Chapter 7 Angelo
CHAPTER 7: ANGELO
Angelo didn’t know how long he sat frozen on that bed with Vin’s head cradled in his lap. Long enough for the last of the bruises on the vampire’s body to fade. Vin was either asleep or in some sort of meditative state while his injuries recovered. Angelo had finally found a way to silence him. Not that he was planning a repeat. He just hadn’t been able to face his broken body.
He was still fuming at the state Vin had been in when he arrived. If it wouldn’t have started a war, he’d have chased Kyan down and killed him instead of slipping them out of the warehouse silently while the explosion distracted him. There hadn’t been an inch of skin that wasn’t damaged when he’d pulled Vin out from under the vampires he’d killed. Fuck knew how he’d even killed them in the state he’d been in. Vin was pure fucking trouble. That was why there could be no repeats. That, and the fact Kyan was hunting Vin now. He wouldn’t, couldn’t, let a vampire bring death to his pack’s doorstep.
Angelo winced at the reminder he’d brought Vin home and risked just that. His home was in the pack apartment building that wrapped around the modernist mansion their Alpha and his family lived in at its centre. Not only could he not believe how stupid he’d been to bring Vin here, but he was going to catch endless shit for how loud he’d been when fucking Vin’s mouth. Especially when he was known for steering clear of hook-ups and being a grumpy son-of-a-bitch. Shifters were an exhibitionist bunch in general. But not him. Never him. And his pack knew it.
Brushing some of Vin’s golden hair away from his face, he stared down at the vampire resting on his naked thigh and tried to figure out how they’d ended up where they were. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about him? Why had he insisted on feeding him from his own body when he knew there was a perfectly good stash of blood bags in the communal pack kitchen nearby, kept for when they hosted vampire guests? From the first time they’d come into contact, Vin had made him feel and he didn’t like it one bit. He’d been perfectly happy doing his duty and keeping everyone at arm’s length. But his wolf wouldn’t let him put even a paw’s distance between them.
As if the thought had prompted him, Vin stirred in his sleep and slowly pushed himself upright. Angel hated that the loss of skin contact was like a punch to the gut. Vampires were rivals. Enemies. They were not whatever the fuck this had been.
“You need to leave. Kyan will be tracking you. Our pups are here and our elderly. He can’t know I helped you,” Angel said, forcing his face to stay calm and ignoring the whining complaint of his wolf at the back of his mind.
Vin’s expression turned unexpectedly sweet and earnest. Nothing like the manipulative, titillating creature he’d come to know.
“I would never put you or your pack at risk, Angel. I told you. You’re mine ,” Vin said .
Angelo’s eyes widened as he tried to process the crazy coming from the vampire sitting in front of him. “You can’t just decide that I’m yours, Corvin. That’s not how life works.”
“Watch me.”
Angelo huffed out an exasperated breath and ignored the smugness emanating from his wolf in response to Vin’s words, as if the vampire knew better than him.
“You need to leave,” he repeated himself. “This. Whatever it was. Will not be happening again.”
Vin nodded calmly, but Angelo could swear he saw a hint of hurt in his eyes.
“Not today, maybe. But I’ll change your mind,” the vampire said.
“Why can’t you just stop?” Angelo said, even though he knew he shouldn’t. Even though he didn’t want to. He could only hope the frustration and confusion swirling in his chest weren’t audible in his words.
“Because I want you to need me like you need your next breath. I want you to look at me the way you looked out at the forest by the cabin, longing to lose yourself in its depths. I want you to take me into your soul until your heart sings because I’m nestled in close to that beautiful wolf lurking just beneath your skin, and then I want you to rail me like you’ll die if you have to stop slamming that monster cock of yours into my body before your cum is dripping down my legs and I’m screaming your name loud enough for the entire city to hear.”
Angelo squeezed his eyes shut tight and fought for control as Vin’s words settled somewhere deep and broken inside him where he’d been alone for too long. His wolf was fighting to come to the surface, desperate to accept all Vin was offering. He pushed it back.
“You’ll get over it,” he growled, resisting the urge to rub at the sharp ache forming in his chest .
