“So, you and Dominic are mates,” Justin stated and then popped his lips. “Sounds, uh, pretty cool.” Why in the hell was the man just staring at him? Justin was just a little too curious and decided to quench that curiosity. Taking a deep breath, he locked eyes with Danny, concentrating hard.
And then the layers of Danny’s mind began to unfold. He caught glimpses and snatches of memories at first, nothing he could grab onto. But then a man’s face became clear as a bell. It was Danny standing in an office, arguing about some contract and stating that the contract was between him and his father. The scene fast forwarded, and Danny was asking to use a phone to call his brother Samuel.
And then Danny was giving blood from his fingertip. But no one was using their fangs. It was almost like the glucose meter Justin used.
“Then sign the contract, Daniel. It’s for the good of your family.”
Justin pulled back, more questions than before whirling around in his mind. “You have a brother named Samuel?”
Danny gasped, leaning away from Justin as his eyes flickered over Justin’s face. “How do you know that?”
Justin shrugged, feeling guilty as hell for invading the man’s thoughts. But Justin couldn’t be blamed. He was in a house full of strangers, that were vampires, and he wasn’t sure if Dominic had really left to go call Prince Zacarius. He just flat-out didn’t trust the nutty vampires. But he had to admit, they were very hospitable, for loons.
“You read my thoughts?” Danny asked. The man didn’t sound mad. He sounded more amazed than anything. “You did, didn’t you?”
“Maybe,” Justin said as he glanced around the room. “Nice curtains.”
“Yeah, they’re lovely. Dominic had them imported from France,” Danny replied as he crawled onto the bed, making Justin pull back. “What else did you see?”
“You signed some contract and gave up a pinprick of blood.” Why did Danny looked as excited as a puppy with a new chew toy?
Oh hell, Justin prayed he wasn’t the new chew toy.
“Did you also see that I was telling you the truth about being a vampire?” Danny asked quickly. “Did you read my mind and figure out that we are brothers like I did?”
Wait, what?
“Oh, hell. I didn’t mean to blurt that out,” Danny said as he sat back and started wringing his hands together. “Sorry, you are probably already freaked out about being a vampire. I didn’t mean to add more to your plate.”
Right. Now the nutty man thinks we are related. I better play nice with the man with sharp teeth.
“Uh…sure, I saw that.” Where in the hell was his rescue team?
When the door opened, Justin looked toward it eagerly. His heart sank when Dominic walked in instead of his rescue team. He was really hoping that he was going to be sprung from vampire loony bin.
“Prince Zacarius has gotten in touch with Alpha Nash,” Dominic said. “He will be sending someone for you in the morning.”
Crap.
Justin smiled politely. “Thanks.”
“Um, Dominic,” Danny said. “I’m afraid that I kind of let it out that Justin was my brother.”
“Oh, my.”
Justin could feel Dominic’s eyes on him. He felt like squirming, but he didn’t want either of the vampires to know just how uncomfortable he was. That was kind of like waving a red flag in front of a raging bull.
“And what do you think about that, Justin?”
“Oh, well…” Good god, was he really supposed to tell these people that they were nuttier than bed bugs? Honesty was not his best option here. “I don’t remember my parents, so anything is possible, although I don’t understand how we could be related and have such different colored hair and eyes.”
“I don’t understand how we could be brothers either,” Danny said. “I know both my mother and my father, as much as I wish I didn’t. My mother would never dream of being unfaithful to my father, but I can’t say the same for him. He’d do whatever he needed to do to get what he wants. He sold my ass to Dominic.”
Justin narrowed his eyes. “He’s not friends with a man named Teacher or a man named Philip Spencer, is he?”
Danny shrugged. “I haven’t got a clue. I don’t really know any of my father’s friends.”
“Well, let me tell you,” Justin said, “you are better off not knowing them. The Teacher and Philip Spencer are the scum of the earth.”
“Who are they?” Dominic asked.
“The Teacher held me and my friends captive for twenty years. Because we have certain”—Justin swallowed past the lump in his throat, not really feeling comfortable sharing this bit of information—“abilities and the Teacher wanted to use us to gain him power and money. With the help of Joe and Nate Nash, and a few of their friends, we were finally rescued and set free.”
Dominic growled. “And Philip Spencer?”
“Philip Spencer was the owner of Spence Corp.”
“The investment firm?” Dominic asked.
“That’s the one.” Justin nodded. “He kidnapped the mother of my mate and held her captive for years, experimenting on her. He even took her son, Elliot, and raised him as his son so he could continue to experiment on him, only Elliot met his mate when he visited Wolf Creek and everything changed.”
Justin pushed his hand through his hair and wished he could forget the whole mess. People like the Teacher and Philip Spencer needed to be locked up for the good of everyone, especially anyone that they could exploit.
“We believe that the Teacher and Philip Spencer were working together to create some sort of mutant shifter super soldier thing, but so far ,we haven’t been able to prove it. But Joe suspects that—”
“Joe?” Danny asked curiously.
“Joe Nash. He’s sheriff of Wolf Creek Valley and the enforcer of the Wolf Creek Pack. He’s also the son of the alpha and the mate to
