I should have run.Should have vanished into the night and never looked back.
Instead, I kissed her.
And then I claimed her.
It started slow, small tastes when we made love, just enough to dull the hunger without hurting her.She was willing, even eager, and I convinced myself I had it under control.That I could be with her without destroying her.
I was wrong.
The problem with blood bonds is they’re cumulative.Every time I fed from her, the connection deepened.I could feel her emotions bleeding into mine, could sense her heartbeat even when we were apart.And the more I took, the more I needed.
Six months after I claimed her, Catherine was dying.
She didn’t blame me.Even as her body wasted away, even as the life drained from her eyes, she smiled at me and said, “It was worth it.”
Then she died in my arms.
I buried her in a cemetery overlooking the bay and swore I would never claim another human as long as I lived.Never let myself get close enough to hurt someone I cared about.Never,ever, let the monster win.
A sound from Tessa’s room snaps me back to the present.
Not distress.Something else.
Her heartbeat spikes, fast and erratic.Her breathing quickens, shallow gasps that I feel in my own chest through some phantom connection that has no business existing.Then—
A soft moan.
Oh, fuck.
My eyes go white before I can stop them, predator instincts roaring to life.Every muscle in my body locks tight as I fight the urge to break down that door and finish what we started downstairs.Because I know what that sound means.Know what she’s doing in there, alone in the dark with her hand between her thighs.
She’s thinking about me.
The scent of her arousal seeps through the gap under the door, honey, heat and something uniquelyTessa, and it hits me like a physical blow.My fangs drop fully, venom flooding my mouth.My hands clench into fists hard enough that my nails draw blood from my palms.
Don’t.Don’t you fucking dare.
But the fantasy is already playing out in my mind, vivid and brutal and so real I can almost taste it.
Fantasy
I don’t knock.
The door shatters under my hand, wood splintering like paper, and then I’m across the room in a heartbeat.Tessa gasps, tries to pull her hands away, but I catch her wrists and pin them above her head.
“Don’t stop,” I growl, my voice rough and barely human.“You started this.Now finish it.”
Her eyes are wide, pupils blown with arousal and fear, and the combination makes me want to devour her whole.I can see her pulse jumping in her throat, can smell the slick heat between her thighs, can taste her desire on the air like wine.
“Vex—”
“Quiet.”
I slide my free hand beneath the waistband of her pants, replacing her fingers with mine.She’s so wet it’s obscene, and when I circle her clit, she arches off the bed with a broken moan that goes straight to my cock.
“This is mine,” I tell her, working her with ruthless precision.“Your pleasure, your fear, your fucking heartbeat all of it belongs to me.Say it.”
“Yours,” she gasps, and the word shatters something inside me.
