Page 12 of Vampire Pack

His hands were in his pockets, and his intense gaze moved from my face, down my body, immediately.

I stepped aside, opening the door further so he could fit through. Our doors were made wider than the humans', so vampires could fit in that form if they tucked their wings in close. King was huge, though, and too big to fit past me without turning sideways.

He closed the door behind himself.

Mal cleared her throat. "Wow, I just remembered that I have a date with a phlebotomist."

"Same," Paige agreed. "We scheduled our appointments together."

All unmated werewolves had to provide blood for unmated vampires, unless we had an official arrangement with someone.

Like my arrangement with King.

If we hadn't filled out the paperwork about him biting me, I'd have to donate blood. That extra blood loss would've slowed my healing down too much to keep playing hockey.

Regularly having King's venom in my system also helped me heal slightly faster than I would normally, which was a big perk for a professional athlete.

Our government loved arrangements like ours, because they so often led to accidental mate bonds.

An accidental mate bond would never happen to us. That much, I was sure of. I had self-control… most of the time.

"You don't schedule those appointments in advance," I drawled to my friends, through the mental pack bond that connected us. The pack bond wasn't super easy to use, so we preferred texting, but it was useful sometimes.

"Let's just pretend we do so you can have an excuse to hook up with your vampire," Paige suggested.

"He's not mine."

She gave me a look that said she disagreed.

I sighed inwardly

"Good luck," Mal offered.

Paige gave King a quick wave on her way out. Mallory saluted him. He nodded once in their direction, without taking his eyes off me.

When they were gone, King went straight to the thick curtain that was currently pushed to the side of our large, glass sliding back door. It faced the forest, reducing our privacy thanks to the wolves that were often outside.

My friends and I didn't care about that, but King did.

He pulled the curtain shut. He was the one who'd insisted on having it installed, and he closed it every single time he came over. The man had even funded it.

In general, vampires cared significantly more about privacy than werewolves did. Especially when it came to someone they were with in any romantic capacity. They had a thing about their space.

King and I weren't together in a romantic capacity, obviously. But we were sleeping together. Err, having sex. Regularly.

I told myself that the sex was why he cared about not letting anyone else see me naked. That there couldn't have been any potential feelings behind it. Just spicy possessiveness.

"I looked up shoulder injuries on the internet." King's low growl sent goosebumps over my arms as he caught up to me, grabbing the bottom hem of my shirt.

"You don't need to take my clothes off me again," I said.

"I didn't get a good enough look at your bruises in the locker room." He tugged the hem of my shirt upward. With my good arm, I helped him get it up far enough that he could see everything.

The light tug of fabric was enough to make me wince in pain. Luckily, he was focused enough on my shoulder that he didn't notice.

His free hand pressed lightly to my hip, and he walked me forward. I wasn't sure where he wanted me to go, but I didn't particularly care.

At least he wasn't lecturing me.