Watching Out For Fangs (The Cloverleah Pack Book 7) (3 page)

Chapter Four

Josh woke up with a groan, clutching his throbbing head in his hands as he struggled to sit up. Fuck, what the hell had he been drinking? He’d never felt so hungover in his life and he hadn’t remembered taking a sip of anything, let alone a bottle of any of the hard stuff. Wolf shifters barely ever got a hangover. What the fuck was going on? Firm hands surrounded his head and moments later the fogginess cleared and Josh opened his eyes, looking into Fafnir’s concerned face. He immediately looked around for Jax – the wolf shifter was crazy possessive and Fafnir wouldn’t normally be allowed to touch him. But seconds later Jax’s stern face looked over Fafnir’s shoulder and heavens above, was that concern in the man’s violet eyes too?

“What happened?” Josh said, letting himself fall back on the couch. He was in the pack house and as he became more aware of his surroundings he could smell and sense the rest of the pack were all in the room with him. He thought he should probably sit up because seating was usually at a premium when the whole pack was around, but he wasn’t sure he had the strength.

“You saved my mate’s life,” Jax said gruffly, tugging Fafnir under his muscled arm. “You saw the knife that cursed vampire was holding well before anyone else did and jumped in to save him. I was too busy watching Fafnir, and everyone else were watching the Alpha.”

“Oh that,” Josh said closing his eyes as the memories came flooding back. He could remember jumping in to save Fafnir, but…. He opened his eyes again and this time managed to sit up. He was going to need to shift before he felt 100 percent, although whatever Fafnir had done was definitely helping. “Embarrassed as I am to say it, I’m pretty sure I was losing that fight. Who saved me? Was anyone else hurt?”

“Everyone is fine. Vadim, the other vampire saved you. He ripped Stephen’s head completely off, threw the cursed idiot off you and then healed your wounds with his blood. At least we won’t have to worry about any come-back from the curse anymore,” Kane said from across the room. He and Shawn were sharing their favorite seat. Looking around, Josh saw Diablo and Griff, Matthew and Dean, and Troy and Anton. Jax, Fafnir and Aelfric were sharing the couch with him and Tobias was sitting on the floor, leaning against the entertainment center.

“Fucking good of him. Nice to know there’s one decent vamp in a bad bunch,” Josh said.  But then something teased his brain, something about vampires giving blood…the reminder of what Jax had told them weeks before came flooding back to him. “Oh hell, so what? I owe this Vadim a blood debt now? I have to offer myself up as a vampire smoothie?”

Kane looked uneasy for the first time ever, well since Josh had known him at least. Looking around his pack members, Josh could see no one was looking particularly comfortable, or even looking at him directly. Josh felt a pit of dread form in his stomach.

“Someone else gave up their blood for me?”  Josh continued hopefully, looking at Tobias. Sure, the two men had shared a bed a couple of times when they were living in San Antonio, and they were friends, but still, paying a vampire debt by letting himself be a snack was not normally the sort of things friends did for each other. Even in a wolf pack. But nope. Tobias shook his head.

“Vadim said a debt wasn’t incurred.” It was Jax who spoke up, and to Josh’s surprise the big man laid his hand on Josh’s shoulder. Josh didn’t think his friend had ever touched him before unless they were training. Instead of soothing, Josh felt more confused than ever.

“But I thought…” Josh trailed off. He wasn’t sure what to think. No one seemed inclined to want to say anything, in fact barely anyone would meet his eyes at all.  Only Dean, and the Omega just looked sorry for him. What the hell was going on?

“Oh, what these soppy wolves are trying to tell you, without getting to the point, because they don’t want to hurt you, is that Vadim’s apparently your mate. He healed you and inadvertently bonded with you when he was giving you his blood. Vampires don’t demand a blood debt when they give their blood to mates.” 

