Dakota

by Vicktor Alexander

  “C-call me Nimo.”

  As if that were the only thing that their bond had been waiting for, the blue fire in the room spun in a circle around them quicker and faster until it became one long strand, impenetrable, never-ending, and pierced the both of them, connecting them and joining them together. As soon as Dakota felt the bond join them together, his fangs tingled and he looked at Nishon—Nimo—who tilted his head to the side. Groaning, because the human would never understand what that action did for him, Dakota lowered his head and licked the spot behind Nimo’s ear, preparing it for his bite. Once it was ready, he placed a gentle kiss upon it and carefully sank his fangs deep within the skin. Nimo screamed out his name and filled the space between them with his spunk, the smell of his cum, pushing Dakota over the edge as he filled Nimo with his own spend.

  The coppery taste of Nimo’s blood filled Dakota’s mouth and he swallowed it down, the bond that joined them burning through his every cell, making him one with Nimo. He could feel the half of his soul becoming whole with the half of Nimo’s soul. Once he had taken enough blood to cement the bond completely, Dakota pulled his fangs free and licked the bite closed, placing a soft kiss there. The blue fire that joined him and Nimo dissipated then faded completely and Dakota stumbled to the bed. He collapsed onto his back, still buried deep within Nimo’s hole and smoothed his hand over the curve of his mate’s ass.

  “That was amazing,” Nimo said breathlessly.

  “Yeah it was,” Dakota agreed.

  “So now what?” Nimo asked, playing with the hairs on Dakota’s chest. Dakota grinned and kissed Nimo’s forehead.

  “Now, we get up, get dressed, and I introduce you to my family and then I treat everyone out to lunch. But later? Well, my gorgeous mate, I think it’s time that I date you.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  While Dakota’s intentions had been good, he hadn’t been dressed appropriately to treat anyone anywhere, so he shared a deeply passionate kiss with Nimo that had been greeted with hearty back slaps by his brothers, a pleased smile from his father, confused expressions and blushes by Nimo’s friends and happy clapping from Zay. How could he explain to Nimo’s friends that he had to kiss Nimo because he was leaving and they would be apart from each other? Beyond that, they were newly mated, the urge to be together would ride him them both hard and long. He said none of that however, he merely smiled at them and nodded. Before Dakota had left he’d made sure to let Zay know that he was officially his daddy now too and when Zay had looked to Nimo for confirmation, Dakota’s heart had soared when the other man had only hesitated for a second before nodding. It had made Dakota want to get up, take his mate into his arms and carry him back into the bedroom and ravish him all over again. It was only the sound of Zay’s stomach growling that stopped him from doing so. With a promise to return shortly, Dakota and his family left and returned to his house.

  He wasn’t sure why he wasn’t surprised to see his mother’s car in his driveway when they pulled up, but he wasn’t. He also wasn’t surprised to walk into his home and find her wearing an apron, cleaning, while the smell of pârjoale, ghiveci cu peşte, and ciorbă de praz wafted from his kitchen. Dakota’s stomach rumbled and he knew that he’d be inviting Nimo and his friends over to his house for lunch.

  “Dakotavitch!” Adelina exclaimed as she walked in from what he could only guess was his guest room based on the direction she came from, since he doubted she was in his library or his office. “Your home is filthy. Do you ever clean it?”

  Dakota laughed and lifted his mother into his arms. “Why should I, Mamă, when you are just going to come over and do it for me?” he teased as he placed a kiss on her cheek. She slapped his shoulder and smiled up at him.

  Where Decebal was tall and broad, Adelina was tall and statuesque, with raven black hair that fell to her knees in tiny curls. She had big, bright blue eyes that none of her children inherited from her, and a sunny smile that she said she passed on to them all. She was the sunshine in all of their lives and while Decebal taught them all to be warriors, tough vampires, Adelina made sure to teach them how to navigate in a world dominated by humans. She was a sweet, gentle soul that was fierce only when it came to her family and then she could be vicious.

  “I can smell that you and your sufletul pereche have worked things out,” she said with a happy smile as she reached up to smooth back his hair. “This makes me very happy, soarele meu, my son.”

  “Thank you, Mamă,” Dakota said with a smile. “We were going to treat them out to lunch, but you have cooked.”

  Adelina clapped her hands. “Yes, you must invite your man here. And nepotul meu, my grandson, as well.”

  Dakota nodded and walked away towards his bedroom. He stepped into his bedroom and stopped when he saw Arizona sitting on his bed.

  “So you did it,” Arizona said softly.

  “Yes,” Dakota stated.

  Arizona nodded and glanced away for a moment before looking back over at Dakota. “I have nothing against the child, Dak, please understand me. It’s just that—he’s a forziq and I have had a bad experience with them.”

  Dakota nodded. “Tată told us.” He sighed and sat down on the bed next to Arizona. “Isaiah is not the one who hurt you though, Zona. He’s only three and a child. If we teach him how to use his gifts properly then he will know not to misuse them. He will know not to hurt anyone with them. You cannot kill my child because of the sins of someone else. That makes you no better than the one who hurt you.”

