Chapter 4
Four
Wyatt found it difficult to tear his eyes off Beltran Varik now that he was sure River was warm and calm. The vampire was not at all what he’d expected. He was nothing like any of the vampires he’d known within the MacPherson clan.
Beltran was adorable with his too-long black hair and neat little bow tie.
His hands moved constantly as if a pair of hummingbirds were attached to his wrists.
They fluttered about when he was talking and twisted together when he was listening or merely thinking.
His body was slender under his tailored suit and his facial features sharp, almost hawklike.
Those eyes, though—bright, hypnotic blue.
They saw so much. Wyatt felt as if he were under a microscope.
Beltran stared at him, tearing away all his defenses to see the worries and fears he tried to keep hidden from even River.
He didn’t have to smell the anxiety wafting off him, mixing with a lingering scent of pine and dirt from the woods. And the raven. He would still catch hints of that raven he’d spotted watching their meeting from a tree branch overhead.
Everything about Beltran was strange and unexpected, but nothing about him screamed threat. He didn’t think the vampire was a threat to him or River. Wyatt couldn’t say the same about his family, but for now, alone in the vampire’s very nice house, they were safe.
With River sticking close to his side, they followed Beltran down the dimly lit hall, along shining hardwood floors to a large kitchen with brand new appliances that looked as if they’d never been used.
The floor had been done in black-and-white tiles while the counters were a black marble.
Like the living room and entry, everything was shiny and clean. Did Bel truly live in this house?
“Have you lived here long?” Wyatt asked as they followed.
“No, just a few months. Still trying to get settled and all that,” Beltran murmured with a little wave of his hand. Grabbing the handle on the refrigerator, he jerked it open and his expression immediately fell. “Oh, dear. That’s right.”
To Wyatt’s surprise, River moved away from him to peer around Beltran.
After everything they’d been through, River was usually quite slow to warm up to strangers, preferring to stick close to Wyatt’s side.
But maybe that was part of Beltran’s allure.
The vampire felt safe, as insane as that thought was.
“Whoa,” River breathed. “New fridge?”
Wyatt moved around the counter to look inside to find several bags of blood and a pitcher of water. “You don’t eat food?”
Beltran shook his head and closed the door again. “No. I’ve lost the habit over the years. It takes time away from my work.”
“Lucky you,” River muttered under his breath as he pressed his hand to his stomach again.
Wyatt was feeling the same hunger pangs.
They hadn’t had jobs or even money in years, thanks to Brett’s indentured servitude.
Since Brett’s death, they’d been largely surviving on what they could hunt in the woods.
The only problem was that the local pack’s territory ran very close to Bel’s property.
He and River had survived on hunting in the narrow strip of land between the two, not wanting to risk pissing off either the vampire or the pack.
But Wyatt hated to admit he’d been looking forward to something warm and cooked. Something served on a plate. Something to be enjoyed with his human tongue.
Crushing down that disappointment, Wyatt placed a hand on River’s slumped shoulder and squeezed. “It’s okay. We can hunt up something in the woods.”
River took a deep breath and gave a little nod.
“Oh! I know!” Beltran’s entire body straightened, and he gave a little bounce of excitement.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, holding it aloft like it was the answer to all their prayers.
“Those food delivery apps. My brother and his mate Ethan swear by them. Do you think they would work here?”
To Wyatt’s surprise, Beltran unlocked the phone and handed it directly to River. The younger werewolf looked up at Wyatt for a moment, his eyes wide and questioning. Yes, the vampire was more than a little eccentric, but still, he seemed harmless.
“Umm…I haven’t had a cell phone in years, but I’m pretty good at figuring out stuff like this,” River hedged, accepting the phone. “It shouldn’t be too hard to download some to your phone and check.”
“Excellent. If you can start that, I can get some drinks.” Beltran turned to a cabinet and grabbed a pair of water glasses. He held them up toward Wyatt and smiled. “Water okay? I mean, I’ve got plenty of blood to spare. But werewolves don’t drink blood, right?”