Aelfric’s tone of voice wasn’t unusual, he nearly always sounded like the arrogant prince he was. But the words just weren’t making sense in Josh’s brain. Vadim was his mate. Vadim healed him and bonded them apparently in some vampire way. Vadim wasn’t in the room, and clearly hadn’t been in the house because there were no foreign scents that Josh could pick up.  Which must mean…

“He didn’t want me then. Was compelled by the Fates to save my life, but he didn’t want to be mated to shifter. Brilliant.”  Okay, those blunt words shouldn’t have hurt so much when they came out, but fuck they did. It’s not as though he’d gotten to know the wretched vampire or anything. He’d wanted to, his wolf had been keen, but Josh didn’t even remember catching the man’s scent before he fell unconscious. Despite all that, Josh was gutted and he was sure every wolf in the room could sense it.

“I’m sorry Josh,” Kane said. “We all are. Vadim said something about you being better off without him and that he was going to do his best to make sure the pack has no more problems with the coven. He asked me to keep you safe before he left.”

“But you don’t think he’s coming back.” For some reason Josh felt it was really important to get that point clarified even though he could feel the answer in his heart.

Kane shook his head. “He’ll apparently starve to death by staying away, but that was his choice and he made it, well aware of what would happen.”

“Any idea how long that will take?” Josh asked looking around the room at his friends. The pity in the room was like a stench. It was Jax who answered.

“About two weeks to a month, depending on how old the vampire is.”

“Your wolf will let you know when it happens,” Shawn said, his voice full of compassion. “We will all be here to help you get through it. You might find it a bit difficult, given that he apparently bonded with you when he healed you, but you should come out of it okay, and once Vadim is dead your life will be lonelier, but you should be able to stay on track.”

Yeah, right. On track, but never having a mate. Vadim was the one chosen for him by the Fates, and the wretched man didn’t want him. Josh felt a sharp pain as his heart broke, the dreams and hopes he’d had since well before coming to Cloverleah disappearing in a puff of smoke. He had always dreamed of a man who would want him, just the way he was, but apparently that wasn’t what the Fates had in mind for him. It was in that moment that Josh resigned himself to a very long and lonely life. He’d already experienced enough hassles with the games men played with his affections. That was why finding his mate had become so important. Well, he’d found him, and lost him all in one afternoon, while he was unconscious. Josh needed some solitude to lick his wounds and come to terms with his new reality. It was going to suck big time, but he would do it.

“I appreciate your support,” he said, pleased his voice didn’t waver. “Thanks for that and I’ll…I’ll let you know if anything happens.” Josh stood up. He was still a bit wobbly on his feet, but a shift would take care of that. What he did know was he had to get out of the pack house. He couldn’t stand the pitying looks from his friends a moment longer.

“I’m gonna…patrol. I’m on patrol. I’ve got to go,” Josh managed to say, heading for the door.

“Josh, you should eat something, you have just gone through a pretty major injury.” Kane’s voice was designed to stop him, Josh could hear the authority in his Alpha’s voice. But his need to run was growing and there was no way he could sit and eat at the table with friends who had witnessed his humiliation.

“I promise I’ll get something later,” he said.  Quickly opening the door before Kane could say anything else, Josh pulled off his shirt. His jeans fell to the ground and moments later, Josh was in his wolf form heading for the trees like the hounds of hell were after him. And in the strangest way they were. Josh was determined to keep running until the humiliation of being rejected, the pain of being deemed unworthy and the anger Josh felt against Vadim for not even staying to reject him to his face while he was conscious was gone. He figured it might take some time. But without a mate in his future, Josh had all the time in the world.

Back in the living room of the pack house the men were silent for a moment. It was Fafnir who spoke up first. “You’re all just going to let this happen? Isn’t there a good chance Josh will die once his wolf realizes the stupid vampire has let himself starve to death?”

