Page 30 of The Vampire and the Barista

CHAPTER 10

Bert slurped his morning coffee loudly, earning a glare from Drake, his best friend and second. They were in the wolf’s council penthouse having breakfast.

Drake sighed and put his cup on the table. “Either grow up or tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Bert grumped out, putting his mug down by his empty plate.

“Don’t tell me, Max blocked you.”

Bert shot him a look. “No arsehole. He even let me touch his arm last night. I just miss him, and me and my wolf are impatient to make him ours.”

“The touching is good. Why not go back and spend a few days being close to him? I can stay here and keep going through things. Plus, you have more trusted wolves arriving today to help.”

Bert shook his head, putting his cup down. “No, there is still some fear inside of him. So I’ll just keep chipping away at his fears.”

“Just remember, it will all be worth it in the end.”

Bert nodded. “Yeah.”

Drake suddenly grinned. “Let’s go and annoy the kitty, that should cheer you up.”

Bert laugh. “That it will,” he said, standing up and leaving the penthouse with Drake.

Gavin was resting against Hunter when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Hunter called.

The door opened, and Mathis and Gabe hurried in.

Gavin looked around and saw his brother and jumped up, rushing into Mathis’ arms. Gabe gently touched his back as Raz and Thiago hurried in, with Raz going to join the hug.

“We’ve got you, little brother,” Raz said softly.

Thiago looked at Hunter. “Do you know what happened?”

“Apparently, Dave was explaining to Jamie about how everyone here could protect his siblings; he mentioned throat ripping,” Hunter explained.

“That would do it,” Raz muttered, hugging Gavin tighter. Mathis had texted him the night before, telling him about the rescue mission and how Ivan had his mate.

“What can we do, Gav?” Gabe asked him softly.

Gavin pulled back and signed. “I just need you all here with me.”

“Then here we will stay,” Thiago replied.

“That’s a lot of happenings,” Jamie stated when Dave finished filling him in.

Dave nodded. “Yeah, it really is, and just think, you and your siblings are now part of all this.”

Jamie laughed. “I’m not sure if I should be happy or not hearing that.”

“Go with happy,” Dave suggested.

“I think it’s the living for thousands of years thing I’m having issues with. I’ll have to watch Karl and Kitty get old and die. I’m not sure how I’ll cope with that,” he admitted.

“Yeah,” Dave said on a sigh. “I feel the same way about my parents. I mean, logically I know they wouldn’t be with me forever, but I can’t imagine going thousands of years without seeing and speaking to them.”

“And now I’m completely depressed,” Jamie commented, his shoulders slumping.