I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. “I thought drinking blood was gross to you? Why would you help me get more?”
“I’m allowed to change my opinions,” he retorted moodily, and he reached a hand up to get the hair out of his eyes. “Sorry, just… Maybe I was wrong about you.” Chunks of his hair fell down covering his vision again and he sighed. “Stupid hair. It’s not long enough to be in a ponytail but it’s long enough to be annoying.” I laughed and reached in my pocket for a hair band.
“I like your hair,” I commented and sat up to reach my hands towards his black locks. “Most men these days don’t wear it long, or if they do, it looks scraggly.” I gathered most of his hair into the hair band. It was so soft and plush, I wanted to sink my fingers into it for hours. Clearing my throat, I sat back in my seat.
“Thanks,” he offered with a smile. “So about the blood thing. Maybe we could host a fake blood drive, or… Damn it.”
“Still weird?” I asked him. He didn’t answer for a few minutes as we pulled up next to a park. He turned the car off and played with the keys, then he looked away.
“Still weird.”
My stomach growled and I told it to shut up. “I’m a tough girl. I can stick it out a little longer.”
“Yeah, but,” he said, and sighed. “For how long?” The question hung in the air, and he got out to grab the lunch we’d bought while I stayed in the car, motionless.
In a few more days, I could risk stealing another bag of blood and then just…suffer. Forever. Damn it. I almost started crying when I realized the truth of that thought. When would I ever have a full belly of blood again? When would the thirst stop haunting my every waking moment?
“Hey!” Knight shouted once he’d set the food up at a picnic table. “I’m going to eat your sandwich if you don’t get out.”
I forced myself to open the door handle and step out of the car. I had to take this day by day. If I was constantly reminded that this was now my reality, I would break. Deep breaths. Deep. Breaths.
“Giving birth?” Knight asked me as I continued to breathe deeply on my way to the picnic table.
I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “I’m just… really fucking thirsty.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” I sat down opposite him and noticed he’d given me one of his extra sandwiches. That broke the dam, and I started sobbing. “No, hey, it’s okay. Don’t do that. Ehh, tears.” Something crinkled and I opened my watery eyes to see he’d given me one of his twinkies too. “No cry. I’m here to protect you, and that means blood too. We’ll figure something out.” Before I could respond, his nostrils flared, catching a scent I couldn’t smell yet. Or just couldn’t smell at all since I was weakened. He jumped up from his seat and started gathering up the food.
“What’s wrong?” I looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
“There’s a pack coming,” he said quickly, and zipped up the lunch cooler once he’d put all the food in it. “We have to leave. Right now.” He stiffened again and made a growling noise in his throat. Now even I could hear a group of footsteps rapidly approaching, and in seconds, the park was flooded with a pack of about fifteen Lycans, male and female intermixed. They were all dressed like bikers in leather and old jeans. I could smell… was that blood? Animal blood, I corrected. No matter how weak I was, I could always smell fresh blood. Knight grabbed me from my seat and pushed me behind him in a protective maneuver. Normally, I would’ve been offended, but I was no match for all these wolves. I peeked through Knight’s arm to see them, all standing in a group.
“Well, well, well,” one of the wolves said in a raspy voice. His tone carried power. The Alpha male. He had dozens of tattoos up and down his arms, and looked like someone who kicked kittens for a living. “Looks like there’s a wolf without a pack. Ain’t that a rare sight?”
“We don’t want trouble,” Knight told him.
“I’m sure you don’t,” the Alpha said firmly. The wind changed and I could feel the pack’s collective emotion shift as they caught a whiff of my smell. The mask of Knight’s scent must not have fooled them. “Why are you with a soul-sucking Vampire?” Soul-sucking.
Growls tore from the wolves’ throats and their claws clinked together as they prepared to face the threat: me. They were ready to charge at us, I didn’t have to see it to know, when Knight pulled me in front of him and presented them with my arm. Specifically, the bracelet on my arm. It kept coming back to this tiny thing. The pack relaxed a little and the Alpha stared at me in absolute confusion.
