“Damn if that wasn’t the hottest kiss I’ve everhad.”
I blinked at him. How couldthathave beenpleasurable?
He pressed the tissue to his mouth a while longer before balling it up and tossing it on theconsole.
“Ihurtyou,” I said, my voice as raw as his brokenlip.
He frowned. “Babe, getting bitten only increases the pleasure. Or so I’ve been told . . . since I’ve never been with a she-wolf.”
I momentarily forgot about having bit him. However silly, I liked the fact that I was different from his pastgirlfriends.
His eyes flashed yellow—wolf eyes. “Do you trustme?”
Inodded.
He nudged my jaw up with his nose, dragged his teeth that had sharpened to points down my neck, then sank them into a patch of skin right above mycollarbone.
I gasped, but not inpain.
The skin he’d pierced tingled, and then shockwaves of pleasure radiated from that one spot into the rest of my body. He released my skin and laved the spot he’d bitten with histongue.
“Fuck, you taste sweet.” Once he was done lapping up all the blood, he peered into my stunned face with a satisfied smirk. “I’m happy I’ve found one way to pleasure you. Even though I’m not giving up on findingmore.”
Heat engulfed my cheeks, my entire body for that matter. “I thought only vampires didthat.”
“Vampires don’texist.”
Yet wedo. . .
He licked his lust-swollen lips, eyes gleaming but no longer yellow. “Have you ever heard the legend of the bite that saved alife?”
I shook myhead.
“It’s a good story. One of my favorites. My grandfather used to tell it tome.”
I rubbed the spot Liam hadbitten.
“Apparently, during a terrible forest fire, an Alpha was hit by a blazing fallen tree. The blow was so violent that while his pack worked to roll the crackling trunk off him, they felt his link to them unravel. His second-in-command”—I frowned, so he explained—“large packs havebetas. Well, he urged the wolves to make their way home to prevent any more casualties, but the Alpha’s mate, she refused to leave him. She dug a trench in the ground to reach him, and then she grabbed him by the neck and dragged his asphyxiated body out. Legend says that when her fangs pierced his skin, her love for him leaked into his bloodstream and jumpstarted his heart.” He shrugged. “Story’s probably embellished, but I like to think our magic has the power to save lives.” He moved my fingers off the spot I was still rubbing and kissedit.
I shivered. I hadn’t lost much blood, yet felt as lightheaded as when I’d extracted a whole pint from my veins to try and save my mother. She’d insisted that injecting herself with my blood wouldn’t magically defeat her ovarian cancer, but I’d tried one gray afternoon. While I’d slid the needle in her catheter-bruised arm, I’d begged for amiracle.
Unlike the Alpha’s mate from Liam’s legend, I never got my miracle, so I didn’t put much stock in our magic saving alife.
Liam tugged me out of my dreary memory by leading me into the bedroom. He flicked on the lamp on his nightstand, then let go of my hand and walked to his connecting bathroom. “Give me asec.”
He vanished into his en suite, leaving me to stand on the edge of the electric-violet rug that stretched from one wood-paneled wall to the other. Alone in the bedroom, my thoughts whirred like the microwave, continuously spinning images of mycousin.
How I wished I could save hislife.
Over my shoulder, I spied my bag on the couch. My phone was in there. I could text Everest. I could warn him. He could run and stay away forever. Glancing at the bedroom door, I took my phone out and hovered my finger over the text messagingicon.
With a few little words, I could change the course of his fate. I almost went through with it, but then I thought about how he’d toyed with my life, how he’d strangled Heath, and realized I couldn’t betray the pack for the sake of a blood-tie.
As I lowered my phone, it vibrated, and a message appeared on myscreen.
SARAH:Hey, friend, want to hangtomorrow?
Even though I was feeling rather glum, Sarah’s message managed to make mesmile.
