He’d only walked about a block and was almost to the bus stop when he heard a noise behind him and turned quickly to see two men coming up fast out of a dark alley. That was the last clear memory he had for a very long time.

Nicky let the voices flow over him without really paying much attention to what they were saying. Drifting in a lovely haze was easier. He couldn’t seem to get his eyes open enough to see who it was anyway. He’d just lie here where it was warm and soft and not think about anything. The voices were becoming annoyingly clear though. Despite himself, he listened to what they had to say.

“What’s wrong? Why is this pet unconscious?”

“Nicky’s just—just resting, I think, and been awake for some time now. It’ll be all right. The pet’s only been turned for a short while, you know. They always go in heat right away.”

In heat? Were they talking about him? Wasn’t that something dogs did? Bitch dogs? What the fuck?

“Hmmm...pretty little thing. Beautiful long eyelashes. Her blonde hair would be nice, but it’s cut too short. She’s awfully flat chested too.”

There was a short laugh from the other voice, and a sudden blast of cold air as the blanket was pulled back. “That’s because ‘she’ is a he! This is Marco’s new pet.”

A quick intake of breath followed. “Marco! You turned Marco’s new pet? There’ll be hell to pay over this.”

The voice sounded young and a little frightened by the mention of this Marco. “I know, but what could I do? By the time I saw what happened, he was already cut bad. His pulse was so slow I thought he was dying! I had to do something quick, and I did the only thing I knew to do to save his life—I turned him. Anyway, he’s only the least little bit in heat for me. I never fed him, and the two of them are blood mates. Once he mates with Marco and then feeds from him, it’ll overpower my bite completely.”

“You’d better hope it does,” the other voice said quietly.

Nicky went right back to wondering what the hell they were talking about again. Who was going to “mate” with Marco? Marco was a guy, right? Nicky sincerely hoped they weren’t talking about him, because he definitely was not gay. He totally had no interest in “mating” with any guy. And did someone just mistake him for a girl? He knew he’d let his hair get a little long, and maybe he had a bit of a baby face, but a girl? Nicky hated the idea someone would think he looked feminine. He once tried to grow a beard to make his young face look older than twenty. He shaved it off when Steven took him aside and apologetically told him the look wasn’t working for him. The hair on his chin was so sparse it looked like blond pubic hair.

One of the voices spoke again, sounding excited. “Marco’s here. He just arrived.”

Nicky tried to get his eyes open to see who this Marco was. He opened one eyelid a little to discover he lay on a table of some kind, wrapped in a soft, furry blanket. Several big, burly men he didn’t recognize stood around him, falling back when cold breeze swept through the room. Some of the men standing closest to him stepped to the side to let a newcomer move up next him

Nicky peeked up through his lashes to get a look at the newcomer and gasped aloud when he saw him. Heads of some of the men pivoted toward Nicky in surprise. He had no interest in them. All of his focus, his entire center of being honed in to the man standing beside him as if he’d been waiting for this one person all his life and just hadn’t known it until he saw him. All the light in the universe convened and decided to shine and sparkle on this one man. Who could he be? And why in the hell was he so attracted to a man?

Tall and muscular, Marco reminded Nicky of those muscle men he’d sometimes seen on TV. He was absolutely gorgeous, which was shocking, because Nicky had never thought of a man before in those terms. His dark hair was cut very short, and his dark brown eyes were fringed with thick, black lashes. Nicky had never been so drawn to anyone before in his entire life. He heard himself whimpering deep in his throat as he wanted—no, make that craved—the man’s hands on him. His mind felt separate from his body, watching horrified at what his body did. Totally unable to stop himself, his arms reached out to the man, like a child begging to be picked up by his daddy.

Marco gazed down at him and reached out to put a hand to his cheek. He pushed his arms down and patted his shoulder, leaned over and whispered in his ear. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart? Apparently some kind of grievous error had been made. Horrified by his actions, but absolutely unable to control himself, Nicky rubbed his cheek against the hand like a damned puppy, trying to get his nose right up inside his palm so he could sniff him. My God, had he lost his mind? What had they done to him?

Marco stood very still, allowing Nicky to nuzzle his hand and stared down at him. Raising his head angrily, he rasped out a few words to the other men. “Who did this to him?”

An interesting question and one Nicky would like to know the answer to himself. A voice beside him spoke up. Nicky was astonished to see it belonged to his stalker, the cute young man from the restaurant.

Standing by Nicky’s head, he spoke up right away. “I did, Marco. I’m really sorry, but I had to turn him, or he would’ve died. It wasn’t a mating bite, and I didn’t bite him too hard—really. You can see he’s in heat only for you, not me.”

Marco growled down deep in his throat. Growled? Who were these people? Frightened, Nicky whimpered a little louder, and Marco bent down to whisper in his ear. “Hold onto me, sweetheart. Don’t be frightened. You’re in heat—I’ll take care of you soon, baby.”

In heat? There were those words again, but they couldn’t be talking about him, could they? His body managed to inch even closer to Marco and tried to rest his head against his chest. Marco’s shirt was open, showing off his spectacularly sculpted abs. Incredibly Nicky turned his head and licked them, starting low on Marco’s abs and going all the way up to the space between his nipples. He half expected the man to knock him away. Instead he absentmindedly patted Nicky’s head, putting his fingers into his hair and rubbing his scalp.

Marco made the growling sound again. “How could you have allowed this to happen in the first place?”

The boy’s voice sounded miserable. “I’m really sorry. I was watching him like you told me. He was going home from work at the restaurant, and these two guys jumped out of nowhere. They held a box cutter on him. I headed over as fast as I could, but he acted before I could get there. I couldn’t believe my eyes when he actually fought them. They were both big dudes. He never stood a chance.”