Eric laughed. He had a good laugh, actually, bright and hearty. He was a little less blandly handsome when he laughed. Riley could almost see the appeal.
“Oh yeah,” Eric said on the end of a chuckle. “He’d be full psycho without me.” He finally tore his attention from the comic to give Riley a look. “Want can be a kind of need, you know, if it’s strong enough. You don’t have to be saving him from misery for him to love you.”
Riley shrugged and rolled onto his belly, resting his chin on folded arms. He wasn’t sure about that, really. Being a vampire’s mate came with a lot of baggage—it was kind of lose-lose in a lot of ways, wasn’t it? Saving someone from abject misery would at least be a concession prize.
Technically,Riley had his driver’s license.
They hadn’t compelled anyone to give it to him either. He’d passed the writtenandthe practical, even though he’d been terrified to sit in an enclosed car with a human that long. He’d been afraid he was going to cut the test short by draining his instructor. But he hadn’t, and now he could legally drive and everything.
He still preferred to go by foot.
Going by foot meant going through the forest, deeper than where the road could reach. And the forest meant familiarity. It was soothing.
And Riley needed a bit of soothing.
Eric and Wolfe were apparently staying at the house in the non-Seth guest bedroom because, to quote Wolfe, “This tragic display of coastal decline possesses no hotels of any caliber.”
There had been more discussion of the mysterious institute last night, but all of it had been speculative and pretty pointless, in Riley’s opinion. It had all had major “this meeting could have been an email” energy.
Seth had taught Riley that one.
Seth, who hadn’t answered Riley’s text. Was he annoyed that Riley hadn’t come back right away? That would actually be kind of gratifying. Annoyance would imply he’dwantedRiley to return quickly—that maybe Seth had missed him, even if it was only for the night.
Riley had certainly missed Seth. He could even almost smell Seth’s sweet orange scent out here in the woods, taunting Riley with the night they’d lost to Wolfe and his paranoia.
So maybe Seth was frustrated with Riley for flaking, or maybe he just wasn’t a big texter. Riley knew Seth made phone calls to the people back home, but overall, he wasn’t on his phone as much as some modern humans seemed to be.
But that was fine. Riley knew where to find him. That was the benefit of his boyfriend owning his own business.
It was past opening, so Riley wasn’t going to get alone time with Seth in the kitchen. Which meant he wasn’t going to get to live out the new fantasy he had of pushing Seth back against those chrome counters and dropping to his knees, maybe even managing to get Seth’s cock all the way inside his mouth this time. Maybe all the way to the back of his throat.
Mmm.
But it was too late for that, so Riley would be a good boy and sit at his table with his book while Seth spread sunshine to all his customers indiscriminately. Riley had his backpack with some spare clothes too, so he wouldn’t be booted out right away either.No doubt Wolfe would be a pest and call Riley back at some point, but Riley would take all the time he could get before then.
Riley skipped the bakery’s back door—Seth kept it locked when he was up front—and headed around to the main street. He frowned as he approached. There weren’t any lights on inside.
It was dark. Closed.
But it wasn’t a Monday. And Seth was never late opening the bakery. Never ever.
Riley glared at the other figure lurking beside the front door. “Where is he?”
Violet didn’t even flinch at the dark growl in his voice. She remained leaning against the wall in her black peacoat, arms crossed. “He didn’t show up this morning. I thought maybe he’d been taken hostage again.” She gave Riley a cool once-over. “But if you’re looking for him too, I guess that theory is out.”
Riley didn’t know how she knew where Seth had gone the last time the bakery had been unexpectedly closed, and he didn’t fucking care. He turned on his heel. “His house, then.”
“I checked there when he didn’t show,” Violet called from behind him, stopping him in his tracks. He turned to face her and saw for the first time the furrow of concern on her brow. “I thought maybe he’d gotten sick for real. His car was there, but he didn’t answer, and I was loud. Really loud.”
Riley would check, of course. He wouldn’t trust some random teenager’s word, new employee or not. But a creeping sensation of dread was already building, crawling along his spine.
If Violet was to be believed, then Seth was missing.
Missing while some devious institution had everyone’s hackles up. Missing at the same time Wolfe had shown up at Riley’s door, bitching about abnormal vampires and unwanted attention. Missing right when Riley had come to depend on him, and on the future they might have.
Seth was Riley’s. Fate had said so, and Riley had accepted thatdecision without a drop of hesitation. But fate could also be cruel, Riley knew. Tricky.
Riley had heard enough stories to know that the path to becoming mates wasn’t always a smooth one.
