when Getty got into the car, Bimbo wasn’t in the window.
Rolling his eyes, he reversed from the driveway and headed into town. Since it was the weekday, there were parking spots.
As soon as Getty pulled in, he saw Donnchadh coming out of the coffee shop, two drinks in his hands.
Getty’s heart sped as he got out.
“Thought you might like this. It’s strawberry lemonade.”
“Thanks.” Getty took the offered drink. He had a million questions to ask but didn’t know where to start. “About last night…”
Donnchadh took a sip of his lemonade, looking toward the park. He started walking, and Getty was mesmerized by the guy’s swagger. God, now he wanted to have sex again, but that wasn’t why he was there.
He needed answers.
“Everything you see is what we want you to see,” Donnchadh said when Getty caught up to him. “Blending in is how we’ve survived for so long.” He pointed toward the diner. “You would never know that Moose is a bear shifter or that Cyril is a panther shifter.”
He tapped his own chest as Getty’s mind exploded. “Would you guess that I’m a demon?”
Getty slowed, staring at the diner across the street, watching as Moose moved from table to table to assumedly take orders. Getty looked at Donnchadh. A demon?
“Don’t flip your lid, shorty. I don’t have a pitchfork and horns or a tail. I just have powers.”
“And the guy who attacked me?”
“A hellhound. They zap all your happiness whenever they’re around. If he’d bitten you, you’d have died.” Donnchadh took another sip of his drink. “I’m just asking you to open your mind to the fact that other things do exist.”
Getty found a bench and sat down before he crumpled.
Donny tapped his ear. “The only way to kill a hellhound is to stab them in a mark behind their ear. As you saw, they explode into dust and are sent back to Hell.”
Hell was real. After setting his cup next to him, he pressed his elbows into his knees and cradled his face in his hands. When he glanced up, Donnchadh was spread out on the grass, one leg cocked up, resting on one elbow, and looking at the people walking by.
He couldn’t see the guy as anything other than human. One thing was certain. Donnchadh had saved his life last night, and whether he was a human, a demon, or whatever, Getty was indebted to him.
Chapter Four
Donny was waiting for Getty to call him a liar, say he was nuts, to tell him that he never wanted to see Donny again. He’d never had to tell anyone what he was. Those who knew him already knew the truth. Others didn’t need to know.
If Getty hadn’t turned out to be his mate, Donny never would’ve said a word. A mate was a rare find, someone to cherish and protect. Someone to make happy and keep safe. Donny knew all this, knew how important the human was to him.
But he didn’t rush things. He didn’t tell Getty to get over what he’d just found out. They stayed in companionable silence as Donny let his mate absorb everything.
Donny had been rejected before, and he’d always brushed that shit off. He’d also been through hell before, literally, and this was nothing compared to what he’d suffered through.
Yet, how Getty reacted, what he would say, affected Donny in ways he didn’t want to think about. He didn’t like someone else in control of his emotions. He’s sworn a thousand years ago that he would never be at anyone’s mercy again.
Getty got off the bench, and Donny thought his mate was about to walk away. Instead, Getty took a seat beside him. He folded his legs and started plucking at grass blades. “I’d say you’re crazy, but I saw what happened last night.”
Donny wasn’t sure what to say. He still had no idea what was going through his mate’s mind.
“Are there more than one of those things?” Getty glanced at Donny from under the fall of his lashes. God, the male was sexy as fuck. If the guy only knew the dirty thoughts racing through Donny’s head.
“A lot more,” he answered.
That was one thing he wasn’t going to do. Lie to his mate.
“Was he purposely after me because of you?” Getty asked. “I mean he could’ve seen us together that night at the club.”
That was a possibility, but hellhounds usually tried to stay out of the limelight. Then again, one had become mayor of some Podunk town. Hadn’t Panahasi said they were gathering