Chapter 5
Wolves. Their desire to protect those not as capable of protecting themselves could be admirable…
to a point. That urge to exhibit their brute strength, no matter the circumstances, could also cause more issues than it was worth.
It was a drunk orc, not a titanic hellhound, which I’d also dealt with in my days.
Wolves were far too emotional for their furry selves.
Vampires were manipulative because we controlled our impulses.
I’d learned to survive in the last fifty years of my vampiric existence.
Based on Harkin’s scent, I’d wager I was a vampire for ages before he was even born.
The nerve he had to assume I wanted his protection.
Now, we’re stuck together, which I still didn’t understand.
Also, what happened when Harkin’s hand touched me? It was so brief, so inconsequential, and yet my body thrummed on contact. There had been actual static filling my chest from it. Had I been imagining things? Did he feel anything? I groaned at how pathetic that sounded.
I sat with the stone pillar known as Harkin between my thighs with a vibrating metal horse beneath us.
Were it another person or situation, I would’ve relished the excitement of riding a motorcycle again for the first time in years.
Even his wolf-like presence couldn’t sour my mood entirely, though.
A small smile edged my lips, which I kept hidden behind his back for fear of him catching it in his rear-view mirror.
The cool night wind felt refreshing on my skin and through my hair.
Harkin didn’t say or do much during the entire ride.
When we made the occasional turn, I’d squeeze my knees harder against his thighs.
His whole body went into rigor mortis, his chest heaving as if his breathing intensified.
His leather jacket had such a potent aroma, I repeatedly breathed it in—leather, pine, vanilla, maybe?
And the alpha musk? It suited him. A fact he would never hear from these blood-soaked lips.
As I saw my cottage in the distance, I patted Harkin’s shoulder. “It’s up here on the left.”
“Mean the only house within view?”
I jabbed my fist into his ribs.
The wolf snarled.
After parking in my front yard because I didn’t have a driveway, he cut the engine, and I immediately hopped off.
Harkin jiggled his keys, his pupils dilating as he stared at the bright moon. “Hells of a moon tonight.”
It was beautiful. No doubt about that.
“Oh gods, you’ll not feel compelled to howl before we go to sleep, will you?” I fished in my pocket for my house key.
“If it were a full moon, maybe. When I forcibly shift and become a treacherous, insatiable animal?”
Damn it, why was this fun?
I bit back a smile. “Well, you better have that garlic on standby. You can’t predict when I might sink my teeth into you.”
Harkin’s cheek twitched. “Fresh out, but I do always keep a vial of holy water on me.”
I focused on his pupils, still dilated. “Does this banter work on all the girls, wolf?”
Harkin laughed, the moon’s glow catching on his canines, causing my stomach to clench. “It certainly doesn’t on you. Otherwise, wouldn’t be doin’ it.”
Shoving the key into the lock, I kicked open the door and held my arm out for him to enter. “My humble abode.”
Harkin paused at the threshold. “Good thing I don’t need an invitation like a vamp, or reckon you’d make me sleep on the stoop, huh?”
Once we were inside, I pushed my back against the closed door. “Is that what we’re doing all night? Wolf and vampire puns? Fine.” The key landed on a tiny hook by the entrance, and I moved past him. “I would’ve at least given you a kibble bowl and a short leash.”
Another buttery, deep chuckle came from Harkin’s chest before clipping off. “What. The. Hells. Is. That?”
Waffles bounded from the shadows, growling at Harkin, his fur standing on end up his back. Harkin responded with a much more menacing growl, his claws extending from his hands.
Harkin blinked when I appeared before him from across the room. Blocking his view of my pug, I waggled a finger in Harkin’s face. “No.”
Harkin sobered, the fur that’d grown on his face disappearing. “Pardon me?”
“No. You are not to harm Waffles. He is my pet pug.”
Harkin pointed a claw behind me, Waffles still snarling and barking at him. “That thing is a dog?”
“And you are not to comment on his appearance. He’s the best boy in the whole wide world.” Not standing down for any reason other than his acceptance, I folded my arms.
“Fine,” Harkin said through a snarl.
Waffles let out several little belching barks, his whole body jumping forward with each one.
“Make amends, or he might chew your ear off in the middle of the night.”
Harkin lifted a “are you fucking kidding me?” brow.
And I was not, in fact, being funny.
