Catlin's Appaloosa(16)
Gently, he brought the kiss to an end, holding Gallo steady when he tried to follow his lips. Catlin waited for those gorgeous blue eyes he was quickly falling in love with to blink slowly open at him.“There you are, baby,” he whispered.
Gallo whimpered, and Catlin’s cock jerked at the sexy sound. Gallo snuggled against his chest.“I want to claim you,” he whispered, “but I don’t think I can…can…”
“Hush. It’ll be okay,” he assured.“We’ll think of something.”
“You could always drink his blood,” Payson said with a snort.
Catlin frowned.“Would that work?” He didn’t like the idea, but he’d do it if it meant keeping himself around to protect Gallo.
Eli exchanged a quick glance with Kontra.“Ah, I’m not really sure.”
Chapter Six
Gallo ’s heartbeat slowly settled back to a regular rate. He was so embarrassed he’d had a panic attack right in front of everyone. Catlin was so kind about it, so understanding. He wanted to stay curled up in this man’s arms forever. Which brought his thoughts back to what had caused the attack in the first place, topping his mate so he could claim him. The idea of taking charge of their sexual encounter scared the shit out of him.
He listened to everyone talk about the possibility of Catlin giving him a claiming bite instead. Due to the way the enzymes in a shifter’s saliva worked, they just couldn’t be sure if it’d work. From the tightness in Catlin’s jaw, Gallo knew the man didn’t like the idea. It didn’t surprise Gallo. Most humans found the idea of drinking blood gross.
The chirping of Catlin ’s cell phone interrupted the debate, and the detective answered his call.“Hello?”
This close, Gallo had no trouble hearing the other end of the conversation. “It’s Brock. There’s been another attack. This time the guy’s dead.”
“Shit. Same area?” Catlin responded.
“Yeah, pretty close,” Brock stated, then cleared his throat. “I got a question for you. When Gallo was first brought in, did he have any puncture marks on his neck?”
Gallo watched Catlin’s brows furrow as he replied, “Puncture marks? No. Why?”
“Because there are on this victim. Two sets of them, and the body looks desiccated,” Brock told him.
“Desiccated?” Catlin frowned. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
“If you think it means drained of fluid, then yeah, that’s what it means,” Brock replied.
“Holy fucking hell!” he growled.“The victim was drained? How is that possible?”
Gallo frowned, desperately trying to remember his own attack. He’d been eating dinner alone at a small café. When he was done, he’d walked outside to his bike to head out and find a hotel for the night.“There were two of them,” he whispered.
“Brock, I’ll call you back. Gallo’s starting to remember things.” Catlin said into the phone, although his gaze remained on Gallo.
“Good. I sure hope your guy there can shed some light on what’s going on, because this is fucking weird, Catlin.”
“Yeah.” Catlin hung up the phone.“Okay, Gallo. Talk to me, baby.”
Gallo shook his head.“There’s not much to tell. I was just rolling my bike out of the parking spot when two men grabbed me, pulled me from my bike, and dragged me into an alley. I remember pain shooting through my neck,” he whispered. He frowned, trying to remember more. He lifted his hand to his neck, tracing the vein.“One of them bit me, but he immediately jerked away and spat the blood out.”
He looked up at Catlin.“He somehow knew I was a shifter. He slammed my head into the brick wall, and I lost consciousness.” Gallo shook his head.“How could he know I’m a shifter?”
“Your blood gave you away, little bit,” Kontra’s deep voice broke into his confused thoughts.
He turned to face his alpha, taking in his grim look. “What do you mean?”
“A vampire can taste the differences in blood. A shifter’s blood tastes more bitter than a human’s, but it will give him more strength for a longer period of time,” Kontra explained.“He may have been too used to feeding off humans and didn’t like your taste, but the probability is higher that he didn’t want to take the risk of raising the ire of your pack. That means those two who attacked you are rogues, without a coven to back them.”
“Are you seriously talking about vampires?” Catlin pulled Gallo tighter against him, as if that would keep Gallo safe from future attacks.“As in creatures of the night that suck people’s blood, vampires?”