Riley
“We have to get out of the car.”
Now Seth pressed a pout to the tender skin he’d been mauling. “Why?”
“Because you need to eat.”
Only Eric had the grace to look remotely embarrassed at being caught spying. The other three only looked various shades of smug.
Riley would have liked to be annoyed by that, but the smugness matched his own all too well.
My mate, his very being seemed to purr. I’ve claimed him.
After several…vigorous and thorough rounds of consummation, Riley had texted his moms, letting them know he was going to need to make use of some of their blood stash.
Seth had seemed more concerned with draining Riley’s cum than draining anyone’s blood, but Riley knew his mate would get hungry eventually.
And he was going to make absolutely sure Seth was never hungry in a way that would cause him to hurt someone.
It would cost Seth too much to take a human life—Riley would never allow it.
As Riley’s moms waved enthusiastically, Seth’s cheeks flushed pink, and he let out a belated, startled squeak, flying back from Riley like his touch was suddenly fire.
It was a reminder that underneath the horny, newly turned vampire exterior, Seth was still Seth. A cheerful, kind, trusting man who was definitely mortified at having been caught molesting his young boyfriend in his in-laws’ driveway.
Riley couldn’t help his grin.
Seth swatted him in the chest. “Why didn’t you say something?” he hissed.
“I just did.”
“Oh my God.” Seth lunged to open the passenger-side door, almost falling out during his escape. Maybe he was still getting used to his new strength and speed, or maybe he was just too embarrassed to get his feet under him properly.
Riley followed him to the porch at a more sedate pace, trying and failing not to look like a proud husband bringing his new bride home.
Immediately, both Riley’s moms swept Seth into a three-person hug, cooing and clucking over him like two stylish mother hens.
“Welcome to the family!” Mama Daphne cried.
Eric grinned at Riley. “Congrats.”
Riley didn’t need to return the smile, because he was already beaming. “Thanks.”
He and Seth switched places so Riley could be smothered in motherly affection in Seth’s stead. Seth held out a hand to Eric. “Hello again. I hear you like my muffins.”
“He’s particularly fond of cinnamon rolls as well,” Wolfe drawled. “You’ll make some for him before our departure.”
Eric widened his eyes at Wolfe as he shook Seth’s hand. “Um, you don’t have to.”
“He does,” Wolfe said.
“I’ll add it to the menu tomorrow,” Seth told Eric, completely ignoring Wolfe, which was probably the wisest course of action.
“Although, there’s a question of whether anyone will come in.
I have to be the wishy-washiest small-business owner in town with all these unexpected lost days.
” He looked around the porch. “Where’s Violet? ”
“She returned home,” Mama Daphne told Seth. “She promised to, quote, blow up your phone later, end quote. She’s a lovely girl.”
Riley’s moms ushered everyone into the house and toward the kitchen. There was a pot of blood on the stove, simmering on low heat. Riley usually just tossed his in the microwave, but clearly they were going all out for his new mate. As they damn well should.
Seth’s eyes widened the second he smelled the blood, but he didn’t react otherwise.
Wolfe took a seat at the kitchen table, pulling Eric onto his knee. “Does your bakery have a social media presence? That’s how my Eric finds his points of interest when we travel.”
The thought of Wolfe and Eric perusing Instagram to find the best local restaurants was too weird and domestic to fathom. Riley pushed it out of his mind immediately.
“Um. Not much of one?” Seth said.
“Riley can help with that,” Mama Sybil offered, pulling a large mug from one of the cabinets and setting it by the stove. “He should make himself useful with all the space he takes up skulking at your tables.”
Rude. Accurate but rude.
Seth chewed on his lower lip, seemingly lost in thought.
He was very pointedly not looking at the stove.
Was he disgusted by the thought of human blood?
But no, Riley didn’t feel that through the bond.
Seth was only nervous, just like anyone would be, taking a big step toward an entirely new existence.
“Maybe you and Violet can coordinate,” Seth finally said, giving Riley a little grin. “She knows how to grab someone’s attention.”
That snapped Riley out of his musings. He scowled. “Maybe we should discuss the evil institute we just disbanded instead.”
Seth smirked at him, like he knew exactly why Riley was changing the subject. Ugh. One cooperative mission with the local goth grump and now she and Riley were going to be inextricably tied forever, weren’t they? Like a female mini-Wolfe, sneaking her way into Riley’s family without his permission.