“I have lived for centuries. I have used and been used. Had countless lovers. I have never wanted more. Not once. Not until today. Not until you,” Vin said.
Angelo growled again at the thought of Vin fucking anyone but him and then mentally kicked himself for it. He wouldn’t put his pack at risk. Wouldn’t put himself at risk. Vin was a killer, just like the one who’d taken his family. And he was a vampire. Vampires and shifters did not start relationships. They’d be cast out by both their peoples.
His wolf growled at him in frustration, and he had the distinct sense it thought he was an idiot. An image forming in his mind of his Alpha fucking Vin had him seething with jealous rage. Okay, sure, maybe his Alpha didn’t suffer from the same prejudices as their forebears. It didn’t mean he’d put up with a leech in their midst. Especially one that would bring Kyan’s vengeance down on them. And Vin was a player, a manipulator. He didn’t want Angelo. This must be a trick of some kind. Or he just wanted a safe place to crash.
His wolf snarled at him in frustration again and then went weirdly silent, as if he was punishing him for being unutterably stupid. Angelo ignored him right back. It didn’t matter how good Vin felt in his arms. This. Was. Not. Happening.
“I don’t want you. I expect you to be gone in the next half hour,” Angelo said.
Vin laughed. The fucker actually laughed. “You’re a terrible liar, my Angel. Don’t claim you don’t want someone while you’re sitting in front of them naked with a hard-on.”
“Twenty-nine minutes,” Angelo said, not deigning to respond to Vin’s too-accurate assessment. His body had been raring to go again as soon as they finished.
Vin’s eyes narrowed at him and then he stood and swept toward the ensuite bathroom, head held high and his lithe muscles far too alluring as Angelo tried, and failed, not to drink in his naked body with his eyes while he still could .
Not trusting himself not to follow the vampire, he pulled on a pair of sweats and stalked out into his living area. A pile of clothes was sitting on the arm of his couch with a note on top. How had he not noticed someone entering his apartment? He knew the answer. It was another reason he couldn’t risk doing anything more with Vin. He hadn’t noticed them because he hadn’t been capable of noticing anything but the wet heat around his cock, the high of Vin’s venom running through his veins, and the intense pleasure of fangs scraping against— ugh . He needed to stop thinking about that. Right now.
The clothes were in Vin’s size, and the note was from his Alpha. It read: Come find me when you’re ready. We need to talk.—M
He could feel the warning in the words. He’d make sure Vin was well clear before that conversation happened and then there’d be nothing for his Alpha to get angry about. Marco needed to be reassured Angelo could be trusted after all the times he’d fucked up these last few days. He’d always been the calm, predictable one in the pack, providing much-needed balance to the emotions that so often ran high. He needed to find that place in himself again.
The sound of the shower was a temptation he didn’t need, so he busied himself with the espresso machine in the kitchen to get his mind off the thought of Vin naked and wet in the next room over. The urge to just knock a hole through the drywall so he didn’t have to bother with inconveniences like doors to reach the vampire was fucking ridiculous. He put it down to the venom still wreaking havoc on his system and the fact Vin’s scent was still all over him, a constant sensual reminder of what had just been, what could still be. He needed a shower. And he needed the vampire to get out of his space.
Soft footsteps pausing near his table and a waft of fresh mint interrupted his thoughts. How long had he been standing staring at his steaming cup of coffee? At least Vin knew enough not to sneak up on him. He had to swallow back a moan as he turned and took in the image Vin made—hair still slick and wet, tight black jeans that left nothing to the imagination, an even tighter collared shirt that brought out the silver in his eyes. It was more Marco’s style than Vin’s, but his Alpha had impeccable taste. He kind of hated that Marco could match a shirt to Vin’s eyes without checking.
Vin smirked as if he could read his thoughts. Wait. Could he read his thoughts?
“No. I’m not a mind-reader. You’re just really shit at hiding what you’re thinking,” Vin said. “Jealousy looks good on you.”
“Not true. I waste my pack at poker because they can’t get a read on me.”
