“Oh,” she says. “Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize she was…I’m sorry.”
You should be, he thinks in annoyance.
“I should go. Let me know if you find anything on that creature,” she says, standing up.
Before he can answer her, she is gone. He sighs and flops back to the ground. Seems to be his favorite position at the moment.
He wasn’t entirely honest with Liv the other week about it not happening for them. He knew of her plans with her sire, which pains him, but if it is what she wants then he won’t interfere, and her concerns about the Other her and Other him having children. He wanted to reassure her that it was not going to happen with them.
It could very well happen if he ever lifts the curse, he put on himself when they first started their sexual relationship. He knew he didn’t want kids. He had been trapped in a forest for half a century, it was the last thing on his mind. Tatiana was very helpful in getting him the right curse and so far, it has worked. Liv doesn’t know. He thought he probably should tell her at some point, but it never seemed the right time and now it seems a bit too late. If she ever said to him that she wanted to do that he would take it off in an instant now, but he knows she was horrified, a
s he was, when they found out about the Others’ offspring. He wonders if she knows that for Shifters to breed, they must be in their natural form at conception. She probably does, as the same is said for Dragons. Maybe that’s why she is so hesitant to mate with him as a Wolf. Maybe he should tell her about the curse, as his Inner Wolf is dying to get his Alpha in a furry tussle.
He grins at that pleasing thought, but it fades as he concludes that even if she did want it and it did happen, the second she Shifted to something other than her Wolf or human form it would probably be over. How sure could they be that it would never happen? Consciously, sure, but Xerxei tends to turn up unannounced and that chick is all Demon, and if she is fighting off her Dragon form now, who’s to say in the future she would win that battle? Lincoln sighs and sits up. Erica’s right, they do need to talk about this. He has been brushing it under the carpet.
Fortunately, though, he has time. He is only just over a third of the way through his natural life. As an Alpha, he will live until about nine hundred. Not many have been recorded much past that, although Liv’s blood is going to change that for him. He doesn’t know if she is aware that he is drinking it when he bites her and that her blood is making him stronger, faster, and more powerful. It is also slowing down the aging process. He can feel it almost as if it is a physical thing. It is probably best to keep that as much under wraps as possible, who knows what freaks would come out of the woodwork to bleed her for their own gain if they ever found out.
He hauls himself to his feet and heads back inside. The long way. He likes to avoid the others as much as possible. It is better for his head.
He has loads of work to do so he settles at his desk and gets started. Things are a lot easier now that he has designated delegates that deal with the everyday stuff. He tends to just handle any major problems, or any inter-species deals that arise. He knows most of the Vampire delegates that Liv appointed have their own set of delegates to do their grunt work. Devon has three that he knows of. In fact, he hardly does anything for the Regency anymore.
His focus has shifted quite considerably and seeing as he doesn’t have an actual job anymore, he is busier than ever. His knack for numbers is astonishing, so it is no surprise their entire group, with its net worth of what must be about a trillion dollars if not more, appointed him in charge of their portfolios. Lincoln’s included. Everything Devon touches comes up trumps. He has quadrupled what he started out with inside a few months. He thinks it is an actual magickal gift. In fact, it must be, because he has never won at poker with Devon and he racked up tens of thousands of dollars in Vegas at roulette. A fact that Xane was less than impressed with, especially considering the wards he has up to prevent magick users from cheating. His gift must be innate. He wonders if he even knows or just thinks he is a lucky son-of-a-bitch. He likes Devon. He considers him a friend. Probably the only one he has here. Although, he feels Cole is warning up to him slightly. He never would have though the man would agree to the three-way they engaged in the other night.
Devon helped him a lot after Liv rescued him, and their time spent together in New York made them closer. That was around the time that he and Liv started sleeping together. That first time with her, he thought he would never be able to keep up with her or please her. Lincoln had never been with a Vampire before and it was an eye-opener. Holy Hell, but they have stamina. Geez. She wore him out completely. He got up the nerve to ask Devon about it one night after a few drinks, and after he got over his hysterics, which he promised Lincoln that he wasn’t laughing at him, he gave him a few pointers on how to please her. He found it quite unsettling at first, but after Devon was proved right with Liv begging him for more, he went back for more advice. Devon suggested a three-way which made him uncomfortable at first as he had never done that before, but Devon seems to be an old hat at things like that and he didn’t feel uncomfortable once during that night. In fact, quite the opposite, although he wasn’t too happy to find that male Vampires can be ready in a second, literally, but he thinks maybe that was part of Devon’s plan, to take over when he needed a minute. Devon took it in his stride and gave him the time he needed, which as it turns out, when you are with someone like Liv, doesn’t take too long at all.
She started to whisper words to him, really sexy talk and it is amazing the effect it has on him. He loves it when she tells him how he makes her feel. He knows she loves being with him. She wouldn’t say it if she didn’t. It makes him happy that he can please her and even happier that her sire is jealous of them. Lincoln saw his face as he interrupted them in Vegas, before he caught him looking and altered his expression. But he saw it and it was one of pure rage and jealousy and it made Lincoln feel pretty good. Why? Because he hates him. It comes as no surprise to him that Lance turned out the way he did with his sire as a role model. It just shows the strength of character that Liv has to have turned out the way she did. After the way he treated her, reducing her to a fuck toy to please him as he saw fit, was sick. And it hurt her so much. Lincoln knew more than most how much he hurt her.
