“To protect you!” I bellowed, my vision flashing thermal and back.
“Yeah, okay.” She rolled her eyes and tugged off her shirt, throwing it to the ground. “You know me better than to think I need protection.” Her bra came next.
I almost swallowed my tongue at the sight of those rosy nipples. It had been days since I’d put my hands on her, my mouth on her.
“Stop,” I warned, my cock doing its best to power through my sweatpants to get at her.
“Or what?” she challenged, shimmying out of her shorts. Of course, her feet were bare.
“Or you’ll make it impossible for me to protect you! You think I don’t want you? Yours is the only blood I crave.”
She paused, a slow smile spreading across her face. She had me, and she knew it.
“I know this isn’t what you want!” I had to try.
Holy shit, there went her panties.
“Stop telling me what I want!” She jabbed her finger at me even as she sat back on my bed. “I would rather risk the bond becoming permanent than lose you to starvation! Damn, Lachlan! Do I need to get a knife and do it myself?”
Her thighs were slightly parted, and fuck me, I could smell the sweet honey of her pussy from here, filling my lungs and cutting off all rational thought. The threads of my self-control weren’t just unraveling, they were breaking one by one.
“Valor,” I groaned, licking my lips.
“What’s it going to be?” She leaned up on her elbows and lifted an eyebrow. Our eyes locked and held. “Are you going to waste away and endanger everyone on the estate? Or are you going to come and take what I’m offering? It’s yours.” Her head rolled back, leaving her neck exposed.
My self-control snapped.
In a blur, I was between her thighs, my tongue stabbing deep into her pussy, eating her with hard strokes and long licks.
“Lachlan!” she cried out, her hands buried in my hair.
“You taste so fucking good.” I made a meal of her, dragging my tongue over her clit with rough strokes, then sucking it between my lips.
“Omigod,” she chanted, her hips rocking, riding my face.
I lashed at her clit, then stroked my fingers into her, angling them for her G-spot, then rubbing it with each thrust. My hunger blended with lust, turning my head into a swirling storm of need. “So wet. So slick. So fucking sweet.”
Her breath caught and hitched as I mercilessly drove her forward without finesse or patience. This was no tender lovemaking, no gentle foreplay. I wanted her pleasure, and I would have it, pure and simple.
Her thighs tightened around my ears, and her breathing changed as her skin flushed. She was close.
“Come for me, Valor.” It wasn’t a request.
She screamed, her hips arching violently against my face, and I drank her down until the last shudder wracked her body.
I ditched the sweatpants and prowled up her naked form, baring my fangs. The line between who I was as a man and the beast I was as a predator was blurring, disintegrating with every second I waited.
“Feed.” Her passion-glazed eyes met mine, and she tilted her head.
I hissed, fighting it off. Just a few more seconds.
“God, Valor,” I groaned, taking my cock in hand and positioning myself at her swollen entrance. “I need to be inside you.” My need to consume every ounce of her, to lay claim, was second only to my need for her to love every fucking second of it.
She lifted her knees and locked her ankles behind my back.
I drove home, filling her with a single thrust.
We both moaned.
“You’re so damned perfect around me.” I withdrew slowly, then slammed into her again, bringing the stars just a little closer. “Can you feel this?” My hips circled, grinding into her.
“Yes!”
“Mine,” I growled, knowing she might not agree. Wasn’t that half the fucking fun about having her as a mate? The constant challenge?
“Yours,” she whispered, burrowing her hands in my hair.
Fuck yes.
I struck, my fangs sinking into her skin and tapping her vein as my hips drove on with hard, deep strokes.
She gasped, but it wasn’t in pain.
Her blood hit my tongue, and I groaned. Sweet citrus, honey and spice. No one had ever tasted better. No one ever would. I sucked at her with deep draws and felt her body tighten as my hips thrust wildly against hers.
She whimpered and moaned.
I took her in every way possible. Mine. Mine. Mine.
So. Fucking. Good.
Her body coiled beneath mine, going taut as the pleasure of the feeding mixed with the sex pushed her right over the edge and into another climax.
She came and came, her body rolling under mine in waves as I fed and fucked her through it.
Her heart’s galloping beat slowed slightly, even though her pussy still rippled around my cock in her orgasm.
I had to stop.
Her safety was paramount.
I groaned against her neck and took one last swallow, then licked my tongue over the tiny puncture wounds, sealing them shut and jumpstarting her healing process.
I sucked her blood from my teeth, then kissed her deep, twining our tongues as I let my hips swing with abandon, slipping my hand between us and stroking her to another climax as I found my own. The world exploded around me, breaking me into a million pieces while somehow putting me back together, forging me into something stronger.
Something that belonged only to Valor.
My heart soared, filling me with a feeling that consumed everything I had been until this very moment.
We were both boneless and panting by the time it was over.
I rolled to my back, bringing her to rest on my chest. I didn’t want to crush her, but I couldn’t let her go. I needed her against me, skin to skin.
Fuck, I wanted my blood on her tongue, too. Wanted her to carry my scent not just on her skin but in every molecule of her body.
