His Imperfect Mate 26 (9 page)

“No!” D shouted as he ran off into the kitchen. Sloane, along with D’s brothers, turned their heads to see what in the hell D was doing.

His mate ran back into the living room a moment later, a knife held high above his head as he shouted. Sloane jumped, clamping his jaw lightly, but firmly around his mate’s wrist.

“Get the fuck off of him!” Raven shouted, taking a step forward.

“He’s just trying to stop me, but I don’t see why,” D said in a strained, tear-filled voice. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, but he’s my mate and he comes before anyone else.”

Sloane had had enough. He shifted, releasing his hold on his mate as he glared at the brothers. “Get the fuck out of my house before I kill all three of you. And since that would upset Dudley, I suggest you leave.”

“We didn’t come here to fight you,” one of the other brothers said as he stepped forward.

“Then why are you here?” Sloane was a bit confused. Hadn’t Raven just said that they were here to do the job right?

“Daniel,” Raven warned.

“No,” Daniel snapped as he moved away from Raven, which only put him closer to Sloane and Dudley. Sloane was watching all three of them closely. “You said so yourself that father was wrong for sending us in the first place. Dudley is our brother. What right does Magnum have to make us come here and hurt anyone?”

Sloane had never heard anyone call their parent by their given name. The man had to be a real bastard if his sons kept referring to him as Magnum.

“What do any of you care?” D asked, once again planting his body in front of Sloane’s. Sloane smiled inwardly. He knew what his vampire was doing. He was trying to protect him as much as he was trying to hide Sloane’s groin from his brothers. “Where were you when I was growing up, huh? All three of you acted as if I didn’t exist.”

“We care about you, Dudley,” Daniel said with a gentler voice.

“I didn’t say anything about caring,” D corrected him. “I said where were you? While all three of you had your noses stuck up Magnum’s ass, I was left to fend for myself. Did any of you defend me when Magnum called me a disappointment or told me that he wished I was a stain on the sheets?”

Sloane growled. What father would say that to his very own son?

He wanted to meet this guy so he could kick his sorry ass. Sloane was starting to get a whole different picture of what his mate was like.

Sloane no longer saw him as someone vindictive when D had called the hit on him, but as someone who was crying out for attention and made the wrong decision. He pulled his mate close to him, glaring at all three vampires standing by the door.

“He said that to you?” Raven asked. The shocked look on his face was genuine.

“And a lot of more hurtful, hateful things. I know you guys cared and at times when you smothered me with your lessons, but none of your actions told me anything positive either. None of you told Magnum to kiss your ass like I did.”

Raven smiled from ear to ear. “You told him that?”

Sloane could feel his mate relax as he nodded. “I did, right before I left.”

“Damn, I’m proud of you,” the brother who hadn’t said anything so far spoke up. “You told him what I’ve wanted to tell him for ages.”

“Really, Remus?” D asked.

Okay, Sloane was really happy his mate was bonding with his brothers, but there was still the fact that these men were standing in his living room uninvited. His ass was catching a slight draft as well.

“You can call him and tell him all about it,” Sloane bit out as he waved toward the door. “Now get out.”

“We can’t,” Daniel said as he took a step closer. “We don’t want to go back.”

Say what?
“Oh hell, no. You are not staying here!”

“Sloane!” D spun in his arms, smacking his bare chest. “They’re family.”

“That tried to kill me. Again, hell no.” What the fuck did he look like, an idiot? “If you think I’m going to let these men into my home after they tried to off me, you’re just as loony as they are.”

“They didn’t try to…never mind, they did,” D said as he bit his bottom lip, staring up at Sloane like a damn puppy with soulful eyes.

“No.”

“But—”

“N. O.”

D turned around, sighing, telling Sloane without words he wasn’t going to fight him on this one. “Sorry, guys.”

“That’s okay.” Daniel was the one to speak. Sloane noticed that Daniel was the more reserved one, the one who seemed less inclined to attack…maybe. “Do you know anywhere we can go?”

Ah, fuck.
Sloane slapped a hand over his face, knowing…just knowing.

