As investments go, she was a very bad investment.
Charlene smiled crookedly, her eyes holding a wicked gleam. “Take me, Glenn,” she breathed, clenching him tightly. “Take all of me, and don't you dare stop!”
Glenn inhaled sharply and began to move his hips. She moaned softly at the pleasure uncoiling and rising from low in her belly. Glenn pushed her knees up to open her wider for him as he surged into her again and again.
“Yes, yes!” Charlene's head thrashed on the pillow as Glenn shoved both her knees up, forcing her so wide apart she felt she might split into two. He plunged into her relentless, mercilessly, forcing her to take him deep into her body. Charlene moaned, letting out cry after cry as she writhed beneath him. It felt good, it felt so damn good.
“Glenn,” she panted, lifting her head to gaze at him with heavy lidded eyes. “Don't stop, please don't stop. I...I'm coming...I...ah, Glenn!”
She gasped when he surged deep into her and pushed her body down with his, flattening her heavy, aching breasts against his chest. She caught a glimpse of his fangs, but her eyes were hazy and her mind whirling as she spiraled towards her impending orgasm. Every muscle in her tightened and rippled, throbbing towards an explosive climax.
She felt his tongue on her neck, licking all the way down from her jaw to her collar bone. Then there was the slightest prick. Her eyes flew open. She could feel his fangs, sharp and long. The prickling sensation intensified as his fangs breached her skin and sunk slowly, deeply into her.
Charlene began to shudder, as the pain melted into the most delicious, delirious pleasure. She pulled him closer to her, urging him to suck harder and take more.
The thought of her blood filling him, making her a part of him, just like he was filling her so perfectly, their bodies joined as one, made her climax so hard that all she heard was her own scream. Glenn sucked harder, his cock throbbing and pushing into her as he sucked and licked at her neck. Charlene shattered completely under his mouth and his body, wave after wave of pleasure smashing into her, wringing every breath, every emotion from her until she was utterly spent.
Glenn continued moving in her, prolonging and drawing out her orgasm until she was unable to take any more. She shuddered one last time to the echo of her own scream and put a shaking hand to his face. Glenn was staring down at her, a huge, hard part of him still buried in her, but he wasn't moving at all. He seemed to have stopped breathing as he stared at her with a fierce, almost frightening light in his eyes.
“G-Glenn?” Charlene whispered.
What's wrong?
She saw his eyes darken and burn with realization.
Did he just realize that he had a blood demoness in his bed? Was the realization and revulsion only just creeping in?
Charlene stilled beneath him, a cold fist around her heart. What was going through his heart and his mind?
Charlene gasped when he gripped her arms suddenly, still pinning her with that hard, unblinking, unforgiving gaze.
“Glenn!” She tried to twist out of his grip but he held her fast, his eyes and touch burning. His fangs were still extended, and his lips were red and wet with her blood.
“Charlene.” He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “You...”
“Are you...are you going to order me to leave now?” she said, tears welling in her eyes.
Maybe it had dawned on him that she was just a pawn, a part of Kron's ploy to get the land.
A pawn to be used and discarded.
She turned away quickly. No, she wouldn't cry. He wasn't wrong in thinking that. It was simply the truth.
“Leave? How can I let you go, Charlene?” he asked in a tortured voice.
She gazed up at him with wet eyes. “I thought...”
He laughed, a sound of both joy and pain. “I thought, and now I know.”
Charlene frowned at him in confusion. “What...are you talking about? What do you know?”
In a voice ragged with emotion, he said, “You are my mate.”
CHAPTER NINE
She was his mate.
She was—his.
Glenn didn't dare close his eyes. He refused to even blink, almost afraid that she might vanish from beneath him. He had waited for this moment his whole, long life. Finding his mate, holding her, having her. He almost didn't dare believe that this moment was real, and not just a waking dream.
One taste of her blood and he knew. It didn't matter what he believed. The blood and the bond didn't lie.
