Page 67 of Wolfgang

Wolfe scoffed at that. “What’s your name, little one?”

Jesus. Eric had forgotten to ask for a name. How had he thought he was equipped to deal with sniffing the kid out when he’d forgotten to even ask for anameonce he’d done it?

The kid shot Wolfe a suspicious glance, stepping even closer to Eric. “Riley.”

“Well, Riley. Did the man who turned you harm you in any way? Other than the first bite?”

Riley frowned. “No. But I didn’t like him.” He glanced at Eric, as if confiding in him. “He kept saying he turned me for ‘her.’ To make ‘her’ happy.”

“Who’s her?” Eric asked, trying to keep the horror out of his voice. It all sounded creepy as hell. What the fuck had this kid been through?

Riley shrugged, looking back down at his feet. “Dunno. I ran back to Mama. Then I had to run away for good.”

“Do you remember what the man looked like?” Wolfe asked.

Riley kicked at the dirt as he walked. “Mean face.”

“And where does your mama live?” Eric asked, attempting to catch Riley’s gaze again.

But when Riley met Eric’s eyes with his own, they were all black. “Hungry,” he growled.

Eric froze, and he noticed Wolfe stepping closer out of the corner of his eye. “Um, we’ll get you food soon.”

Riley didn’t say anything in response. But he didn’t make any move to attack or run. He just kept walking beside them, making little growls every now and then. It was like he wasn’t quite all there.

“I think it would be wise to return him home now.” Wolfe spoke as if Riley couldn’t hear them, even though they were both flanking him. And maybe he couldn’t, with whatever state he was in. “It’s remarkable as it is that he’s controlled himself this well for this long.”

“He would have run, if it were just me,” Eric said, unexpectedly bitter. “I fucked it up, scared him somehow. Scumbag, per usual.”

“You are nothing of the sort,” Wolfe said evenly.

Eric shook his head. “You’re just saying that to keep me happy.”

He got a frustrated noise in response. It was kind of cool, actually, how Eric could manage to get a rise out of his unflappable mate. Everybody had their talents, right?

Wolfe stopped in his tracks, a hand on Riley’s shoulder to halt him, ignoring the little growl he got in response. His gaze was piercing, freezing Eric in turn. “If you don’t trust how I feel about you, pet, trust how I feel about myself. You are my perfect match. Mymate. So no, you aren’t a scumbag, or useless, or defective in any way, no matter what you may have been raised to believe. You are, by very definition, perfect.”

Eric sighed, unbelievably touched but also a bit tempted to laugh. “Was that just a roundabout way of calling yourself perfect?”

Wolfe cocked a brow. “Some would say I have my faults.” He smirked at Eric’s chuckle. “But you, darling. You are perfect for me.”

This time, Eric did say it, unable to keep it inside. “I love you too.”

The flash of pure, unadulterated shock on Wolfe’s face was incredibly satisfying. Eric would have kissed him for it, if not for the dazed, vamped-out child hovering between them.

He looked Riley over skeptically. “He seems really out of it.”

Wolfe started walking again, as if the declaration had never happened, pushing gently at Riley until he did the same. “We’ll feed him the blood bag at home. And perhaps call Danny, see if he can bring extras.”

“Isn’t that gonna raise even more suspicion? More missing blood bags?”

Wolfe shrugged one shoulder. “We’ll compel who we need to compel.”

It was a far cry from Wolfe’s original “do anything to prevent exposure.” He washelping, beyond just the big favor of not trying to put the kid down.

As rigid as Wolfe was by nature, he was adapting. Changing. And he was doing it all for Eric.

Eric smiled to himself as they picked up the pace. Yeah, the love definitely went both ways.

---