He chuckled darkly. “Why, it’s green, of course.”
His teeth sank into me, the powerful vampire venom flooding my veins with a powerful aphrodisiac, designed by nature and their god to keep their thralls still and desperate for more. I moaned, my nipples hardening, my core heating and feeling terribly empty.
“And I don’t know whatOvessrais.”
With a snarl, he pushed me back, and I was thankful for the bed behind me, cushioning my fall. He was on top of me immediately, my blood framing his lips.
“You haven’t had your heat in a year,” he hissed, like I had purposefully willed it away.
But with that one accusation, I finally remembered whatOvessrawas.
“So you thought forcing me into a chemically induced heat was the solution?” I asked, baring my own teeth, blunt as they were.
“It’s not my fault you’re broken!” he replied. I knew he meant the words to hurt, and they did, but not as much as they enraged me.
Because itwashis fault. Yes, my heart problems were congenital. But my body’s refusal to go into heat? It wasn’t a coincidence that happened after his wedding.
Then there was the weight loss, hair loss, the depression… everything else that was wrong with me was a direct result of him forcing a mate bond that didn’t want to exist.
My voice was a whisper, but it still carried all the weight of my intentions. “Then just let me go.”
His hand found its way to my neck, where it constricted just enough to warn me that it would be no struggle for him to kill me once and for all. “I have claimed you, mate. For better or worse. And I’m trying to make this work. The same cannot be said of you.”
“Because I never claimed you. I never agreed to any of this. You chased after me, you took me,youbitme.”
He let me go and then sat up, still straddling me, as he quickly took off his tie and opened the first few buttons on his shirt, pulling it down to expose the spot where his neck met his shoulders.
“Do it, then! Claim me as yours, and perhaps we’ll finally put an end to this misery.”
I scoffed, trying to scoot my way out from under him. “If anything, it will just compound it. Face it, Victor. There is something wrong with us.”
With him, with me… both or either. But it was definitely fucked up.
It was mind-boggling that he still couldn’t see how dysfunctional we were. Was the extra boost in strength he got from our mate bond worth all this pain between us? Didn’t he want to sleep with someone more willing? There was no way my vagina was that special.
With a growl, he finally stood. “If that’s truly what you think, see what happens when I don’t come home.”
He grabbed his jacket and stormed off, slamming the front door so hard it shook the bed.
* * *
True to his word, he didn’t come back the next morning. Or the morning after that, or the one after that.
Someone came by to collect my blood, my meals and Sanguis Vita were brought up as usual, and cleaners silently took care of any housekeeping. But otherwise, I was completely alone, with nothing other than my cat, Ember, to keep me company.
I didn’t miss him, though. No, I was spectacularly stubborn.
When I was five, I had been determined to learn how to ride a bike, and didn’t want to wait until the weekend when my parents had the time to teach me. So one day after school, I just rolled my bike to an empty parking lot and taught myself.
I’d been there for hours, long after it had gotten dark, and it had all been worth it, because I arrived home on two wheels, scratched, scuffed, and bloody, all by myself.
So spending a few days with just Ember? Yeah, I could do this.
“We don’t need him. Do we, Ember?”
He purred in response.
* * *
