Page 7 of His Mate By Vengeance

“I don’t say things I don’t mean,” he said, frowning in annoyance. “Do you know who paid for the hit?”

“It was during the last war. Marco already took care of that when he accepted me into the pack. He just couldn’t find Bane.”

Ah, that explained the devotion Angel had for his Alpha. The shifter took a step closer to Vin and then rocked back onhis heels, torn between the push and pull of whatever was happening between them.

“I’m going to shift and patrol again. Get some sleep while you can. You can take the next round,” Angel said, turning away.

Vin nodded and watched with interest as Angel pulled his fitted t-shirt over his head, revealing miles of tanned, muscled skin. His back was crisscrossed with old white scars. They must’ve been from silver weapons, not the dominance fights shifters seemed to love, or they wouldn’t have left lasting marks. Vin licked his lips and couldn’t help but let out the softest of moans as Angel reached for his belt buckle. The shifter glared over his shoulder at him, something unidentifiable burning in his eyes. Shifters never worried about nudity, but Angel paused in his motions as Vin gave him his best wide-eyed innocent expression.

“You’re staring. It’s rude,” Angel growled.

“It’d be rude not to. Look at you,” Vin teased back, and it didn’t escape his notice that Angel’s arms flexed at his words, making his biceps pop deliciously.

He really needed to stop taunting the guy. He’d survived this long by avoiding any attachments. The electric tension between them was better left unexplored. Angel was already proving more of a distraction than he should be. Vin didn’t need that kind of trouble.

Shoving himself up from the table, Vin took a long loud slurp from the blood bag he was still holding and smirked at the wince Angel couldn’t quite hide. Turning away from temptation, he shoved the now empty bag back into the sealed cooler to keep the scent of blood from lingering in the cabin. When he turned back, a stunning, waist-high wolf was watching him. His ears were pricked toward Vin, laser-focused, but he wasn’t snarling or threatening him.

“You beautiful thing,” he whispered to himself before hecould think better of it, and he could swear the shifter looked smug.

Angel’s wolf was clearly an alpha—large and intimidating—proving Vin’s theory that he was shifter born. As Vin had guessed, his fur was a warm reddish, russet colour that matched his human hair and the five o’clock shadow he’d been sporting. The colour faded down to white at his jaw and chest. Gold eyes stared at him unblinking, and his tail was long enough to brush the wooden floor behind him, showing neither aggression nor excitement.

Vin could swear there was a silent conflict going through the wolf’s mind and he couldn’t help but smile when the wolf’s mouth dropped open and his tongue lolled between his sharp teeth in a lupine grin. Lunging forward, the wolf licked a wet stripe from his chin and up his cheek. Vin huffed out a laugh and let his fingers sink into Angel’s dense fur as he shoved the heavy weight of the wolf’s raw power away from him. He’d slept with plenty of shifters, but he’d never spent any time with one in wolf form unless they were attacking him.

It wasn’t terrible.

“Gross. Get your wolf under control, Angel,” he said, wiping saliva off his face as he walked to the front door to let him out.

The wolf rubbed against his leg as he slunk by him and out into the darkness. Vin couldn’t resist letting his hand trail along the fur of his back as he went. He banged his head on the door as soon as it closed behind Angel, trying to knock some sense into himself. He didnotneed to start something with a shifter who hated him. Even if Angel’s wolf seemed disturbingly and inexplicably fond of him.

The keys to the ceiling hatch were in Angel’s discarded jeans, so Vin helped himself to them and spent the rest of the night checking out defensive positions on the roof andadding to the weapons stashes he’d started around the cabin. When a scratching at the door signalled Angel’s return, he waited only long enough to confirm the shifter hadn’t found anything suspicious before slipping out into the night to run his own checks of the perimeter. This might be the wolf’s territory, but Vin never left his safety in someone else’s hands. Or paws.

He didn’t bother swapping places with the wolf again that night. When he’d drifted back close enough to the cabin, he’d heard the deep calming breaths of Angel’s sleep. He didn’t need as much rest as the wolf, so he kept watch in the surrounding forest instead, making a mental map of each camera, sensor, and trap around the property.

Everything was designed to funnel an attacker onto the single road entrance instead of through the trees, but Angel had been right that a vampire wouldn’t have trouble avoiding them. Their body temperature was naturally lower, barely noticeable on thermal imaging. They also didn’t show on normal camera images and once they hit four or five centuries, they could move in short bursts fast enough to foil the motion sensors.

It was safer if he or Angel were out here scenting the wind for the telltale smell of blood that his kind could never quite shake.

CHAPTER 3: VIN

“Why didn’t you wake me?”Angel muttered.

His voice, emerging from the blankets of the bed, was cutely bleary from the deep sleep he’d been in before Vin had silently entered the cabin. He was impressed the shifter had roused, given how little sound he’d made. Angel was clearly experienced and probably close to a century old with how he could hold his own with Vin.

“You looked like you needed your beauty sleep,” Vin said, perching on the edge of the bed and letting his eyes trail down Angel’s bare skin where the sheet had slid down.

He’d been right. Angel’s chest had just the right amount of curled hair to run his fingers through. He had a sexy tattoo above his heart, too. A stylised image Vin guessed represented the family he’d lost. Vin bit his lip as he stared, entranced, at the way Angel’s nipples were tightening in the cool morning air. Or maybe because of Vin’s inspection? One could hope.

Angel rolled away from him out of bed, and he wasdisappointed to see the man had put on sweatpants before he went to sleep. It was a crime to cover up such perfection, though the grey fabric wasn’t doing much to hide his morning wood.

“Need some help with that?” Vin offered, not bothering to hide where he was looking.

Angel growled and yanked a shirt over his head. “Sounds like you’ve already made your way through half my pack. No, thank you.”

“Are you slut shaming me, Angel? I thought you shifters were all about touching and pack with benefits,” Vin said, lying down in the delicious warmth Angel had left behind and placing his hands behind his head so his top rode up. Vampires ran much cooler than shifters or humans, and the heat felt amazing. Angel’s Alpha was the only one in his pack Vin had slept with, but he didn’t need to tell him that.

“That’s different,” Angel grumped as he headed for the kitchen.

Vin scoffed but dropped it, indulging himself in closing his eyes for a few moments of rest while Angel clattered around the kitchen.

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