Her body didn't lie either. His blood had awakened her want, her aching need, her lust for him. Her body had burned with his touch, melted against him and responded so powerful and so beautifully to his thrusts and rhythm. Her orgasm was crushing and real, nothing fake about that. One bite, and she came, crying out and wanting more. Her blood called to him. A single drop of her blood on his tongue and his entire body roared and clamored for her. Instinct and need demanded that he take more, take her blood into his body and make her a part of him. He had sucked with a hunger like no other, a want so fierce and feral it drove him clean out of his mind.
It was by sheer, iron will that he had pulled back and reclaimed his senses and his thoughts.
This woman, this beautiful female in his bed, was his mate.
But—she was also a blood demoness, a blood demoness who wasn't free...and who wasn't wholly demon, yet. Her blood was still red, not black.
As he stared into her anxious green eyes, he had wrestled with himself and his lust, forcing his brain to override his body. Pushing himself up, he stared down at his mate, his angry, insistent cock still throbbing inside her. But no, he would not take his release.
She was his mate, but she was also Kron's demon.
He had to ensure that she was totally free and safe, before he claimed her completely.
How could he selfishly take his own heady pleasure while his mate's life and fate hung in the balance? She was being controlled by a scheming demon lord, and he was sure that Sideous Kron would not let her go easily. There were a dozen nasty things Kron might do to her, and he wasn't referring to anything sexual. Boiling, bleeding, beheading—just to name a few. Demon lords were notoriously sadistic and creative when it came to torture.
He had seen the vampire generals throw their captives to the demons during the last Great War between vampires and weres. The vampires felt that death would be too easy for those brutal shifters. The vampires excelled in fighting and killing, but when it came to torture, they were one of the least inventive. The demon lords did a much better job. They elevated torture to an art form, wringing demonic music from their victims' screams, feasting and fornicating on steaming piles of shifter entrails.
He had been a lowly foot soldier then, a newly turned vampire. He had fought bravely, defending vampire and human villages against the invading, bloodthirsty weres. The vampires had beaten back the beastly shifter soldiers, chasing them deep into the jungles. But the vampire generals had decided to seize on their victory and advantage, and crush the weres once and for all. The vampires had relentlessly hunted the defeated shifters down, dragged them out of caves and jungles, and thrown them to the demons.
The demon lords didn't align themselves with either faction. The demon princes, being demon royalty, refused to be involved. They had their own kingdoms to run, their own battles to fight in their realms, but the demon lords, being lesser demons, had no such responsibilities and scruples. They were just happy to be fed and entertained. Free food and toys—that's what made them happy. What the food and toys were didn't matter to them. If vampires had been thrown their way, they would equally have had their fun and games with the vamps, probably gouging out the vampires' innards with their own fangs.
And now one of these degenerate demon lords had his mate in his filthy clutches.
Glenn slowly withdrew from Charlene's warm, lush body as she gaped at him. He had just told her that she was his mate. Would she believe him, or would she run? That wasn't something you said to a f
emale the first time you got her in your bed.
Glenn stared down at her, his muscles bulging and throbbing as he held himself back. Every instinct was urging him to thrust back inside her and pound into her until he spilled his seed into her. Claim her, drink her, fill her.
But, he wouldn't do that.
He couldn't.
She looked shell-shocked, her eyes round and her lips quivering as she tried to form words.
You are my mate.
It was a lot to take in. She was a newly Made demoness, hungry for blood and forced to hunt for her demon lord. She had enough on her hands and on her mind, and now he had dropped this bomb on her.
Glenn watched her carefully.
Was she going to leap out of his bed, grab her clothes and teleport away?
He kept his hand on her arm, just in case.
Charlene sat up slowly, but instead of pushing him away, she took his hand and laced her fingers through his. “I know,” she whispered. “I think...I have always known.”
This time, it was his turn to gape at her.
