“Then close the door next time,” she calls out.
I’ll close the damn door right now.
I get up and Potato tries to slip past me, but I grab the ornery fucker. He squirms in my hands, but I manage to successfully place him in the hallway and close the door.
I’m back in bed when Farrah finishes in the bathroom.
“I like seeing your mark on me,” she says, crawling up the mattress to where I lie with one arm resting underneath my head. My wings are spread out, and once Farrah is in place at my side, I tuck them around her, cocooning us inside.
She sighs and rests her head on my chest, placing her palm on my stomach and rubbing it up and down. Of course, every pass makes my cock jump.
“Can I bite you next time?”
I chuckle. “Do you have a biting kink?”
“Oh,” she says and snorts. “Maybe. Is that a thing?”
“It is, and you can definitely bite me. Anytime.”
She hums and moves her hand to my chest, over my pecs, then back down to my stomach. She repeats the action over and over and over. My palm does the same, skimming along her side and hip, then across her ass and back around.
“Why can’t I stop touching you?” she asks.
“That urge will fade once the bond is satisfied.”
“How will we know? You talk about the bond like it’s sentient.”
“It’s magic.” I kiss the top of her head and inhale her sweet scent. “We’ll know when it no longer aches to be apart. We’ll be able to touch without that electric energy zapping us with lust. We’ll be able to control our urges better. I’ll be able to kiss you without the desperate need to have my cock deep inside you.”
She snorts. “So it’s like any relationship. We’ll slowly get bored of each other. We won’t be attracted to eachother—”
“Farrah, that’s not what I'm saying at all.” I grab her chin to see her face as I say this. “We are bonded for life. I will always need you. It just won’t be a debilitating need.”
“Evangeline told me you’ll be able to know where I am at all times through the bond?”
“Yes, and you’ll be able to find me as well.”
I let go of her chin, and she sighs before returning her head to my chest. Of all the partners I’ve had in my lifetime, I've never felt content to lie here and cuddle with them. I’ve never wanted to have small talk to learn more about them or their life.
Because I knew it was never meant to be.
Now I have this incredible woman by my side, whose heart beats in rhythm with mine. A woman who isn’t scared of my monster. She grew up learning my kind was evil, yet she’s never seen anything but good in me. In us.
“Tell me about your childhood. How did you learn about what your family does?”
Her body tenses in my arms but instead of refusing to revisit painful memories, she clears her throat and speaks.
“I always knew we were different. We moved around a lot when I was young. We were living in Texas, some small town south of Houston, when I was told about the family secret. I was just five years old, but that’s when I began learning about monsters and how to kill them. Each week’slesson was dedicated to a different species. When I was seven, I went on my first mission with the family. Well, not by choice. I was used as bait. Isn’t that messed up? I was achild, and they stuck me out on a dark road with a fresh cut, hoping my blood would attract a vampire.
“It did, but he didn’t attack me. I think he was trying to help me find my parents. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t harming me. My mom, dad, and older brother swooped in to capture the vampire. I watched as they tortured him. They bled him dry, then gave him just enough blood to keep him awake. They repeated that several times, trying to force him to give up vampire den locations. It didn’t work. He held out, and my parents decided he was no use to them. My dad and brother stormed off, leaving me and my mother to deal with the vampire. I followed her as she brought him outside to wait for the sun to rise. She wanted me to watch him burn. Isn’t that sick? A seven-year-old child shouldn’t witness such horrors.”
I hum, agreeing.
“Mom underestimated the vampire’s strength even in his weakened state. He attacked her. Ripped out her throat and killed her.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, caressing her arm with my fingertips.
“That vampire was defending himself. My mom… I didn’t realize until that moment that my family was the real monsters.”