  Arizona stiffened for a moment and then relaxed as he agreed. “You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry and now that he is family I know that I must protect him with my life, and I will. I swear it, Dak.”

  Dakota breathed a sigh of relief. “That makes me happy, Zona, because I would have hated to be at war with you.”

  “I feel the same way,” Arizona agreed. Dakota stared at his oldest brother and they smiled at each other before hugging.

  “Now get out of here, I need to change and call my mate to invite him over for lunch. Mamă decided to cook, so I am going to bring him over to meet the family.”

  Arizona chuckled. “I feel sorry for him to meet all of us at once. You might want to tell him to invite his friends as well, it might make him feel better.”

  Dakota grinned. “You are a genius, big brother.”

  Arizona shrugged. “I have my moments.”

  Dakota nodded. “They are few, but they exist.”

  Arizona punched Dakota in the shoulder causing Dakota to wince before he stood to his feet and walked out of the room. Dakota grinned and went over to his nightstand to pick up his cell phone. He scrolled through and found Mate and called Nimo. Tennessee had gotten Nimo’s phone number the same time as he’d gotten the man’s address and had programmed it into Dakota’s phone minutes before they’d hefted him up into their arms to take him over to the other man’s house.

  “H-hello?” Nimo’s voice sounded hesitant.

  “Hi,” Dakota responded immediately, his cock thickening at the sound of his mate’s voice.

  “Dakota? How’d you get my number? I was just thinking that I should have given it to you,” Nimo said.

  Dakota chuckled. “The same way that I got your address,” he said.

  Nimo laughed. “I’m starting to think that you and your brothers working at the hospital might not be a good idea.”

  Dakota snorted. “These are very unique circumstances.” He shook his head. “I just realized that I called you when I could have used our mate bond to talk to you.”

  “No!” Nimo practically yelled.

  Dakota’s eyebrows rose at Nimo’s exclamation. What was that about?

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It’s not that I don’t think that it’s awesome or whatever, because I do, I’m just not all that used to it, and if you would have done it without being in the same room with me it would have freaked me out too much. This way is much better,” Nimo said. “Just until I get used to the whole va
mpire-mate thing.”

  Dakota nodded. “Got it. So, my mom and sisters are here and my mom cooked. Like a lot of food. She wants to meet you.”

  “Y-your mom wants to meet me?”

  “Yes, baby. You’re my mate and her son now as well. She wants to meet you and her grandson as well. And did I mention that she cooked? So why don’t you and Isaiah come on over for lunch?”

  “Um…”

  Remembering Arizona’s words and hearing the hesitation in Nimo’s voice, Dakota knew his mate needed to have some people there that he knew besides Dakota, especially since he didn’t really know Dakota all that well. “And you can bring your friends as well, you know, your family.”

  “Really?” Nimo asked incredulously.

  “Really,” Dakota said, nodding even though Nimo couldn’t see him. “This is a get-to-know-you party. Family reunion type of thing. And since your friends are your family, then they should all be here as well.”

  Nimo sighed. “Thank you, Dakota.”

  “It’s no problem. It’s my pleasure.”

  “I’ll get my friends and meet you at your place in half an hour?”

  “That will be great,” Dakota said with a smile. He gave Nimo his address and they hung up. Whistling, Dakota tossed his phone onto his bed and headed towards his bathroom to shower. He looked at his crumbled wall and grimaced. He would have to ask his brothers to see if they could come over and help him fix it one day that weekend. Maybe this was his chance to remodel his bedroom and bathroom. He’d been wanting to do it for so long, now he had a reason to. Nimo and Isaiah would be moving in with him and…

  Dakota froze as he stepped into the bathroom. He was making a lot of assumptions. He had no idea if Nimo and Isaiah would be moving in with him. They had a pretty nice house out where they lived and if he was being completely honest, it was nicer than his own home. Bigger yard too. He hadn’t seen the bathroom so he wasn’t sure if it was as nice as his own, so he couldn’t use that as an excuse to get the two of them to move in with him. Why did he automatically assume they would be moving in with him?

  Because that was the way things worked with the stronger, more dominant one in a relationship, they were the provider.

  His mind provided the answer and Dakota instantly felt guilty. That way of thinking had definitely not come from his parents. His father had been the one to work outside of the home, yes, but his mother had worked very hard within the home, and his father had made sure that they’d all known that her work inside the home—cooking, cleaning, taking care of all of them—was just as important, if not more important, than his job, because she often went without any type of acknowledgement of any kind whereas he got a paycheck. Dakota felt chastised even though he had not spoken his thoughts out loud and wanted to apologize to Nimo as soon as he saw the other man. Knowing that he would only confuse his mate if he did such a thing, Dakota shook his head and reached in, turning on the water and stepping in. He determined in that moment he would simply ask Nimo where he wanted to live and he would make sure he let the other man know he would be okay with wherever he chose, hell, for all he knew, Nimo could be making more money as a professor than Dakota did as the Chief of Surgery. Besides, he was getting ahead of himself, he’d just told Nimo that he wanted to start dating him and already he’d jumped to them living together. He had to slow down. First, they had to get through lunch with their families and if they survived that, then they would have their first date and then later, much later, they would move in together.