“There’s not much we can do but be supportive,” Kane said, his deep voice tinged with sadness. “I don’t want to lose Josh, and although the thought of having a bloodsucker in the pack gives me the creeps in all honesty, I would far rather welcome Vadim than see Josh suffer. But Atlanta is too far away and it’s not safe for any of us to go there, not after our last visit. You two and Dean would be in grave danger. Besides which Vadim seemed pretty adamant about rejecting the bond when he left, even though he knows he can’t feed. No one can be forced to mate with another and if Vadim has said no, which he has done so pretty equivocally this afternoon, then there is nothing we can do.”

“Josh saved my life,” Fafnir pleaded, turning to Jax. “We owe him something. Can’t you see that?”

“I do see it, Angel, you know I do. I would do anything to help Josh right now,” Jax said. “But I’m not sure that vampires feel the same way about mating that we wolves do and with Vadim leaving like he did – you heard Kane - mating has to be a two way choice. We can’t force him to accept Josh even if we dragged him back here in chains and locked them in a room together.”

Fafnir looked at Aelfric who had a little grin on his face and Jax had a horrible feeling his two mates were plotting something.  He tightened his hold on both of them as if that would stop them doing something reckless.

“Find out all you can about Vadim,” Kane said, including Diablo and Griff in his gaze. “Maybe…I don’t know. But Vadim introduced himself as Regent D’Arcy’s brother and yet I would swear looking at the man, Vadim is the older of the two. The Regent was a lot more insipid than Vadim appears to be. Do all the digging you can and see if we can come up with a reason why Vadim would walk away from Josh the way he did. Maybe it’s a vampire thing, or maybe Vadim is in some sort of trouble or something. But let’s find out all we can about this man before we go zapping into Atlanta and getting ourselves into more trouble.” This time the Alpha’s gaze was for Aelfric and Fafnir who had the grace to look a little embarrassed.

“The pull to mate is strong regardless of species,” Shawn said thoughtfully. “Vadim will be yearning for Josh in more ways than one. So let’s find the information quickly, aye? Before the vampire does something stupid like trying to get himself killed so that Josh can get over him quicker. He’s clearly meant to be in this pack, and I for one don’t like letting the Fates down.”

“Why would a vampire be necessary to a wolf pack? His ideals will be so very different to ours, especially if he is a loner,” Tobias said and Shawn noticed the look of concern on the other pack member’s faces too.

But before he could answer, Aelfric jumped in with a bit of a snarl in his tone. “You could say the same thing about us Fae. Faf and I don’t belong here either, but the Fates lead us right into your pack house and into Jax’s arms. It’s like I told the Fae at that wretched banquet we went to, maybe it is time for some diversification, maybe it’s time for all paranormals to learn to get along. You can’t dismiss Vadim just because he’s a vampire, that’s just not right.”

“Again, you’re right Aelfric,” Kane said, standing up and pulling Shawn to his feet. “I don’t know why, and I am not sure how, but I think in another couple of years there won’t be another pack like this one anywhere, and I for one think that will be a good thing. If the Fates want Vadim here, then let’s see what we can do to make it happen.”

“He is meant to be here, just like the rest of us,” Shawn said firmly as he let Kane tug him towards the stairs. “All of us are here for a reason and Vadim is meant to be with Josh even if he is too stubborn to see it. All we have to do is work out why.”

Grumbling quietly, but without any malice, the men all got to work, doing what they did best – searching, researching and finding information. By nightfall the whole pack would know everything there was to find about Vadim D’Arcy.

As Shawn let himself get wrapped up in his mate’s embrace in the privacy of the room that they shared, he heard the solitary mournful howl of a wolf in pain coming from the forest. He silently prayed to the Fates that Vadim and Josh could be reunited soon – because without his mate, Josh would only ever be half the man he was meant to be. That was if he survived at all.

