STORY EXCERPT

“What do you mean you aren’t letting me go?” Renae’s voice had risen a few octaves and reverberated down the hall. Alex sighed. This wasn’t how he’d envisioned the morning going. “You have no fucking right to keep me here. Don’t you realize that this is illegal? You can’t keep me locked up. I’m a freaking prisoner. Let me out.”

“Renae. Calm yourself. You are going to remain a guest of Nickola and Willimena for the day. I will bring you something to eat soon. Rest, enjoy the bathing room, or watch television. Think of it as a vacation.”

“Are you kidding me?” Her fists pounded on the door to punctuate each word. “Let me out, Alex. Let. Me. The. Fuck. Out!”

He slowly rested his forehead on the door, absorbing her anger through the shaking of the door. He wasn’t sure what he felt, but it wasn’t pleasant. He wasn’t truly angry, but he was more than irritated. He wasn’t sure of whom he was irritated with. He’d stormed out of the bedroom when her tears had driven him to despair, but now he stood, shackled by her anger, to the room.

“I can’t let you go. You are mine, fated to be my mate. Once you see that and accept it we can be truly happy together.” He sighed, bracing open palms on the door, his own fear rising. “Don’t you want to be happy, cara? Don’t you want to have the ultimate connection with someone?”

The silence on the other side of the door was heavy with emotion. He could smell her anger and fear oozing from under the door. This is not how he would have chosen to find his mate. He was too old and set in his ways for a female to disturb his life, but he found himself disturbed no matter what he thought. The urge to be with her, calming her fears and protecting her was strong. He wasn’t sure he could walk away from the door with her on the other side.

“Please, Alex. Please. I don’t understand what you want from me. I just want to go home, to my apartment, to my clothes, to my bed.” He could hear the shake in her voice and it tore into him. “I promise not to tell anyone. I just need to go home. Please?”

Her plea buckled his knees. Hatred for his actions bubbled bitterly in his gut. He thought himself so sly. Telling her about his vampire nature sealed her fate. She no longer could live as a normal, blinded, human. She would need to be claimed, protected, watched. The council wouldn’t allow her to live as she had now that she knew about their kind. He had done this to her. He’d stripped her of her freedom and chained her to him. He collapsed onto the floor, kneeling in front of the door.

“I’m sorry. You can’t leave. I will explain more soon.” He sounded tired even to his own ears. He touched the door one more time. His heart beat painfully with his selfishness. The whispered apology barely floated from his lips, “I’m so sorry.”

Renae moved within the room, mumbling to herself. He could hear her stalking angrily across the floor, pounding her feet as she walked. Each step shook him to his core. What had he done? This vivacious, funny, smart human was now trapped in a world she didn’t want. He’d taken her because he wanted her, forced her into the situation she was now in, and for what? He hadn’t given her a choice, hadn’t even really explained the problem. Emotions he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years flowed thickly and painfully through him. The woman he wanted as a mate, no, the woman Fate had given him, was now angry and hurt because of his callous actions.

The last words she’d thrown at him burned in his brain. She’d told him that there was no way she could ever forgive him for forcing her to remain trapped. She hated him, despised him. She’d never love him, let alone like him. She’d made it abundantly clear that she was going to do everything she could to try and escape him. His heart clenched again.

“Trouble in paradise, Alex?”

Nick’s voice startled him enough that Alex turned with a hiss and canines extended. The need to defend and protect Renae warred with the urge to strike out and finally release some of the pent-up anger on his friend.

“Whoo, easy. I come in peace. I’ve been listening the last few minutes and figured you could use a friendly ear.” Nick’s eyes flashed with mirth.

Alex took a deep breath and turned back to the door that held his Renae. “I do not know what to do to make this better, Nickola. I tried to explain it to her, but she was irrational and now I have angered her.”

“Sit with me. We will guard the door so you feel connected to her and we can talk about women.” Nick slid down the wall and pulled his knees up. He waited and then motioned to the wall next to him. “Come. It will help to talk about it, and it will give her time to cool off.”

