Ollie Morgan [Seven Brothers for McBride 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (2 page)

McBride knocked on Ollie’s door but got no response. “Ollie? It’s McBride. I have a surprise for you.” He was on the verge of opening the door when Ollie cracked it a few inches. “Good morning, sleepy.”

“Morning.” Ollie blinked warily up at McBride.

“Did you oversleep?” That wasn’t like him, but stranger things had happened.

“Yes. Sorry.” Ollie seemed utterly distracted.

“I’ve brought you a mate.” McBride scooped his arm around Easton and pulled him forward. He was expecting anything but Ollie’s reaction.

Barely had Ollie looked at Easton before he blurted, “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want a thrall.”

McBride felt Easton recoil at the cold way he’d been rejected. With two sentences, Ollie managed to pop all the bubbly right out of Easton’s personality. And then, to add insult to injury, Ollie tried to close the door in their faces. One big hand on the edge of the door stopped that from happening.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” McBride pushed on the door while he took his arm off Easton’s shoulder. He was expecting something that would explain why Ollie was rude and had pulled down all his shades, but his living room looked exactly as it had last night. Turning to Easton, who was standing in stunned shock on the porch, McBride said, “Please wait here.”

Easton nodded and turned away, but it was obvious he’d been deeply hurt by Ollie’s rejection. Who wouldn’t be? After the talk they’d had last night, McBride assumed that Ollie would be jumping up and down to get a mate. He’d certainly seemed lonely and welcomed a guest to share the elaborate meal he’d created. And then a new idea struck. McBride closed the door.

Lowering his voice, McBride assured Ollie that there was nothing wrong with him. His previous owner, a landed gentryman named Jonas Davenport, had used Ollie in inappropriate ways. Jonas had come to the
tallos
farm to become the companion of McBride’s father, and Jonas had brought the seven Morgan brothers as his slammers, but McBride had found out that Jonas had multiple quirks that made him do all kinds of terribly unacceptable things. Jonas had used Ollie for blood and sex, but Jonas had also bought a thrall for him and McBride’s father to use for the same purpose. Every time he thought of it, McBride shivered. He’d never known his father, but when he’d passed unexpectedly, McBride had inherited his holdings, including the Morgan brothers. To this day, McBride still didn’t know why Jonas didn’t take the brothers with him when he left the farm. Maybe he was trying desperately to get away from his illegal activities. As much as McBride hated to admit the truth, he could understand that. He was on the verge of doing something desperate to break his fascination with Caleb.

“I really am fine on my own.” But Ollie’s darting gaze indicated he was anything but okay.

“You’re not well enough to work, but you’re claiming that you’re fine?” McBride looked around at all the rooms he could see, which was most of the kitchen, the entire living room, and part of the hall that went back toward the bathroom and bedroom. He didn’t see anything out of order. But when his eyes adjusted and he looked more closely at Ollie, McBride realized that Ollie was stark naked. He lowered his head and placed his hands over his genitals, but that wasn’t doing much to hide his nudity. If anything, the way he was standing only drew more attention to the fact he was naked and clearly ashamed at having been caught that way.

“I want to know what’s going on.” McBride double-checked that the door was closed firmly behind him. There was only one way into and out of each of the houses. The windows opened, but the screens were hardwired into the house so that vermin couldn’t get in by chewing the wires. One bite and they’d be zapped hard enough that they wouldn’t try a second time.

“Nothing is going on. I just overslept, and now I’m trying to wake up and get out to work.” Ollie tried to look annoyed at McBride for interrupting him, but he failed miserably. If anything, Ollie looked guilty and ashamed. But of what? It wasn’t his nudity, because McBride had witnessed him masturbating many times while he drank his blood. That was far more intimate than just seeing him in the altogether.

“I’m not moving until I get an explanation.” When Ollie opened his mouth, McBride cut him off. “One that I can believe.”

Ollie’s guilty gaze darted down the hall toward his bedroom. “I don’t feel well.”

