The Exiled Alpha's Human Male Mate.[BL]

"What do you mean, not until eight months?" Vincent asked again when Bryce gave him no answer.

’I need to transform back and dress," Bryce replied instead, refusing to engage with the question.

Vincent did not move aside immediately. He seemed caught between wanting to give Bryce room and being afraid that creating even that small distance would give him the opportunity to disappear.

His gaze stayed on Bryce as though he was trying to determine whether the wolf before him intended to leave the moment he was no longer standing in his way.

"Come change in the house," he finally said. "You can jump through the window into one of the rooms."

He stopped there, apparently realizing that the invitation required an explanation.

"Uh... Dave is only here because..." Vincent’s words faltered. "I... Tonight was the full moon, and I was afraid it might overwhelm you while you were alone. I wanted to find you in case you needed help, so I went to find Dave because I thought he could help me locate you. I know I shouldn’t have tried to find you by force."

So that was why Vincent had gone looking for Dave? Bryce thought.

He had swallowed his pride and approached the very person he disliked for help finding him. It was difficult to reconcile that with the Vincent Bryce knew.

The man before him was explaining himself almost patiently, as though Bryce’s opinion mattered enough to warrant an explanation.

But if the matter truly ended there, why had Vincent been protecting Dave so fiercely?

"His brothers are still after him, and he hasn’t healed yet," Vincent continued. "Even if I wanted to abandon him, I couldn’t. I knew you still cared about him, and you wouldn’t want to hear that he was dead. So I decided to keep him here until he was well enough to leave. But if you’re not comfortable with him staying here, I’ll ask him to leave."

Bryce stared at him blankly.

He had not even said that he was staying, and Vincent was already rearranging his own household around the possibility.

This was not the Vincent he had known at the beginning. That Vincent had been easier to understand. His hostility, pride and resentment had all been plain enough to read, and Bryce had never needed to question what stood beneath them.

But this Vincent was different.

Perhaps the version Bryce had encountered in the beginning had not been the real one after all.

The way he had chosen to help Dave despite disliking him revealed something that his usual behavior concealed.

Whatever Vincent wanted others to believe about him, abandoning someone simply because he disliked them was apparently not something he could bring himself to do.

For some reason, Bryce could finally understand what Agatha had meant when she said Vincent had been the goddess’s only hope.

"Where’s the window?" Bryce asked.

He had no intention of dwelling on whether he agreed with Vincent’s arrangement. He was here now, and he had already decided to stay.

"At the back. The long one. I’ll go and open it," Vincent said.

He stepped backward, still seeming reluctant to turn away. Bryce remained where he was, waiting, until Vincent noticed that he was not following.

"Why aren’t you coming out?" Vincent asked.

"I’m waiting for you to open the window."

Vincent stared at him for a moment before stepping away. He disappeared into the house with a swift movement.

A moment later, Dave’s voice carried through the house.

"You’re acting really strange. What’s going on?"

"Nothing," Vincent answered dismissively.

Bryce moved toward the back of the house, his bag clenched securely in his mouth. By the time he reached the window, it was already open, and he went through without hesitation.

At the same moment, Vincent was climbing out from inside.

The two of them collided in the window opening before either could react. Vincent lost his balance and went down beneath him, while Bryce’s wolf landed directly on top of him.

For a brief moment, neither moved.

"You’re so strong," Vincent murmured beneath him.

Bryce was about to step away when the door suddenly opened.

Dave stood there with crutches, and the moment his eyes fell upon the sight before him, his expression changed. A wolf was sprawled over Vincent.

He screamed.

The crutch in his hand came up almost immediately. He moved forward despite the pain that accompanied every step, gripping the crutch as he raised it over his shoulder.

His injured leg clearly protested the movement, but whatever fear had seized him was stronger than the pain.

He brought the crutch down.

"No!"

Vincent moved first.

He threw himself over Bryce, shielding him as the crutch struck his back with a heavy crack.

Dave stared at Vincent in stunned disbelief, the crutch still pressed against his back as though he could not comprehend that Vincent had actually placed himself between him and the wolf.

"Are you crazy?" Dave demanded, his voice shaking with alarm. "It’s a wolf!"

Vincent said nothing. He remained leaned over Bryce, while Bryce stayed motionless beneath him.

Dave stared at the two of them, his confusion growing with every passing second. Nothing about what he was seeing made sense.

The wolf was completely calm beneath Vincent, showing none of the aggression he had expected from an animal that should have been capable of tearing a person apart.

"Why... why is it that calm?" he stuttered, disbelief, confusion, and shock all mingling in his voice. "Why isn’t it tearing you apart?"

Bryce did not know what happened in that moment.

Without warning, his body began to transform.

He had not summoned his human form. He had not even made the conscious decision to change. The transformation simply seized him, his wolf form shifting back into his human body before he could stop it.

Shock gripped him as the change took place directly in front of Dave. In the space of a moment, the wolf was gone, leaving Bryce lying beneath Vincent in his completely naked human form.

Dave staggered back.

His eyes widened as he stared at Bryce, the sight so far beyond anything he had expected that he seemed incapable of reacting to it at first.

His injured leg gave way beneath him, making him collapse onto the floor.

"Br... Bryce?! Wha... What’s this?!"

He scrambled backward, dragging himself across the floor toward the door, his eyes never leaving Bryce as he tried to put as much distance between himself and the impossible sight before him.

Vincent, however, seemed completely oblivious to Dave’s reaction.

His attention had settled entirely on Bryce.

He stared down at him as though the rest of the room had ceased to exist, his gaze fixed on Bryce intensely.

It was as though he had suddenly found something precious, something so captivating that he could not tear his eyes from it.

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