Fated mates are elusive, rare enough that many people are convinced they’re a myth, and finding mine is both a blessing and a curse. I wouldn’t trade Scarlett for the world, but having her right in front of me, discovering she’s a vampire of all things? Everything feels impossibly stacked against us, and while I wish I could keep her tucked away in my penthouse where I can ensure she’s safe, I... want more for her than that. She’s already had so much taken away from her, been a prisoner in both body and mind. She deserves an actual life, and it’s my job to ensure it’s the best one possible, but the rest of the world would happily kill her on sight, destined to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors that got us all in the mess in the first place.
Hundreds of years ago, all of the predatory animals were hunted to extinction. Nature intervened to correct the imbalance as the prey population was left unchecked, ruining ecosystems. Humans, as the highest left on the food chain, started evolving even more. Mages, shifters, and those that were ... wrong.
The vampires are a mindless plague and the only thing every race in even the segregated parts of the country can agree on as a threat big enough to warrant joining forces, no matter how much they hate each other. Or so I used to think before my best friend found his mate, who in turn, found another of her fateds in the form of a still-feral vampire. Evie took everything we thought we knew and blew it out of the water with her research, discovering that vampires were nothing more than killer bees.
Kill the queen, or in this case, possibly the king, and they’d be free. They were simply being sent out as mindless drones to collect blood for their sire, who would feed off of them so he or she wasn’t at risk of being killed, leaving his minions in a constant state of starvation that made them even more feral. Without a sire, though? Vampires aren’t any more dangerous than shifters.
Stroking my hand over her hair, her grip tightens on my shirt, one leg sliding up over my hip to keep me trapped. I simply watch her, transfixed, the two of us breathing freely for the first time in months. There are several things I have to knock out today; meetings, contracts, and generally mind numbing tasks, but the sooner I get them done, the sooner things can be put into motion. There’re hundreds of thousands of cases of vampires slaughtering the masses working against me, but I’ve managed the impossible before.
“Are you going to keep watching me sleep like some weirdo?” she asks without opening her eyes, voice husky with sleep.
Chuckling, I tighten my grip briefly, soaking up these last few peaceful moments while they last. “That depends, are you going to keep pretending to be asleep?”
Humming a contented sound that vibrates into my chest, she starts to push herself upright. Turning to face me, she rubs at her bleary, red-ringed, golden eyes that are as hypnotic as they are a dead giveaway of what she is. If I could mask her scent, Imightbe able to pass her off as a shifter in public. Their eyes are too vibrant to conceal their nature as well, and I’ve seen several with wild colorings before. In the right lighting, the red rings in Scarlett’s could overtake the gold, making them appear solid enough that she could blend in.
The bedside lamp explodes in a surge at the brief thought of getting one of the men working below to rub himself all over her, to coat her in his scent. She startles before staring down at me with wide eyes as I groan in exasperation, scrubbing a hand over the dark stubble coating my jaw.
“Sorry. Thought I had a solid leash on it,” I apologize with an embarrassed cringe, mentally stuffing my volatile energy into a tight ball.
I’ve always had an enviable amount of control, but being around Scarlett has shot that straight to hell. My employees have spent the last four months whispering behind my back, the respect I fought so hard to earn over the last decade morphing into pitying glances and awkward silences. They all know damn well what magic flares mean in a mage. Either he’s got shit control and a hair-trigger temper, he’s sick, or he found his mate.
And after four months of repairing the damage from my surges around the building, it’s blatantly clear its theory number three and that I haven’t claimed her. No sane man would put himself through this torture willingly, would spurn such a gift. Which means I get the pitying glances of people that think I was rejected.
Add in the fact that she must be someone that works in the building, otherwise my magic wouldn’t be able to sense her and try lashing out to reach her, and the gossip mill has been flying. Only a handful of people in security are aware of the real situation and are helping me manage things, keep Scarlett’s existence a secret. If news were to spread that there was a vampire in the building? People would lose their fucking minds.
“You’re fine,” she says, hesitantly dragging out the words.
Warring with myself over how much I should explain about how mage magic works, not wanting her to misunderstand and think I’m guilt tripping her with my magical blue balls, I settle for, “Internal clock since it’s about time for me to leave for work, and,” I trail off with a chuckle as her cheeks tint red.
“Magical cock jerk because you’re planning to feed me before you go?” she teases.
