It wasn’t until she was in foster care for the third or fourth time that she met another girl who had the same symbol somewhere on her body. Jessamine’s mark was on her belly, hiding in a field of freckles that sprinkled most of the pretty red-haired girl’s fair skin.
Jessie knew things Naomi didn’t. Things her mother had whispered about the Breed and what women with the Breedmate mark meant to them. How only Breedmates could bear vampire offspring, and only after a mutual blood bonding with a Breed male, a connection that would link the mated couple in both body, heart, and emotions for as long as they lived. Which, as a mated pair, meant something close to eternity.
And, like the Breed, Breedmates had unique talents and abilities all their own too. Jessie could conjure storms and other weather at her will. Naomi’s talent wasn’t nearly as awe-inspiring, but it had proven useful to her over time.
Most recently, last night at Leo Slater’s casino.
But it wasn’t going to help her deal with the formidable Breed male studying her intensely from an arm’s length away.
“You are a Breedmate, Naomi. And as a Breed male, that means I am honor-bound to protect you. At least until you’re somewhere safe with people who will help you stay that way.”
“Honor-bound to protect me?” She barked an uneasy laugh. “Well, if that’s all this is about, then no worries. I hereby release you from that obligation. So, we’re done here.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Yes, Asher. It is.” As she loaded up her arguments in the hopes of persuading him to let her go, the rest of what he said started sinking in. “Wait a second. What do you mean, until I’m somewhere with people who can help me stay safe? What people?”
“The Order.”
“What?” She gaped at him, torn between outrage and disbelief. “The Order, meaning that group of warriors who are the most lethal and dangerous-to-know Breed males walking this good Earth since . . . well, I guess since you stepped foot on it?”
A grim smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “They were here first, actually. Hundreds of years before I was created. And the Breed as a species has been walking this planet for much longer than that. Thousands of years.”
“Whatever,” she shot back, incensed and not a little nervous. “I don’t need a history lesson. What I need is for you to let me go, Asher. Right. Fucking. Now.”
With her rising voice, Sam sat up on the bed and cocked his head at her. She scowled at the dog and his obstinate owner.
“It’s too late,” Asher informed her evenly. “I’ve already alerted the Order of the situation through an old friend of mine who’s in contact with them. Someone will be getting in touch with me soon to make further arrangements for your transport to a Darkhaven safe house.”
Holy shit, he was dead serious. He had every intention of steamrolling her into his twisted notion of protection, no matter what she said or wanted.
“No. This is nuts. You’re nuts if you think you can just lock me up in this room and hold me captive until what? Until you or your friends from the Order ship me off to someplace I don’t know and don’t want to be?” She crossed her arms, fuming now. “We have a word for that, you know. It’s called abduction.”
He took a step toward her, then another, until less than a foot separated them in the small room that seemed to be shrinking before her eyes the closer Asher came to her. His big body radiated heat and that spicy, delicious scent that had clung to the blanket and sheet on the bed and drove her mad most of the night.
“I have a life of my own, Asher. I have people I care about waiting for me in Vegas. I want to go back to them. I want to go right now.”
He slowly shook his head, the first signs of remorse edging into his determined blue stare. “I’m sorry, Naomi. What you want isn’t possible now. Not when you and I both know there is a powerful man in that city who wants you dead. I cannot send you back there to get killed.”
“I can handle myself.”
“That may be so,” he said, almost gently now. “But you are too precious to take that risk.”
Did he mean too precious to the Breed, or something else? The way he was looking at her, she couldn’t be sure. His low, tender voice made her veins run hot, loosening something deep inside her. Something soft and yearning.
She backed away from him, needing the space in order to breathe. “I want to talk to Michael. I need to see him, Asher. You can’t keep me away from the only family I have!”
Anger and frustration swelled inside her, bringing a sting to the backs of her eyes. Tears welled, but she refused to let them fall—not even in an attempt to sway his sympathy. Assuming the monstrous vampire had any to speak of. Instead, she stared up at him mutinously.
The sight of her rising emotions only seemed to harden his handsome face. He exhaled a heavy sigh. “You can get in touch with your Michael or anyone else you like . . . once you’re in the Order’s hands and out of mine. Then you’ll be their problem to deal with.”
Without another word, he stepped around her and stalked to the bedroom door. “Sam,” he growled, his pointed finger a command for the dog to leave the room with him.
Naomi looked at him in disbelief, shocked that this was really happening. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t give her an answer. “I expect the Order will be in contact anytime now. With any luck, you’ll be on your way out of here come nightfall.”
He walked out, closing the door behind him.
