I’d witness Ian stumble over his words and generally act like an idiot when he found his mate. I’d get to see Grant smooth-talk his mate into accepting the bond and watch as cocky little Seamus fell head over heels. My throat tightened. Holy shit.
Aunt Halle was going tofreak.
“There she goes again,” Daniel whispered in amusement.
I snapped back to the present.
“Hopefully, we like each other,” I said pragmatically, staring into his warm brown eyes. “Because if not, this is going to suck.”
His laugh was beautiful. It started slowly, like he couldn’t quite believe it was happening. Just like his voice, it was deep and slightly rough, and I felt it everywhere.
“Sweetheart, I already like you,” he said, his lips still curved up in a smile.
“What’s not to like?” I replied. “I’m more worried about you.”
He chuckled again, like he was fucking delighted.
It was goddamn magic.
I’d been admired before. That wasn’t anything new. I’d had partners when I wanted them. But generally, I found that they couldn’t take all of me for long. When I was younger, I’d put on a face, trying to trick them into liking me. I’d kept my mouth shut when I’d wanted to shoot something clever back. I’d downplayed how strong I was, how capable I was, how assured I was.
When I’d stopped doing that, my relationships usually fizzled pretty fast. Men were unsurprisingly emasculated by capable women.
If I had to guess? Daniel liked it.
Which was good, because trying to act more demure or delicate or softer-tongued than I actually was would backfire sooner rather than later, and it wasn’t as if either of us could walk away.
Daniel’s head turned toward the house, his head cocking to the side just a tiny bit, and I knew he must’ve heard something inside. Someone would come out to check on us soon.
“Do you have any more questions?” I asked, setting my hands on his belly. The muscles there were rock hard. My mouth watered.
“Who’s Dalton taking orders from?” he asked, looking back at me.
“What do you mean?”
“He was contracted. Who hired him?”
I looked at him in confusion. My dad and Uncle Dalton had just explained everything to him. Why did he think we’d been hired by someone?
His head snapped to the side again as Uncle Dalton stepped onto the porch.
“Arthur Carruthers,” Uncle Dalton said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“The frigging commandant of Vampire Command?” I yelped, my eyes widening.
Daniel’s hands were gentle but firm as they slid down the sides of my body and landed on my hips. He lifted me off him like it was nothing, so he could rise to his feet.
“Arthur,” he replied, his face expressionless.
“He noticed a pattern about a year ago,” Dalton confirmed. “Came to the same conclusions you did. Someone’s using the reports to target new mates. It took him a while to put it together because it’s only one in a hundred or so mates reported. Since we were already looking into it, we brought him in.”
“He told us they believed Zeke’s murder was an isolated event.”
“That’s the official stance, yes.”
“But he knew it wasn’t.”
Uncle Dalton shook his head. “He believed that was true, initially. Zeke hadn’t reported his mate, so as far as Command was aware, he didn’t have one yet.”