  And it would be wherever Nimo wanted them to live. No matter what Dakota’s pride had to say.

  § § §

  Nimo held Zay in his arms outside of Dakota’s home, as the words he’d inadvertently had racing through his head projected there from Dakota still rolled around in his head. He wasn’t sure that Dakota had meant for Nimo to hear his thoughts about the two of them moving in together or his epiphany about feeling that as the more dominant of the two of them it was his job to provide the house, but Nimo had heard it all.

  Initially he’d been livid and had almost called Dakota and told him to forget the entire lunch get-together with their “families,” but then Dakota had realized his mistake almost instantly and had worked it all out, even realizing he was jumping the gun worrying about the them moving in together when they hadn’t even been on their first date yet, so Nimo had calmed down. He’d calmed down so much that when the rest of his friends had all shown up at his home, he’d walked into his living room with a wide grin on his face. While the whole “mindspeak” thing still kind of freaked him the fuck out, especially seeing as how Dakota hadn’t meant to send his thoughts to Nimo but he’d done it anyway and that was something Nimo just didn’t want to happen, he also thought it was pretty awesome. He would be able to tell if Dakota was lying to him, he would know if Dakota was cheating on him, although according to Jersey, Dakota would never be able to do that. It was amazing.

  Not everyone had been able to come, but those who had been able to had shown up dressed in their best, which, for a group of nerds, geeks, dweebs, a chef and a fashion designer, meant a lot. His best friend, Lucas, the chef—who had apparently already met his mate? Dakota’s brother Michigan?— stood next to the door anxiously awaiting them all, his brown hair pulled into a ponytail, wearing his signature leather jacket, a leather wristband, a pair of jeans and a red polo shirt. His green eyes shone with anticipation. He stood at five foot ten inches tall but carried himself like he was six foot four most times. Lucas was obsessed with Torchwood and leather and devoted himself to cooking to the point that it had come between him and his previous boyfriends. More than once that Nimo had gone to Lucas’s restaurant, O8, just to make him leave because the man stayed there trying to perfect some recipe because some customer had complained about a dish.

  Dietrick—whose mate was Carolina?— was a fashion designer, and it showed, he was wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a plaid blue and pink button down shirt, with a scarf with blue, pink and black swirls all over it wrapped around his neck. He sat in one of the armchairs, thumbing through a magazine. His blue hair was swept across his forehead and made his dark blue eyes appear even more mysterious, especially lined with the black eyeliner as they were. His fingernails were painted blue with pink polka dots on them and he wore blue and pink checkered tennis shoes on his feet. Nimo had always been jealous of Dietrick’s fashion sense, but though Dietrick was beautiful, he was also extremely self-conscious and had low self-esteem. It made him clingy and emotional and he’d been dumped more than once by a boyfriend because of it. No matter how beautiful he was, it seemed his boyfriends couldn’t get past that. Nimo hoped Carolina would be able to deal with that.

  Tracy was there as well, whom Zay had already told Nimo smelled like one of Dakota’s brothers, and he had brought his two sisters, Kerry and Olivia, that he was raising. He was sitting with them on the couch. Tracy was a professor at the university with Nimo and taught Gender Studies, which was right up his alley since he was gender-fluid. Tracy was all ambiguous beauty at six foot two. With his black hair streaked with blond, skin the color of warm honey, eyes the color milk chocolate when the light hit just right, and his long, slim limbs, Tracy had been told more than once he was “the most beautiful black man” and “the most beautiful black woman” most people had ever seen before. Nimo always agreed with them. Few people knew that when Tracy’s parents had died when Kerry had been one, who was now four, he’d done some modeling in order to help pay the bills. Now he focused on being a professor and being a father, Nimo couldn’t wait to see what happened when he met up with his fated mate. Tracy was wearing a pair of white jeans, a NO H8 T-shirt that was tied up on one side, with a white jean jacket on over it, and his hair, that usually fell in generous waves to below his shoulders, pulled back into a ponytail.

  And finally Ewan, another member of their ragtag bunch, sat in a chair waiting for Nimo to appear, ready to go. He was a professor of Literature at the university with
Nimo and Tracy, Nimo thought he was the cutest of them all. He had an adorable face that always made Nimo want to pinch his cheeks and well… feed him, even though he couldn’t cook for shit. Ewan stood at only five foot seven, and his green eyes shone in his round face with his gorgeous blond hair surrounding his face. Though he was a little overweight, he wore it well, like he did in that moment, wearing a pair of loose gray slacks, a pink button down shirt and a gray jacket over that. Ewan always had an easy smile on his face and he was always scribbling in a notebook or writing furiously on his Mac, oftentimes losing himself in whatever it was. Nimo often asked him what he was doing but Ewan just shrugged him off and said it was nothing, before popping one of his infamous chocolates in his mouth, because he was never without some kind of chocolate.

  “So, are you guys ready?” Nimo had asked, holding onto Zay’s hand. The both of them had been wearing jeans and red button down shirts with jean jackets and red plaid “poor-boy” hats on their heads.

  “Oh my gosh, you guys are adorable!” Tracy exclaimed. “I want a picture.”