Chapter Five

Vadim kept his lips firmly closed, refusing to let the groan that lingered in his throat escape. The pain running through his body had dulled to a throbbing thump and he knew his body was healing despite his lack of nourishment. Vadim had stopped counting his birthdays when he hit the seven hundred and fifty mark, although he knew that was quite a few years before. Having lived through the worst that mankind and vampire kin could do to him for more lifetimes than he could count, the poison in his veins was something Vadim was well familiar with.  Keeping his eyes closed, knowing there was nothing in his prison worth looking at, Vadim wondered how the hell he was going to get out of his current predicament, or if he even wanted to get out.

In hindsight, and wasn’t that a wonderful thing, Vadim knew he probably
shouldn’t
have attacked his brother, or Lorraine in a coven filled with guards. That was a dumb thing to do and he was usually smarter than that. Unfortunately getting rid of Stephen’s body, dragging two reluctant enforcers on the long trip back to Atlanta, all because Ermine had insisted on a report
and then
having Lorraine fall into a pitiful heap complete with fake tears when he returned…that had been the final straw for Vadim’s temper.

Vadim knew damn well that Lorraine wasn’t worried about her brother’s death – it’s not as though the two had been close at all. They were both too greedy and selfish to have close family ties. No. All she was worried about was that Stephen had failed to bring back the Omega so she could get her fucking garden.

Apparently the whole business of Stephen having met his mate, and needing his curse removed was simply another ploy, planned by the Regent and his wife to try and get into the Atlanta pack’s good books again. Ivy had been gone when Vadim had gotten back to the motel in Cloverleah. He should have guessed then that the whole situation had been a set up.  Leaving was not something a loving and concerned potential mate would do. Apparently Ivy had been roped in to give Stephen’s story some credibility and to use magic to help the stupid man grab the Omega. Vadim had seen Dean, and the young man had a Fae protection mark on him, so that wouldn’t have worked either.

Vadim did give himself some credit for restraint. He didn’t attack Ermine or Lorraine as they revealed their treachery. In fact he didn’t say anything at all. He just stood there fuming while he watched his brother make a fool of himself over his wife. It wasn’t until Ermine started going on to Lorraine about how he would take the entire enforcer group down to Cloverleah to steal the Omega that Vadim felt a rush of protectiveness hit his gut, and apparently his claws, with a speed that surprised even him. In that moment taking back the Regency that had been his right since birth, and killing both Ermine and Lorraine seemed the most effective way he could save his lovely young wolf shifter.

Yep, he probably should have planned that a little better. He could have gone to his mother and gotten her support for a takeover of the coven. She would have supported it – she always thought he was a better Regent than Ermine. Overall, he should have thought about the whole thing a little more. Mental side-note. Get a handle on this protective thing fast, because it wasn’t doing him any favors. Vadim had never felt so out of control before, and for the first time in his life he had acted without caring about the consequences.

Now chained up in the coven basement, he had nothing but time to think about his folly. Unfortunately he was finding it difficult to feel sorry about anything. The only thing he was worrying about was how the hell he was going to keep Josh safe, given he was locked up. The last time his brother had gotten annoyed with him he’d been kept in the dark for over a month, and that was just because Vadim had refused to attend Ermine and Lorraine’s wedding. This time was a lot worse and time was a luxury Vadim didn’t have.

Fucking hindsight. Vadim knew
now
that the only way his gorgeous mate would be truly safe was if he had stayed in Cloverleah. He had no doubt that Josh was capable of looking after himself in normal circumstances – the man had tackled Stephen without a second thought. The vampire poison didn’t affect shifted wolves as badly as it did anyone in their human form, and apparently the Cloverleah pack didn’t know that, or maybe Josh might not have acted so rashly. But as Vadim tried to think of the little information he had acquired over the years about shifters, he wasn’t so sure Josh would have held back long enough to shift. His mate was a beta wolf with a strong desire to protect others. That could be a problem if the young wolf was left to wander the earth without a mate beside him. Vadim found he didn’t like that thought at all.

