“Deciding whether to let me stay?”
Marco laughed. “You are Angel’s. You will always be welcome here. I don’t have a clue how or why, but you’re good for him. I already updated the public pack records.”
Vin looked across at Marco in surprise. If he’d updated the public records, then Kyan would’ve heard. Marco was sending a clear message that any attack on Vin would be considered an attack on the pack and would be responded to accordingly. He hadn’t expected that. He’d assumed Marco would let him stay given how most supernaturals felt about mating bonds, but the formal adoption of a vampire into a pack was unheard of.
Pressing two fingers to his lips and then a fist to his heart, he bowed his head in a vampire sign of respect. “Thank you, Alpha.”
“Does that mean you’re going to do what I say?” Marco asked, his wry smile saying he already knew the answer. Vin was lucky he’d landed with such a modern-thinking shifter, or this conversation would’ve gone very differently.
“It means you have my loyalty and all of my skills at your disposal.”
Marco nodded his gratitude and looked out at the wolves, who were now lying in a pile in the sunshine. “I know just how valuable a gift that is. I’m going to need your helpkeeping Luca safe and finding this traitor. You have fresh eyes. You’ll see what my family and I miss because we’re blinded by love.”
“Of course. I’m honoured to help,” Vin said.
Vin might seem relaxed, but he’d angled his position to monitor the building behind them. The wolves would notice any threat from the forest before he would, but in their animal form, he knew they might not notice the signs of a sniper hidden above until it was too late. He needed to make sure his Angel didn’t have to jump in front of any bullets.
As if he’d been waiting for them to finish their conversation, Angel chose that moment to jump onhim, still in wolf form. Vin laughed and bared his fangs in mock challenge as he wrestled with the beautiful animal that was the other half of his mate. He ended up pinned to the ground by the immense power of a shifter wolf, but he also had his fangs gripped tight around his Angel’s throat, ignoring the mouthful of soft fur he was stuck with as a result. He would never hurt Angel, but he’d also never be the kind of guy to submit. Angel might be an alpha, but Vin bowed to no one, and he knew his Angel delighted in his dominance every bit as much as Vin loved showing him how much he was desired.
Angel chose that moment to shift and just about kneed him in the balls as there was suddenly a very naked male body crushing his. Vin winced and flinched away, but was quickly distracted by the way his mouth was now pressed to the warmth of a human throat thrumming with the tantalising promise of blood just beneath the surface. He groaned and tightened his bite, not quite breaking the skin.
“Get a room!” Aria called from nearby, where she was getting dressed.
“I’ve got no complaints if they want to put on a show,” Marco said from much nearer.
Vin smirked, but his Angel had to swallow back a possessive growl. Hooking one foot around his mate’s leg, he flipped their positions so Angel was on his back and Vin’s skirt was dubiously preserving both of their modesty. A pair of sweatpants landed on Angel’s face a moment later as Luca chucked Angel his clothes. Vin pouted as Angel pulled them on before his mate tugged him into a devouring, claiming kiss to make up for the outrage of hiding his gorgeous body from Vin’s inspection.
“Fucking hell. Give it a rest,” Luca growled, dropping onto the grass near them.
Vin sighed and shifted off his Angel. He knew enough of Luca’s history to know why he struggled with their relationship, and he couldn’t take it personally.
“Sorry, Sugar. I’ll behave,” he said.
Both Angel and Marco looked at him with incredulity painted on their features.
“You’ll behave forhim? What about us?” Angel asked, gesturing to himself and his Alpha.
“You love me just the way I am,” Vin said with a wink.
Angel grumbled and pulled Vin back onto his lap, burying his nose under his ear and inhaling deeply. Luca looked away but didn’t complain again. Vin knew he was trying. They probably had more in common than anyone else in the pack except that Luca’s pack had saved him and Vin hadn’t had anyone to save him until his Angel. If anything, being saved had only left Luca more resentful. Vin had watched the dynamics between the wolves for years and he knew Luca’s frustration at being seen as smaller and weaker, at the way everyone subconsciously protected him. He’d yet to learn that playing into that assumption was a great way to ambush someone when they weren’t looking. Speaking of which…
“I want to go dancing tonight,” he said, twisting in his Angel’s hold to look back at him.
Angel frowned and looked like he was going to disagree. He was supposed to be guarding Luca, but he was far too jealous to want Vin going out without him.
“Why?” Marco asked.
“I want to talk to Cal and make sure he wasn’t in on that attack in his club. Hex-Rated has always rented its rooms out to anyone who meets his standards, but that’s just it. There are supposed to be standards and it should be a neutral location. He either let that guy in, or his wards didn’t work. I want to know which. If you hadn’t grabbed that body, it would’ve looked like a shifter attack on witch-owned property that would’ve started a war even if Cal isn’t a member of the Elemental Mayhem MC. They look after their own kind, and they would’ve responded with force.”
Vin could feel the surprised pride emanating from his mate as he realised Vin was looking out for the pack and he poked him hard in the ribs for assuming he was slacking off to go clubbing. It was another reminder that they might have the most intimate of connections that meant they could sense the essence of who they each were and what they were feeling, but they’d still only known each other less than two weeks and they hadn’t exactly had much time to chat.
Vin felt a deep satisfaction as he realised he had an entire immortal lifetime to learn his Angel’s secrets and what made him tick. Angel grasped his neck and pulled him into another kiss, which resulted in them being pelted with sticks by all four of the other shifters nearby. They were both smiling as they pulled away.
A flash of reflected sunlight on the edge of his vision had Vin’s smile disappearing in an instant, and he shoved Angelo off him with all the strength of the ancient predator that he was. His mate must’ve sensed what he was doing throughtheir connection, because he didn’t resist or look surprised. He just shifted mid-air and let his body become a cannonball to knock Luca off his feet and six feet across the grass as a trail of machine gun rounds slammed into the earth where the Lunetti cousin had been standing moments before.
Vin used the same momentum to propel his body to the space between the attacker and Marco, grunting as a round that would’ve hit the Alpha between the eyes buried itself in his right shoulder instead.
The guards on the roof of the building seemed to have finally realised what was happening and Vin swore as they aimed at the flash of dark clothing that must’ve slipped through the pack lands from one of the rural roads to come at them from the side.