“You have an Alpha’s protection?” he asked me skeptically. “Why the fuck would an Alpha want to shield a vampire?”
Knight patted my shoulder. “Now would be a perfect time to share that. Please do.” I could tell he’d been dying to ask but would’ve never dared to.
“I umm…” There were so many eyes staring at me. What if they judged me, even though I’d been kind to one of their pups, and ripped me to pieces right then and there? The protection of the bracelet seemed absolute, but they could just as easily treat it like a onetime pass and steal it from me. Then all bets would be off. I decided to take the risk and just tell them. “I… There was a Lycan pup that accidentally passed the Vampire border around my home.” Every single Lycan in front of me had a reaction to that statement. Mistrust. Anger. Some were simply pensive, waiting for me to finish. Even Knight’s hand tensed on my shoulder. “I might be a Vampire, and my hands have taken lives. But I don’t kill children. Not even pups.”
The Alpha was still regarding me, trying to figure me out. “You let him go. You spared him.”
“Yes.” There was no need to embellish what I’d done.
The Alpha stepped towards us and gestured to Knight. “Is it his bracelet?” I shook my head. Did it matter? “It’s an ancient tradition among us that the one who holds the bracelet of an Alpha is under his protection. No one really knows where it came from, but it’s generally understood that the Alpha who gifted the bracelet is who protects the one wearing it.” He looked up at Knight. “You’re an Alpha,” he stated, not even asking. “It’s not obvious at the first glance, but shit, there’s something off with you.” So I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed something off about Knight. While I’d never have guessed he was an Alpha, it wasn’t much of a stretch. Kind of made him more adorable.
Shut up, brain.
“She’s under my protection now, since her Alpha isn’t here,” Knight told him. Well. That explained why he’d let me tag along with him. Though, since I held the money, technically he was tagging along with me.
The Alpha’s mate walked up to stand beside him. “He’s an Alpha, Jesse?” She made a noise like she was having a hard time believing it, and then she got serious. “Ah. I can see it now. Where’s your bracelet, Alpha?”
“I don’t have one,” Knight responded.
Well fuck. Even I was shocked. From what I could tell about the bracelets, they were a symbol of status, showing everyone who could see that you and your pack were strong enough to slay Vampires. The Alpha of this pack had at least thirty fangs on his bracelet whereas mine only had about ten. Talk about a virtual penis. Knight might not be in a pack, but he was almost twice as big as the Alpha in front of us. Of course, I’d never seen Knight wearing a fang bracelet, but I just assumed he kept it hidden since he didn’t have a pack to back up his claim of strength. I turned around and looked up at him, suddenly only thinking of one thing to ask him.
“Why not?”
He glanced down at me and said simply, “I’ve never killed a vampire.”
Oh.
“A Lycan that doesn’t kill Vampires and a Vampire that spares Lycans,” the Alpha, Jesse, said with a chuckle. “What a fucking pair.”
“I’m not sure he’s a Lycan,” the Alpha female said suddenly. She’d been studying Knight for several minutes, apparently noticing things that I hadn’t. Not a Lycan? Of course he was a Lycan! What else would he be? A hippo? “I’d call him a werewolf, but
that would be impossible.”
The fuck?
“Aren’t they… you… the same thing?” I asked her. Apparently, it was the wrong question to ask because they both got offended.
“What the fuck, it is not the same thing! Werewolves turn with the full moon,” the Alpha female said with a haughty sniff. “They’re wild and uncontrollable when they shift.”
I felt Knight grow rigid as they talked. The Alpha female dismissed her observation as a random thought and dropped it, but she kept eyeing Knight with suspicion. We left the pack after they shared some barbecued deer with us and Jesse gave us his number with the promise they’d help us if we needed it. I suspected the offer was more for Knight than me.
When we were miles away, I opened my mouth to ask Knight about what the Alpha female had said, but he quickly turned the radio on full blast to drown me out. So, he was okay with protecting me, but not okay with me asking about how everyone kept mentioning that there was something weird about him. Whether or not he felt like sharing whatever he was hiding, if what the Alpha female said was true, he only had a few days until the next full moon. If I royally pissed him off and he didn’t shift, I’d have my answer.
