Page 84 of Soulmates
That settled, I look for Sheena. Time to go home. I find her talking to a familiar black-leather-clad biker dyke. Sheena’s friend isn’t alone. There are at least three more biker-types in the vicinity, not counting a possible lipstick lesbian to my left.
“I remember you,” I say. Sheena and the biker chick stop talking and stare at me. Sheena’s somewhere between amused and annoyed. Her friend is fully annoyed. I extend my hand, because shaking hands is polite. I think. “We met at that bar when Trajan and I were looking for Sheena. Your name is”—come on, memory, cough it up—“Linda? Lydia? It’s Lydia, right?”
She’s looking at me like I’m something she stepped in on her way here, and she doesn’t take me up on my offer to shake.
Sheena picks up the slack. “Yeah, David, this is Lydia. He’s the one you were just asking about.”
“Not so fancy now, are you, little wolf?” The biker chick looks like she’d be happy to skin me alive.
I mean, I wasn’t that big an asshole when we met before, was I? “It’s good to see you again too, and all your friends.” I gesture at the crowd around us, because suddenly, there are biker chicks on every side of us.
The pack leader gives me an appraising stare. “You got balls, at least. I hope Brendan don’t cut them off and make you eat them.”
Hang on a minute.I don’t know what I’d done to piss her off, but no one gets to speak to me like that. I might be a lone wolf, but damn, I’m still a Collins. I reach for my wolf, not to shift, but just to let himself be known. He won’t play. Stubborn fuck. “Only one way to find out.”
“Be nice if you could be there,” Sheena says. She’s giving me a look too, likeplay along for once. It’s a good idea, though.
I straighten, pretending for a moment that I’m not wearing trendy distressed jeans in a crowd of shoppers. “I’d be honored if you would attend as a witness.”
The outcome does affect her, in that if I win, the Collins pack is secure and things go back to normal. If I lose, Brendan will likely try even harder to take Dad out, and if that happens, the whole hierarchy comes undone.
She doesn’t look like she quite believes me, but she nods. “We’ll come.”
But I can’t tell whether she means to cheer me on or to dance on my bones.
OXO
Trajan agrees with me. “Of course you’re going to win, puppy.”
We’re in his big bed, curtains open so the city lights sprawl underneath us with the dark band of the ocean just beyond. Trajan’s lying beside me, one of his legs pinning mine to the mattress. Connor is on the other side, laptop open, hands poised over the keys.
“I’ve been poking around,” he says. “Your Uncle Brendan has been in this situation before.”
If he’s still here, he must have won. “There’s a reason Dad made him the pack’s enforcer.”
Connor nods, scratching a thumb through the thick copper beard on his chin. “There are some differences, though.” He clicks from one page to another. “He’s always been the one to callbeurteilung, and he’s never fought a true alpha.”
My stomach twists in a weird figure eight. “Am I, though?” I whisper.
Connor and Trajan, each so powerful in their own right, stare at me as if I’d said something blasphemous.
“Yes,” Trajan says. “You are.”
Connor takes my hand. “Yes.” He tugs on me, pulling me closer. “And another thing I found. The more blood we share, the tighter our bond will be. I’m not sure it’ll completely replicate what the pack can do, but it’s the best we have.”
I’m only wearing shorts, so it won’t take much to get me naked, but first I want to know the parameters. “When you say share blood, does that mean I need to drink from both of you?”
“I’ll start.” Trajan reaches across me for Connor’s arm. “Once I bite, you’ll have a turn.”
This shouldn’t excite me. I mean, we’re sharing blood in hopes it’ll help keep me from getting killed. Still, when Trajan draws Connor’s wrist to his mouth, my dick starts to swell. By the time it’s my turn to taste Connor’s blood, I’m practically rocking my hips.
Connor’s eyes darken as Trajan feeds. Then he moves his wrist to me, blood welling up from two perfect puncture wounds in the thin, pale skin. I lick away those beads of red, and he whimpers.
His blood is unlike anything I’ve tasted before. It’s light, effervescent. If they said it was spun from starlight, I would believe it. Trajan had to have tasted the difference. I close my lips around the wound and suckle for a moment, sealing the exchange by kissing his palm.
Connor pulls me in for a real kiss, and I can’t help but notice how the essence of his taste matches the sensation his blood left on my tongue. I believe Connor has reasons for keeping his true nature a secret, but dude is not simply human.
While Connor and I are kissing, Trajan takes hold of my arm and draws it close. He bites a spot near the crook of my elbow, and the combination of Connor’s taste on my tongue and Trajan’s lips on my skin have me writhing between them. Too soon, Trajan pulls off with a kiss. Connor and I ease off, and he props himself on his elbow so he can reach the spot Trajan bit.