Vin shrugged. “Maybe I’m just special then.”
“You’re nothing to me.”
Vin stepped closer and Angelo barely breathed as the vampire reached out and stroked a finger along his collarbone, petting him. “Don’t worry, puppy. He’ll come round.”
Was he seriously talking to his wolf right now as if they weren’t the same person? He could feel his eyes flash as his animal came to the surface, desperate to lean into the vampire’s touch.
“I’m not a fucking puppy,” he snarled.
“Then stop acting like one,” Vin said, before turning on the heel of his combat boots and walking out the door.
It took everything Angel had not to call him back.
An hour later, Angelo knocked on the door of the study in Marco’s mansion and waited for permission to enter. When his Alpha called, he walked in to find his closest family gathered. Something must be going down. Luca, their resident hacker, was once again nestled into a couch. His sister Aria was sitting close enough to crowd him into the corner, which was weird as fuck. Aria was a ruthless bitch at the best of times. She was clearly worried about him. Marco’s brother Silas was flanking him, leaning on the wall behind him. Bella, the most intimidating supernatural he’d met bar none, was sitting cross-legged on the floor to his left, smiling to herself. She wasn’t a wolf, but he had no idea what she was beyond the fact she was Marco’s best friend and fixer. The white flash of her teeth was in sharp contrast to the stunning ebony of her skin. He would’ve thought her intimidatingly untouchable if he hadn’t seen her dancing with her ray of sunshine wife at every pack celebration for the last three decades. The enforcers who would usually be present were noticeable by their absence.
“Alpha,” Angelo said, inclining his head as he tried to guess what had everyone on high alert.
He’d been too focussed on Vin. As the head of their security, he should’ve been all over whatever this threat was. The fact he didn’t have any idea was killing him. How had he let himself be so distracted?
Marco frowned. “Where’s Vin?”
“I sent him away. He was a security risk,” Angelo said.
His Alpha looked shocked. Legit fucking shocked. “Why the fuck would you send your mate away?”
It was like the word made his brain glitch. Spots of light filled Angelo’s vision and sound became an ethereal thing, fading into distant static. Mate? That was not. That couldn’t. No. Vin was a vampire. You couldn’t mate with a vampire. Could you ?
He must’ve been swaying where he stood because it took the firm hand of his Alpha on his shoulder to make the room stop moving. He still wasn’t with it, though. Distantly, he heard someone ask how he could be so oblivious, only to be chided by Marco about not judging something they’d never experienced. For whatever reason, there weren’t a lot of mated pairs in their pack. Maybe because Marco had lost his so young. The pack itself was relatively new, although Angelo had followed Marco for over thirty years. Most of their people had only been with them for the last couple of decades, and Marco had been focussed on securing their power base. Mating wasn’t really talked about because no one wanted to rub Marco’s nose in what he’d lost.
“Look at me, Angelo,” Marco ordered, forcing him to drag his attention up to his Alpha’s gaze, only for his leader to sigh in exasperation.
“I don’t understand,” Angelo said.
“No. I don’t expect you do. We let you close yourself off for too long. Let you slide through life without connection. And now you don’t know how to recognise it when it slaps you in the face.”
“I’m connected to you. I’m connected to the pack,” Angelo protested.
“I know. That’s how I can tell he’s your mate. I can feel it through our bond. It was obvious from the first time I was in a room with you both. And if I can feel it second hand, then I know you can too.”
“He’s a vampire. He’s a risk to the pack. I won’t give you up for anything,” Angelo said, voice cracking.
Marco snarled in frustration in his face. “Do you really think I would ask you to give up your mate? The one person in the world who was made for you? Especially when you’ve lost everyone else you hold dear. If that’s what you believe of me, maybe you should leave. ”
Angelo stared at Marco in fear and confusion until his Alpha seemed to take pity on him.
“I’m not kicking you out, you idiot. And I can’t tell you what to do with your life, even if it seems patently obvious.”
“Yes, you can,” Angelo said, and he meant it. He almost hoped Marco would order him to chase after Vin because then he wouldn’t have to make a decision.
