Blooded Mate

Chapter 123 - Date Night Schemes

"Hey! Is that Chris? With a girl in his car?" Cody exclaimed, leaning out the window to stare at the passing vehicle. The front wheels of their car swerved dangerously close to the curb in his distraction.

"Eyes on the road!" Ethan smacked him on the head with a swipe that would have made Rook proud.

"Ow!" his brother winced, rubbing his sore skull while he settled back in the driver's seat. "That was Chris. With a girl! Looks like a redhead. The old man has game, after all. Can you believe it?"

"Really? Maybe they got someone new on their team," Eri suggested, twisting around for a look in the backseat of Ethan's new truck. It was the latest model of the Chevy pickup he had driven in high school.

Cody frowned, not convinced. "I didn't see anyone new when I visited Indri yesterday."

"You clearly can't see well enough to drive! We nearly ended up in a ditch back there. I knew I shouldn't have given you the keys," Ethan griped, already regretting his decision.

"I haven't seen a redhead among Chris' staff either. I would've remembered," Damien murmured from the seat behind Ethan. He was still staring at the retreating SUV through the rear window.

Ethan rolled his eyes. His adopted brother had grown into a handsome youth, and when it came to women, he was worse than Brent was at this age. The alpha had lost track of who his latest girlfriend was. Being the captain of the basketball team did not help the situation either. "How would you know? It's not like you're part of his staff."

"Oh, Chris has been teaching him to shoot lately. So he spends a lot of time with them," Cody remarked casually.

"What?" Ethan rounded on the dark boy in the back seat.

Damien raised his hands in defense, palms out. "Hey, hey, hey! Zyga said being a human was no excuse not to learn how to defend myself!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean for you to go play with guns! They're dangerous!" Ethan knew. He had locked up his father's shotgun and buried it behind the house after Jeb's funeral.

"Chris is experienced, though." Unrepentant, his brother flashed him that lopsided sly grin he used whenever he won an argument. Damien knew everyone in the Reyn household, and Zyga's had a soft spot for him. And the manipulative little imp had learned to play the adults against each other to get what he wanted.

Cody was no better.

Gritting his teeth, the alpha settled back in his chair, grumbling, "Zyga and Mom pamper you both too much. One is going to get himself shot in the foot, and the other is trying to run us into a ditch. I should take the keys and lock you two up until you learn some damn sense!"

He ignored the satisfied little chuckle from the backseat as they emerged in the driveway of the vampire quarters behind the main house.

Cody slammed on the brakes, barely missing the front stoop as he brought the car to a screeching stop. Scowling, he rounded on his brother and skewered him with the same hazel glare Ethan had often used on him. "Don't do it, Ethan. You promised! You said if I passed the hunt tonight, you'd let me have the truck for the night. You can't take back your word now, Alpha."

Ethan knew exactly what he had said. In hindsight, giving a brand new truck to a sixteen-year-old with a newly stamped driver's license was a bad idea. In his defense, he had taken a leaf out of Brent's book. He had bribed his brother to give him something to look forward to so he could fight and overcome his insecurities for the training quest.

It had worked.

It had worked too well.

Now, Cody had gained too much confidence and was ready to conquer the world with the alpha's turbo-engine truck.