There was a new energy about him now. As if he’d come to accept that they were welcome guests in his house and they meant him no harm.
“Water is just fine. We don’t particularly care for blood,” Wyatt said.
“Unless it’s with a good rare steak,” River added, which only caused his stomach to growl again.
Beltran nodded and went about adding ice and water to the glasses, then set them on the center island around which they were gathered.
“I haven’t had a steak, rare or otherwise, in…
wow…it’s been quite a while. At least a century.
When I had dinner with my family not long ago, Ethan was craving sushi. I’d never had that before.”
River’s head popped up, his nose wrinkling. “Was it good?”
“It was…interesting. Some of it was very good. But I do not suggest trying the wasabi.”
River’s eyes widened suddenly. “Can you eat garlic?”
“Oh, yes. I don’t know where that silly old myth came from. I love garlic. Italian food was one of the last types of food that I gave up. All those wonderful sauces and the noodles.”
“Okay, we’ve got to get one of these apps working. I’m starving now,” River said, turning his attention to the phone that had been briefly forgotten in his hand.
Wyatt reached out and picked up both of the water glasses. “Why don’t we move back to the living room, where you and Mr. Varik can comfortably search for something on the phone?”
Beltran’s head popped up, and he smiled at Wyatt. His heart gave the strangest skip at that look. Only River had ever smiled at him like that.
“Yes, that is a much smarter idea,” Beltran agreed. “But please, you must call me Bel or at least Beltran. Unless you’d prefer it if I call you Mr. Campbell.”
“No, Wyatt is fine with me, Bel,” he said gently.
Bel looked away, leading the way toward the living room, but not before Wyatt saw what looked like a faint blush paint along his cheekbones.
River looked over his shoulder at Wyatt, one eyebrow raised in question, but Wyatt could only shrug.
He didn’t know what to say. When they decided to approach Bel after the death of Brett, they’d both come with the hope that he was no worse than Brett and the rest of the MacPhersons.
So far, Bel was proving to be nothing like that clan or any vampire they’d ever met.
He was simply unexpected.
And that was causing the strangest tangle of emotions in his own chest. He was more accustomed to feelings of loathing, distrust, and frustration when it came to vampires.
But when he looked at Bel, the most he felt was a little frustration, and even that was tainted with sympathy.
The Varik wasn’t making them false promises or acting callously toward them.
If anything, Wyatt was impressed with how fair and understanding Bel was attempting to be.
In the living room, River and Bel sat close on the couch, paging through the different restaurants on the apps, while Wyatt slowly paced around the room, his eyes moving over each of the windows.
The glass was incredibly thick with a protective coating, likely to shield against the sun’s rays.
But there were also rails for thick shades to come down over the windows.
And then a second set of rails, possibly for something even heavier than the shades he could see.
As he moved around the room, it became clear that the vampire’s home was well protected. There were tiny signs of the security system in place, and there were no indications outside of the home that anyone was getting close to the structure.
From the few rooms he’d been in so far, there were only faint hints of other people.
He knew Rafe’s scent, and he’d been in the house before.
And there was another hint of a human. Maybe a housekeeper who came to maintain the home’s spotless appearance.
But other than that, there was only the scent of Bel.
Behind him, he listened to the steady conversation from River and Bel. Apparently there weren’t a lot of options, thanks to Bel’s remote location. But it didn’t take long for them to settle on a place and order far more food than they needed.
Wyatt almost laughed. Every time River pointed something out, wondering if Bel thought it sounded good, the vampire would simply say, “Let’s try it and see if we like it.”
Bel was showing signs of being the worst kind of enabler. If they were lucky enough to convince him to be their new master, Wyatt would need to have a talk with River. They were not going to abuse his generosity.
Of course, Wyatt didn’t want a new master in the first place. He didn’t like living outside of a pack, but he was willing if it meant being able to call River his own.
But life outside a pack was a death sentence for werewolves. A vampire master was his only chance at keeping River safe and alive.
For River, he’d accept yet another vampire master. He’d bend and scrape and obey commands to protect his River.