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"Vampires aren't like that?"
Cai scoffed. "Alone is better for us. We're vicious killers, Rand." His mouth tightened, though he kept the same light, I-don't-give-a-damn tone. "Some of the vampires pretend to be civilized so they can live in the human world. Then they get surprised when they try to tear one another apart. But maybe all of us humanoids have that problem." Cai studied him. "Except one like you."
He retrieved the meat and broth, bringing it back to Rand. "There. Put this away. Then we'll talk about our lives and feelings, the way self-respecting males do it. With a stranger and copious amounts of alcohol."
Chapter Four
"So how did you lose your pack, wolf?" Cai gestured with the half-empty bottle of Jack and Rand took it, indulging another long, generous swig that helped the swirling, pleasant numbness along.
"You can finish it," the vampire said. "Had all I need."
Rand nodded. He'd eaten the rest of the rabbit and, as the night deepened, Cai had brought out the Jack Daniels. They didn't talk about too much of import at first. Cai asked him some more about what Rand knew of vampires and servants. At first, Rand thought Cai was testing him, determining the extent of his knowledge, but the vampire's follow up questions and curiosity suggested he wasn't aware of a lot of stuff about the relationship between vampires and servants. Curious.
The firelight got even more wavy. Rand was feeling sleepy. He could ignore the vampire's latest question, about the loss of his pack. Answering it would hurt too much. Thanks to the alcohol, maybe not quite as much as it usually did, but still. If he had to choose between a rusty knife excising his organs, or a truck running over him, backing up and doing it again, he'd tried to avoid either. He asked his own question instead.
"Tell me why you're not hanging out with your own kind."
"Vampires aren't pack animals." The vamp made it sound like an insult, but Rand ignored the goad.
"Yeah, but you still usually have a servant or belong to a territory. Network or that type of thing, with others of your kind."
"Network." Cai let out a short laugh, amused but ugly. "Your vocabulary wasn't entirely lost while you were four-legged. That's a hell of a word to describe vampire social skills. But okay. You tell me your touchy-feely sob story and I'll tell you whatever closely approximates it from my sad, wasted life. But you have to go first or no deal."
"You"--Rand pointed at him, squinting a little--"are a miserable bastard."
"Yeah. But I'm good at fucking. Admit it."
Rand snorted. "So's a deodorant bottle, you lube it up enough."
Cai chuckled, leaning back on his palms on the other side of the fire. He had his legs stretched out and ankles crossed in a far-too-appealing way. He seemed to like the jeans-only, no-shirt look. Maybe because he knew that it kept drawing Rand's attention. His laughter was genuine, though, inspiring Rand to grin at him. "Now I get it," Cai said. "You hadn't had a good deodorant bottle in months. I happened along..."
"And I couldn't control myself." Rand nodded vigorously and drained the last of the Jack.
"Need to take you to a sex toy store, wolf. They've made some serious improvements on that bottle idea."
When Rand's cheeks warmed, Cai's brows lifted. "You've never?"
"Of course not. I don't...we didn't..."
"Ever been to a strip club?"
"No." Sheba would have taken a strip off their hides. But it was more than that. "The noise and scents...they're unpleasant. A co-worker who didn't know what I was tried to take me once. Dirty place at an old truck stop. No windows. Closed in."
"Ah. They've made a lot of improvements on the venue, too." Cai's gaze glittered behind the leaping flames. He was looking at Rand as if he'd told the vampire he was a virgin, but thankfully, Cai moved on. "While I nurse my bruised feelings about being equated to a toiletry item, tell me more about shifters. Beyond the fact they avoid human vices. Except for drinking."
Rand studied the bottle. When it had been half full, the reflected firelight had danced through the remaining liquid. Becoming a wolf was where he went when he needed to grieve, so he hadn't indulged the bottle much, hadn't used that crutch. He wasn't much of a drinker, so he guessed he didn't have a good tolerance for it. The vampire was having no problems. Oh, he was acting friendly and mellow, but those sharp eyes were just as sharp. Maybe vampires didn't get drunk; they just used alcohol to take the edge off. Well, no argument with that. He kind of wished Cai had another bottle, but refused to ask.
Start with the easier stuff, he thought to himself. He didn't have to start at all. But maybe it was the intimacy-of-strangers stuff, the alcohol, the fucking. Cai saving his life and knowing so much about him already, so fast. He knew he was going to talk. So might as well do it. He'd likely regret it.
"Pack leaders are hetero." Rand moved his attention from the bottle to the flame. Trying to keep the images in his head to a minimum. "Just the way it is. You have to produce pups to keep the pack strong, right? And wolves just aren't... There aren't many of them like me. But I found one. Dylef. That's probably getting ahead of things, though. You don't know much about shifters."
"Only what I know from the one I found in the forest. Clever and violent. They bleed. Stubborn as hell. Made-for-sex body when the fur goes away." Cai's gaze slid over Rand's chest and down to his genitals. "Well, when most of it goes away. I like the pelt that remains. Start with the general stuff," he added quietly, uncomfortably reinforcing Rand's own thought. "Work up to the other."
"Not going to tell you the other." Rand lifted the bottle, remembered it was empty, set it down again. "Shifters are kind of like vampires. Most of us are born shifters. Bitten people don't shift unless they consent, are approved by a pack and are brought in to do the ritual for it. And it doesn't always take."
Cai pursed his lips. He had a good mouth. A distracting one. "Does a born shifter come out in a litter of puppies or as a human baby?"
"A litter." Rand nodded at his expression of surprise. "Once the female conceives, she can stay in human form for a little while, but eventually she has to shift. She'll stay a wolf through their birth and weaning. The pack remains close, in either form, during that time, because she's unable to defend herself without risking the pregnancy. Maybe because of the mix of anatomy, it's hard to carry a shifter litter to full term. About one out of every five conceptions results in a litter, and most often it's the alpha male and female in a pack who manage it."
He shrugged at Cai's curious look. "No idea why, but wolf wolves--"
"Is that the official term for wolves that aren't shifters?"
"Not officially." Rand ignored Cai's smirk. "Shut up if you want me to tell you. Non-shifter wolves usually only have one breeding pair per pack, and it's the alpha male and female. They lose about sixty percent of their litters to starvation or predators."
Not being able to supply food for his family. That was a problem he hadn't had. Before...everything that had happened, he'd thought about the non-shifter wolves, and how awful it would be to have a pup die merely because you weren't fast enough, couldn't find enough game...
"I guess that's part of why shifters have been able to stay so invisible. Low population." Cai's voice drew him away from that darkness. Rand focused on the vampire, saw the blue eyes watching him, watching him deep. But not in a mean way.
"Yeah." Rand resumed his explanation. "When she shifts back to human is when the pups shift to human for the first time."
At Cai's fascinated expression, the corner of Rand's mouth tugged up. "You know how some mothers don't want to give up on breast feeding? Well, the wolf version of that is the mother wolf who holds off on that first shift as long as possible. Part of it is because it's hugely stressful. The babies have no control over it. It's a compulsion that hits them when the mother shifts that first time. One moment they're a wolf puppy, the next, they're a human baby, a few months old. If the pups are healthy, it's rarely fatal, but for the first couple days they're pretty freaked out and need a lot
of attention."
"I'd think it would be the mother who would be freaked out, suddenly having a volleyball team of human babies."