“I’m serious. He’s a zombie dog.” I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from bursting into laughter.
The wolf pinched the bridge of his nose as if he regretted the very moment he’d protected me from that orc now.
Harkin put his hands on his knees and slowly bent forward. Waffles took several hesitant steps back, but tilted his head at him. “Settle down. I’m not a threat.”
I gasped.
Waffles panted delightfully and plopped his butt on the floor. The remains of his tiny spiral tail wagged.
“You did not just alpha my dog.”
Harkin stood and cracked his neck with a demon’s grin. He moved in front of me. “I did. Never said I couldn’t, and if you had, would’ve done it anyway. My ears were at risk. I like my ears.”
They were nice ears. Not too big, not too small, perfectly tapered against his head and not sticking out. I wondered if his wolf’s ears were just as symmetrical, only furrier.
Why was I thinking about his ears?
Quickly turning toward the kitchen, I flung open the fridge. “I need to eat. Did you need to gallivant through the woods and hunt down a rabbit or something?”
Harkin took off his jacket, his movements calculated and graceful, and draped it neatly over a wooden chair.
He leaned on the doorframe of the kitchen, his arms folded, legs crossed at the ankles.
Was he aware of how his mere existence exuded power and charm?
“That would require me to shift. So, unless you’re gonna follow me through the forest at night while I do it, think I can wait until mornin’. ”
A moonlit chase? It’d been a long time.
After grabbing a bag of O-positive, I hovered my hand over one peach before finally snatching it. “Here. It’s all I have as far as actual food goes.” I tossed it to him.
Harkin caught it with one hand. He stared at the fruit as if I had poisoned it. “Is this gonna give me the shits?”
Grinning, but again, keeping it to myself, I put the blood mug in the microwave. “It certainly can’t give you fleas since you’re already riddled with them.”
Harkin scratched his beard, almost as if he were going along with the joke. It sent inconvenient flutters through my core. “I’m serious, Aurora. Is this some trick?” He held the peach between us with two fingers, like a mysterious relic.
“Look. Eat it, or don’t. I was trying to be hospitable.” Holding the heated mug, I braced myself by the sink, keenly observing him.
He narrowed his eyes at the fruit before resting it on the small, rounded table. “Think I’ll wait.”
Because all vampires were deceptive creatures.
Whatever. I wouldn’t be the one with a rumbling stomach in the middle of the day.
Harkin watched me drinking the blood and returned to his duty of holding up my doorway. “You don’t feed from the tap no more?”
I sputtered into my cup. Damn it. He actually made me laugh, and he’d know it now. Harkin’s eyes twinkled.
“I haven’t fed on humans or other beings in years. It’s why I moved to the Cove. There’s no temptation here.”
Harkin cracked his neck to one side. My gaze darted to his throat, that Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “Really?”
Really? Really what?
“Careful, if that’s hard for you to believe, I may get insulted,” I countered.
Our eyes met, holding firm for a moment.
The sudden putrid stench of one of Waffles’ infamous farts hit our noses.
“Oh gods, Waffles,” I playfully chastised, shooing him and fanning the odor away from me.
Harkin plugged his nose. “Wow. Now I do believe he’s a zombie dog because that smells like death pissed on a shit mound.”
Covering my face with my arm, I hurried past Harkin.
I thought I’d have enough room to fit through the doorway without touching him.
I was wrong. Our elbows brushed, sending the same chill along my backbone.
I tried desperately not to look at him. Still, curiosity over whether he felt something too betrayed me.
Harkin’s eyes lit up, a slight confusion playing across his expression. His nose-holding stance, quite funny given his size, remained. “Where’s your bedroom, by the way?”
My stomach turned into endless knots. “My what?”
“Your bedroom.” The wolf eyed me as if I’d said I wanted to sunbathe. “Where you sleep?”
I moved into the living room, distancing myself from him. “It’s in the cellar. I can grab you a blanket or something. You can take the couch, but your feet might hang off it considering you’re a giant.”
Harkin followed me. “If it’s in the cellar, that’s where I sleep too.”
“What?” Screw this alpha bonding crap to all the hells. “No.”
The wolf held his head low before turning his gaze to the ceiling as if a deity would come to his rescue. “You’re makin’ this a lot more difficult than it has to be.”