“The moment I saw you, I felt...like we belonged, somehow. I know it sounds crazy and childish, but I just felt like you were the one, the only one, the one meant for me.” She let out an awkward laugh. “It's a romantic ideal, a fantasy, that there might be a special someone just for me. That just doesn't happen, not to someone like me.”
Glenn touched her beautiful face, almost unable to believe that this wonderful woman was his. “That happens, Charlene. And it happened to me, to us. Some vampires live their long, lonely lives searching but never ever finding the one, the one meant for them. I found my mate. I found you.”
He continued staring at her in wonderment. She had just held his hand, and told him that she had known or felt, all this time, that he was her mate.
Her words wound around his heart, warming him, strengthening him, giving him the power of a thousand Master vampires.
Glenn grabbed her and crushed her to his chest. “Charlene.” He kissed the top of her head and murmured against her hair. “My mate.”
In the dark, in the silence of his bedroom, they held each other, breathing in each other's scent and the scent of their lovemaking.
Finally, she broke away and gazed up at him. There was a hint of tears in her eyes, but she blinked them away quickly. “Glenn,” she said softly. “I am your mate, and you are mine, for tonight and maybe for a few more nights. These nights will be the most precious, and the most beautiful nights of my entire existence. I know that and I will forever cherish them, wherever and whatever I am. But...”
He cut her off, his tone firm. “No buts.”
Her smile was sad. “No buts. Just...us.”
There was something she was not telling him. He frowned down at her, but she buried her face in his chest and held him tight. “Charlene, what are you planning to do?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice muffled.
Glenn held her shoulders and forced her to look at him. “Sideous Kron,” was all he said.
“I'm going to kill that demon.”
Glenn released her in shock. “Kill a demon lord? You?”
“Yes. Me.” She jutted her chin, her eyes flashing. “You don't think I can do it?”
“Oh, I think you can do anything you set your mind to. I've seen you, as a human, barely thirty yet working inhuman hours and hardly sleeping at all, and still have the energy to laugh and love. You brought up your sister so well. You did a great job, Charlene. Charlotte is happy and well, because of you.”
She started, blinking rapidly. “You...you know Charlotte. Is my sister...is she...?”
Glenn nodded. She deserved to know. “Charlotte is now a PAC Enforcer. She is also the PAC Alpha's mate. Lucas Rieve, the Alpha, loves her with all his heart and protects her with his life.” I'll do the same for you, Charlene.
She sat there, looking dazed for a long while. Slowly, her features softened and she smiled, her joy and pride shining in her eyes.
“Charlotte...I'm so glad, so, so happy. And so relieved,” she whispered. “The Alpha will protect her.”
Again, Glenn could sense a thought and a plan forming and firming up in her head. But again, she clamped up when he questioned her.
“Nothing. I'm not planning anything, Glenn,” she said, giving him a doe-eyed, innocent look.
He was about to interrogate her further when she squinted at him. “Wait. You know my age,” she said in an accusing tone. “You know that I'm, well, thirty, in human years. Demon-wise, I'm not sure myself. But, yeah. You know how old I am.”
Glenn shrugged. “Yeah.”
“But I don't know how old you are.”
At this, Glenn grinned. “Would you like to guess?”
“Okay.” She drummed her fingers. “I'm guessing...you are my age—times ten.”
“And multiply that by three,” he finished.
She gasped. “You're...nine hundred years old! But you look like you're in your early thirties. I'd say you look barely a day over thirty-three!”
“What can I say? I age well,” he said smugly.
When she punched his arm, he laughed and pulled her to him. Leaning back against the pillows, he rested his cheek against her temple and sighed. She was his mate, and she deserved to know all about him. About his life and his deeds and misdeeds before he became a vampire.
He began to speak quietly, “I was turned into a vampire when I was thirty-three years old. I was the only son of the village chief, a merrymaker by day, a vampire hunter by night. Don't be mistaken. I didn't hunt vampires to protect my village. Nothing quite so noble. I hunted the vamps for sport, for the thrill of the chase and the kill. And sometimes, the lay. I bedded some female vamps, and boasted about my exploits and conquests.”
