Free The Power Of The Bite by Lisa Oliver Page A

might be resistant to him having a shifter as a mate, but he would protect Zane’s back from any and all comers. Van called in Royce and Seb who came immediately, and Ewan and Foyle arrived later.  If the vampires were surprised at seeing Dax sitting at the table, no one said anything about it. Zane received congratulations from his friends as though a wolf and a vampire mating was perfectly normal, and Dax was chatting to the men as though he had known them all his life. Zane was thankful his friends had accepted Dax so readily, although Dax’s natural honesty, curiosity and sheer friendliness made that easier.
    But there was a part of Zane that was still extremely agitated. He’d spent three months making sure that Dax wouldn’t be adversely affected by their claiming. When Dax opened his mouth and confirmed his father’s suspicions, glibly saying that he was leaving the pack because his father wouldn’t accept an outsider as a mate as though it wasn’t a big deal, Zane felt guilty, proud and so fucking scared he had to bite his lip to stop himself from saying something. Standing up, he dropped a quick kiss on Dax’s head, as he made his way out of the room. He desperately needed some air.
    Zane looked around his small, but tidy back yard. He hadn’t really liked the house when he bought it, but with the pack territory restrictions in town, something he’d been warned about before he even took up his job, it was this house or spend forever sleeping in Broz’s spare room. He was the first to admit he hadn’t done much to make it homely but then he was barely ever in the place. Looking out over his plot of lawn, with the little edge gardens that were losing their bloom he wondered if he’d even be alive to see the next spring growth.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Broz. Zane wasn’t surprised. He’d had a feeling that a lot of his friend’s earlier anger had stemmed from the fact he’d been blindsided. Broz hated to be kept in the dark about anything and the two men had an open and honest friendship before Dax came along. Turning to face his friend he noticed the worry in the man’s dark eyes, the tenseness in the shoulders that can only come from having to watch over your shoulder all the time, and a caged readiness that was just waiting to be released. Broz wasn’t as tall as Zane, but his eyes were just as dark, and his short dark hair screamed military at anyone who looked at him. He exuded power that all people, paranormals and human alike, couldn’t help but respect.
    “I didn’t want to cause any trouble for anyone,” Zane said simply. “If you guys knew then you’d be after Dax to…to…I don’t know…force him to be a decent mate or something. You see things in black and white my friend, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just this whole mess was just one shade of grey after another. I knew the situation was hopeless. I wasn’t going to drag my friends into my mess too. You’ve worked hard for your business and your right to live here. I wasn’t going to say anything that might have had you all relocating again. You’ve only been here a few years.”
    “But you know we would have done it, right? You always knew we’d have your back?”
    “Yes.” Zane had known that since the day he’d met the burly vampire. There was an honesty in Broz that couldn’t be faked and if the man was your friend then you had a friend for life. “But I also knew,” he added, “that if you’d known about Dax sooner, then you would have been on his ass like white on rice, and I’d probably have come home one day to find him shackled to my bed with no sign of the keys.”
    “Yeah, I probably would have done something like that,” Broz said with a laugh, before getting serious again. “Z, look man. We’ve been friends a fucking long time. I’ve known you a lot longer than I have Van, and man, you were so supportive of us both when we got together. You were a rock when all of that shit