“But I won’t. No matter how much you want me to. Do you need some time to go after him?” he asked.
Angelo shook his head. He’d be damned if his own issues got in the way of protecting his pack. “No, Alpha. The pack comes first.”
He could swear Marco looked disappointed in him. “I’ll let that slide for now because I need you. We need you. But you might like to consider the fact that if you got out of your own way and let the bond form with your mate, he’d be pack too. I might be a controlling asshole, but even I know mates come first. Always.”
Surely he didn’t mean that? A vampire couldn’t be pack. But if he could… Kyan wouldn’t risk starting a war by overtly attacking a pack member. Vin would be safe. Angelo shook his head. It was too much to think about when he could barely process his own emotions. And Marco had said his pack needed him.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“We’ve been investigating the thefts and unsanctioned arms supply in the city. Luca was tracking online chatter about a new group calling itself the D-2S, who we think is responsible. He must’ve gotten too close to them because he narrowly missed being taken out by a sniper shot to the head last night and we found an explosive under his car this morning. I need you to be his shadow until this blows over.”
Luca scoffed from the couch. “I’m fine . They missed because they’re not good enough to take me out. Don’t make Angelo watch me when he should be focussing on keeping the entire pack safe.”
“Shut up and let us look after you. You don’t train for combat like we do,” his sister Aria said.
“Just because I don’t spend every spare second in the gym like you freaks doesn’t mean I’m fucking helpless,” Luca said, anger in every line of his body.
“I won’t lose another brother, Luca. You’re the only one I’ve got left,” Aria said.
Angelo watched the siblings back and forth, staying out of it. It wasn’t his job to talk Luca into anything. When it came down to it, they’d both follow their Alpha’s orders. And he understood the man’s frustration. The pack had a tendency to treat him like he was fragile. Although it was with good reason.
“How’d they know where to find him?” Angelo asked Marco.
He kept his voice low, but the words drew everyone’s attention back, their faces too serious. He could feel icy rage and grief like he’d never felt coming off his Alpha in waves, and no further explanation was necessary.
“A traitor? Within the pack? How could they hide that from you with the bond?” Angelo asked, his voice only a whisper. That explained why their usual entourage of enforcers was missing from this meeting.
“The D-2S seem to be an anti-supernatural gang or movement, but we already know they’re not above using magic to meet their aims. We still haven’t found the earth witch working with them. There’s no way to tell if they’re selling them spells or working under duress, but either way, they must’ve found a way to block anything incriminating from the pack bond with me or I would’ve noticed something by now. I made a point of visiting every pack member in the last six hours and I got nothing,” Marco said .
“And there’s no way someone else would’ve known where Luca was?” Angelo asked.
“The car was in the secure pack garage and the shot was taken from inside the pack complex,” Bella chimed in, her voice grim.
Angelo winced. This was like their worst nightmare. Pack was everything. And to not know who to trust was a disaster. “Fuck.”
“That about sums it up,” Luca agreed. “I won’t be run off our own damn territory.”
“No. But if things get worse, you might need to stay at a safe house,” Marco said.
“If the attacker is pack, then all our safe houses are compromised,” Angelo observed.
Marco rubbed at his temple like the whole conversation was giving him a headache, which wasn’t surprising given he had a psychic connection to every person in the pack and one of them was actively trying to kill his cousin. “For now, Angelo will stay in Luca’s suite with him. Luca, you won’t go anywhere without at least one other from this group with you.”
Luca looked like he was about to complain, but Aria must have jabbed him in the ribs because his mouth snapped closed.
“How do you know I’m safe?” Angelo asked.
There were so many people not in this room, presumably because they couldn’t be sure they weren’t in on it. Some of them were family—at least two uncles and several cousins. Angelo was the only one not related by blood in the room besides Bella, who was her own very special case.
The well-meaning frustration was back in Marco’s gaze as he glared at Angelo. “Because I know you, Angelo. You were halfway across town breaking into a warehouse when the attack happened, and I’ve never been able to even ask you to kill the pack’s enemies in anything but self-defence. Not only did you not have the opportunity, you are simply not capable.”