Clearing my throat, I mentally slap the shit out of myself. I’m fucking all of this up, coming across like some bumbling virgin with no control over my abilities. No wonder she keeps pushing me away thinking she could kill me; she has no damn clue who I actually am. She’s never seen me in my element, and I’ve been so busy tripping over myself desperate to help her, to fix everything while my magic threatens to incinerate everything in the vicinity, that we skipped over a lot of the traditional steps because of the unconventional situation.
I need to stop thinking of her as my mate, that I need to shield her from everything, to exist solely to make her happy, and start treating this like an actual relationship if I want to have any hope of it becoming one. She used to be human; the thought of simply throwing herself into this and acting like a married couple without question is ludicrous, and I’m an idiot for expecting her to simply trust me without earning it.
“It might be a longer day than normal,” I agree, matter of fact. “Want to make sure you’re taken care of before I go so you aren’t waiting up; I know you don’t care much for the blood bags in the kitchen.”
The blush spreads from her cheeks to her neck as she looks away and mumbles, “They taste different and have a weird texture; cold and weirdly congealed like melting jello. And, well, I’ve had straight from the tap before, but yours is sweeter. After drinking from you, it’s sort of like going from chocolate cake to oatmeal.”
A possessive thrill runs through me as I reach over to coax her closer. Still not meeting my eye, she straddles my lap, her palms settling on my shoulders. One hand gripping her hip, my other slides up her back, tracing a steady path over her spine.
“Then by all means, don’t let me stop you.”
Licking her lips, she finally looks down at me, and I patiently watch a myriad of emotions cross over her eerie gaze. As always, there’s a bit of guilt, self-deprecation, frustration, and eventually, she comes around to acceptance, steeling her nerves and pushing all of the other human thoughts from her mind. Lust and hunger win out and I tilt my head to the side in a silent invitation.
One hand leaves my shoulder to slide up the back of my neck, tangling her fingers in my dark hair. It’s barely long enough for her to get a solid hold, yet still, she manages to angle me to her benefit. A shiver of anticipation has me tightening my grip as her fangs descend, lightly scoring the side of my throat. There’s a brief sting as she strikes, quickly soothed by a flick of her tongue before she wraps her lips around the twin wounds. Every pull as she sucks on my neck goes straight to my cock, and I nearly lose my tenuous hold over my control when she starts to rock against me.
Her reservations slip away, craning my head a bit farther and sending another bolt of lust through me as she tugs on my hair. Undulating her hips and grinding against me as she sucks harder on my flesh, her nails bite into my shoulder. Fisting her hair, I pin her against me as I arch my hips, eyes falling shut. My breathing becomes ragged the closer I get, lost in the sensation of her using my body, choosing me, needing me. Energy thrums from my chest to caress her skin, lighting up her nerve endings and bringing her to the edge right alongside me. In this, we suffer together, Scarlett always pulling back before allowing herself to take any more pleasure from using me than she needs to.
I brace myself for her to pull away, mentally shouting my protests and picturing the shower wall that’s about to be coated in my cum in the next five minutes. Her low growl against my skin is the only warning before she releases my shoulder, only to place a hand to my chest and force me onto my back. Face still buried against my neck, her hips buck harder, a frustrated sound slipping past her lips. She slips her hand between us, under the waistband of her sleep shorts, and starts to furiously circle her clit.
Throwing caution to the wind, I grip her wrist, jerking her hand away. The sound that escapes her is nearly feral, but I hold my ground. Breathless, I slide a hand over her stomach, tucking my fingertips inside her shorts before stopping. “You want more, I get to be the one to do it.”
She squirms against me, reaching between her legs again, but I stop her. Arching my hips so I can press the outline of my cock against her, a small, needy sound escapes her before she carefully nods against me, keeping her hands where I leave them when I release her. Slipping a hand between her legs, I don’t waste time teasing and toying with her. Instead, I reward her for giving up some control, trusting me to push her over the ledge she’s desperately trying to fling herself off of as quickly as possible.
Circling her clit twice, I thrust two fingers into her slick heat without preamble. She sucks harder at my neck with a moan of relief, and I double my efforts. Thumb rapidly strumming her clit, I hook my fingers inside of her, using my grip on her hip to rock her at just the right angle to have her crying out. She tenses around me, my fingers locked in a vice as she rides out her orgasm.
Tongue swiping out to seal the wounds, she shudders against me before going boneless. Sucking down air, heart beating wildly in her chest, she lies on top of me to catch her breath, small aftershocks making her body tremble. After a few minutes, I draw my fingers from her, reveling in the way she twitches against me.