D nodded, and his eyes sparkled a little brighter. Sloane could tell D was eating up the ability to help his brothers. He wasn’t sure of their history, but from what he’d heard, hell if he would have helped any damn one of them. “I’ll call the Lakelands. They’re really nice shifters. Pa has decided to open his home to the less fortunate, and I think you guys qualify.”

“A shifter?” Raven sneered and then curled his lips in, giving D a nod.

Sloane wasn’t going to feel sorry for them. They brought this on themselves. Hell, he was the one they had gone after. Why should he offer a damn thing to them?

“Don’t attack each other,” D warned, his eyes narrowing on his brothers and then Sloane. “I’m going to go call them.”

Sloane watched his mate leave and then turned back around, eyeing the three men as they cautiously watched him. He didn’t trust them. Not after what they had attempted to do to him.

“So, uh, you’re a shifter.” Daniel stated the obvious more than he asked. “Pretty cool.” He took a seat on the sofa, strumming his fingers on his knees. “Nice place. I love the smell of smoke, nice touch.”

Sloane was going to keep an eye on this one. He was a little off balance. Those were the ones that needed careful watching. Raven wore his contempt on his face, letting everyone know how he felt.

Remus hadn’t said much, so Sloane couldn’t get a good fix on the guy. He was more of a brooder, just watching everything around him.

But Daniel wore that let’s-be-buddies look, and Sloane didn’t trust it one bit.

“Okay,” D said as he walked back into the living room, looking between all four of them. “Pa said he’ll come pick you men up, but he has a young son at home and he’ll sooner kill you than let you harm anyone.”

“What?” Raven cut his glare over to D.

D threw his hands up. “I’m just relaying the message. So I would suggest you play nice if you want somewhere to lay low. If you think Magnum is scary, you haven’t seen anything yet. Don’t piss Pa off. I’m warning you. I thought he was going to skin me and lay me out in front of the fireplace when I cleaned his pantry out.”

“I’ll remember that,” Raven replied acerbically as if he thought no shifter could do something like that to a vampire. Sloane prayed he was around when Raven pissed one of the bears off. Because there was no
if
about it.

* * * *

D walked into the kitchen once his brothers were picked up by Pa—and that had been interesting enough. Pa made it clear up front that he wasn’t going to stand for any bullshit, and his brothers made it clear that they weren’t going to give any.

But that didn’t mean his brothers had changed overnight. D knew they had a long way to go when it came to their prejudice against shifters, and he had his fingers crossed that living with the bears would help them see that shifters weren’t savages out to kill vampires.

Well, not all of them at least. D wasn’t foolish enough to believe that there weren’t some shifters out there that hated vampires just as much. He groaned when he stood in the kitchen, taking his first good look at the damage. When he had come in here to use the phone, D had kept his eyes downcast, not wanting to go into a meltdown while he was trying to handle his brothers.

But now that he was looking at the mess, he wanted to turn around and walk away, pretending it didn’t exist. The walls were black from the smoke, blackest behind the stove. And the stove? It was so discolored that it was hard for D to even see what it truly resembled.

The knobs were melted into tiny clumps of useless plastic, and the cupboards surrounding the stove were going to need replacing as well.

He walked over to the counter, looking down at what had to be the two round pans of cake batter. There was nothing left but a tiny clump in the middle, and the pans themselves were warped into nothing more than two tins needing a trash bin.

This kitchen needed more than a paint job and new stove. The smell of charcoaled cake and smoke still hung thickly in the air. He wasn’t sure they would ever be able to get that smell out. D closed his eyes briefly when he felt two strong arms wrap around his waist, Sloane resting his strong chin on D’s shoulder.

“It’s not that bad.”

D’s jaw slid down as he turned his head to look up at his mate.

“The walls and cupboards have to be replaced, along with the stove, and the flooring is ruined. How is it not that bad?”

“We’re alive,” Sloane reminded him and then planted a kiss on his neck.

“How in the hell do you always look on the bright side of things? You should be tossing me out on my ass and telling me to get my problematic ass out of here.” It was the truth, even if D prayed Sloane wouldn’t come to his senses and do just that. It would kill him, but Sloane would be in his full right to make D leave after what he’d done to the man’s home.

