Banner growled low but gave me one more long, lingering kiss, swiping his tongue across the seam of my lips as if to antagonize my brother. I would’ve laughed, or maybe rolled my eyes if my mate and Adryan weren’t so much alike in regards that they were annoying alphas who always had to have the last word.
“Why don’t ye fuck off, vampire?”
“Okay, okay, okay,” I interjected, stepping in front of Banner just as Adryan came out from the shadows. Although he looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world, I could see the slight narrowing of his eyes as he stared at my mate. “How about we don’t start this reunion with a big pissing contest?”
Everything was tense for a few seconds before I finally felt Banner relax. Then my brother shrugged his massive shoulders.
“I can pretend like he’s tolerable while you’re here.” Adryan gave me a slow smile, and I huffed out an exasperated breath.
The level of arrogance and alphaness between these two important males in my life could have drowned me.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Adryan,” I said irritably, my voice rising as my annoyance peaked. “Please, can we just get along? Can you pretend with your actions and not just your words that you’ll do this for me?” Banner had his hand on the small of my back, his fingers flexing against me. I had to give my mate credit because he stood down when I knew he wanted to put my brother in his place.
It was a whole alpha thing coming full circle.
Finally Adryan lifted his hands up, palms forward in a faux display of whatever surrender my coldhearted brother could muster. He gestured toward the front entrance of the home, the smile he gave Banner arrogant in every single possible way. Although I could play it off as if these two would eventually get used to each other, maybe even find common ground and enjoy each other's company over time, I knew that would be a lie.
They were both too hard-headed, stubborn in every single way. There would never be any common ground between these two, just a push and pull and butting of heads that would infuriate me to no end.
And as I felt Banner slip his hand into mine, looked up at him, and saw all the possessiveness, all the love and devotion reflected back at me, I knew nothing else mattered.
Not my hard-headed brother.
Not whether anyone would accept us, or even approve of what we shared.
I didn’t care about any of that, because the only important thing to me and my future was standing right beside me, giving me all the strength that he had and more.
* * *
“Lass, yer brother is fooking insane.”
I laughed softly as I walked into the lavatory that was connected to my room. The laugh was a bit strained because truth be told, Banner was absolutely right. Adryan had never been “right.” Not only did he inherit our father’s warped mind, but the amount of violence and toxicity that he'd surrounded himself with in his short twenty-some odd years in this world made him even more unbalanced.
For the last few hours, I’d shown Banner the only home I’d known—up until I’d met him, that was. I didn’t feel like this was home anymore. Because my home was where Banner was.
We’d had a meal with Adryan, which had started off nicely enough because my brother had kept his smartass comments to himself. But then he’d started guzzling the whiskey and started “reminiscing” about all the kills to his enemies he’d made throughout the years.
And my brother, being the arrogant asshole he was, started goading Banner, talking about how he doubted my mate had not made nearly as many kills as “the most dangerous vampire in the world,” despite Banner having centuries of age on Adryan.
And that, in turn, had my wolf bristling, his own alpha arrogance rising up at the clear challenge of his prowess and virility. Voices had started to rise, their big bodies rising from their chairs as growls and their aggression filled the dining room.
That’s when I called it a night, excused us from the table, and told Adryan he should go sleep off his annoying intoxication on the other side of the house. Thankfully he left, telling me he had “hunting” to do and didn’t want to be in the same house where “disgusting happenings” were sure to go down.
To say I was uncomfortable realizing what my brother was referring to was an understatement. And to top it off and make things even more awkward, Banner, being a smug alpha, didn’t deny he had every intention of mating with me. My face was still on fire over all that, and the need to just bury my head in a hole somewhere in the middle of the desert sounded more appealing.