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“About 6:30,” Nero said. “Why?”
Quinten sighed. “Robbie will be home soon.”
Neither one said anything at that, and he finally glanced up and saw they were exchanging looks.
“Robbie’s here?” Dare asked. “I thought he was in Mexico still.”
Quinten shook his head. After graduating from college last month, Robbie had been gone on trips with friends more than he’d been home. “He got back late last week.”
Neither said anything, exchanging another look he couldn’t read.
“Is that going to be a fucking problem?” he snapped, his patience having left him three phone calls ago.
“No, sir,” Nero said, shaking off the strange look on his face.
Dare shook his head, but his jaw was tight, and Nero’s fingers were tapping on the arms of his chair. He didn’t know what was up with the two of them, but he didn’t have the energy to get into it.
He pushed to his feet and started for the door. “Mrs. Burns should have dinner ready shortly, if either of you are hungry.”
He knew Dare would eat with them, but Nero could be weird about consuming food in front of other people. People had the misconception, based on human myths, that vampires only drank blood, but real vampires could supplement their diets with certain other foods. They couldn’t tolerate everything that humans and shifters could eat, but for the most part, they could share a meal if they wanted to, but he knew that it made Nero uncomfortable to have people staring at him when he did, and Caden seemed wary enough of him to do just that.
“I’ll pass,” Nero said, unsurprisingly. “I’ll head out and grab myself a bite.”
Quinten raised a brow, glancing down at his shirt. He shook his head when Nero just laughed, leaving the room so fast he turned into nothing but a blur.
Vampires could be weird, that was for sure.
He didn’t blame them though. After being nearly driven to extinction and having to go into hiding for decades, it made sense it would take a chunk out of their collective psyche.
Dare silently followed him out of his office.
Should he go and check on Caden before they sat down for dinner? He’d assumed the jaguar would have made an appearance hours ago, but they hadn’t seen him since they’d arrived. He didn’t want to bother him if he was still sleeping. Before he’d left Kincaid’s, Tashmica had reminded him not to let him do anything strenuous for days, no shifting for a week.
Quinten hadn’t said anything, but he did wonder what qualified as strenuous to a shifter according to a witch, but he figured he would just make Caden stay in bed and feed him plenty of food until he’d regained his strength. Which he would, despite what some alpha-mates thought.
He was almost to the dining room when he heard a loud gasp and then running feet. “Oh my god, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
He turned just before a tiny, lean body ran into him, arms coming around to squeeze him tightly.
Chuckling, Quinten hugged him back. “We just got here a few hours ago. I thought it would be a nice surprise for you.”
Robbie huffed, pretending indignation, but he squeezed Quinten even tighter. “I’m so glad to see you. I keep meaning to get into the city and stay at the penthouse for a couple of days, but either you’re off doing business somewhere, or I was with my friends.”
He sounded a little guilty, but Quinten didn’t want that. He rubbed a hand over the back of Robbie’s head. “Don’t worry about it. Now that you’re done with school, we’ll be able to see each other more if you want.”
“Duh,” Robbie said, then laughed and pushed away just enough that he could peer up at Quinten. “What brought on this surprise visit?”
A low growl came from behind him. It was primal and terrifying, Quinten’s instincts prickling the hair on the back of his neck. He whipped around, keeping Robbie behind him, and was shocked to find Caden in the doorway, eyes glowing and fangs bared.
Despite the aggression, Quinten’s body heated at the familiar gym shorts sitting low on Caden’s hips, the rest of his pale skin on full display.
He had half a mind to tell Dare to avert his eyes, which was ridiculous. They’d all seen him fully naked at the warehouse, and shifters weren’t bothered about nakedness like humans did.
It bothered Quinten though. He couldn’t help the possessiveness gnawing at his gut any more than he could have stopped himself from protecting Robbie.
“Caden—”
Glowing golden eyes turned on him, drawing him up short. “Who the fuck is that?”