Balthazar had referred to Knight as ‘the marked’, and now Knight had been called a ‘werewolf’ instead of a Lycan. What the hell was he?
When we reached the border of Texas, I was instantly hit with the scent of pack territory, the fragrant smell of warm piss. Oh god, why?
Knight started fiddling with his keys to distract himself from growling out of instinct. We continued until the smell was gone and checked into a fancy hotel for the night. Staying at only fleabag hotels was a pattern and easily tracked, so we went off the trail every so often and stayed at very expensive hotels. That night, we had our own beds in a two-room suite, room service, and a large pool to swim in.
Knight left to go swimming as soon as we put our stuff in the suite. I drank the last few droplets from my bag of blood. It was now empty. I set it on fire in one of the trash bins until it was ash, and then flushed the ashes down the toilet. My hand shook and I clenched it into a fist. I’d be okay. I’d figure this out.
Being alone in my room was only going to make me feel weaker, so I put on the denim jacket I’d bought in Chicago and walked down to the pool. The humans had all gone to bed, leaving Knight alone in the water swimming laps. I sat down on one of the pool chairs and hugged myself tightly against my cold body to watch him. I had no doubt that he knew I was there, but he didn’t stop.
Now that I was seeing him shirtless, I could see his body had more muscle mass than I’d originally thought from that small glimpse of his abs. And yeah, it was much hotter than it sounds. He looked like a carved sculpture, designed for my viewing pleasure. I mean, human females. Not me, a vampire.
Diving under, he resurfaced and stood up in the shallow pool, the water only coming up to his sternum and revealing a very small patch of black chest hair. His rippled chest was decorated with five long scratches that looked pink like he’d gotten them recently, but I could tell they had been there awhile. He ran his hands through his thick black hair to get it out of his face, and then he noticed me sitting there watching him.
“Do you always peep on your friends?” I watched a drop of water go from his neck, down his chest, and flutter along his abs before stopping at the waistband of his swimming trunks. I wished I was that drop of water.
No, stop it! Focus!
“You want to come in here with me?” Blinking, I looked away from the way his trunks were sticking to his body and found his face. He smiled at me, making my heart flutter inside my chest.
“I don’t umm…” I cleared my throat, trying to look anywhere except right into his eyes. “I don’t think that would be appropriate. I don’t have a bathing suit.”
He shrugged and his grin taunted me. “That’s never stopped me before.”
Oh, you are a bad man.
He noticed me hugging myself. “Why are you wearing a jacket? This is Texas. It’s not cold.”
I took it off and smiled disarmingly. “I’m used to living in New York State. It’s not as warm there. Habit, I guess.”
He studied me for a few seconds but didn’t press me further. “Sure you won’t come in? I promise to behave. The water is nice. I know it’s cliché to be a wolf and like water,” he added with a roll of his eyes. I laughed and tried not to shiver. The lack of blood was making my body temperature fall. If anyone touched me, my skin would be cold. Because of that, the thought of swimming in cold water wasn’t appealing to me, as much as I would’ve enjoyed it under normal circumstances. He must’ve sensed my suffering because Knight stopped smiling and got out of the pool. He walked over to me, leaving puddles of water and large footprints. “You need blood,” he stated when he stood in front of me. He didn’t have to ask.
“I’m fine,” I lied, my teeth chattering a few times. He picked my jacket up and draped it over my shoulders, then he slumped down in the pool chair next to me.
