Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Soren
Why was I nervous? I was immortal. I’d lived for centuries. I shouldn’t be this nervous going into the home of a man I was quickly becoming obsessed with.
Although this was where his family lived.
His biker family.
They knew I was coming. Well, the guard at the gate did or else he wouldn’t have allowed me through. Now all I had to do was open the door and walk in.
Yet, I didn’t move.
Why did this man make me nervous?
Why did this feel as if it were a bigger deal than it was?
It had been four days since I’d last seen Spade. We’d spoken many times through text or over the phone, and each time had me craving him.
Now that I was here, I worried he would see how out of place I was in his world.
Groaning, I palmed my face before reaching my hand out to yank the door open.
The whole thing snapped and broke.
“Shit.” I quickly leaned it to the side of the building and strode in, heading for the room where most of the noise came from.
There were about a dozen men and women lingering around.
But my view was abruptly cut off when my name was screamed right before Riker slammed into me, hugging me tightly.
“You’re here. It’s so good you’re here,” he said, looking up at me.
Cupping his cheeks, I smiled down at him. “Sweetheart, it’s always a pleasure to see you.”
The little fox shifter looked over his shoulder to his—already approaching—human fated mate. “Corbin, look, it’s Soren.”
When Corbin—or, as he preferred anyone else to call him, Razor—stopped behind Riker, he gripped the back of Riker’s tee and yanked him away. Riker fell into him with a crazed smile before he hugged his mate’s arm that rested over his chest.
Corbin tipped his chin my way. “Hey.”
I nodded. “There’s an issue with your front door.”
His brows pinched. “What?”
“The handle just came off in my hand.”
Razor snorted.
He knew what I was, since he’d been welcomed into our world when Riker and he claimed each other.
Fated mates were a true treasure.
I wanted my own.
Movement caught my attention, and my breath locked at the sight of Spade striding over with a wide grin.
He stopped beside me, and people seemed to quiet. “Hey,” he greeted, still grinning.
“Hello.” I tucked my hands behind my back to stop myself from reaching out to him, unsure how he wanted to act in front of everyone. “Thank you again for inviting me.”
My stomach fluttered as he reached out and tugged me close, wrapping his arms around my waist. I placed mine on his chest and stared wide-eyed at him when I could hear and feel how fast his heart was thundering.
“Babe” was all he said before kissing me.
Right there in front of everyone.
People hooted and hollered around us, but it all quickly faded to nothing. Every ounce of my focus locked onto the man dragging my body to life like he owned it.
And then it shifted.
What started as a kiss turned into a claim.
His mouth grew rougher, hungrier. I wanted to pick him up and carry him off to a room so I could take him. Unless he was into fucking in front of everyone.
Then again, I’d probably slaughter anyone who saw him naked. That was only for my eyes.
“Goddamn… I want to join in,” a woman murmured somewhere too close.
I tore my mouth away with a snarl, turning toward where the voice had come from. I took a step forward. But then Riker was there, bouncing up and down in front of me, clapping his hands.
“Hey, hey, hey, Soren. Be nice to my family, or we’ll have to go head-to-head.”
I blinked slowly, licking my lips, and that was when I tasted it—metallic, hot—and then everything detonated. My vision sparked, stars burst behind my eyes as something deeper slid into my chest and wrapped around my cold heart to warm it.
Mate.
My gaze widened as I swung it back to Spade, who was watching Riker and me with wide eyes as he almost swayed and touched his chest. He had a small cut on his bottom lip. I must have nicked it when kissing him.
Mate.
The word didn’t just echo—it roared, flooding every vein as his blood and connection sank into me.
His shocked gaze met mine as he rubbed the place over his heart, feeling me in there but not understanding.
Heat followed, thick and consuming, spreading fast—too fast—like wildfire under my skin. It wasn’t just warmth. It was possession. Connection. Something ancient snapping into place.
I needed to have him.
I had to claim him.
Mark him in all ways.
“Mine,” I clipped low, my teeth lengthening.
Riker released a peep and spun me away from the crowd. “Corbin, clear the room,” the fox ordered, tension slicing through his voice.
“Out!” Corbin barked.
“What the fuck’s goin’ on?” someone else demanded, but their voice was already fading under the rush pounding in my ears.
A hand came up to my cheek.
Everything inside me stilled—and then surged harder.
My body hummed beneath Spade’s touch, reacting like it had been waiting for him its entire existence.
I turned back to him slowly.
My mate.
The word felt heavier now. Real.
“Mine,” I bit out again, the word rough, edged with something feral.
Spade didn’t flinch. He just nodded, steady as ever. Though his gaze dropped to my mouth, lingering there, before rising back to mine. There was something different in his eyes now. Interest and desire.
The fox stepped closer, wary. “Spade… did he cut your lip?”
My mate removed his hand from my cheek and touched his bottom lip. “Just a little.” His gaze flicked down to my mouth. “Are they real?”
“Oh my God. This is epic. We’ll be one big, happy family,” Riker cheered.
“What’s happenin’?” Razor demanded, hooking an arm across Riker’s chest to pull him back.
I wanted another taste of my fated. My fangs ached to be embedded in my mate’s skin. I wanted to be fucked while I drank from him. I want his seed and blood inside me.
“Soren, want me to explain?” Riker asked.
Sudden unease slipped into my senses, clearing the claim roaring in my head and heart.