Angelo winced at the indictment on him. What kind of mafia shifter was he if he couldn’t even kill in cold blood?
“Don’t take that how it wasn’t intended, Angelo. It’s part of what we love about you. You are family in all but name. You prioritised us over your own damn mate, for fuck’s sake,” Marco growled, pulling him into a tight embrace that quieted the anxiety that had been spiking in him.
“Come on, bodyguard. Let’s take our non-killing selves elsewhere and let the criminals get on with their plotting,” Luca said, getting to his feet.
Silas snorted. “Like anything you do on that computer is legal.”
Luca flipped his middle finger at his cousin and headed toward the door. Angelo slipped around him to check the hallway was clear before he left the study. And wasn’t that just a kick in the nuts? He’d never thought he’d have to threat assess his own packmates.
As one of the blood relatives of the Alpha and one of his inner circle, Luca had a suite in the mansion at the centre of the complex. It should’ve made him one of the safest of their pack, but now it meant there were dozens of balconies of their packmates overlooking the grounds that a sniper could take advantage of.
Angelo hadn’t spent much time in the hacker’s suite before, so he took the time to familiarise himself with all the weak points as he checked the rooms. At least the floor-to-ceiling glazing in the modern architecture was bulletproof and everything was locked and alarmed.
“You’re welcome to the spare bedroom. Just stay out of my study and don’t touch my babies,” Luca said as he watched Angelo prowling around his space from the kitchen .
Angelo smirked. Luca was so protective of his tech. Always had been. It wasn’t just super advanced and top-of-the-line. He’d also paid witches to enhance the hardware with magic to his specifications and then keep silent about it on pain of death.
“Do you need to go anywhere today?” Angelo asked.
“Nope. So, if you want to run after your vampire, now’s good.”
Angelo rolled his eyes. “I’m guarding you. I’m not going to run off just to chase some ass.”
“Is that really all he is to you?” Luca asked, as if the whole thing was morbidly distasteful but still addictively fascinating.
“He’s not anything to me,” Angelo said.
Luca just raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, fine. He’s infuriating. He’s a drug in my veins I don’t want to be addicted to. He’s manipulative and his power is super creepy, and he’s all about sex all the time. I don’t need that in my life.” Angelo said, ignoring the guilt he felt at the unfair reduction of the vampire to the parts he showed the world.
Angelo had seen beneath that. Seen the hidden pain when Vin said he’d been where a trafficking victim had been. Seen the self-sacrifice when he’d jumped on that flash-bang grenade to save Angelo before he even knew it wouldn’t blow him up. Seen the strength in his vulnerability when he’d confessed what he wanted from Angelo. Vin was alone in the world, just like Angelo had been when his family was killed. Only no one had reached out a hand to him like Marco had to Angelo.
“My cousin’s right. You’re an idiot. You’ve finally found someone who makes you feel instead of pretending you’re emotionless and you’re trying to push him away. I can’t blame you for not wanting a mate, but I hope for your sake he’s as infuriating as you say, or you only have yourself to blame if you’ve run him off. I don’t know that vampires feel the mating drive the same way we do. He may well be able to walk away. You’ll probably never move on now that you know he’s out there, so you’d better find a way to deal with it,” Luca said.
He sounded horrified by the whole concept, pity dripping from his words as if Angelo had been diagnosed with a terminal illness instead of finding the other half of his soul. It was no surprise, given his history.
Angelo’s heart raced with anxiety at his words. The only thing worse than Vin being his fated mate would be if it was all one-sided and Angelo was the only one who felt that way. “I don’t know how,” he whispered.
“Well, figure it the fuck out. Most shifters would kill to find their fated mate,” Luca snapped, leaving no doubt that he wasn’t ‘most shifters’.
Angelo’s heart ached for the pain that put such venom in the usually calm hacker’s words. No way was he going to ask if he was okay when everything about Luca’s expression said to back away, though.
Figure it out.
As if it was that easy.
As if Vin would even want to come back when Angelo had all but thrown him out the door after fucking his mouth like he was feral.