Lost in his musings about wolves, and a special one in particular, Vadim almost missed the sound of the cell door opening. For a moment he tensed, suspecting his brother coming to gloat, but then a soft waft of perfume hit his nostrils – a scent he was very familiar with. His mother. Vadim opened his eyes to see that the woman was in the process of seating herself in a chair provided by a guard who didn’t even look his way. As she always did, Vadim’s mother gave the man a small smile and indicated that the guard should leave the lamp he had brought with him. She was always gracious like that. The guard received a few more whispered instructions and then left, closing the door firmly behind him.

“I am disappointed in you Vadim.” Eloise’s voice was soft and held a musical lilt that had been a calming force on Vadim as he grew up. Although almost a thousand years old, his mother looked no more than thirty – her skin was still pale and unlined, her long blond hair swept up on her head in an elaborate style that she had redone every single morning of her life. Her slim figure was clad in the finest pale blue silks – her only concession to her prison visit being a sturdy pair of shoes, tinted in the same hue as her dress but totally unlike the fine sandals that usually graced her dainty feet.

“I didn’t mean for my actions to upset you, Mother,” Vadim said formally. He hated disappointing his mother. In his long years of life, she had never let him down. “The Coven should stay out of wolf affairs and leave the Cloverleah pack alone. Ermine is going to lose a lot of good men in his desire to give in to his wife’s latest whim. I was simply trying to stop him,” Vadim said. He fidgeted a bit in his chains, wanting to show his mother respect by standing up as straight as he could. Not an easy thing to do with his ankles shackled to the wall.

“You’ve been to Cloverleah yourself now. They are well protected? Is that a problem for us?”

“They are a pack, mother. A well-armed, extremely loyal to each other,
pack
. If we leave them alone they won’t be any problem to us at all, but that is the only way I could guarantee anyone’s safety,” Vadim said, emphasizing the word pack firmly. He didn’t know a lot about wolf shifters, but he knew from the way the men at Cloverleah behaved during his short stint on their grounds, that no one would be able to get their hands on the pack’s smallest member. Not by force or any other means.

Eloise shrugged an elegant shoulder. “Surely they have nothing there that could defeat a full-scale coven attack. We are not a small coven.”

“Mother,” Vadim said, cursing the chains that bound him. He would get on his knees and beg if he could. He had to get his mother to understand how a successful coven attack was not on the cards. “The Cloverleah pack is unlike any other we’ve ever seen. A small pack, yes – all men, no women or children that could be used as hostages or leverage. But unlike most other packs, most of the men in Cloverleah are true mated which means their bonds are stronger than any other. They have a huge percentage Alpha wolves – unseen in any other pack and rather than cause discord, these men are close in their ties with each other. Their pack Alpha is mated to a Shifter Guardian. Their members include a massive cat shifter, three Fae, one of whom is rumored to be the ruler of the Western States in the Fae realm, and a mated Omega – don’t you understand what all that means?”

Eloise looked thoughtful. Vadim always knew his mother hid a wealth of intelligence behind her beautiful façade. Then she appeared to change tact.

“How do you know all this from one little meeting, one that apparently did not go well.”

“I did my research before I entered their territory, like Ermine should have done,” Vadim snapped back. “And the meeting would have gone fine if Stephen had responded to the questions asked of him verbally, and not just lunged with a knife at the nearest pack member. Up until that moment we had been greeted with courtesy.”

Vadim didn’t see the point in mentioning that the pack member that Stephen had tried to attack was the same Fae that cursed him. He had enough experiences with Fae curses to know that was a really stupid thing for Stephen to do. Firstly a knife wouldn’t have killed the Fae unless it was an exacting blow and secondly the curse would have remained whether the dark-haired Fae was alive or dead. If Stephen had succeeded and actually killed the Fae, he and his children, his children’s children and everyone else that stemmed from him, would have been cursed for an eternity. Vadim had done him a favor by pulling off the imbecile’s head.

