He has no reason to be at a restaurant like this; he doesn’t like fancy places and he doesn’t eat human food much unless I make it at home. Ramsay is focused on the menu and he’s wearing a full suit and tie, which is extremely unnatural for him. He’s almost always in jeans and a casual t-shirt or sometimes a button down. 

Never a suit. 

“What’s wrong?” Callum asks, and I can see the disappointment on his face, probably from how I pushed him away so abruptly.

I shake my head. “My brother,” I whisper, nodding toward Ramsay. “He never comes to places like this and he never dresses that fancy.”

“Maybe he’s on a date?”

“Ramsay wouldn’t date a human and sticks to places that vampires frequent. Not restaurants like this. If he were to go out with a werewolf, he’d probably take them somewhere in the shifter district for their comfort, but it still wouldn’t be a restaurant,” I say, sitting back in our booth.

Callum shrugs and sips his drink. “Do you want to keep an eye on him? See who he’s waiting for?” He still looks really hurt and shame seeps through me. 

“I’m sorry,” I say, looking down at my hands. “I ruined our moment.”

“You didn’t ruin anything,” Callum promises as our server reappears and puts our food in front of us. “I think a first kiss should wait until after dessert, anyway.”

I keep looking at my hands. “I’m sorry,” I repeat, not looking at my food or my mate. 

Callum cups my face in his hands and kisses my forehead. “Lennox, we have all of the time in the world. Don’t be upset, I promise it’s okay.”

I smile, but I still feel embarrassed. Even though he’s insisted that I didn’t do anything wrong, I still feel ashamed and like I messed up a good moment between us to stalk my brother. I still want to know what he’s doing at a place like this, but I don’t want to ruin anything else. 

Callum starts eating his food and I follow his lead, but I catch him continuing to glance out at where Ramsay is sitting. He seems genuinely curious and not like he’s doing it just so I feel better about getting distracted. 

“Do you recognize that guy?” Callum whispers in my ear. 

A tall, blond guy sits across from Ramsay, and he looks extremely serious. He’s also wearing a suit and he makes me a bit nervous, but Ramsay seems extremely composed. He is confident and cocky in general, but he sometimes falters when he gets anxious. 

“No, I don’t,” I mumble, cutting my steak apart and taking small bites of it. “Do you?”

Callum shakes his head after a few seconds. “He looks vaguely familiar, but I don’t think I know him. What I do know is that those two are definitely not on a date. They mean business.”

I nod in agreement. “Do you want to come back to my place after dinner?” I ask.

“I don’t put out after the first date, sweetheart,” he says, and I elbow him with an eye roll and a smile. “Gods, when would I ever refuse that offer?”

“I mean, I did ruin our first kiss, so-”

Callum cuts me off by pressing our lips together and kissing me deeply. It takes me by surprise, but I fall into it, closing my eyes and savoring the moment. He grips my hip with one hand and caresses my cheek with the other as we kiss. When we pull apart, I can’t help the grin that tugs at my lips. 

“That felt pretty remarkable to me,” Callum whispers, his face still close to mine. “You didn’t ruin anything, I promise.”

We finish our meal in a comfortable silence and Callum pays the bill, jokingly referring to himself as my sugar daddy. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if Helen gave him her credit card to make sure he treated me to a nice meal. She seems the kind of person to do so. 

Callum drives us toward my house, but as we drive down the long road that leads to my house, I roll down the window since the car is getting warm and immediately freeze. 

“Stop the car!” I exclaim, and Callum slams on the breaks. 

I get out of the car and follow the scent into the woods, about forty feet off of the road. I pause and look at the ground where a human lays dead, their body completely pale. There’s blood splashed on their dead body, but there are tongue marks where the attacker must have tried to lick up whatever traces of blood they could. 

“Lennox, why does it smell like blo-” Callum cuts himself off when he sees what I found. “Oh, gods.”

I kneel beside the body and pick up a cylindrical piece of plastic, looking at it curiously. “Remember how I mentioned that my dad had Ramsay and I under curfew because of random attacks on humans by a vampire that hasn’t been caught?” I ask quietly, standing up. 

“Yeah,” Callum responds, staring at the body. 

“I think we just found one of the victims,” I whisper, taking out my phone and calling Dad.