Pack Master (Vampire Kings 3)

Henry looked at the pair of them and sighed. “It’s very hard to be angry at being held against my will when you two are so happy about it.”

“Don’t worry about Maddox. He’s just obsessed with being king. He can’t help it. He hates it, you know. He never wanted the responsibility. And ever since being crowned he’s been in the most foul mood,” Lorien said.

“To be fair, I did start trying to eat people at the same time, sort of,” Will added.

“Yes, that’s fair. You did do that,” Lorien nodded in agreement as if he’d forgotten about that part.

“I told Maddox you can have fallen food and lab-grown offerings,” Henry said. “There’s not really anything else to feed you, and the hunger rages would have settled on their own over time. It’s just a transition we all have to go through. You don't need me, Will. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a perfectly normal whelp.”

Will looked taken aback. “That might be the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me.”

“I said it to Maddox too. He wanted me to come anyway. And he drove me to Ivan’s doorstep. It was Maddox who put Ivan in my path,” Henry was frowning. “Anyway.”

At that moment, Maddox’s office door opened. Everybody froze like a series of statues in a kitchen tableau. Nobody wanted to make eye contact. Everybody looked at a different part of the kitchen. Will went with the toaster pastry, that felt natural. Lorien shoved his head into the fridge, even though he didn’t actually eat, and Henry suddenly developed an interest in the way the cabinetry was hinged.

“Will. Come,” Maddox snapped.

Will stuffed the rest of his pastry into his mouth and cast a so long glance at Lorien and Henry.

“Better him than me,” Lorien commented.

“Hm,” Henry replied as they both emerged from their respective plausibly deniable hiding places, closing cupboards and fridge doors and standing about the red splashed concrete kitchen like a couple of awkward urchins. Lorien felt for Henry, who looked almost cowed.

“Don’t feel bad. It is literally impossible to have any other agenda than Maddox’s and not be beaten within an inch of your life.”

Henry’s fists tightened at his sides. “I don’t feel bad. I feel tricked and trapped.”

“I can't believe I’m going to say this. You can trust Maddox. If he’s got you here, there’s reason for it.”

“Is that why you ran away and shacked up with Ivan?”

“I didn’t shack up with anyone. I got tired of what you’re already tired of,” Lorien said. “Except it’s worse for me. I get treated like a son. And Maddox is a hell of a father.”

Henry grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and cracked it, sitting next to Lorien. “Really thought I’d be out of here by now.”

“Yeah. That’s how he gets you.”

Henry threw the beer back. “There’s nothing stopping me from just walking out that fucking door.”

“Nothing?” Lorien said the word with a questioning tone. “Nothing at all?”

Henry glanced over at him with a rough glare that clearly did not originate from anything Lorien had said or done. It was a classic case of redirection, and Lorien was right in the path of Henry’s latent aggression.

“You should be careful, vampire. I need to work a lot of frustration out.”

“I’m very hard to break,” Lorien smiled with wicked anticipation. The situation was tense, but he was used to that. He thrilled to the way Henry looked right now, sitting there absolutely simmering with masculine menace.

“You don't know what you’re playing with. Or who,” Henry growled, finishing the rest of his beer in a very long swig. He crushed the can in his big muscular hand and left it sitting on the counter. Lorien picked it up and swept it into the recycling pail beneath.

“That goes for the both of us, doesn’t it?”

Henry looked back at him with new interest in his eyes. “True,” he admitted.

Lorien was doing the last thing he ever thought he’d do in Maddox’s house again: enjoy himself. Henry changed the energy, even if he didn’t change Mad at all. There was a particular intimacy in the rough wolf’s gaze that kept drawing Lorien.

He knew it was a dangerous game. Henry was an alpha, and he was probably desperate to dominate someone, anyone, to feel like himself again. Lorien was putting himself in harm’s way just to experience a little of this energy.

“Stop looking so smug.”

“I think that’s just my face,” Lorien said.

Henry snorted into his now empty beer. “You’re lucky you’re funny.”

“Sir, I am absolutely charming,” Lorien declared with confidence.

Henry’s eyes flashed. He stood up to Lorien, just as he had that time outside the Library with that same aggressive energy that delighted Lorien. “You’re arrogant. You walk around as if you think you’re above everything. You’re slippery. I don’t know who or what you’re loyal to. And now you tell me you’re the son of the vampire I’d like to fucking kill.”