“What? Searching for me? I don’t understand. My grandparents would never…how would you…what the hell is this shit?” Tucker’s face was red and he tried to stand up, but Gavin pulled him back down and held him there with his hands on his forearms.

“Get off me, Gavin!This isn’t funny!”

“No, Tucker, it’s not. Your mother’s name was Angela Tucker. She met your father in Tennessee, where she was living at the time with her parents. Your father’s name is Richard, and when your mother died, he was inconsolable for a while. Your grandparents offered to keep you for him, since he was going through such a hard time. A couple of months later, when he went to get you, they’d moved away, taking you with them. He was devastated, and has been looking for you all these years.”

“That’s just…what the hell are you trying to…damn it, you’re crazy! Why would my grandparents even do such a thing?” Tucker jumped to his feet, this time evading Gavin’s hands and surging backwards toward the door.

Gavin rose to his feet and walked slowly toward him, his voice still low and reasonable. “They were frightened, honey. Richard said that just a few weeks before the accident she’d told them who he really was. What he was. And they were still trying to process all of that when she passed away. It was probably all just too much for them to deal with.”

Tucker backed up, shaking his head. “What the hell are you saying? You don’t even make sense. What he was—what does that even mean?”

“It’s what I’m trying to tell you, baby.”

“I don’t know what this shit is! Idon’t know how you found out my mother’s name and that we came here from Tennessee, but obviously, you’ve done your homework and had me investigated. I have no idea what you’re trying to pull, or why, but it won’t work. No! Stay away from me!” Tucker shouted as Gavin came closer. He quickly twisted around and hurled himself out the door, with Gavin right behind him.

Tucker surged outside directly into a family getting off the elevator onto the open walkway outside the hotel room. Amid the startled squeals of the mother and the chaos of several children juggling beach towels, floats and oversized beach bags, Tucker managed to slip through them on the crowded walkway and into the elevator, frantically punching buttons while Gavin tried to navigate around them to get to him.

As soon as he reached the bottom floor, Tucker sprinted toward the hotel lobby, looking over his shoulder as he heard Gavin barreling down the stairway after him. He pulled open the door, got inside and ran over to the hotel’s front desk, where a large crowd of college students was in the middle of checking out. In his rush to get to safety, he knocked the bags out of a young girl’s hand, and by the time he’d steadied her, shouting to an astonished hotel clerk to call the police, he turned to find that Gavin had completely disappeared.

Damn! Gavin hit the steering wheel with his hand, and glared at the rearview mirror again, half expecting to see cop cars behind him any second now, as he navigated the noonday traffic on the strip. Once he’d allowed Tucker to escape, he’d gotten to his car immediately and called one of his men in the adjoining room to his, informing them of what had happened—a modified version of events, anyway. He’d instructed him to go into his room through the connecting door and clean up all evidence that he’d been there before clearing out himself, along with the rest of the group and then to meet him at a pre-arranged emergency meeting point some ten miles down the coastline. It wouldn’t take long for the police to figure out his entire group had registered at the same time, and were working together. Now they had to ditch their rental cars and find new ones, as well as another place to stay. And all because he couldn’t keep his hands off Tucker. Damn it!

He’d fucked this up royally, and he wasn’t quite sure how to proceed from this point. He never should have tried to approach his mate beforehe’d got him back to Tennessee. Damn bloodmatch. It almost always complicated things, never making anything easy. Once he’d caught his mate’s scent, he’d been like a stupid animal in heat.

Picking up his cell phone, he made the call he’d been dreading . “Richard? It’s Gavin. Look, I think I’ve fucked things up with Tucker.”

“You mean James? What’s happened to him?” Richard’s voice sounded alarmed, and Gavin could picture him running his hands through his short, dark hair, making it stand on end.

“Nothing’s happened to him, calm down. Tucker’s fine. That’s what he calls himself, by the way, not James.”

“Gavin, tell me! What’s gone wrong?”

“Okay,” Gavin said, taking a deep breath. “You see, I kind of—I took him back to my room and—damn it, Richard, there’s no easy way to say this. Tucker is my bloodmate.”

There was a sudden intake of breath and then a long silence on the other end of the line. “Your bloodmate?”