As she sleeps, her mental blocks are down, and he can read her thoughts. He really does try not to. It is a massive invasion of privacy and he can’t say that he would like someone to do that to him, especially as he slept, but through their bond they pull him in, calling to him. He finds it happening before he can pull away, and those few seconds are all it takes to glean a lifetime of information from her. Her thoughts are rapid and erratic, and he doesn’t know how she copes with it. He feels nauseous after reading her. It is any wonder she stays on her feet long enough to function as she does. She is truly one of the smartest people he has ever come across. Quick as a whip, but it doesn’t surprise him that she can be a bit of a ditz at times. The little things escape her because their lack of importance reduces them to a nanosecond in her thoughts and then it’s gone, and she’s moved onto a dozen other things.
Scott did a brilliant job of keeping up with her. He made all of their jobs a lot easier to deal with him. Lincoln had his doubts as to whether Jess would keep up, but she is holding her own in a job that is a killer to start off with, never mind adding to the fact that she is still a weeks’-old Vampire. She is strong, he has to give her that.
Chapter 11
Buckinghamshire, England, March 2013 - Lincoln
He spends the next couple of hours doing research. He comes across a few good leads and others that may or may not need looking into. It appears Werewolf sightings (of the Hollywood style) are common, especially around the full moon, so who can be sure. He emails all the details to Cliff, who is a Werewolf of the regular kind, and one of his designated sleuths. There isn’t much he can’t get to the bottom of. He has given him a day to get back to him and he will no doubt have something concrete by then. They need to find this creature before it attacks again. Alpha-less Packs are just asking for trouble. For the most part, Alphas are born into it. All males, females only gain their title by going through the Pairing and all but lose it if they lose their mate. Lincoln’s father was an Alpha as was his, and his…but every so often, such as in the case of an untimely death of an Alpha with no male heirs, they can gain the title the old-school way: a fight to the death of any other contenders.
He can already tell this is what is shaping up in Erica’s Pack, but her idea is not the best. Integrating Packs is tricky and she, as an Alpha mate, or former Alpha mate, will be demoted in a big way. In fact, her entire Pack will be. His and Liv’s situation is unique in that they got to pick their Pack. They got to handpick the best and brightest and there isn’t a weak one among them. Normally they just inherit the one from the former Alpha, but Lincoln didn’t have one. Not after they were slaughtered along with his parents, brother, and sister in the early 1930s.
They lived in Vancouver then, and after their deaths he headed to Chicago, a Pack-less Alpha with an aggressive streak that was on the rise due to having no mate and no Pack. Added to his degenerating mind was the booze and he got hauled in numerous times for brawling. He thought briefly about signing up and getting himself shipped off to Europe to fight the war, but he never could have Shifted at the full moon with a platoon surrounding him every second of every day. That’s when he caught the attention of the gangsters. They needed a hit man and he needed a release. It worked out well for a while. He was good at the job, too good, as he felt nothing. He was cold and hard, and it wasn’t even living. It was just existing. That is when he met Lou. She was a Feline Shifter and so pretty and sweet. She tried to fix him, but he was too broken. He thinks somewhere deep down he had real feelings for her, but he didn’t show them, he couldn’t. She eventually got fed up with him, not that he blames her, and her parting gift was a trace of Wolves in Romania. Biggest mistake of his life. Or was it?
Yes, the cursed time was awful. Lonely and gut-wrenching and all he had time to do was think. But then there was Liv. Astralling into the forest to face her fears and she knew him. She fixed him, in every way. She made him whole again. His heart broke for her as she shed her tears as she sat on the muddy wet ground stroking him. He knew then that they were meant to be together. She told him all of her thoughts and what she had just witnessed and heard about what her sire had done. The first secrets she ever told him. He doesn’t know how she can forgive Constantine. Every time, just like that. He tells her he’s sorry and that he loves her, and she crumbles into a million pieces around him, taking him back and telling him how much she loves him and that he isn’t a monster.
Vampires: Weird. Ass. Race.
He hates how her sire manipulates her. All the tiny little things that he does, subtler than subtle, barely imperceptible, but Lincoln sees them. Constantine has his tells. No, that’s not quite right, he always has his features perfectly under control, it is her. She has her tells when it comes to him. Her sire knows exactly what to do or say to get her to respond to him. He uses the knowledge he has of her to twist her. Lincoln has no doubt that he loves her, but he does wonder about the sincerity. It seems more of an obsession, a complete fixation on her. She once accused him of only wanting her because he suddenly couldn’t after she married Cole. Constantine denied it, but he thinks it is true.
He jumps as a crash on the other side of the wall jolts him out of his errant thoughts. He turns towards it as another crash sound is heard. Devon has that room. He doesn’t even want to know. Unfortunately, his overly sensitive hearing can’t help but hear the cries of Jess yelling at Devon for being “an insensitive jerk”. He eavesdrops for a bit longer, only because he can’t help but overhear them, but then clears his throat and decides that somehow trying to switch off his hearing is better than listening to Devon roughly fucking her. Man alive. Vampires run blazing hot, but as hot as it burns, it dies within minutes. They are a bipolar bunch if he ever came across any.
His thoughts go back to Liv in that place. He is really worried about her now. He thought it was somehow the place draining her of her energy, but when Remiel said it was her trying to fight off her Dragon form, that has him
concerned. He tries to get a fix on her, but she isn’t receptive. That probably means that she is up and about and concentrating on something else. Or…well, he tries not to think about the “or.”
“Remiel,” he says softly. “Can you hear me?”
Remiel pops up in front of him and he drops his pen, startled. “Yes, young Wolf. I can hear you.”
Lincoln grimaces at him and says, “You can call me Lincoln.”