“Being with you is….” I waited for him to finish his sentence. Damn it, was this his leaving speech? “...hard.” I let out the air I’d been holding. I didn’t feel like having this conversation so low on blood. When I tried to get up, he grabbed my arm and sat me back down. “Being around a vampire is like a priest living with Rosemary’s baby. Your habits, drinking blood, I can’t stand them. When I was a boy, we were taught that vampires drank because they were monsters. No one said anything about you needing it to stay strong, and live. I’ll admit, it’s not your average diet, but…” He raked his hands through his hair again. “It’s clear you can’t survive without it, even though you’re trying to. And again, I’m sorry for what I said about that.” I tried to speak, but I was too cold. So cold. Icicle Lisbeth. Maybe I’d turn into a gorgeous ice statue and Knight would come to admire me on Tuesdays. “Come here,” he beckoned and patted his knee. I stared down at it like it was a grenade. No, I couldn’t let him touch me. My attraction for him was something I wasn’t supposed to feel. He clicked his tongue, stood up, and grabbed me. Even shirtless, he was so fucking warm. Any trepidation I’d had was out the window and I buried my face in his chest, pulled him closer to me as much as possible. “You weren’t freezing the last time,” he noted and held me so tightly with his thick arms.
“S-s-side effects v-v-vary every-t-t-time,” I chattered out and moaned against him. “You’re so warm.”
“Shit,” he swore, and his hands curled against my shirt. “Here, let me help.” He let me go before I could ask what he meant. I needed his warmth so badly, my hands reached out for him without thinking, and I looked up into his deep brown eyes to see what was wrong. Slowly, his right hand came up to slide across my cheek where he held my chin in place. His other hand smoothed my long curls out of my face and knotted amongst their length.
He leaned into me and stopped with his mouth inches from mine, stroking my chin in a soft dance. My breath came in ragged bursts, my body was in flames from his touch. And though this was only my first time being this close to him, I needed more. I hungered for this Lycan’s touch like I’d never wanted anyone’s before. But why, for the love of god? He was a Lycan, for fuck’s sake. I shouldn’t be this attracted to him.
Those lips just inches from mine whispered, “Are you still cold?”
I had no concept of cold with a furnace of passion standing in front of me. I shook my head, and he was gone before I could blink.
Mother fucker.
His bitch ass was halfway down the sidewalk to our room when I opened my eyes. I followed him away from the pool into the hotel, and he was already in his room with the door shut by the time I got there. With our perfect hearing and the rooms so close, we could hear everything the other was doing. If he started jerking off, I’d hear it.
Why had he done that? Was he teasing me again? Teasing was the worst. No, jack ass, I was certainly not cold anymore. Now I was burning internally from his touch, and I hated myself for it. Afte
r I fluffed my pillows five times, Knight sighed and started talking to me from the other room.
“How old did you say you were?”
I adjusted my hair against the pillow. My skin was still overheated from his touch. Damn him. “Don’t you know it’s not polite to ask a lady how old she is?”
“Fine. Just tell me the century.”
“16th.”
He paused, and I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or about to make a joke. “Okay then. What was life like... you know… four hundred years ago?”
“You’re probably expecting me to say something like it smelled terrible.”
“Probably.”
“It actually smelled like shit had died and gone to heaven, and then was reincarnated as shit again. But beyond that, it was also hard. Life was hard. Not just simple things like washing a shirt or plucking a pheasant. Living was so damn hard. There were no guarantees about anything. You could go to bed and wake up to the news that five of your friends had gotten sick and died. Or they were victims of robbers. Or the king had ordered a village slaughtered because he fucking felt like it.” I swiped my eyes to catch some tears. “We were more connected with the humans in those days. Their fragility was always around us, staring us in the face. That’s why we keep to ourselves now. It’s easier that way. Plus, some of us have superiority complexes. Present company excluded.”
I was trying to make him laugh, but Knight was silent for a long time. When I’d convinced myself he’d fallen asleep, he suddenly sighed and said, “Since we’re sharing, I should tell you something.”
“Okay?”
“I was born over a hundred years ago.”
10. The immortal wolf
What. The shit.
“Okay. I think my brain just went for a walk. You said what now?”
“I’m not repeating it,” he insisted grumpily.
“Is that umm… normal for Lycans?” As much as I wanted to sound smart, I really had no idea if it was or not. “Or are you just a weirdo as I suspected you are?”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 8