He felt Charlene tense in his arms, and he hastened to add, “That was a long time ago, Charlene. Long before I met you.”
She winced a little. “Long before I was even born,” she mumbled.
“I won't deny that I was a rake. I took my fun and my pleasure where I could. In my free time, in between tumbles in the hay with the village maids, I fashioned all sorts of weapons for hunting and slaying vampires. Sometimes, some of the village men and boys joined me in my hunts, and we turned it into some sort of contest.”
“I...didn't know you were a vampire slayer,” she said, turning to look at him in wonderment.
“I was. I was many things. An irresponsible thrill-seeker, and a rake as well, which was why I never married and sired young. I was just after a good time, the excitement and the thrill. I guess vampire hunting allowed me to experience the adrenalin rush and work off my excess energy,” he winked at her.
“You slept with many women then,” she said, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Yes. But they didn't mean anything. We had fun, but I knew and the ladies knew that their future was not with me. I would not make a good husband. Who wanted a man who chased skirts and vampires?” he said wryly.
Charlene settled back down beside him, and he felt some of the tension leave her body. He ran his hand up and down her arm soothingly. “That was a long, long time ago, Charlene. When I was still human. And I've been a vampire far longer than I've been a human,” he said softly.
She nodded, letting that fact sink in.
He paused, closing his eyes to savor the feel of her soft, curvy body against him. “I wasn't a good man. I...did things on the spur of the moment, on impulse, and never stopped to consider the consequences.”
“What do you mean?”
“Some of the vampires we hunted were harmless. They lived solitary, quiet lives, feeding off the blood of animals in the forests. But there were nests of vampires that terrorized the villagers. These vampires weren't content with the villagers' offerings of livestock, and lusted for human blood. They demanded a human be given to them every seven days. If not, they would swoop into the village and help themselves. Those vampires were violent and brutal, and—I stirred up a horne
t's, or in this case, a vampires' nest with my recklessness.”
Glenn exhaled heavily. It was his burden to bear, but she was his mate. She had a right to know.
“My village was massacred because of me.”
At that, Charlene gasped and pushed herself up to stare searchingly into his face. “What happened?” she whispered at last.
“I slept with a female vamp, a Master vampire's mate.”
“You did what!”
Glenn put up both his hands. “I didn't know. I swear I didn't know she was his mate! I was human, young, foolish. I...did the unforgivable, I know. When the Master vampire found out, he ordered his vampires to slaughter the entire village, spare no woman and child. We tried to fight them, down to the last man. I was the last man. And I refused to die.”
Glenn closed his eyes, recalling the gruesome sight of all the dead, mutilated villagers. He swallowed painfully and went on, “Maybe it was a desperate fight for survival, to save my own skin. I'm not sure what came over me, but I managed to lop off the heads of eleven screeching vampires before I was overpowered by the Master himself. Defiant to the last, I told him to just kill me, get it over with. But on hindsight, I think I shouldn't have uttered those words. From what he did to the innocent, defenseless villagers, I should have known that he had a sadistic streak a mile wide. He would make sure that I would be trapped in my own living hell forever. Since I wanted to die so badly, he saw to it that I couldn't die. At least not as a human. Instead of killing me, he turned me. I became one of the monsters I'd hunted.”
Glenn sighed and laughed bitterly. “I wonder if vampires can be hunted to extinction,” he mused. It was a joke, a bad joke but still.
After such a long, conflicted existence, he had seen almost everything. He saw that there was more ugliness than beauty in the world, that it was easier to be cruel than to be kind. He saw violence and vengeance in all their different forms and guises, repeated by different actors through the ages in an endless cycle like a serpent swallowing its own tail.
Vampire Mate: BBW Paranormal Romance Page 8
