Page 2 of His Mate By Vengeance

“Good. I know your past makes this more difficult for you, but you can trust that I would never make you protect someone like the man who killed your family. I would tear his throat out myself before he even breathed near you. I know Corvin. He may be a vampire and an assassin, but he’s like us. He has a code he operates by. The pack has used his services before, and we likely will again. I need to know that I can trust you to take care of this. To take care of him. There are larger matters at stake here than your damaged soul and everyone else I could trust with this will be needed to shake down our suppliers.”

Angelo swallowed hard against the pressure of his Alpha’s fingers and drew in a deep breath, forcing himself to back down from the dangerous state that thinking of his family always put him in. What was so special about this vampire that Marco was only considering his inner circle to guard him? He knew his Alpha was trying to give him what he’d always needed in his role for the pack—to be the protector instead of the aggressor, to help instead of hurt. But this time he genuinely wasn’t sure which would make him feel worse: protecting a vampire assassin or torturing arms dealers for information.

“You can trust me, Alpha. Always,” he croaked, followinghis wolf’s urging and baring his throat in submission as he kept his eyes carefully lowered.

Marco’s hand slipped around to the back of his neck, scent-marking him, and he pressed their foreheads together. “Wewillfind the fucker who killed your family one day, and he’ll pay for what he did. I promise you.”

Angelo pushed down the pain like he had a thousand times before and nodded. One day. Until then, he was babysitting a leech, apparently.

“It’s only a week, Angelo,” Marco said as if he could read his thoughts, which he almost could through their pack bond.

“Which safe house is he using?” Angelo asked and he could’ve sworn Marco almost winced before his face returned to his stern visage, giving nothing away.

“Kyan will have eyes everywhere. It has to be the cabin. It’s the only place remote enough.”

Angelo opened his mouth to let loose a string of curses and then thought better of it as Marco bared his canines that had lengthened in a partial shift. His Alpha was out of patience with him. Snapping his jaw closed, he swallowed his protest. The cabin in the woodlands bordering the city where their pack ran was the size of a studio apartment—just an open-plan living area and a bathroom.

Just one bed.

Fucking hell.

Two hours later, Angelo was driving one of the pack’s black SUVs with bulletproof glass up the narrow driveway of the safe house as the sky turned red with dusk. He’d wound the window down as soon as he left the main road to wendthrough the forest, letting the familiar sounds and smells of his pack lands ease the tension of his wolf inside him.

It was autumn, and the air was crisp with the promise of easy prey—the rabbits would be barely a mouthful, but he’d caught the scent of white-tailed deer earlier. His mouth watered and his teeth elongated as the wolf inside him stretched out its awareness, but he forced it all back.

We’re working for Alpha, he reminded the beast that was his other half. He had perfectly good groceries in the trunk and, if he was lucky, he’d get to stalk vampire prey this week instead of animal. A low growl escaped him at the reminder of who he’d be guarding. He’d had to stock up on blood bags for the vampire he was protecting as well, shoving them into a special temperature-controlled cooler.

As he pulled up to the modest cabin, he scanned his surroundings for any sign his client had arrived. The motion sensors and cameras linked to his phone hadn’t gone off, but that didn’t mean much when you were dealing with vamps, especially powerful ones. The damn things didn’t show up on normal video and even the high-tech equipment they used to protect the safe house would be hit-and-miss with one as old as this assassin probably was.

Sitting in the car, he inspected the silvered raw wood of the cabin’s cladding and its shadowy windows for long breaths. It looked empty, but something told him he wasn’t alone—the birdsong was just a touch too distant and there was the faintest scent of metallic blood carrying on the breeze, so slight he would’ve missed it if he wasn’t sitting frozen in his seat like he was fucking prey.

Dammit.

Easing himself silently from the vehicle, he slunk toward the house using all the stealth of the apex predator he was. No vampire was going to have him hiding away. Maybe he’d get lucky and the hint of blood in the air would be from thisCorvin guy lying dead inside. The blood smell wasn’t nearly strong enough for that, but a wolf could dream.

Strong or not, the scent wrapped around him as he pushed the door open on silent hinges and stepped into the cool interior of the cabin. The metallic tang was still not much more than a faded memory, but it was twined with other smells now and Angelo drew in a deep breath despite himself, nostrils flaring as he processed the notes like the smell of this vampire bane of his existence was a fine wine. Somehow, in addition to the taste of blood and darkness, he smelled of… fresh mint? Underlaid with something unidentifiable that had his breath catching. He’d never met a vamp whose scent was so clean, refreshing, and enticing.

Oh, fuck no. Not enticing. Nothing about a vamp was enticing.

A slight rustle in the bathroom and a waft of soap smell said the vamp had taken a shower. Angelo frowned at the careless move even though, personally, he didn’t give a shit if this guy died a painful death. What if Angelo had been an attacker instead of his protector and he’d been caught naked and vulnerable? His cock perked up at the thought, but he ignored it.Traitor. Crossing muscled arms in front of his broad chest, he waited for Corvin to emerge, hoping to frighten the vamp into taking more care.

He let his face settle into a threatening scowl as the door opened and a waft of steam entered the small room. The frown didn’t last long because his brain glitched and his eyes widened as Corvin stepped into the room with one hand towelling his hair dry. He was wearing nothing but a scrap of black lace that barely covered the delicious-looking cock Angelo definitely wasn’t staring at with his mouth watering. Not at all. Not even a little.

Fuck.

He didn’t know what he’d imagined the vampire assassinwould look like, but it wasn’t this. Like shifters, vamps tended to be blessed with an uncanny agelessness and supernatural strength that made the ubiquitous beauty of their kind almost mundane.

Corvin was anything but mundane.

He’d never seen a vamp like him in their line of business. Corvin barely reached his pecs, unusual in their crime families where shifters and vampires alike usually loomed large. The assassin was all slender, sleek muscle. Soft blond hair swooping to one side fell just above his shoulders, framing the kind of bone structure a supermodel would die for. High cheekbones shimmered even in the dim light of the cabin’s interior with whatever make-up he’d donned when he could’ve been putting some fucking clothes on, and his eyes were lined in dramatic black. His skin was much paler than Angelo’s warm tan, not surprising given vampires’ avoidance of the sun, and he couldn’t stop himself from tracing every elegant exposed muscle with a hungry gaze. A disturbing tattoo of an eye peered out from his sternum, but it wasn’t the magicked ink that drew his attention like a magnet because both the man’s nipples were pierced.

What he wouldn’t give to…

“Well, hello there, tall, light, and handsome. See something you like?” Corvin teased, leaning back against the wall. The flash of his fangs as he spoke was enough to snap Angelo back to reality.

Shutting down every stray thought, every expression, every thrumming pulse, he stared at the vampire with his best emotionless robot expression. The one that had always kept his pack from getting too close.

“No,” he snapped, his brain not getting with the programme enough to come up with anything more articulate.

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