“Because I don’t need protection, Harkin.” I swept my hands down my body, displaying myself. “I’m a vampire. An apex predator. Unlike when most people say it, I really can take care of myself. There’s very little that can kill me.”
“Yeah?” Harkin eyed the wooden table and chairs, the couch frame, the TV stand. “See a lotta things that can kill you in here alone.”
The hair at the back of my neck stiffened, making the fangs unsheathe. I marched in front of him and held up my deer’s antler charm. “I wish this was made of silver so I could stab you with it.”
“Ouch,” Harkin said, his breath calm and minty somehow. “That would certainly tickle.”
My foot tapped uncontrollably. “Honestly, Harkin, who is going to attack me in a cellar?”
“For starters, we live in the Cove with hundreds of beings with magical abilities. A lot of them have the power to teleport. Also, as I’ve said multiple times now—” Harkin lowered his face into mine. “I have to see you.”
If only I had the power to teleport.
Snarling, I bared my fangs. He growled, drawing back his lip to show his canines.
I turned around and pulled my vest up over my head, exposing my bare back.
“Gods, Aurora,” he said, trying to sound modest.
“Oh, please, Harkin. If there is one thing vamps and wolves have in common, it’s that we’re not shy of a bit of skin showing.”
“When we’re shifting,” Harken countered, mumbling something else under his breath.
After throwing on underwear and a camisole, I returned to him, shrugging. “Maybe you could shift into wolf form. Curl up at the foot of my bed?”
“Somehow, think that’s what you’d prefer.” Harkin slid his shirt off, tossing it with his jacket.
All the breath left my lungs, and I fought the urge to swallow down a blood clot that had formed in my throat.
His chest and stomach sported the perfect amount of hair, stopping short of Bigfoot territory.
Though my house was consistently small, Harkin’s immense physique made it feel like a dollhouse.
He’d always been a large guy. That I remembered.
Had he been this muscular, though? Had he always had a commanding presence, even in an empty room?
After I stole another glance at his throat, I flashed toward the cellar door.
Harkin had stepped that way at the exact same moment. I bumped into his bare chest. “Careful there, Apex.”
The heat radiating from him soothed my chilled skin. My gaze roamed his body, forged from years of fighting. Protecting. Gods and Martyrs, he was cut. We breathed the same air for several seconds. Our eyes searched each other’s faces, but neither of us gave in to whatever was going on here.
I stepped back and moved my gaze to the doorknob. “It’s getting close to sunrise.”
“Then we’d better head on downstairs.” Harkin’s voice was grit and grime packaged in a wolfish rumble.
I drew a deep breath as I opened the downstairs door. No one had ever been in my cellar before. I’d foolishly shared coffins in my youth, but when I started using cellars, I swore it’d be sacred to only me. “Harkin—”
“You’re only gonna get more tired, right?”
Nodding, I clutched the doorway.
“Then let’s get down there. It’s just sleep, and you won’t have to listen to my wise cracks.”
I set my jaw. “Everything down there is metal.”
Harkin visibly blanched. “You implying you think I’d have tried to kill you?”
My silence said everything.
“Wow.” Harkin’s chest hitched. “No, I don’t like vampires. Never said I planned to kill any for the fun of it, though.”
Especially not you. I’d wanted him to say it. Why?
After giving a firm nod, I descended the ladder. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I shuffled to a corner.
Harkin had to hunch forward because the ceiling didn’t accommodate his height. “Well, this is cozy.”
“I never planned to have a six-foot-five wolf down here.” I yanked the blankets off and flipped on the bedside lamp.
“Six-foot-six, by the way.”
Lest we forget that extra inch.
Harkin scratched the back of his head, making his arm flex. “Half expected us to debate on who was takin’ the bed, but I wouldn’t be able to fit my left toe on that thing.”
“I wasn’t offering. You’re the one that got us into this mess.” I stared lazily at his forest and full moon arm tattoo.
“A fact you won’t let me live down. I get it.” His tone came out haughty, but he didn’t seem to regret it. Harkin turned in circles, eyeing up the best place to lie down.
Three scar slash marks on his back running from the top of his left shoulder down to his right set of ribs loomed in the lamp’s dim glow. Since when were wolves not able to heal themselves?
I opened my mouth to ask him about it, but the sun rose in the daylight sky outside. The darkness pulled me into slumber, a glimpse of Harkin’s brows pinching together the last thing I saw.