Chapter 60 Warren #2
“How can I help you?” Warren asked, finally managing to make himself do something.
If he hadn’t been killed, that probably meant that she – it – wanted something. Being polite didn’t cost him anything.
“Nothing.” The creature un-tilted her head and looked at him. “You’re very young. I wanted to see you. It’s been so long since I’ve seen one of you in your infancy.”
Warren swallowed.
“One of what?” he asked.
The creature smiled, and Warren really, really wished she wouldn’t. It should have been a nice smile. The woman had nice teeth, nice gums, and her lipstick was expertly applied.
It looked so wrong.
“I don’t know what you call yourself.” The creature looked around the café. “You’re not like me. I eat flesh.”
Warren didn’t feel like pointing out that he ate meat would be helpful here.
“I like vegetables,” he said, offering the statement hesitantly, knowing that she wasn’t referring to his status as a human omnivore.
“Yes,” she said, nodding as if that made sense. “And more.”
“And more,” Warren agreed. He liked meat and mushrooms as well.
“Was there anything special you wanted to see?”
Warren really, really wanted to go home and hide under the blankets with Harland.
“You.”
Warren nodded. “Right.”
What the fuck did she want? Warren’s palms were sweaty, his heart racing, but the longer he sat there, staring at her, there was a tiny, itty-bitty little piece of him that thought: how dare she come here.
This place was his.
The feeling made no sense at all and he ignored it.
“Little baby,” the not-woman said, almost like she was cooing at him. “So hungry.”
Warren flashed back to Dylan describing what being an omega felt like when he didn’t have sex with his alphas. How he felt empty.
Were empty and hungry the same thing?
“Not that hungry,” Warren said, almost mulish.
The woman smiled again, and this time it was easier to look at. Warren realized with a start that if he wanted to, he could get up and walk away.
“No. You chose well. A vampire werewolf. He must be very juicy.” The woman leaned forward. “Maybe you don’t need the other two?”
A flash of something hot and furious sparked in Warren’s chest, but before he could say anything, the not-woman laughed and leaned even closer.
“Greedy baby. It’s okay. I understand.” She patted his hand, her skin cold and clammy. “We can be friends, yes? We don’t need to fight.”
Warren nodded. He didn’t want to fight, even if a small part of him did.
He would lose so badly.
“Good. I don’t need more enemies.” She leaned back and folded her hands in her lap. “You may visit when you’re all grown up.”
Warren swallowed. “Thank you.”
The creature studied him for a second, and then faster than his eyes could track, she was holding his arm again.
“As a gesture of friendship, let me show you how to feed a little bit better.” She grabbed his other arm, staring into his eyes. “Like this.”
Warren felt like he was sinking into himself. There was a sensation of falling, and then he was back on solid ground, sitting on the chair in the café, but aware.
He could feel Harland, Max and Marcus in his mind, the links between them thick and golden, his own threads thinner and more fragile in comparison.
In front of him, the bank woman was blinking at him, looking around with a confused expression.
The creature was behind him. Warren felt it, huge and looming and terrifying, and even if he had wanted to, he could not have turned around to look.
“Like this,” a voice whispered into his head, showing Warren how to reach for the strands that bound him to his mates.
Holding them felt like euphoria.
“See?” the voice said. “So juicy.”
Warren let go of the threads, the implications of the creature’s words hitting him just as the presence looming behind him disappeared.
Being an omega wasn’t an addiction. It was a diet.
Even though the creature was gone, Warren could still feel his bonds to Harland, Max and Marcus. Now that he could feel them, he wondered how he could have ever been oblivious. Even just sitting there, he could feel the bonds grow thicker and more robust.
All three of his alphas were freaking the fuck out. Warren couldn’t understand the emotions they were broadcasting beyond absolute panic. His phone was vibrating, Marcus calling him, and there were already twenty unread messages in his inbox.
“Did you want to open an account?”
Warren looked up from his phone. The café slash bank employee looked confused, but like she was trying to hide it.
“Are you feeling okay?” Warren asked, sending a burst of safe and calm to his mates.
A supernatural entity had just worn the poor lady’s body like a costume. He really hoped it hadn’t harmed her.
“Sorry,” the woman said, smiling and rubbing her forehead. “I got a little lightheaded there and lost my train of thought. I’m fine. Now you said you wanted to open an account?”
“I actually just remembered I have to go,” Warren said, standing up. He wobbled, his legs feeling unsteady, before he managed to get a grip on himself.
“Are you all right?” the woman asked. She looked ready to leap out of her seat to help him.
“I’m fine,” Warren said, looking around for his bags. They were over by the wall where he’d been standing. “I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
The woman relaxed and smiled. “No worries, come back any time.”
She seemed fine. Warren rushed over to his bags, picked them up, and initiated a three-way call with Harland and Marcus as he exited the café.
He would have included Max as well, but he figured that he and Marcus were together anyway.
