Page 8 of Until Forever Comes
“I belong with you. If that’s”—I waved my hands around—“this here alley, then that’s where I’ll be.”
I reckoned he was about to tell me that dog wouldn’t hunt so I tried to look as serious and strong as possible. Have you ever tried tolookstrong? Turned out it wasn’t such an easy feat to accomplish. Seemed a certain pose wasn’t quite enough to cut it. Either that or I didn’t know the particular pose to strike.
“You belong where?” Miguel asked, furrowing his brow and looking perplexed.
“I belong with you,” I repeated, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I was pretty sure I failed.
“I’m a vampire,” he said, stating the obvious.
“I’m aware,” I said.
He furrowed his brow. “You’re a shifter.” Again with the obvious.
“I surely know that too.”
“Look, if you want me to take you to my place for a little fun, I can do that. But I’m trying to spare you, here.”
“Spare me?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, spare you. How do you think your pack will take it if you come home smelling of a vampire? You already smell like sex, but the scent is just your own, so they’ll dismiss that as you having a bit of personal fun. If we—”
“I smell like sex?” I asked nervously, lifting my arms and sniffing them before poking my nose into my underarms.
Miguel moved my arms down to my sides. “Your pits aren’t where you got your seed, wolf. But don’t worry, like I said, right now it’s just your seed. If I fuck you, you’re going to be smelling of me for some time. No way to hide that. How do you think your pack would react to that?”
I gulped and tried not to shake. “It wouldn’t be good,” I admitted. “We’re not supposed to diddle ourselves. And I haven’t ever… well, there was the one time, just to see what it was like, but I don’t diddle myself, and if—”
“Diddleyourself?” Miguel repeated incredulously. He shook his head and grasped my arm, then tugged me out of the alley. “You need to go home,” he said. “You don’t belong here.”
“I am home,” I insisted, dragging my feet in a failed attempt to slow him down. Damn, he was strong. “I’m staying with you. That’s how things are supposed to be.”
“Supposed to—” He shook his head again and kept walking. “You just said ‘diddle’. Hell, you just said youdon’tdiddle. You seem to have no idea how dangerous it is for you here. You seem to have no idea how dangerousIam, wolf. I am nobody’s home.”
But he was wrong. Wrong about all of it. He was my home. I knew it. There was no way to mistake his scent. No way to mistake the way my body reacted to him. Miguel was my mate. My true mate.
Some of the guys at school used to say there was no such thing, that true mates were a fairy tale. But I’d met a pair once, when we were visiting kin in another pack. And I’d heard tell about another pair my parents knew when they were young. So I knew true mates were real. I just hadn’t expected to have one. Why would a broken shifter be bestowed with the greatest gift possible? But for whatever reason, I’d been blessed. I was about to explain that to Miguel when we heard a commotion.
“Who are you?” an angry voice shouted.
Miguel halted in his tracks and covered my mouth with his hand. I thought about licking it.
“This doesn’t concern you,” a voice I recognized as Ted, Miguel’s vampire friend, responded. “Keep walking.”
“I don’t believe we’ll be doing that,” a third man said. “What’s going on here?”
We peeked around the corner, and sure enough, there was Ted with one of the unconscious half-souls over his shoulder, another at his feet, and four unfamiliar half-soul males surrounding him. One approached Ted, and from the way he was walking on a slant, I suspected he’d been hitting the bottle. Plus, his fists were clenched and he looked madder than an old wet hen. Seemed like the human was hankering for a fight.
“Listen very carefully, wolf,” Miguel whispered in my ear, still covering my mouth with his hand. “I’m going to step over there to deal with the humans. You’re going to wait until they’re focused on me, and then you’re going to quietly, but quickly, head in the other direction. And you will not stop until you are out of town and back with your pack. Have I made myself clear?”
I tried to think of a way to stay with him. I might help by… help by…. Yeah, no way to end that thought with anything helpful I could do. I was doing much better than earlier that day, true enough. But just because my veins no longer felt like they were going to burst didn’t mean I was anywhere near as strong as Miguel or Ted. Plus, Ted wanted to kill me, so getting involved meant I’d be trying to help him at the same time I’d be trying to avoid him. That was a surefire way to distract Miguel in the midst of a battle. I sighed in frustration.
“Ethan.” Miguel said my name for the first time. He didn’t call me wolf. I supposed that meant he was serious. “Do you hear what I’m saying to you?”
I nodded and he dropped his hand. Miguel took two steps forward, then paused, turned on his heel, and returned to me. He gazed into my eyes for several long seconds, and then he dipped his face and kissed my cheek.
“I won’t forget you, Ethan Abbatt,” he said. And then he really did walk away.
Seconds later, I heard the start of a scream, then a gurgling sound. I peered over to where the half-souls had gathered and saw the one who had been walking toward Ted down on the ground with his hands around his neck, trying to stem the flow of blood. Miguel was standing above him, red dripping from his claws.
