Page 11 of New Nebraska Home

The young woman sighed, looking exhausted for a minute, before she shrugged, accepting what the child was saying.

“My brother is right,” she answered slowly. “If you’re looking for a place to stay, we are renting out one more room in my home. It’s only about a ten-minute drive from here.”

“Well, I can’t really refuse. Especially if breakfast is included.” The words tumbled out of my mouth in a rough voice, my breath laced with a bit of heat from my creature.

What was wrong with me?

Why was I saying these things? It only took one more look at this beautiful woman, and feeling the peace of my creature as it soaked up her presence, to know exactly why. Something about her made me want to stay. Something made me want to make sure those wolves didn’t come back and that she and the child were safe.

Maybe dragons had an instinct all of their own.

Callum

IT’S COMPLICATED

The towel hung low on my hips as I stepped out of the shower, finally having enough hot water to feel truly clean. No one ever tells you the worst part of living with a water elemental is the stupidly long showers they take. The time in the shower was almost as annoying as the singing.

Though I had to admit there was something appealing about watching Brock in nothing more than a towel and watching the little droplets of water caress the smooth, tanned skin of his back as it trailed down to his…

I shook my head.

It was just the need to feed. I hadn’t drunk straight from a source in the longest time. And I hadn’t taken anyone to bed since Pandora. The pent-up sexual frustration had to be mixing with my blood lust. It left me on edge, my skin over sensitive. That had to be why my already heightened senses seemed more acute.

Pushing the feelings down and retracting my fangs—even as they tingled to slide into the throat of my best friend, or maybe the little morsel upstairs—I went to my bedroom to get dressed. My phone sat blinking on the nightstand with a voicemail.

Who called people anymore? Had no one heard of a text message?

I hit the button to play the message and heard Liz’s voice. She sounded panicked, her breath coming out in harsh pants between broken words. It was hard to make out what she was saying. She was clearly running, and there were taunts being yelled at her, jeers about human whores, and halfling abominations. My blood ran hot with anger as I listened, and then I heard a quiet whimper of fear that made my heart freeze.

Leif was with her. It was wrong for a bunch of wolves—I guessed wolves, the pack mentality was a strong giveaway—to corner a human who had no chance of defending herself. But she was at least an adult. Going after a woman with a child was a new level of low, even for wolves.

My fangs spiked again, this time not in lust, but rage. If any of them had hurt a single hair on either of those heads, then they would understand what it was to mess with a vampire who’d been around much longer than them. As a master vampire, I could not only drain them dry with my teeth, but I could warp their blood from afar, turning it putrid through my will alone. As long an enemy was within my sight, my focus was uninterrupted, and my rage was burning hot enough, they would drop dead from blood poisoning in under a minute.

And wolves were my specialty. They were my natural enemies, and I had absolutely no problem reminding them exactly where they were on the food chain.

I banged my fist against Brock’s door and yelled at him we had to go. Liz was in trouble. To his credit, he dropped whatever he was doing and immediately opened the door, ready.

He grabbed his keys and a knife that he usually carried with him, tucking it into his back pocket as we headed up the stairs at a full run. But just as we reached the front door, it opened and Liz was standing there, eyes wide, Leif, next to her and some big, mean-looking shifter behind her.

The shifter smelled… different. I couldn’t place what he was, and that was unusual.

“Oh, hey. I guess you just got Leif’s call?” she said, pulling my focus from the man behind her.

“Yeah, are you okay? We just got your message and were on our way.” I took a step back to make way.

“You would’ve been too late,” the big guy said, looking me up and down. “And underdressed.”

Brock snorted a laugh behind me, and I accidentally shoved my elbow back into his sternum, not hard enough to do any damage, but enough to make him shut it.

He coughed, but I was more focused on Liz. She looked unharmed, and I couldn’t help but notice the way Liz’s eyes traveled up and down my body, taking in everything the towel wasn’t covering. I liked the way her eyes felt on me. My fangs ached again, and I had to will them to stay put. She had been through enough. A horny vampire was the last thing she needed.

“Well, I was in a hurry, and just got out of the shower.”

“Clearly,” Liz said, then must have caught herself staring. The blush that colored her cheeks was absolutely adorable, and unfortunately reminded me of the blood running through her veins. It really had been too long since I’d had a proper meal.

“I’m going to go get dressed now,” I said a bit abruptly and headed back to my room, Brock following only steps behind.

I knew I was in for whatever smart-ass comments and hazing Brock had waiting. There was no avoiding it. God knows I had spent so much time trying to figure out how. But it just came with the territory.

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