“That. Was. Incredible,” she said between heaving breaths, her ear against my heart.
Could she hear how its beat had changed? I sure as hell could. It may as well have spelled her name out in Morse code because it belonged to her. She’d risked her safety—her life—to feed me, and that sacrifice had decimated whatever barriers I’d had left.
She owned me. Body. Mind. Heart. Soul.
I was in love with her.
“Thank you,” I whispered, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
“Uh, thank you,” she laughed. “I’ve never felt anything like that in my life.”
“Me either.” I skimmed my tongue over my lip, craving more. But it was just that—craving. The driving, dangerous hunger had been appeased.
“Is it…” She sighed, then propped her chin on her hands, locking eyes with me. “Is it always like that?”
I brushed her hair from her face, tucking the long, auburn strands behind her ears. “Never.”
“Good.” She grinned, and my heart stopped. This was going to be a fucking disaster when it all came crashing down, and it would. “I mean, not that I have anything to compare it to.”
“And you never will,” I growled and captured her mouth in a searing kiss. “Just me.”
“Just you,” she agreed and melted into the kiss.
My chest ached as the bond flared bright between us. It didn’t matter that I loved her. She didn’t feel the same. This wasn’t the life she wanted, the one she planned once she had her cousin safe from harm.
She deserved so much more than a life of war, and bloodshed, and endless night.
She deserved everything, and I was going to be damned if I didn’t give it to her.
I shoved away the instinct to grab ahold of the bond and instead pushed even harder at it as I kissed her deeper, swirling my tongue over hers as she moaned.
There would be no bond, not permanently at least. Eventually, this would end.
But damn if I wasn’t going to take ever
y piece of her I could get for now.
14
Valor
“Are you feeling all right, lass?” Lachlan asked from across the small table in the sitting area of his chambers.
I set down my fork, the dinner in front of me only half eaten. “I’m fine,” I said, trying like hell to smile.
“You know I don’t have to be mated to you to tell something is bothering you.” His eyes trailed to my neck, the two small puncture wounds there that were almost imperceptible now. “Is it…” His voice trailed off, and my eyes widened.
“No,” I hurried to say, shaking my head. “Lachlan, no.” Heat flushed every inch of my skin at the memory of him claiming me in every way a vampire could claim someone—his fangs sliding into my flesh with a sharp bite of pain before soothing to pure, mind-blowing pleasure. God, I’d never felt anything like it. Lachlan…he continuously took me to new heights. “I loved that,” I continued when he looked less than convinced.
He smirked but shifted in his chair and tilted his head at me. “What is it then?”
I chewed on my bottom lip, that familiar and constant guilt tearing up my insides.
“You know I’m doing everything I can to get her back, right?” he added when I hadn’t said anything. “We’re close to pinning her location. I promise you, Valor, the second we have a good lead, I’ll get her. I won’t stop until—”
“I know,” I cut him off, my voice thick with emotion. “God, I know. And that’s…that’s the problem, Lachlan.”
He arched a brow at me.
I blew out a tight breath, backing away from the table and rising. I had too much energy bubbling and twisting inside me. I couldn’t say what I needed to say while sitting. I paced the length of his sitting area, my eyes flickering toward the bed across the room. It would be so much easier if I simply hopped on it and begged him to slide between my legs. Because it had always been easy for us between the sheets.
This, here? Having a comfortable and quiet dinner with him? Talking and laughing and learning each other’s ticks and tricks? It had all become…
Effortless.
Being with Lachlan, listening to him tell me stories from his past and learning what made him laugh, what made him angry, what made him claim my mouth in a matter of blinks. It had all become so damn effortless.
“Lass,” he drug out the word, his eyes tracking my pacing like a predator.
“It’s no secret I was raised to hate and kill your kind,” I said, the words blurting from me like an explosion.
“Aye,” he said, warry as I stopped pacing and faced him.
“All kinds of supernatural creatures,” I continued, my mind a whirlwind as my chest tightened. “Every breath, every blink of my life, I was educated and lectured and trained to hate.”
“But you didn’t,” he said. “Couldn’t. You’re as strong and tough as a jungle cat, Valor, but you’ve never lived off hate.”
I swallowed hard, nodding. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get out. Wanted to get Daphne out. She was like me—independent. After a certain point, we started questioning everything the Sons…our families, told us. But you know how hard it is for me to simply stop being what they raised me to be.”
He tipped his chin, a glint of wickedness flashing in his eyes. “Is this the part where you tell me you’re about to kill me, lass?”
My lips parted open, a gasp escaping at the way his eyes burned with desire while he spoke such horrific words. “Why do you look like you’d enjoy me trying to hurt you?”
He slowly rose from the chair, spanning the distance between us in a heartbeat. Close, but not touching. Instead, he let that fire and tension build between the inches separating us. My heart beat wildly in my chest as I looked up at him.
“I’m just picturing you in leathers, a blade in your hand, and the fire in your eyes. Hard not to like it.” He skimmed a knuckle down my cheek, and I swear every inch of me burned.
I barked a laugh, shaking my head. “I would never intentionally hurt you, Lachlan.”