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Wolfe said coolly. “Cooper pulled all the personnel files already. Between your mothers and Eric and myself, we’ll have no trouble keeping an eye on the employees who remain.”
“Cooper?” Seth asked with a frown. “Cooper is your hacker? Is that…Cooper Zaitsev?”
“I don’t know his surname,” Wolfe told him. “Cooper with a bloodthirsty chaos demon for a mate.”
“Bracchus,” Seth mused. “I know them. And Sascha and Kai? Ivan and Nix? Matty and Night?” Seth rattled off names speedily, his eyes bright with enthusiasm. They were names Riley was vaguely familiar with, via Jay and Alexei, two other members of the Colorado den.
How entwined were his and Seth’s far-reaching social connections?
“You know all of them?” Seth asked, looking from Wolfe to Riley.
“We’re acquainted.” Wolfe’s eyes gleamed as he smirked at Seth. “Demons as well as fae, hm? How interesting.”
Once again, Seth seemed to be either immune to Wolfe’s creepiness or determined to ignore it.
“I can keep an ear out at the bakery,” he offered, although he gave Riley a sidelong look that promised they’d be discussing all this later.
“I’ll let you know if I hear about anything that might be related to the…
captured that escaped.” He blinked as Mama Sybil wordlessly handed him the mug, now filled with heated human blood. “Um, thank you.”
The whole kitchen held its breath. Or maybe that was just Riley.
Seth raised his eyebrows at them all. “Seriously? With an audience?”
Mama Sybil smiled her meanest smile. “Perhaps we elders will retire to the living room.”
Seth took more care looking at Riley’s room this time around. He spotted Colin’s comics quickly. “It’s you,” he said, grabbing one from the top of the pile.
Riley eyed the vampire on the cover, younger and braver and more vicious-looking than reality. “A version of me.”
“Someone from your den draws these,” Seth guessed.
It was a reasonable theory, considering no one else would have known Riley well enough to create a fictional version of him.
“Colin,” Riley told him. “And then, um, Jay and I read them together.”
Seth’s brow furrowed as he stared down at the comic. “I know Jay,” he said slowly. “Don’t I? He and his husband, Alexei, would come to the bakery every day when they were visiting Sascha.”
Riley almost laughed. Of course Jay had been getting pastries from Riley’s fated mate for literal years with none of them being the wiser. Of fucking course.
“My moms have talked about joining them,” Riley said. “When we all age out of our current homes. Live off the grid for a while as a group. It’s a small community, but never boring. And they’re loyal.”
For some reason, that made Seth smile.
Maybe it was part of what had fated Riley and Seth together, these connections between them. Or maybe it was the reverse, and their mutual friends were just a step along the road, pushing them toward each other without their knowing.
There were more important things to focus on now though.
“Are you delaying?” Riley asked Seth, gesturing to the mug of cooling blood in Seth’s hand.
Seth shrugged, then set Colin’s comic carefully back on its pile. “Maybe.”
“Because it makes you a monster?”
Seth laughed, like Riley was being melodramatic. “Because it’s human blood. That can be weird enough on its own. You don’t have to attach anything extra to its significance. ”
It was a marvel, wasn’t it, how different Seth’s transformation was from Riley’s own? It was a little painful to compare—a sharp twist in Riley’s gut he might never fully get over—but it was also beautiful. An unexpected gift from the universe, that Seth didn’t have to suffer to be his.
Seth’s brow furrowed, like he was concentrating, and then black eyes and those sweet little fangs he’d used to drink from Riley’s wrist took over his features.
It was strange, seeing those green-brown eyes so dark. Strange but not terrible. Not terrible at all.
Seth took a careful sip. Hummed in thought. Took another. “Weirdly satisfying for a liquid,” he said after a moment. “Like a really good soup.”
Another minor revelation Riley couldn’t even be remotely surprised by: Seth comparing his first taste of human blood to a really good soup.
Riley took a seat on the edge of his bed as Seth slowly finished the mug. Seth set it down on top of Riley’s bookcase when he was done. “I did it.”
“You did.”
Seth came over to the bed, standing between Riley’s spread legs. The bed was low enough that it made them the same height, more or less. “A lot of changes in a short amount of time,” Seth said mildly. His eyes had gone back to their usual color without Riley noticing.
Riley swallowed. “Do you…regret it?” He didn’t think Seth’s attitude toward the mug of blood was one of someone devastated and defeated by their loss of humanity, but it didn’t hurt to check.