, desperate to be liked. And yet no one truly close in your life, despite that desperation. ”

Well, ouch. It stung a bit, the accuracy of those words. But there wasn’t any cruelty in them; Wolfe didn’t seem to be intending to wound, just calling it like he saw it.

“But my pettiness makes you smile?” Eric asked, all sorts of confused.

Wolfe reached up a hand, as if to cup Eric’s face. Eric was half-certain he would let him. “All parts of you are precious to me. Because all parts of you are mine.” Wolfe lowered his arm. “I look forward to seeing each layer uncovered.”

Sweet mother of Mary. Eric swallowed hard as the bond pulsed, dark and covetous. “Uh…yeah,” he rasped. “I can feel that.”

Wolfe cocked his head. “That you are mine?” he purred, obviously delighted at the thought.

“No. Jesus. I can feel your psycho possessiveness, through the bond thing.”

“Ah, yes.” Wolfe seemed no less displeased by that.

I want to touch him.What the fuck? Was that Eric or his beast talking?Couldtheir beasts talk to them? He had so many more questions, but he didn’t think he had the energy to ask them. He was just…exhausted.

He pressed two fingers to his forehead. “I’m kind of…tired?”

Wolfe’s brow furrowed the slightest bit. “You shouldn’t need much sleep as a vampire. But perhaps it’s the new transition, wearing you down.”

“Well, I’m gonna lie down again,” Eric said, putting his glass in the sink (Wolfe could have clean-the-blood duty) and turning to leave the kitchen. He stopped in the doorway when a thought came to him. “Where do you sleep?”

Wolfe clucked his tongue regretfully. “Our main bedroom is unfurnished at the moment, as it needs to be painted first. I’m afraid I had to delay the professionals due to your transitioning state. For now, where you awoke is the only furnished bedroom.”

Eric resisted the urge to scream. Was this guy really trying to pull some only-one-bed crap on him right now?

At Eric’s pissy look, Wolfe capitulated with a gracious nod. “But if I need to rest, I will of course do so on the sofa downstairs.”

“You bet your biting ass you will,” Eric grumbled, heading back to his bedroom, ignoring the way the beast inside him sulked at the increasing distance between them.

Maybe when he woke back up, it would all have been a dream.

Something told him he wouldn’t be so lucky.

eight

Wolfe

Wolfe’smatewasmostassuredly pouting, for lack of a better word. Off in the spare bedroom all by himself, tossing and turning without Wolfe by his side. Wolfe could hear the subtle rustling of Eric’s restlessness, as he settled himself in the sitting room with a massive tome on the American political system (he always thought it best to have a handle on the inner workings of whatever country he found himself in).

Wolfe had felt it, back in the kitchen: Eric’s yearning. He would bet his finest suit that his doctor wanted nothing more than to touch him, to be near him, to be claimed by him. The new beast within him clearly knew who he belonged to, even if Eric’s more logical brain had yet to catch up to it.

But apparently Wolfe’s mate was a stubborn one, under all that surface gregariousness. And who could really blame him? It had been a fairly shocking twenty-four hours by anyone’s estimation.

Wolfe flicked through his pages listlessly, finding it uncharacteristically hard to focus when the so much more interesting puzzle was just upstairs, hiding from him. Eric wasn’t frightened—or he wasn’t sending anything through their bond that Wolfe could recognize as such—but hewasangry. Wolfe could feel the hot pulse of it, delicious in its insistence. But what was anger other than the first step toward acceptance? And Wolfe supposed he had the young nurse to thank for that. As irritating as it had been, having to suffer through Johann’s group of meddlers insisting on interviewinghismate, the conversation had clearly served to help convince Eric of the reality of his situation.

Wolfe had caught snippets of it, as he’d sequestered the others in this very sitting room. Danny had explained things neatly enough, from what Wolfe had been able to gather. And he hadn’t overplayed the psychopath hand to scare Eric off.

And the injustice of the whole affair had been made just the slightest bit sweeter by the delicate threads ofwantWolfe had been able to feel coming from his mate while they’d been apart, twining around Wolfe’s own agitation and need.

Eric could pretend all he wanted. But as soon as Wolfe had left the room, Eric had wanted him near again. Just as he wanted Wolfe nearnow.

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