He stilled, then took a step back. “Intentionally?” He tilted his head. “Why do I feel like you’re about to ruin me?”
I huffed again, swallowing around the rock in my throat. “You trust me, don’t you, Lachlan?”
“Aye,” he said the word almost like it was hard to admit.
“You shouldn’t,” I admitted, my guilt twisting around my insides.
His jaw hardened.
“I’ve kept things from you,” I said, tears threatening to sting my eyes. “Not because I didn’t trust you, Lachlan, because I do. I do more than I ever thought possible. The way you are…the way our friendship has developed…I’ve never had anything like it. Even with Lyric—I love her, and still I find myself telling you things I’ve never even told her.”
“Valor—”
“I don’t want you to be angry with me,” I cut him off. “But I can’t deny what’s happening between us. I don’t have the energy to anymore, and keeping things from you feels like slowly burning from the inside out.”
“Then don’t.”
I furrowed my brow. “What if you don’t like what you learn? What if you despise me for every single dark thing I unveil about my past? What if you can’t stand the truth about what I did when I still believed you all to be evil, malicious creatures? Because I can handle our fights, Lachlan. I can handle the fire between us, too. But what I don’t think I’ll survive is your hate.”
Lachlan stepped toward me, taking my face between his hands. “You’ve overlooked the blood drenching my past, Valor. I most certainly can overlook yours.” Tears rolled down my cheeks, my heart swelling. He swiped them away with his thumbs. “Talk to me. Let me help you carry this weight that is threatening to crush you.”
I leaned into his touch. “My mother was killed by a vampire. Did I ever tell you that?”
He shook his head, continuing to hold me.
“I was nine, and I loved her more than anything in the entire world. She was good. Everything good in me came from her.” The pain in my chest screeched with the words. “And it was so easy to hate vampires after that. So easy to buy into everything my father and the Sons preached. Because a vampire had taken my world from me, and in my mind, that made you all vicious, soulless creatures.”
“And as I grew older,” I continued. “There was a time where I dedicated everything to thinking up new ways to kill your kind. I used countless resources at my disposal to streamline research into ancient ways to hurt vampires. Not just kill them. The hate and grief in me urged me to take revenge in the most brutal way possible. For a time, I actually thought my mother would be proud of me.” I shook my head, and Lachlan let his hands fall to his sides. “I finally snapped out of my own darkness—it was like waking up from a nightmare. But the damage had been done.”
“Valor,” Lachlan whispered. “What did you do?”
I straightened my spine, the weight lessening with each word I spoke. “It was my research, my resources, that helped uncover and weaponize Night Thistle.” Lachlan flinched, and I held back more tears. “And…my research, the plans I had for future advances on weaponizing the poison went even further than what the Sons have now. I have no doubt they’re using what I started to continue the project. That’s why they want me dead. Not only because of my traitor status but because of what I know about their weapons. All the information I can give you about how to defend against it.”
Lachlan stepped away until the back of his knees hit the chair, and he sank into it. “You kept this from me—”
“I was afraid,” I cut him off, frozen to the spot where I stood. “I didn’t want to drive you away from me. It hurt too much…even when I hated you, I wanted you. And I couldn’t stand the thought of you hating me anymore than you already did. But now…things have shifted between us. I know we’re not accepted mates, but we’ve become…”
“More than the enemies we started as.”
I nodded. “If I could take back w
hat I did all those years ago, the ideas I put into place, I would, Lachlan. I swear I would. I hate what I did, hate what my family does. But most of all, I hate the thought that my past could harm your future.” The idea of one of the weapons I helped spearhead killing him? God, my soul revolted and raged against the thought.
His silence ate up the space between us, and inwardly I recoiled.
When I couldn’t take another second, I slowly walked to where he sat, deep in thought, and dropped to my knees before him. His eyes found mine instantly.
“Do you hate me, Lachlan?” The question was a whisper. My heart aching for whatever he would say—he had every right to throw me from his room. To go straight to Alek and tell him what I’d kept from all of them for so long. Not out of trust issues, but out of undiluted fear.
He shifted forward, taking my face in his hands again. “I hate what happened to your mother. I hate what your father and the Sons did to you, to Daphne. I hate that the world we’re living in now is full of terrors and blood and bodies on both sides. I hate what you felt you had to do in your darkest moments of grief…” I closed my eyes, my heart sinking. “But no, Valor,” he continued. “I could never, not in this life or any other, hate you.”
A sob wrenched out of me as Lachlan pulled me into his lap, planting kissed where my tears rolled down my cheeks. “I’ve never cried in front of anyone like this,” I said the words through my tears.
“And you never have to,” he said, holding me out just enough to see his face. “You don’t have to hide from me, Valor.” He cupped my cheek, smoothing his thumb over my skin. “You can be the relentlessly sharp and strong Valor outside these walls, but here? With me? You can be exactly what you need to be.”
I blew out a breath, my entire body feeling tight and loose at the same time. The confession freed some of the coiling guilt and anxiety in my chest and paired with Lachlan’s words, my head practically spun.
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