There was the distinct sound of a cupboard door being opened, a bottle being unscrewed, liquid splashing into a glass. A deep, shaky glug and a noisy swallow.
“You weren’t joking, what you said to Meredith, were you?” Iolo’s voice was a mere whisper now.
Gethin shook his head, then realised Iolo couldn’t see him. “No, I wasn’t,” he confirmed. “I took the bite less than an hour after I spoke to her.”
“Your fangy toyboy put you under pressure, did he?” The words were bitter, cutting,hurt.
“Absolutely not! Iolo David Hughes, what do you take me for? I don’t kowtow to demands to change who I am. This was something I wanted to do.”
“Like the way you wanted to marry a woman and fake being straight? Right.”
Ouch.
“I guess I deserved that.”
“Yes, you did.” And now Iolo sounded like a sulky teen instead of the approaching-thirty-year-old man he was.
Gethin sighed. “I don’t know what to tell you, kid. Adults fuck up. Parents fuck up. Don’t I deserve to have someone special in my life? Or am I supposed to spend the rest of it alone as punishment for screwing up with your mother?”Now who sounds sulky?
He could hear Iolo draining his glass. “Course not, that would be unrealistic. But it’s going to take time to wrap my head around it. I don’t ever want to consider either of my parents have a—” He shuddered, “—sex life, but I guess you’re not exactly over the hill.”
“Wow, thanks. Your enthusiastic approval of my relationship makes it sparkle like a diamond.”
Iolo chuckled. “Twilight jokes already? Jeez, Dad, have some fucking self-respect. Bad enough your fangs are—” He broke off, sounding genuinely concerned. “Can you still shift? Are you still a wolf? What about being our Alpha?”
“Whoa, slow down! One question at a time.”
They kept talking, Iolo calming as Gethin explained that Sorley was the same one whose life had been threatened by the madman who’d attacked the shifter Iolo had been involved in searching for. He filled his son in on how little progress they’d made. “Although we’re hopeful we can flush him out now we’ve got the expertise of a mage on hand.”
By the time Iolo yawned, reminding Gethin that most shifters weren’t naturally nocturnal, they’d come to a fragile truce. Iolo promised to talk to his sister about Gethin’s news, but urged his father to speak directly to Glyn. He wouldn’t be drawn as to why, so Gethin didn’t push. His middle child had always been quieter and more reserved than the other two, but close to Iolo, so Gethin would be guided by him. His eldest had a sound head on his shoulders and was rarely wrong, even if he was often guided by instinct rather than facts.
With the night stretching ahead of him and Sorley out, Gethin’s skin was too tight to contain him. His dry throat now felt scratchy. Could he be thirsty? Deciding this was likely, he went in search of Alec.
Alec vetoed Gethin’s suggestion they went out to hunt together. After checking in with Sorley by text, he offered a disgruntled Gethin a warmed-up blood bag. Gethin growled, but drained it, then, feeling better, went to work off some of his frustration in the basement. Sorley’s gym equipment was top of the range. He ran, lifted and rowed until he heard the others return. Forcing himself not to leg it up the stairs like a jealous mate,which you are,he frowned at how weird it felt not having to towel off a lake of sweat, then ascended carefully.
Sorley was in the bedroom, stripping off. He smelled of booze and smoke and the particular undefinable aroma of nightclubs everywhere. He gave Gethin a dazzling smile.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes. Eddie’s a good friend but I’d much rather have been with you.” He reached up on tiptoes to press a chaste kiss to Gethin’s lips. “Sorry about my ashy breath. We got chatting to a group of guys outside at one point and wanted to fit in. I’ll brush them before I shower.”
“Anything?”
“Nada. Not so much as a whiff of another vamp.” Sorley bent over in front of the mirror and carefully extracted his coloured contact lenses, chucking them away. Gethin asked if they made his eyes sore.
“Tiny bit. Low grade irritation, but worth it to keep my identity as Saul in Leeds. I should have worn them when we went shopping but I couldn’t be bothered.” He eyed Gethin hopefully. “Want to share the shower?”
“You just want your hands on my naked body.” But Gethin hurried to peel off his gym clothes. If Sorley wanted shower sex, who was he to argue?
41
SORLEY
Sorley was half-heartedly scrollinghis laptop for the top news stories when the wards pinged, followed almost instantly by the doorbell chiming. It was late afternoon. Not expecting a parcel and barely on nodding terms with his neighbours, he was instantly on high alert.
Edwin, who’d been dozing downstairs, was beside him within seconds, his expression apprehensive. Alec woke Gethin, who, being a young vampire, was prone to sleeping longer and more heavily. He was stepping into his jeans as the bell sounded again.
“I don’t like it.” Gethin’s soft growl was slightly slurred from waking too fast. Sorley shot him a fond smile, then mentally slapped himself; not the time when there was an unexpected problem outside.
“I’ll go.” Marlowe threaded his way through the vampires. “You have enough of an overhang with the porch, Sorley, to keep the sunlight off you if needs be. Whichever of you lot has the longest reach had better stop me from being snatched if it’s a ruse.” He sounded blasé, but Sorley could hear his pulse hammering.
