“Our job is to keep you safe!” Wyatt shouted. He took a couple of aggressive steps toward Bel, but the vampire didn’t give an inch. “We brought danger and threats into your life. We’ve torn apart your family. We have to leave!”
“You didn’t do a damn thing to my family. We fight. We argue. And we make up. That’s what family does.”
“But…that night…”
“At Marcus’s? Do you think we’ve been torn apart over one argument?” Bel made a scoffing noise in his throat and threw up his hands. “The Variks are not made of such weak stuff. Yes, we didn’t agree on one matter, and I was hurt, but my brothers would never abandon me. Never.” Bel dropped his arms to his sides and sighed. “One of my brothers, Marcus, tried to be a martyr once. He thought he would become a vampire alone. He used this weak excuse that he would go first and maybe we would change over in five years, but we saw right through him. He thought he’d sacrifice his life to watching over our mother so that we could have normal lives. We called him out on it. Outvoted him. There are no martyrs in family. We stick together. Protect each other.”
“We don’t want you hurt because of us,” River murmured.
“And I thought we were family.” Bel countered. “You call me ‘our Bel.’ Doesn’t that make you mine?” His voice broke on the last word, shattering River’s heart. “I want us to be family. Want you to trust me.”
“We do trust you,” Wyatt quickly said.
“We are family,” River added.
“Then it’s time to start acting like it.” Bel held out his hands and waved his fingers at them. “Hand over the backpacks. Now.”
River looked over at Wyatt to find the same confused expression on his face as his own. He shrugged, and they both removed their bags. They handed them over, and Bel marched to the doorway of the laboratory. He tossed the bags inside and turned to them both with his hands extended again.
“Wallets.”
“Seriously?” River asked, but he still handed over his wallet, along with Wyatt.
Bel tossed the wallets into the laboratory and slid up a hidden panel beside the door. He placed his hand to the plate while glaring at both wolves. A metal door slammed down followed by a loud thunk from a lock sliding into place.
“Holy shit!” River said, nearly jumping out of his skin.
“There.” Bel turned and crossed his arms over his chest again, looking supremely triumphant. “You get that stuff back when you prove to me that you’re responsible enough to deserve them. For now, you’re both my prisoners.”
River had never been so happy to be a fucking prisoner in his entire life. Unfortunately, Wyatt wasn’t ready to toss in the towel.
“How are we supposed to keep you safe?”
“By working with me. I’ve got plans. You didn’t even take the time to ask my thoughts. Yes, leaving is one of my plans, but if it comes to that, we’re leaving together.”
Wyatt appeared to deflate before their eyes. “You’d leave with us? Leave your family?”
“I don’t think it would come to that, but yes, if it was the only viable option. It’s not as if I’d never see them again.” Bel shook his head and smirked, giving the first sign that his anger was ebbing. “This is not the first bit of trouble the Variks have found themselves in, and it certainly won’t be the last.”
Wyatt was silent for a second, and River wanted to kick him. They’d been outsmarted by the sexy scientist. It was time to give in gracefully and beg for forgiveness. Time to hear his plans.
God, they were both such idiots.
River wanted to beat his head against the wall and shout in celebration. They still had their Bel. Yes, there was lots of danger, but they were going to face it together. For too long, he and Wyatt had been facing things alone, looking out only for each other. They weren’t used to having a third, who came with a big family. A family who actually looked out for their own.
Wyatt took a step closer to Bel, his head down. “Prisoners, huh?”
“Yes,” Bel said firmly.
“Are the prisoners allowed conjugal visits?”
A bark of laughter erupted from River, and it looked like Bel was fighting his smile hard, but it was a losing battle.
Bel pointed a finger at him when he finally got his lips under control. “Sex is not going to fix this.”
“No, but it’s a good way to apologize.”
Before Bel could speak, Wyatt squatted enough to grab Bel behind the thighs and hoist him up. Bel squawked but wrapped his legs around Wyatt’s waist and grabbed his shoulders, holding tightly to him as Wyatt proceeded to carry him up the stairs.
River chuckled, following close on his heels. He stripped his shirt off and tossed it to the floor as he crossed the room. His shoes were off as he reached the bed.
Wyatt dropped Bel onto the twisted sheets still warm from their bodies, but Bel immediately climbed to his knees.
“I’m serious. We’re not going to have sex and just forget about this.”
River crawled across the bed, his jeans still hanging on to his hips, and grabbed one of Bel’s extended hands. He pressed a kiss to the rapidly beating pulse just below the surface and drew in a deep breath. Bel’s wonderful scent filled his lungs.
“I’m sorry. So sorry we hurt you. We never wanted to leave you. It’s…the idea of you dying because of us is so much worse than never seeing you again.”
Bel pulled him in, wrapping him up in a tight embrace. Bel’s heart pounded against River’s chest. “I know. I know you want to protect me. And I want to protect you. I can’t do that if you run away from me.”
The bed shifted and Wyatt’s strong arms closed around both of them. River sighed as his world fell into place. This was where he belonged, in the arms of both Wyatt and Bel. He was incomplete now without them.
“I can’t lose you, Bel,” Wyatt said in a rough voice.
River blinked away tears at the broken quality to Wyatt’s words. His big, strong wolf tended to keep his emotions bottled up to protect River, to keep him from losing hope when things looked so dark. But River knew how close he was to falling apart, because he felt the same way.
Bel released them and pulled back so he could place a hand to their cheeks. “You’re not. You’ve both given up and lost so much in your lives. I won’t allow it to continue if I can help it. Having you come into my life has been a gift. The best gift I have ever received, and I am never giving that up.”
Wyatt turned his face and pressed a kiss to Bel’s palm. “I’m sorry we lost hope and didn’t talk to you first. We are never going to leave again.”
“You said something about having plans?” River prompted.
It was like all the energy drained out of Bel. He dropped his arms to his sides with a heavy flop and sighed. It wasn’t surprising. The sun was high in the sky, and the vampire had gotten way too little sleep.
River pulled at the blankets while Wyatt worked on getting Bel stretched out in the middle of the bed. Once they were all undressed against and cuddled together, Bel released a deep, satisfied sigh.
“Plans. So many plans. I might be the mad scientist, but I have learned a few things from my wicked twin. I know how to plan and scheme,” Bel said in a sleepy voice. “Brothers are coming over tonight. Winter has news.”