“Are you okay?” Marcus answered on the first ring, his voice breathless with panic.
Harland then joined the call with a furious, “Where are you?”
“I’m fine,” Warren said, stepping back against a wall and letting himself breathe. “I’m downtown, a few blocks from campus. It just wanted to talk to me. It was curious about me being an omega, I think. It was friendly.”
“Friendly?” Max said from a little further away from the phone, incredulous.
“I think so,” Warren said. “It showed me how to feel our mating bonds.”
He sent another burst of reassurance to all three of them, receiving startled surprise in return.
“What the fuck?” Marcus said, the words not directed at anyone in particular.
“I think it thinks that I’m feeding on you.”
“But you’re okay?” Harland asked, even though he’d already said he was fine.
“Yes,” Warren said. “It said it wanted to be friends. That I could visit when I was all grown up.”
Neither Marcus nor Harland seemed to know what to say to that, but Warren could feel their confusion.
Mating bonds were weird.
“I want you both to come here,” Marcus said. “Right away.”
“Sure,” he said. They’d been planning on flying up soon anyway. They might as well leave now. “That makes sense.”
“What if it follows us?” Harland asked, sounding scared.
Warren, now that the danger had passed, found himself relaxing. The creature had just wanted to say hello, and though it was terrifying at first, it hadn’t harmed anyone.
It would be a long time before Warren took it up on its invitation to visit Florida, however.
“I think it went back home,” Warren said. “It said it wasn’t going to eat us.”
“It won’t come here,” Marcus said, sounding more certain than he felt across the bond. “We won’t let it.”
Unspoken was the fact that none of them could stop the creature if it decided to move against them.
Warren wondered what it was. It had felt old and huge, and every instinct in his animal hindbrain had screamed that he needed to get away and hide.
“I want you to come here,” Marcus said, speaking to Harland.
“We’ll come,” Harland promised. “Warren, I’m on my way to you now. I’ll be there soon. Just stay put and wait for me.”
Warren hadn’t noticed it before, but now that he was paying attention, he could hear the sound of Harland’s motorcycle in the background.
It sounded like he was speeding.
“You should run,” Max piped up. “You can run faster than your bike.”
“Not during the day,” Harland said, frustration edging his voice. “It’s too far.”
“I’m fine,” Warren reminded them. The sound of Harland’s motorcycle engine revving made Warren’s stomach clench. “Don’t get in an accident.”
“I won’t,” Harland assured him, audibly pushing his bike even faster.
Harland, Marcus and Max stayed on the line with Warren until he heard Harland’s motorcycle come racing down the street. The sight of him, his massive leather-clad body leaning forward as he zoomed down the street, drew curious and censoring looks from both sides of the street.
Warren could feel the exact moment Harland spotted him. The vampire cut across two lanes of traffic, getting furiously honked at, and pulled up next to the sidewalk where Warren was standing.
Before Warren could brace himself, Harland was off the bike and wrapping him up in a crushing hug. He could feel how frustrated Harland was that he couldn’t take off his helmet and kiss and nuzzle him properly.
“I got him,” Harland said, speaking into the microphone in his helmet where Marcus and Max were still on the line.
Warren ended the call on his end and put his phone in his pocket.
“Sandra will pack up our things and have them sent after us,” Harland said, grabbing a spare helmet from the storage compartment on his bike and handing it to Warren. He then looked at his phone. “She’s chartered a jet to fly us to Fairbanks. It will be ready in an hour.”
Warren couldn’t hear Marcus’s reply, but he must have agreed to the plan. His jet hadn’t even left Fairbanks yet, so Sandra’s option would get them there much faster.
Harland squeezed him again, rubbing the back of his hair and crushing his face into his chest, before letting him go and leading him over to the bike.
“We have time to stop by your apartment if you need to bring anything,” Harland said, checking the time. “If you can be in and out quickly.”
“No, it’s fine, all the stuff I need is at the house. If Sandra is shipping stuff, she can just send everything that’s in my bag.”
Harland felt a swell of satisfaction that everything Warren needed was in his home. It was a darkly possessive feeling and Warren was startled by how deeply it was felt.
Harland really wanted him to live with him.
He grinned, watching as Harland climbed onto the bike and scooted forward to allow Warren to sit behind him.
Warren put his shopping bags in his backpack and climbed on. He glanced around, thankful for the helmet hiding his face as he noticed all the people watching him.
Some of them were filming.
It made sense. Someone who was very obviously a werewolf, wearing a mysterious full-body leather racing suit and helmet, had just acted like a maniac in city traffic and hugged some random guy like he was coming home from a war.
Warren would have been curious, too. He wouldn’t have filmed, no matter how much he wanted to, but he would have slowed down so that he could see what was going on.
It was a relief when Harland turned on the engine and pulled away from the curb, this time following the rules of traffic and going an appropriate speed.
In no time at all, they were on their way to the airport.