Ian’s fist hit the top of the table so hard, it reverberated around the room like a gunshot.
“Control it,” his father ordered.
“Sunflower, you know I can take care of myself,” Rosemary said soothingly. “Don’t stress.”
“Who the hell are these guys?” Ian spat. “Who the hell is helping them? How could any Vampirehelpthem? Mates? They’re going after fuckingmates? Weprotectmates. Always. Whether they’re ours or someone else’s. This isinsane.”
The silence in the room when he was done speaking was absolute.
All of us felt that way, but especially Dalton and me. Gary, Rosemary, and Halle understood the mating bond and the fact that Vampires waited multiple lifetimes to find their own, but none of the humans could fully comprehend the millennia of instincts to protect them that were bred into our bones.
Mates were sacred. That knowledge was not only taught from the cradle but built into our genetic makeup. When a Vampire could only procreate with the other half of their soul, that other half became absolutely imperative to the survival of our species. We would die for them willingly. Kill for them easily.
Just the thought of another Vampire losing their mate was abhorrent. Losing our own was inconceivable. Physically and mentally debilitating. If someone had asked me before if I’d ever believe that another Vampire would do anything to put mates in jeopardy, I would’ve answered an unequivocal no.
Butsomeonewas passing on information. Somehow, the human militia was finding out about newly mated pairs when most humans didn’t even know what the mating bond entailed. We had a traitor in our midst.
“That bike is so sick,” Seamus exclaimed as the younger boys burst back into the house in a tangle of arms and legs.
“You figure out what’s wrong with it?” Gary asked.
As the boys spoke over each other, detailing a long list of things they needed to fix to get the dirt bike running again, I tuned them out and watched my mate. She’d barely made a dent in her soup, even though we’d been sitting there for hours. Herhand moved absentmindedly, stirring in a circle, but I couldn’t even remember her taking a bite.
I glanced down at my own bowl, which I’d somehow finished as we’d discussed things.
The symptoms of the heat had become manageable the moment I’d touched her outside the bathroom, and I didn’t feel like my head was going to explode anymore, but the fire beneath my skin and the tightness in my chest were still there. I looked her over, trying to see if she was suffering too. Her skin was a little pale and clammy—and I’d bet everything in my wallet that her skin was hot to the touch—but beyond that, she looked fine, if a little distracted.
“We’ll see what we’ve got at home, and you can bring it when we come back,” Dalton said, cutting off his youngest sons as he stood from the table. “Thanks for dinner, Gar.”
“Thanks for the company,” Gary replied with a nod.
The Cavendish family said their goodbyes, with the younger boys going in for hugs before Ian shoved them away from Rosemary in warning. Sheepishly, they nodded their heads with apologetic smiles.
“Oh, that’s bullshit,” Rosemary barked, yanking Grant against her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and loudly kissed the top of his head. “The day you can’t hug me is the day I’m dead, and even after that, you can cuddle my urn, all right?”
“Yeah, okay,” Grant grumbled as he hugged her back.
He didn’t notice the tightness around her eyes as she let him go and reached for Seamus.
“You too, numb-nuts,” she said, doing the same thing to the youngest. “Nothing’s changed. You’re still my best dudes.”
“I’m the best,” Seamus said as he wrapped his arms carefully around her waist. “Ian and Grant are your worst dudes.”
“That’s ’cause you’re my baby,” she crooned, rocking him from side to side for a moment. “Now get out of here before that vein in your dad’s forehead starts pulsing.”
The boys left the house as noisily as they’d come back in. Halle was the only one left when Rosemary leaned down to hug her.
“They understand, Flower,” she chided softly in Rosemary’s ear. The words were meant for my mate, but after twenty years with a Vampire, Halle must’ve known I could hear them. “Don’t hurt yourself just to prove you love them. They already know that.”
“It’s fine,” Rosemary brushed her off. “It was nothing.”
“It’s inconvenient, I know,” Halle continued before Rosemary cut her off.
“This stupid bond is not going to stop me from hugging the only little brothers I’ve ever known,” Rosemary hissed, pulling away. “Fuck that.”
“Love you,” Halle said with a sigh, patting Rosemary’s cheek affectionately. “Call me tomorrow.”
“I will,” Rosemary promised.