“Why did you give up the Regency, my son?” Eloise asked, apparently changing tact yet again and Vadim was struggling to keep up. He wanted his mother to leave him alone so he could work out what he was going to do about Josh. Even now it was possible Ermine was planning a full scale invasion of the Cloverleah pack and if that happened, then his precious beta wolf could be killed. But his mother’s question forced Vadim to concentrate on the moment instead of anxious speculation.

“You know why, mother. I don’t see the point in rehashing old history that you are already aware of,” he finally said. Vadim hated thinking about his past and refused to talk to anyone about the legacy that past had left him with.

“And yet you are clearly the better ruler. You took the time to research the pack. Your help to the wounded wolf showed great honor and courage, given how outnumbered you were. You care about the coven enough to not want any more members killed in the pursuit of Lorraine’s precious garden. Why won’t you take up your position again and stop this nonsense from a position of strength?”

The cell door opening stopped Vadim from having to answer his mother. The guard had returned and Vadim’s heart sank when he saw who was with him. Everett, one of Vadim’s extremely loyal blood donors. The sexy slim human’s face lit up when he saw Vadim chained to the wall. He made to run over, but a shake from Vadim’s head stopped him. Confused, Everett stood in the middle of the floor, a look of hurt on his lovely soft face.

“Go ahead, take some nourishment. I told the guard to bring Everett to you,” Eloise said with a small smile. “You haven’t had anything since you went on your brother’s errand and I know you must be hungry.”

At his mother’s words, Vadim recognized he was hungry, desperately starving in fact. His throat was dry, his fangs dropped in anticipation while his stomach twisted in on itself, making its needs known. But although he knew Everett’s blood would contain the satisfying sweet quality that Vadim had previously enjoyed, he was resigned to the fact that there was only one person’s blood he could ever taste again without being violently ill.

Struggling to get his fangs to retract, Vadim bowed his head at his mother and Everett. “I appreciate you thinking of me, mother, but unfortunately Everett’s services are no longer required. I release him into your care. Please see to it that he has all the resources he needs to live a full and happy life.”

A frown marred Eloise’s face for a moment, but before she had a chance to speak, Everett ran over, climbing Vadim’s body like a tree. Vadim cringed at the contact, cursing the fact he could do nothing about it. Damn shackles.

“Why would you do this to me, Vadim?” the boy cried out. “Ten years we have been together. Ten years you’ve fed from me and had me warm your bed. Why would you refuse my blood now? Why are you giving me away? I thought we were to be bonded. I thought you loved me as much as I love you.”

Vadim leaned back as far as his chains allowed him and stared at the young man’s face. He was shocked at Everett’s outburst, especially in front of his mother. There was no shame to be had in bonding with a human – Vadim was well aware of that. But he had never claimed a commitment, or feelings with any of his donors over his long life. With one exception an insidious voice reminded him. Vadim pushed those thoughts from his head.

To him, donors were a necessity and nothing more. Sure Everett was one of the few who shared his bed on occasion. In fact, if Vadim thought about it honestly, Everett may have been the only one over the past five years or so. Vadim couldn’t be bothered enough about people to spend any time finding a new person to fuck when a regular one was handy. But even when his lust was impossible to ignore, Vadim kept the interludes quick, efficient and without investing any emotion in the act beyond lust.

He had always preferred his solitude, hating the times when he was forced to allow Everett to stay the night, which was only when the young man’s bottom lip trembled at the thought of leaving him after their needs were met. Vadim was the one who used to leave as soon as Everett had fallen asleep, preferring to sleep on his couch rather than share a post-coital cuddle. Affection, even for those that had met his basic needs for food and sex, was something that made Vadim’s skin crawl. Unfortunately he hadn’t been responsible enough to keep his donors or sex partners rotated often enough and it seemed the ten years had meant something to Everett. As much as he hated doing it, Vadim was going to have to resort to being a pure vampiric asshole to get rid of him.