That caused McBride to take a step back. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness in the house, he realized that Ollie was extremely pale. Into McBride’s mind came an image of the bloodbath at the Larsden place. Larsden was a landed gentryman just like McBride. Over the course of several days, Larsden drank more and more from his slammers, but he couldn’t seem to be satisfied by the nourishment. In a rage, he’d ripped his slammers apart with his bare hands then ended up dead in the pools of their blood. The general consensus so far was that he’d suffered an aneurism that had finally put him out of his misery.

As the sheriff of Woven Spire County, McBride oversaw the investigation, but they still had no idea what had caused Larsden’s illness. McBride’s greatest fear was that a new blood-borne pathogen was to blame. Since a virus had caused the world to drastically alter, those who had survived lived in terror of a similar event happening again. To waylay a panic, McBride was keeping a lid on the investigation. He didn’t want anyone jumping to conclusions. Proof was what they needed, and it was what they would wait for no matter how difficult waiting was.

Ollie’s appearance prompted McBride to wonder if he’d simply drunk too much from him last night. At the time, McBride had been famished for both food and blood, and Ollie offered up both. Perhaps his hunger had made him—A chill pushed McBride to retreat another step even though there would be no running if he had indeed picked up whatever had ailed Larsden. McBride took stock of himself, trying to determine if he were hungry for blood in a normal, healthy way, or if he was becoming as insatiable as Larsden had been. He and all his officers had followed procedure when they were dealing with the blood at the crime scene, but that didn’t preclude him from catching the illness some other way. Since Larsden’s slammers were all dead, they were unable to ask them who showed signs of the illness first. The only reason they had a heads-up about Larsden’s frantic bloodlust was from the records in his mechanical house. Despite the fact he was a landed gentryman, Larsden’s mechanical house still recorded all the comings and goings. It was his crimetech, Quintus, who realized how many times the slammers had entered, but he’d also looked at the marks on their necks. Ragged, open wounds were on each neck that was found intact, which meant Larsden was drinking so much at such frequency the slammers were unable to heal.

“If you want me to get out to the field—”

“No. I want you to stay here and get better.” Reaching behind him, McBride grasped the doorknob. He turned it and moved outside, all without taking his gaze off Ollie. “Go back to bed and I’ll check on you later.”

Ollie nodded and looked about as relieved as McBride felt to be getting away from him. Even though it was too late to avoid him if he were indeed sick, McBride still wanted to be as far away from him as he could be.

Easton was standing on the porch, his head down. Even from a distance, McBride could tell that he was crying. Several large droplets had fallen on the boards of the porch, making circles of misery. His slender body trembled ever so slightly, making his pain even more clear.

“He didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” McBride considered what he should do with Easton. After that kind of reception from Ollie, he thought it best to give Easton to another brother. The next in line was Jared, but that pairing might not work. Easton was miserable now, but McBride had a feeling that he would quickly rebound, and he wasn’t so sure Easton’s bubbliness would mesh well with Jared’s stern nature. Rather than have Easton rejected twice, McBride decided the best thing to do was wait a day or possibly even two. None of the brothers would complain, not if they wanted to get thralls of their own. Since he’d started bringing mates to the farm, all the brothers were on their very best behavior.

“For not meaning to he did a very good job of hurting my feelings.” Easton wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. He did this without any shame. Crying wasn’t embarrassing for thralls, not the way it was for the landed gentry or even slammers. Since thralls were the lowest on the class scale, they had far more freedom to express their emotions without fear of repercussions.

“Come on up to the big house.” McBride moved that direction, and Easton dutifully followed. “Ollie simply doesn’t feel well.”

“Really?”

“Really. He was worried if you came in, you’d get sick.” It wasn’t quite true, but it seemed to mollify Easton, and that was good. The last thing McBride needed to deal with today was an overly emotional thrall or a sick slammer. If he could just get things settled here, he would have time to catch up with work. And eventually, he might find the time to find himself a mate of his own. That thought caused his mind to consider Caleb, and just as quickly McBride pushed the inappropriate longing away. He was going to find a way to put distance between them if it was the last thing he ever did.

