Blood Moon (MalexMale Paranormal Fantasy)

Chapter 8 ∞ DAIRE

Reeve is quiet and exhausted after one of our late mornings of training, so I'm surprised when he asks me if I'd like to join him for lunch and a tour of his house. A pretty house rho opens the door for us as we climb up the wide porch stairs.

"Coly, this is Master Daire. Master Daire, this is Coly, our rho here in the main pack home."

"Nice to formally meet you, Master Daire." Coly greets me with a generous smile and slight bow of his head. "Alpha Zane informed me that you're staying in the pack clinic. I'm happy to provide your meals here in the Alpha's home for as long as you stay."

"Thank you, Rho. I'd be honored. Vampyres don't eat nearly as much as the wolves you're used to serving, but I'll be glad to have a place to come for a meal at the end of a long day."

Reeve looks proudly at the rho, kicks off his shoes—so I do the same—and leads me upstairs.

He pushes open his door revealing an immaculate wooden floor and a bed so pristinely made it would make our coven maids weep. The thick cloud of his scent is the next thing to sink in, and I fill my lungs with it.

"Where does the omega stay?"

Reeve points down the cream-colored hall. "Down there. Coly had a doggy door installed to make it easier for her." His smile is quick, a flashbang, leaving to me wonder if I'd seen it at all. "She's been sleeping outside my door at night, though."

His attention fixes outside the window over the large front lawn and the small group of wolves socializing without him. I've never seen him with anyone aside from Rainer and Matt and I imagine his life to be as lonely as mine was at my coven.

"I offered to bring a pad in here for her, but she insists on staying out there like a guard."

"Does she speak to you often?"

"No, hardly at all."

Seeing him here, open with me in his private space shifts something inside me, sparking a deeper curiosity about this strange, contradictory male. "Maybe she senses that you need her right now."

Reeve rubs the back of his neck, adopting the hint of a smile. "Yeah. And I imagine she's still healing from her own recent trauma. Anyway," he clears his throat, "this is usually where I am if you need to find me, and past Omega's room is Rainer's. The back stairs lead down toward my father's office in the back hall that wraps around to the kitchen. You're welcome here any time."

There's a competing shyness and boldness to his offer that fully lures me. He's testing out new ground, and I'm glad to be the one on the receiving end of it.

A knock on the door severs the moment, and Coly peeks his head in. "Sorry to interrupt. There's a batling circling around outside, Master Daire."

"Thank you." I rush past the rho, barreling down the stairs to grab my shoes and run outside into the warming day. I search the sky, hurrying toward the back of the house when I can't find it out front.

After a minute of searching, I spot it weaving between trees and lift my arm, awaiting the sweet prick of its fangs as it swoops toward me.

I hold my breath in anticipation.

It pierces my skin and I fling my head back in relief, a groan of pleasure caught in my throat before the discomfort sets in, reveling in the familiar sting and rising euphoria that accompanies another's bite.

The message hits me quickly, a sense of Peter's voice as I interpret the words: "We're safe for now, but the king's guards are on the hunt. Stay alert."

The batling unlatches and lifts into the air with stuttering, depleted flaps, barely gaining any height. As I lick at the wound and suck away beads of blood dotting the entry points, it plummets and smacks the hard ground, unmoving.