“Yes. I didn’t know any other way to tell you other than to just blurt it out. I didn’t know—I mean, I knew I was attracted to him, but then when I was in the same room with him, I…” “Have you-have you mated with him yet?”

“No. Well, not exactly. I mean, I’ve uh…you know, been with him, yes. Damn, this is so hard talking to you like this about your son. But no, I haven’t given him the mating bite or anything else. I want him to agree to it—not feel like hedidn’t have any choice in this thing.”

“I see.” Another tense little silence fell between them, before Richard began to chuckle softly.

“Richard?” Gavin said unbelievingly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry, Gavin, it’s all just a little much, even for the bloodmatch. Somebody up there has a very wicked sense of humor when it comes to bloodmatches, I’ve always said, and this goes a long way to prove it.”

“Richard, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Gavin!I was just surprised, that’s all. Naturally, it’s an honor for the alpha to choose my son, and the fact that it’s you just makes it all the sweeter. But you said you’d messed things up with him? How did you do that exactly?”

“I had him in my room, and I—damn, this is difficult! I started to tell him who he really was, Richard. Who we all are, and of course he didn’t believe me. Thought I was crazy and started trying to calm me down. I could see he was only one step away from having me put in a straitjacket and committing me for observation, so to stop him, I tried to explain everything. He got scared and got away from me, and out of the room. He made it downstairs to call for help. I had to get the hell out of there in a hurry before the cops came.”

“He got away from you, huh?” Richard said with a proud tone. “Sounds like he might really be something.”

“God, he is, Richard. He’s smart as hell, and beautiful! Brave too. You should have seen him last night when Tommy came after him.”

“What?” Richard shouted in surprise.

“Oh, God, I’m fucking this all up. I tried to send him home last night, but he went to the beach instead, and I guess Tommy was somewhere around close and caught his scent. It attracted him, I guess. I thought I got a trace of Tommy’s when we went in the club, but Tucker was there, and his scent kind of overwhelms everything else, you know? Anyway, Tommy went after him, and I barely got to him in time. He’s okay though—don’t worry, he’s fine. We got to him before anything happened, and Tommy is-is dead.”

There was a short silence and then Richard said softly, “Seems like you’re having quite an adventure with my son.”

“I’m sorry about Tommy, Richard. I don’t know how I’ll break it to his parents, though I know they’ve sort of expected this outcome. I wanted to try to take him alive, but when I saw him ready to attack Tucker—to rip him apart…My wolf just took over.”

“I understand, Gavin, and don’t worry about telling Tommy’s parents. I’ll talk to them. It’s the least I can do after you saved my son.”

“He’s so beautiful. I mean, I know you saw his pictures, but you have no idea. He has these incredible eyes, and…” Gavinbroke off as he heard Richard’s delighted laugh. “Sorry, guess I got a little carried away.”

“No,” Richard said softly. “He sounds a lot like his mother.” Another little silence and then Richard cleared his throat. “You need to get him back, Gavin. Make him listen to you next time and then bring him back home where he belongs.”

“Yeah, easier said than done. I told you, he’s smart. He figured out that I’d been investigating him, so I doubt if he’ll even go back to his apartment for a while. If I show up at the station or ask him to meet me somewhere, he’ll have me arrested in a heartbeat. Or even worse, taken to a hospital. You know I can’t do that.”

“Find a way, Gavin. I know how persistent you can be. Besides, if he’s your bloodmate, you really don’t have a choice, do you?”

“No, damn it. No choice at all. Don’t worry, I’ll find him. And when I do, I’m going to show him exactly who I am, sohe won’t have any choice but to believe me.”

“Are you sure your parents won’t mind me staying here like this, Bryson ? I feel a little weird about it.” Tucker looked around him at the very luxurious condo Bryson had just brought him to. The entry opened into a large living room with a huge floor-to-ceiling window offering a spectacular view of the Gulf of Mexico. Tucker had spent three nights at a hotel since the night with Gavin, and it was too expensive to stay any longer. He’d decided to go home and take his chances, but Bryson pitched a fit when he heard and instead came up with another place for him to stay.

“They don’t mind in the least,” Bryson assured him . “Since they moved back to Ohio to take care of my grandparents, they only use this condo when they come home to visit. Which won’t be for at least another month or two, so relax and use it for as long as you like. I told them you’d be here for a few days, and they were fine with it.”