Alex felt tired all the way deep into his bones. He sat next to his friend and tried to ignore the sounds of Renae moving on the other side of the door. He still felt the tug in his chest. He wanted to open that door, stride to her and pull her into his arms. He wanted to force her to listen, force her to comply, force her to love him. A deep sigh pushed from his lungs. This was why he didn’t want a mate. His life had been turned upside-down in under a day. Nothing made sense and he’d lost control of everything.

ADULT EXCERPT

Her clothes were ripped off and met the pile of his on the floor. Green glowing eyes stared at her from the foot of the bed. He’d stripped her and tossed her onto the mattress so quickly she didn’t even feel the removal of her pants.

“I can’t be gentle.” His voice was so deep it was animalistic. She shivered.

“I don’t need gentle.”

He was on her, spreading her legs and burying his face in her pussy. She had a moment to grab onto his hair before he was licking and nibbling her folds. His tongue slid along her clit and she cried out when he ran a fang across the nub. She had a flash of him biting into her there and sucking blood while she came. The image was so clear she thought perhaps he’d done it to her and she just didn’t know until he slid down farther and speared his tongue into her channel.

“Bite me,” she whispered. He stilled and looked up her body. She nodded. “Do it, you know you want to. I saw it in my head. Bite me, Alex.”

He licked up her pussy and circled her clit with his tongue all the while watching her with those glowing eyes. He bared his fangs and ran one around her nub. She gasped. The feel should have been painful but it was only pleasure. Pure hot pleasure. “Do it.”

He slowly widened his mouth and touched all four fangs to her pussy. She tensed for a second and then relaxed into it. He bit into her with infinitely slowness and the wash of desire that ripped through her mind set her body on fire. She imploded. Heat slid through her body as she tensed and bucked in his arms. Every cell sang for him, humming with liquid pleasure. Her cries were loud to her ears.

Before she could gather her thoughts he was poised at her entrance, hovering over her. The moment their eyes met he pushed forward, stretching her channel and filling her completely. She gasped and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She needed something to hang onto as more pleasure surged through her when he stroked over her sensitive tissues.

He thrust quickly, finding a fast pace that moved her up the bed. He growled and grabbed her under the shoulders. “More.”

She held on the best she could, wrapping her legs around his waist. He moved like a man possessed, rocking his hips with sharp snaps and dragging her down onto him as he moved into her. Each time he slid into her body he slammed against her clit.

“Come with me.” He demanded it of her and it seemed her body was going to listen. Each stroke threw her to the edge. She wanted to go over it with him, fall into the abyss together but she needed something.

He kissed up her collarbone to her neck and she tilted her head to give him access. “Yes, God, yes. Bite me again.”

That’s what she needed. The moment his teeth touched her skin she fell into another orgasm. Her body clenched around his cock and spasmed as he powered into her. The feel of his fangs sinking into her at the same time blinded her. Her mind flew. Nothing existed except the pleasure surging through her in time with his hips.

He came with her with a groan against her neck. He thrust twice more and nudged her cervix before stilling and spilling his cum deep inside her channel.

They lay together for a while, panting and gasping. His cock was still hard within her and she wanted him to stay there, filling her, connected to her. As she lay cuddled in his arms she smiled.

“I can feel you grinning against my skin. You find what we just did entertaining or are you just giddy again?”

The sound of his teasing was music to her ears. She’d teach her stoic vampire to have fun yet. She turned in his arms and kissed his chest. “I’m just happy.”

“Hm, well I guess that is acceptable.” He skimmed his hand up her side and she shivered under his palm. “We will need to go to the council tomorrow to have our mating noted.”

She almost didn’t feel his slight tensing as he spoke. She tsked him. “You can’t scare me away. I will prove to everyone that you are mine and I am yours. I am yours.”

He held her for a moment before speaking and his words had her heart leaping with joy in her chest. “You are mine but I am yours as well. I have never allowed anyone to have sway over me since the day I opened my eyes as a vampire. You, Renae, are the first and only person that has the ability to bring me to my knees, but I will gladly kneel on broken glass to have you in my life. I am yours, dearest, in heart, mind, and soul. Mate. Husband. Yours.”