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you’re here,” he said softly.
    “As do I.” Cronin’s chest flooded with warmth at Alec’s words, and he smiled. Cronin was so out of practice with human needs, in particular sleeping habits. Alec had been asleep for a few hours, and Cronin wondered if that was enough. “Have you been awake long?”
    Alec shook his head. “About five minutes before you got here.”
    Cronin looked at the clock. He’d only been gone for a total of twenty minutes, at most.
    Alec swallowed hard. “I think that’s what woke me. I wasn’t feeling well. I was just going to sip some water when you frightened the shit out of me and made me spill it.”
    “I’m sorry for leaving,” Cronin said.
    “Did you…” Alec cringed. “You know…?”
    “I told him the reason for your absence,” Jodis added without apology. “There’s no point in hiding what we are. It is a fact of our existence. And something Alec must come to terms with.”
    Cronin studied Alec’s face, looking for some sign of disgust. There wasn’t any. “Yes. I left to feed,” he told Alec. “Given you’re human, I thought it was best to keep as well-fed as possible.”
    Alec’s brow furrowed and after a long beat of silence, he nodded. “I get it. I do. I just don’t… like it. And for what it’s worth,” he said, now looking at Cronin, “I feel safe around you. I don’t know why. Everything in my head should be telling me to run… but it’s not. It’s telling me to stay.”
    Cronin smiled at that, and Alec put his hand up. “I don’t pretend to understand what the whole fated thing means. But I do know that something in me is different.” Alec pointed his finger at Cronin. “And just so we’re clear, with the fated thing, whatever the hell it is, it doesn’t mean you own me.
    “And,” Alec continued, his voice lower, “I probably should apologize. I said some less-than nice things to you earlier. I tend to get grumpy without sleep.”
    Cronin let out a laugh. Alec was nothing if not confounding. “You have no need to apologize for anything. Your reaction was warranted, and I’ll admit, more accepting than I could have dared hoped.” He smiled at Alec. “You need sleep. Duly noted.”
    The two men stared at each other, each unable to look away. Cronin’s chest tightened and his whole body heated. He could taste desire on his tongue and feel it pulse in his groin. Alec’s breaths grew shallow, his pupils dilated, his heart rate spiked, and Cronin opened his mouth, feeling his teeth ready to flex.
    “Right, then,” Jodis said as she stood, startling both men and breaking the tension between them. “You two need to take it down a notch. You rival Freyr.” She smiled as she walked gracefully to the kitchen.
    One corner of Cronin’s lips curved upwards, while Alec struggled to catch his breath. “I, uh, I might grab a shower, if that’s okay?” he asked. He stood and wiped his hands on his jeans nervously, seeming to look everywhere except at Cronin.
    “Of course,” Cronin answered, standing as well. “Please treat my house as your own. You don’t need to ask permission to do anything here.” Then, because he found it amusing, he said, “You’re free to do as you wish. I don’t own you, remember?”
    Alec shot him a glare, which only made Cronin smile as he walked down the hall. “So,” Alec said, following him. “Is that you trying to be funny?”
    Cronin opened the door to the bedroom Alec had slept in, but stood in the doorway so Alec would need to brush past him. He ignored his question. “You will find towels and soaps in your en suite bathroom.”
    Alec stopped near the door so there was barely a foot between them. He was taller than Cronin by at least three inches, and probably a little broader too. Cronin liked the fact that Alec was bigger than him. It was more challenging…
    Instead of looking into the room, Alec glanced at the closed door opposite them, then back at Cronin. “Is that your