What would happen if he were disgusted by me?
I was a monster in more ways than one.
Spade could reject the bond. He could leave me.
A hand gripped my hair, and I was yanked forward. My chest crashed into Spade’s, and he clipped, “Whatever you’re fuckin’ thinkin’ to put that look on your face, stop it.”
Holding his waist, I softly told him, “You don’t understand.”
“Then tell me.”
I wanted to tell Spade—I did—but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. So instead, I flicked my attention to Riker, who beamed, and I nodded.
Spade caressed my jaw with his rough fingers, and when his thumb touched a fang, I shivered. “Are they real?” he repeated.
He pinched my chin and tilted my head left and right, then back to look at them some more.
“They’re real,” Riker supplied.
Would my fated still want me?
Spade glided his hand down to my throat, which he gripped slightly. “Soren, tell me. Explain why it feels like a part of you is in my chest. Tell me why it feels like I’ve been missin’ you my whole life and didn’t know it, but now it’s like…. Hell, it’s like you belong to me.”
“Fated mates,” Riker blurted.
“I’m sorry,” I offered softly.
Spade’s brows drew together. “You’re sorry?”
“Fate has placed us together. Two parts of a whole. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept this if… if you’re displeased with… with me.”
Never before had I been so tongue-tied. But fear of rejection rode my senses, outweighing anything else.
“So, you’re sorry that Fate has… connected us?” he asked.
“No,” I snapped. “Never. You are my everything, and I would keep you until our end, but you know nothing of my world. You know nothing of what I am, and I would never want you to feel burdened with me.”
Spade sighed. “Looks to me, with all the fangs and dark eyes, like you’re a vampire. Yeah, that shocked the shit outta me when I figured it out, but what worried me more was your look of fear when it dawned on you that we were fated.”
All I could do was gape at the man in front of me.
Riker cackled. “Bikers are different,” he told me. “Spade, look at me. Look.”
When Spade faced Riker, he took my hand and squeezed it, which sent a wave of reassurance over me.
“Why are you strippin’?” Spade spluttered.
“Sunshine,” Razor warned.
Riker rolled his eyes. “I’ll leave my boxers on. But can I tell Spade now? He’s a part of our secret squirrel family thing now, right?”
“Sweetheart, he hasn’t accepted our bond,” I told him. “He might not want—”
“I want,” Spade said, turning to me. He gripped the back of my neck and eyed my fangs, which just wouldn’t go away until I had them buried inside him.
“You can’t be sure—”
“I’m so fuckin’ sure. The bond makes so much damn sense.
How I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about you. How I hated the idea of anyone lookin’ at you, and I want to fuck you so bad right now, I’m aching, and it ain’t only my cock respondin’ to this.
” He tapped his chest. “My heart’s goin’ crazy…
like there’s a final step we need to complete for this thing between us to finalize, and until that happens, I know I won’t settle.
I’m in, Soren. I’ve been completely into you since the first time I saw you.
I don’t give a fuck what our pasts have been.
We’re each other’s future, and I’ll take you, the man who was meant to be mine, since even Fate agrees, in any way, shape or form. Fangs and all, baby.” He grinned.
The man had just blown my emotions wide.
“I am a vampire, Spade.”
He nodded. “Cool. And call me Theo.”
Riker gasped. He launched forward and clasped my hand in both his smaller ones. “To bikers, that means everything. It means you’re theirs. Corbin did the same for me. Only I get to call him Corbin, and I can kill anyone else who tries. He told me that.”
Razor snorted. “I didn’t exactly say that.”
Spade—no—Theo, my Theo, moved closer and removed Riker’s hands from mine. “How about you let me in on this family secret and quit touchin’ what’s mine?”
In reaction to Theo’s possessiveness, my cock jerked under my slacks. I curled into him as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I wound mine around his waist. I pressed my nose into his neck and inhaled.
The heady spice of Theo’s blood and arousal filled me.
My fangs throbbed. “Make it quick, fox,” I demanded.
Riker cackled. “You got it.”
Theo glided his hand down my arm and then cupped my ass. He turned to me. “Sex. That’s what completes the bond?”
“Yes,” I hissed between my fangs. “I will also need to drink.”
“My blood?”
I nodded.
“I’m down for that, babe.”
I groaned.
“Pay attention to me,” Riker whined.
“Sunshine. How about you show Spade after they fuck and claim?”
“But I’m excited,” the fox complained.
Sighing, I smiled and dropped my forehead to Theo’s shoulder. “Pay attention to him so we can leave.”
Theo chuckled, and I knew when Riker started to shift into his fox form from the way Theo tensed and sucked in a sharp breath.
On an exhale, he mumbled, “Fuck me.”
I glanced down at Riker’s little yip, seeing him bounding around.
Razor grinned proudly down at his mate as he explained, “Riker’s a fox shifter. His brothers are shifters too. There are also other paranormal members, like fae and demons, but you’ve got time to learn it. Though you aren’t allowed to share their secret.”
Theo grunted and nodded. He drew in another long breath. “All right. This is stuff I’ll need to get used to. Got it.” He eyed his president. “You and Riker are fated?”
Razor tipped his chin up.
“Makes more sense.” His attention went back to Riker. “Wicked form, Riker. Any other time, I’d stick around to ask questions. But I gotta finish this bond.” With that, he turned us and started walking.
My ears rang.
He wanted me.
He really wanted me.