The vampire shook his head and stared up at the shadowy outline of the ceiling. Running their conversation over in his head, he wasn’t sure exactly what the hell Hayden had thought he’d been doing.

Stafford sighed quietly to himself and tried to find a comfortable position on the bed. Really, it only went to prove what he had always expected, werewolves were just weird.

“We’re ordering breakfast.”

Stafford blinked his eyes open. His first thought on hearing Hayden’s voice was to pull away from the hand resting on his cheek. God only knew what the damn pup was up to now-or what he intended to lap up for breakfast.

He stopped himself from brushing the hand away just in time, realising it was Jasmine’s and not the wolf’s. He smiled up at her. “Good morning.”

She offered him a shy smile as she took her hand away. “Good morning, sir.”

She looked behind her, to where Hayden was sitting on the bed, reading from the hotel menu.

“I didn’t know werewolves could read,” Stafford observed as he sat up.

“And I didn’t know vampires could sleep so damn long. I thought you’d never wake up,” Hayden shot back at him.

Stafford looked, blurry eyed, at his watch. “It’s seven am.”

“He’s been awake since dawn, sir,” Jasmine told him, with something like amused affection in her voice.

Stafford rolled his eyes. “Bloody dogs.”

“Do you eat real food?” Hayden asked him.

“Yes,” Stafford told him. “Real food, not kibble.”

“Kibble?”

“It’s a food people feed pet dogs, sir,” Jasmine explained when Stafford didn’t bother.

Hayden shook his head. “No kibble,” he said. “Steak. And chicken. And bacon.”

“I hope for your sake you’re not a vegetarian,” Stafford muttered under his breath.

Jasmine smiled at him and shook her head.

“What do you want?” Hayden asked her.

“I’ll eat whatever you choose to give me, sir.”

Hayden frowned. “We don’t know what you like to eat.”

Stafford took the menu from the wolf and glanced down the various options. “What do you usually eat for breakfast?” he rephrased, wondering if that would get them a real answer.

“Whatever my master chooses to give me, sir.”

Stafford glanced at her. “Have you been told not to give us any information?”

“The council think it is for the best if you two make the decisions as you both see fit, sir,” she offered.

“And you get caught in the middle?” Stafford asked.

She smiled. “And I submit to whatever my masters desire, sir.”

There was something about her tone of voice which made him wonder if she was just following the council’s orders or if rules like that were part of her whole life. Either way, it would have to change once she was properly under his protection. A submissive was one thing, he had no interest in owning a slave.

“May I go and freshen up before breakfast, sir?” she asked, glancing toward the en suite.

Stafford nodded. “Of course, you don’t need anyone’s permission to go to the bathroom.”

He pushed down his annoyance as she looked to Hayden to confirm his order.

The werewolf nodded. “You don’t need my permission either,” he agreed, frowning his lack of understanding.

Jasmine nodded and offered a small smile to each of them before she left the room. She looked happier today than she had when they first met her, there was a lightness in her manner which made him sure she didn’t regret anything any of them had done the night before.

When the door closed behind her, Hayden looked across to him. “What do humans normally eat?” he asked.

“I don’t normally eat with humans,” Stafford said. Humans were for blood and sex, not socialising, but somehow, the statement he would have said without hesitation at any other time, stuck in his throat while thoughts of Jasmine were still fresh in his mind. Not willing to confess complete ignorance, Stafford looked at the menu and guessed. “It’s a human hotel. She probably eats something from the breakfast menu.”

Hayden took the menu back from him and looked it over. “We’ll get one of everything then.”

Stafford nodded.

He looked across at Hayden.

Hayden looked back.

One of them obviously had to say something.

Stafford cleared his throat. “Last night, the part of last night before we went to sleep,” Stafford stressed. “Didn’t go as badly as I thought it would.”

As peace offerings went, it was at least something, and at that time in the morning Stafford was actually quite proud of himself for managing that much of a token step towards not hating the other man outright.

Hayden nodded. “I like her.”

Stafford studied him very carefully, wondering what the wolf was plotting now. “So do I,” he informed him.

Hayden put the menu to one side. “You are to be the alpha of your pack, aren’t you?” he asked.

“The head of my clan,” Stafford corrected with a nod.

Hayden considered the matter further. “And there is only ever one head.”

“Yes.”

“There is only ever one alpha pair in our packs too,” Hayden informed him. “An alpha male and an alpha female.”

“Vampires aren’t good at sharing power, even with their lovers. There is one head of the clan.”

“So who do you mate with?”

“Submissives,” Stafford said. “Humans usually.”

“Omegas?”

Stafford half smiled. “To the head of a vampire clan, everyone who isn’t him is a considered a submissive.”

Hayden frowned. “No pack?”

“We aren’t pack animals.”

“You should have a pack,” Hayden told him firmly. “Packs are good. I’m going to have a pack.”

“You don’t have one now?”

Hayden shrugged. “I have my parents’ pack, but I’m going to have one of my own soon. First, I must find an appropriate alpha female.”

Stafford raised an eyebrow at him, suddenly realising where this conversation was going. “Oh?”

“Jas would make a good alpha female,” Hayden said.

“You’re not good enough at subtlety to make this sort of conversation to work-you’d best stick to simpler forms of communication,” Stafford said.

Hayden didn’t seem to perceive the intended insult. He nodded. “You would make a good beta,” he said simply.

“No, I wouldn’t. However, you might make a competent submissive-with a lot of training.”

The wolf’s eyes narrowed. He shook his head as his hackles rose. “Alphas do not submit to betas.”

“I guess you’re not really an alpha then,” Stafford said with a dismissive shrug as he reached for the phone. “I’ll order breakfast.”

Hayden reached for the phone receiver at the same time. His hand landed on top of Stafford ’s. “I am the alpha-I will provide for the pack.”

Stafford ’s grip tightened on the phone.

The bathroom door opened. Jasmine stepped back into the room. Hayden didn’t break eye contact, he didn’t look down. Stafford tracked Jasmine’s progress across the room out of the corner of his field of vision, but he would be damned before he looked away first.

Jasmine glanced back and forth between the two young men. They obviously weren’t at the point where they could be left safely on their own yet.

She walked slowly across to the bottom of the bed and knelt down well within both their fields of vision. Neither of them looked away from the other man, but she could feel the subtle change in the atmosphere as part of their attention transferred to her.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to speak without first looking to one or both the men for permission. “How may I serve you sir?” she asked softly.

Both men turned their complete attention towards her at exactly the same time.

Hayden inhaled deeply, taking her scent from the air. “You smell different,” he observed.

Jasmine stood up. Stepping forward, she knelt on the bed between them. She offered her hand to the wolf, letting him sniff at the skin inside her wrist and learn the scent of the shower gel she’d used.