“Is that what you want?” Sloane asked as he pulled back, his eyes flickering over D’s face as if he was trying to get a read on him. His jaw tightened, and his emerald-green eyes seemed to smolder with a touch of anger. D didn’t like that look, but he wasn’t going to lie. “For me to make you leave?”

D swallowed as he shook his head, being honest with his mate. He never wanted to leave Sloane’s side.

Sloane’s posture relaxed, and a smile tipped the corner of his mouth. “You’re not problematic, just imperfect, but isn’t everyone?”

“What, problematic?”

Sloane chuckled as he ran his thumbs over D’s back in lazy rotation, making him feel as if he were the only man in Sloane Brac’s world. He liked that feeling. “No, imperfect. I can’t think of one person who is perfect, but you come damn close.”

D felt his insides melt at Sloane’s words. “If you’re trying to get me into the bed, you’re wasting your breath. All you have to do is tell me to get naked.”

D smiled when Sloane threw his head back and laughed. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. The musical lilt echoed through the kitchen and settled deep in D’s chest, wrapping around his heart. The full-blown smile on his mate’s face only enhanced his already-handsome features.

“Get naked, hon.”

D couldn’t get his clothes off fast enough. He was pretty sure he heard fabric tear. What the fuck did he care? Sloane wanted him naked? He would get naked. By the time he dropped the last of his clothes on the floor and looked up, Sloane was just standing there with his jaw dropped.

“This will work a lot better if you’re naked, too,” D said.

D swallowed hard at the wicked grin that crossed Sloane’s lips.

There was something feral in the shifter’s eyes, something that told D to run. D did exactly that, turning on his heels and sprinting out of the room. He could hear Sloane’s deep growl as the man gave chase.

D had no idea where he was going. Running was too huge in his mind to think of anything else. He swerved left then right. Sloane blocked his every turn. The deep growls coming from Sloane grew louder each time Sloane cornered D somewhere and D slid free.

D stopped with the recliner between him and Sloane. He quickly glanced around the room for every possible escape route. There really didn’t look to be any. If he ran toward the front door, Sloane would reach him before he even touched the thick wood. If he headed into the kitchen, he’d never make it to the back door before Sloane was on him.

The stairs were just a little past Sloane’s shoulder. If he darted left, then right, D just might be able to make it past Sloane and up the stairs. It was a slim chance, but it was still a chance.

D darted left. The second Sloane’s body tensed and he started to the left, D changed direction and darted right, running all out for the stairs. A loud wail fell from his lips when he felt Sloane’s arms wrap around him from behind just as he reached the bottom of the steps.

“Got you,” Sloane growled.

D grunted as he was slung over Sloane’s shoulder and carried up the stairs. A small cry filled the space around them when he was tossed through the air, bouncing on the bed several times. When he finally stopped bouncing, D looked up to find Sloane standing at the bottom of the bed, stark ass naked.

When Sloane started crawling up the end of the bed, D scrambled toward the top. His joyous laughter filled the air as his ankle was grabbed and he was pulled down the bed. Sloane’s larger body covered D from head to toe.

“How’d you know chase is one of my favorite games?”

D grinned. “Duh, you’re a wolf.”

“You’re pretty good at it. If you hadn’t run for the stairs I might not have caught you for a while yet.”

D arched an eyebrow. “Who says I didn’t run for the stairs on purpose?”

“Did you?”

“I’ll never tell.”

Sloane wiggled his eyebrows. “I have
vays
of making you talk.”

D laughed at the bad accent Sloane used. The accent was horrible.

But it was also wonderful at the same time. D was a little astounded that he was laughing when they were in bed together. He never once considered that sex would be fun or filled with laughter. He always thought it was hot and sweaty and intense.

There should be a damn manual for this shit.

“Do your worst, wolf man.”

D yelped when his legs were suddenly grabbed and pulled up. He could feel his cock rubbing against Sloane’s, and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Sloane was hard as a rock and leaking. It created just enough lube so that they could easily slide against each other.

“Sloane,” D groaned. So far they had rubbed off together and done the whole blow job thing. He had yet to be fully claimed by his mate, and he wanted it more than he wanted to feel sunshine on his face. “Please.”