Page 11 of Accidental Blood Lust
“Am I kitten?” I ask in a low voice that I’m sure Cas can hear considering he’s a vampire too.
“Looks like it.” Roman shoves me roughly towards the open door. “Have fun.”
“Wait.. you’re not stayin—” He swings it closed in my face before I can even get the whole question out.
ROMAN
Well,that’s one problem down. My wolf huffs and whines, tugging like a dog on a leash back in Lochlan’s direction as I stride down the hall as fast as I can to get away from his damndizzying scent. I growl and palm my hard cock through my pants, willing it to settle the fuck down.
“Uh-oh, Roman’s in one of his moods,” Mac, our resident dragon and one of my fellow mercenaries says, sniffing the air as he comes around the corner with his demon mate, Drax, only a few steps behind him. “Maybe you need a pillow to take it out on. I used to have a dog who did that until we got him neutered.”
Normally, I don’t mind a little good-natured ribbing, but I’m in no mood for it tonight. I growl at them as I pass and don’t bother paying attention to whatever it is they murmur to each other after that. I don’t want totake it out on a pillow. I want to bury my knot so deep in Lochlan’s ass that he’ll feel it for days.
No.
Fuck.
No, I don’t want that. I want Lochlan to get whatever he needs from Cassius and then I want him to disappear from my life forever. My wolf whines and I growl again.
I need to talk to Jareth. I shake my head roughly to clear the fog of lust and the scent still lingering in my nose, and that single thought becomes crystal clear.
I need to talk to Jareth.
It’s no secret that I didn’t like seeing him with Loch, but that doesn’t matter right now. His boyfriend got turned into a vampire and he didn’t think he could tell me about it. He must be a mess right now.
I don’t even stop walking as I call up the void around me, stepping into it and directly out the other side into Jareth’s garden. The full moon was yesterday, which means the waning moon is still big and bright tonight, casting a glow over the familiar cottage and the cobbled walkway that winds through the garden to the front door.
There’s a light on inside, peeking through the gaps in the curtains, letting me know that whatever time it is, he’s stillawake. Instead of going right up and knocking, which is bound to startle him in the middle of the night, I tilt my head back and let out a howl. I hear his chuckle inside and the shuffle of his footsteps before the door swings open.
My heart clenches and a sense of home fills me from my fingertips to my toes. My wolf chuffs happily inside me and I don’t bother trying to hold back the happy whine that the beast forces out through my currently human-shaped throat. Lochlan laughs again and opens his arms to greet me the same way we’ve done since we were teenagers. I step into his open arms and wrap mine around him tightly, pressing my face into the crook of his neck and rubbing my scent against his skin to mark him in the only way I’m allowed to.
“Long time no see,” he says happily, running his fingers through my hair as I switch to the other side of his neck and rub my face there too until I’m satisfied that my scent is all over him.
“I’ve been busy.” It’s a terrible excuse and we both know it, but we’re past arguing about it. I haven’t been around because I can’t stand to see him with anyone else and he refuses to understand why we can’t be together.
“What brings you by tonight, then? The full moon was last night, so I know you’re not here for a booty call.”
I snort a laugh and he shoots me a cheeky smile. Like I would ever show up at his house on a full moon like that. Sure, I’ve thought about it a million times, I’ve pictured him while my knot was buried in a random stranger, I’ve even let myself get as far as the woods outside his cabin just so I could feel close to him during the full moon, but I told him a long time ago that if we couldn’t be together in a real way, I didn’t want to torture either of us with casual sex that would never turn into more. He called me an idiot. He probably wasn’t wrong.
“I… uh… had an interesting night,” I say vaguely. “Mind if I come in?”
“Yeah, of course.” He leads me inside and goes straight for the kitchen, picking his kettle up off the stovetop and carrying it over to the sink to fill with water while I pull out one of the chairs and take a seat at the table.
I’m not sure what the most tactful way to do this is, so I decide to just rip the Band-Aid off and go from there.
“I ran into Lochlan.”
Jareth drops the kettle. It clatters loudly into the sink, then he huffs out a laugh.
“Ah, I get it now. You’re here to make sure I’m not traumatized?”
He picks the kettle back up and finishes filling it, and I wait until he turns around to face me again before I answer.
“Mostly,” I say honestly. “Is that a bad thing?”
“I’d rather you were here because you miss me.”
“I always miss you,” I growl, forcing myself to stay seated at the table and not get up and pull him into my arms again like I want to. I wish I wasn’t still thinking about the way Lochlan smells. “What he did is fucked up. Did you tell him…”
