“I don’t want your protection!”The words come out raw, desperate.“I don’t want to be the reason one of your brothers gets killed.I don’t want to be the weapon that thing uses against you.And I sure as hell don’t want—” She cuts herself off, but I hear it anyway.
Don’t want to be the reason you get hurt.
“Tessa.”I’m close now, close enough to see the pulse jumping in her throat, to smell the fear and arousal mixing in her scent.“You leave here, you’re dead.You understand that?The mark on your shoulder is a beacon.That thing will find you in hours.Maybe less.”
“Then at least I’ll die without taking everyone else with me.”
“Is that what you think this is?”Anger surges through me, hot and fierce.“You think we’re protecting you out of some misguided sense of duty?That we’re just going to let you walk out of here to die so we can sleep better at night?”
“I think you should!”she shouts back.“I think you should let me go and save yourselves!”
“Well, that’s not how this works.”
“Why not?”
“Becausenobody fucks with the Kings!” The words come out in a snarl, and suddenly I’m right there, caging her against the van with my hands on either side of her head.“That’s our motto, Tessa.Not ‘nobody fucks with the Kings unless it gets too hard.’Not ‘nobody fucks with the Kings unless we have to make tough choices.’Nobody.Fucks.With.The.Kings.And that includes you now, whether you like it or not.”
She stares up at me, chest heaving, eyes bright with unshed tears.“This isn’t your fight.”
“The hell it’s not.”
“Vex—”
“No.”I lean in closer, until our faces are inches apart.“You don’t get to decide this.You don’t get to martyr yourself because you think it’ll make things easier.You’re ours now.Under our roof.Under our protection.Mine.”
“I’m not yours,” she whispers, but there’s no conviction in it.
“Liar.”
Her breath catches.“You don’t own me.”
“No,” I agree.“But you’re mine anyway.Have been since the moment you walked into that café two years ago and smiled at me like I was human.You just didn’t know it yet.”
“That’s not, that’s not how this works—”
“Then how does it work?”I demand.“Tell me, Tessa.Explain to me how I’m supposed to let you walk out of here to die.Explain how I’m supposed to stand by while something ancient and evil tears you apart because you think you’re protecting us.Explain how the fuck I’m supposed to live with myself if anything happens to you.”
“You barely know me!”
“I know you take your coffee with cream and two sugars.I know you hum when you think no one’s listening.I know you’re terrified of us but you came anyway because you’re brave even when you don’t want to be.I know the sound of your heartbeat, the way you smell when you’re scared, the way your pulse speeds up when I get close.”I lower my voice to barely more than a whisper.“I know you want me just as badly as I want you, even though you hate yourself for it.”
Her eyes go wide, pupils dilating.“I don’t—”
“Don’t lie to me.”My hand moves before I can stop it, fingers tracing the line of her jaw.“I can smell it on you.Taste it in the air.Your heart’s racing right now, and it’s not just fear.”
“Stop,” but she doesn’t pull away.
“Make me.”
For one perfect, agonizing moment, we just stare at each other.Her chest rising and falling rapidly, my dead heart somehow feeling like it’s pounding anyway.The air between us crackles with tension, sexual, emotional, supernatural, and I can see the exact second she stops fighting it.
The exact second she gives in.
She grabs the front of my shirt and yanks me down, and then her mouth is on mine and the world explodes.
The kiss is nothing like the one in my room earlier.That was tentative, questioning, a choice made in the aftermath of trauma.This is war.This is her claiming me as much as I’m claiming her, teeth and tongue and desperate need that has no room for gentleness.
I kiss her back with everything I am, monster and man, predator and protector, and she takes it all.Her hands fist in my hair, pulling hard enough to hurt, and I growl into her mouth.My fangs extend fully, scraping against her lip, and instead of pulling away, she presses closer.
