Predators: A Dark MM Urban Fantasy Paranormal

“You’ve never slain a vampire before. You need to lose your fear of my kind. You need to discover your inner predator.”

“I thought you chose me because I’d already done that.”

“Halfway. You understand who you are. But you’re not entirely sure what you are. Not yet. I thought a close encounter with something you are primed to destroy would trigger your basic instincts. It did, but not the ones I intended. Do not worry, pup. Your time is yet to come.”

Maddox’s reassurances did go some way to relieving Will’s fear of rejection, and inevitable return to prison. But they did not change how sickeningly embarrassed he felt at having been unable to carry out the violence which should have come so naturally to him. If there was one thing Will knew how to do, it was kill. But he’d fucking bottled it.

“I thought vampires were a stake through the chest?” He covered his shame with a mumbled question.

“Destroying the brain works on any creature,” Maddox clarified. “Never forget that. It may be eminently useful one day.”

Will was exhausted. Too tired to close his eyes, he laid his head in Mad’s lap and tried to contend with his continued confusing existence.

“You will sleep when we are home, and tomorrow you will feel better.”

Will doubted that. He was out of his depth in every way possible. He felt like a fucking animal compared to Maddox, whose native gentility and dominant demeanor made him seem to be perpetually in control. Back in prison he had hated the wardens who treated prisoners like beasts, but none of them had ever made him feel like as pathetic and helpless a creature as Mads did when he saved him.

The second they stepped through the front door, there was a shift in the energy of the place to which Will was immediately sensitive. It did not feel like an empty place as it had the first time they’d entered. There was a new smell. Something that drifted very faintly on the breeze created by the door opening. Something male. Something dead.

Will growled beneath his breath, feeling his entire body become suffused with tension. He did not like this new smell. He did not like, for want of a better term, the vibe which now seemed to emanate from the interior of Maddox’s sterile dwelling. It felt inhabited in a dark way, as if it had become more of a den than a home.

“Someone’s here,” Will said obviously. He knew if he was sensing something, Mad was sensing it a thousand-fold.

“Yes,” Maddox agreed as they stepped into what passed for a lounge.

Someone was sitting in Mad’s armchair. For some reason Will had not expected anybody else to ever enter Maddox’s domain, let alone take a seat in his chair. There was a familiarity and a casual ease to the pose which made Will think this person had been here before many times.

As they walked further into the big, open room, the interloper was revealed.

“Hello there,” he drawled with a languid wave of his fingers.

“Lorien,” Maddox said.

“Still, yes,” the intruder agreed. Will stared, uncomfortable at finding himself confronted by a stranger at one of the most vulnerable times of his life.

The man named Lorien was attractive in an obvious and deadly sort of way. His long raven hair cascaded wildly from the crown of his head, framing his face boldly. He had the hard, rough structure of a born beast, and now that Will had seen a vampire or two, he recognized Lorien as one immediately. Lorien would have been in his early thirties when he was turned into what he was now. He was mature, and powerful. A cocky energy emanated from him which made Will’s hackles rise. Cocky hot guys were never good news in his experience, and after a raw evening of failure and humiliation Will was not in the mood for meeting new people.

“Lorien, this is Will,” Maddox introduced him. “We’ve been out on a hunt.”

“Your latest hapless project,” Lorien said with a rakish smile, laughing green eyes playing over Will’s face. “Have you enjoyed hunting, puppy?”

Will growled under his breath. Mad might address him from time to time as pup, but this felt different. This felt incredibly condescending and slightly sneering. He felt his ire rising and considered that he might possibly consider a second attempt at killing a vampire tonight. He might be more successful this time. Even though Lorien had not been present at his first failure, Will felt suddenly observed. He did not like being observed. Especially by somebody with a gaze keen enough it felt as though his recent failure was being played out on an invisible screen between them. Lorien saw him, and Will did not like being seen.

“He has a temper,” Lorien noted. “You do like them wild, don’t you, Maddox.”