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Derek frowned at him, his brows drawing together in obvious confusion. “About three hours ago, maybe?”

“Quinn escaped four hours ago,” the sandy-haired man said to the vampire. Then he glanced back over at Derek. “And Derek, I’m betting you got here, had a few too many, and crashed out here. You probably passed out about a half hour ago.”

Derek shrugged, still obviously confused. But it was clear from his expression that was exactly what had happened.

“That’s why Quinn didn’t hurt anyone after he escaped. Poppy’s magic led him straight to the shipping yard, stalling him until he and Derek were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to meet. All this happened because it was meant to.”

He was referring to how they’d captured me once already. I’d gotten free of them and then bolted, putting as much distance as possible between myself and them. I hadn’t paid much attention to my surroundings. It could’ve been any Pacific Northwest city—Portland, Seattle, or Vancouver. I hadn’t killed anyone because I’d been trying to escape. I’d ended up in a shipping yard. And I’d still gotten caught. My instincts had gotten the best of me at exactly the wrong moment and I’d—

Oh, right.

I’d attacked the sandy-haired man earlier. I’d bitten him in the shipping yard. His blood had been all wrong, though. Not awful, but not human. My attack was what had caused the vampire to nearly tear my heart from my chest with his bare hands.

But that’s not quite what had happened, was it?

After getting clear of my captors, I’d felt led to the shipping yard. As if an invisible rope had been tied around me, guiding me forward. And it hadn’t been my instincts that caused me to attack—the sandy-haired man evoked almost no predatory drive in me. Not then and certainly not now. I had no real interest in his blood. Something else, a wordless urge, had compelled me.

And then the vampire had ultimately snapped my neck. And they’d taken me here.

To him. To Derek.

I gazed into his beautifully clear and vibrant eyes, my throat going tighter than before. Had I been meant to meet him? Was it true?

Derek smiled back at me, but he lost his smile when the vampire took me by the arm, his grip tight on me, and led me out of the room. His companion followed us.

I turned to look behind me, back in the direction of Derek.

He stood in the doorway, watching us go. There was a longing in his expression that felt like a knife to my chest.

If there was any hope of living through the night—and Derek seemed to think there was—it meant that my life had reduced down to one goal: I needed to find some way, any possible way, of becoming safe around others again.

If it was at all possible, I’d do it.

I’d do it for him.

CHAPTER ONE || DEREK

“You’re doing great.” I flashed a smile at Quinn, who was seated next to me at the table, a worried look plastered across his face. “You’ve got this.”

His eyes darted around the restaurant before returning to me. He swallowed hard. “Derek, I can hear—” He broke off. “I can hear everyone’s…”

He shook his head, looking down. The shame was easy to read in his expression.

“Yeah, I know.”

And I did. Quinn was a newly turned vampire, and he could no doubt hear the pulse of every single human in the little Thai restaurant we were seated at, on our first-ever official outing away from the vampire headquarters of Seattle. Given that we both recognized that we were destined to be together forever, we’d done things a little out of order. Eternal, mythic devotion was supposed to come after the first date.

“You’re not going to hurt anyone,” I assured him. “It’s been months and you should be safe to be around people again. That’s what everyone’s been saying.”

It was true. Thierry, the king’s mercurial former right-hand vampire and still his close personal friend, was the same vampire who brought Quinn to Seattle in the first place. Him and his werewolf alpha mate, Jeremy. Thierry believed Quinn to be ready to interact with the general public without fear that he might do something he couldn’t take back. Simone, who was the oldest vampire on the West Coast, believed Quinn was safe too. And, given her age, she ought to know better than anyone if Quinn was really safe to be around or not.

“Tell that to Sadie and Sarah,” he muttered, casting a meaningful look two tables down, where the icy blonde vampire—who’d just officially taken over for Thierry as the king’s right-hand—and her dark-haired human mate were seated. Sadie had been a mentor of sorts for Quinn, ever since he’d come to Seattle, and she’d rarely let him out of her sight. Though she was pointedly ignoring us at the moment, in favor of laughing at something Sarah had just said, I had zero doubt that she was listening to every single word of our conversation.

“Oh wow,” Quinn said suddenly. He grimaced, dropping his gaze to the untouched glass of ice water on the table. “I just realized that I’m being the world’s worst date ever. Aren’t I?”

“Hey, now. That’s not true,” I said, taking his hand in mine. Because he regularly fed on human blood—from a blood bag, since he didn’t trust himself to feed on a living person yet—his skin was warm to the touch. “And I’d be happy doing pretty much anything right now, so long as it was with you.”

Sadie shot our table a halfway disgusted look. Her own damn fault for eavesdropping.