“So I will stay with you until he is well?” Easton eyed the imposing structure of the big house.

“You will.” McBride had a terrible image fill his head. He saw his father and Jonas sharing a thrall for blood and sex. Hastily, he assured Easton, “I will find work for you to do here until Ollie is well enough to make a bloodbond with you.” He didn’t want Easton to think that he had any untoward ideas about the two of them. With almost irritating familiarity, his mind turned to Caleb. If he was harboring inappropriate ideas about anyone, Caleb was it. He couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him, not even for a few minutes.

“What work will I do?” Easton stepped into the foyer and looked eagerly about.

“What do you know how to do?”

“I can read.” Easton stood a little taller.

“Well, I don’t really see how that is work.”

“Oh.” Easton looked around at the elaborately furnished hallway. “I could clean, but it all looks spotless.”

“I have a mechanical butler.” McBride had shut him off and put him away, but after learning his father’s horrible secrets, McBride had decided to keep him on and working. He’d also reactivated the valet since he was useful, too. As much as he wanted to sit the two mechanical men down and grill them for more information, he hadn’t, and he wasn’t so sure it was an issue of time. Frankly, after learning what he had, McBride simply didn’t want to know any more of his father’s dreadful secrets.

“I can cook.”

That caused a smile to transform McBride’s features. Now he knew Easton and Ollie would get along splendidly since they both liked to cook. Finding commonality was the first step in forging a strong bond.

McBride closed the door behind him and looked out through the square of window glass in the ornate door. His gaze tried to go to the field where he knew Caleb was, but he deliberately forced his attention to go toward Ollie’s house. All the drawn shades reminded him of how the big house had looked when he’d first come here after his father’s untimely death. Drawn shades made him think of death, and that was a terrifying thought.

“He’s gone. You can come out.” Ollie turned away from the front door as soon as he saw McBride go into the big house with the thrall. As cute as the slave was, Ollie had no interest in him. His love had returned, which made him ecstatically happy, but the thought that he wouldn’t get to keep him for long almost broke his heart. Too soon McBride would realize something was wrong. Since he wasn’t a fool, he was bound to discover what Ollie was so desperate to hide.

“I’m sorry. I should go.” Jonas entered the living room. His blond hair was a riot of curls around his head. Even in the darkened space, the strands caught whatever light there was and gleamed. Their lovemaking had ranged from sweet to hungry and all points on the curve between. Just looking at him now aroused Ollie. He wanted to put Jonas right back into his bed and start all over again.

“I don’t want you to go.” Ollie closed the distance between them, but Jonas took a step back. “Please don’t move away from me.”

Jonas hung his head. “All I’ve ever done is mess up your life.”

“That’s not true, and you know it. You were lost.”

Jonas looked up, his worried blue eyes softening. “You saved me.”

“You saved me, too.” Ollie had been so in love with Jonas almost from the moment he saw him in the prison. He’d wanted him then and thought Jonas would certainly buy him if not all of his brothers, but Ollie hadn’t seen him again for over a month. When he and his brothers were taken to a grand home, Ollie was convinced he’d never see the man with the golden hair and big blue eyes again. But his luck had been good because the house they were taken to was Jonas Davenport’s.

Another week went by before Jonas had first come to feed. Ollie found out later that Jonas was trying to avoid him so he wouldn’t fall any further into love than he already had, but they were headed on a collision course no matter how diligently they tried to steer away. When Jonas came to feed, Ollie had luxuriated in his touch. The feel of him pulling strongly at his neck was sublime. After dozens of times, Jonas had eased his hand down Ollie’s bare chest, pushed his loose night drawers away, and cupped his cock.

“The very first time you touched me, I knew.” Ollie moved closer to Jonas.