Sleepless Beauties: A Rejected Mates Paranormal Romance (The Vampires Vendetta Series Book 1)

by A. K. Koonce

  No.

  I mean… Shit, maybe?

  I suppose I hadn’t really considered him as a suspect.

  “Of course, I’d love to come!” I stand swiftly and hold tight to the book in my hand. “Meet you downstairs?”

  She nods, and her short yellow sundress swooshes around her thighs as she strides out. Just for a different vampire to stride right in.

  My jaw grinds when Prey comes up behind me. He continues to shadow me when all I really want is to hide the book away from the many watchful eyes lurking in this place.

  It becomes painfully clear he won’t be leaving. As if it’s nothing, I place the book on the lowest shelf, sliding it into a dark little nook that I pray no one ever stoops down low enough to admire.

  “We need to talk,” he announces to my back.

  “We do, but not today,” I try to walk away, but in the flash of a second he’s in front of me, blocking my way.

  His mouth opens, but the moment his gaze drops, his words fall away into something else entirely.

  “You covered my mark.” His attention never leaves my neck.

  “I don’t have time right now, Prey.” I step around him, but he just flickers all over again in front me.

  “Prey!” I huff.

  “You’re marked for a fucking reason, Kira.” Sharp points of his teeth extend as he speaks low, with a growl lacing his words.

  It’s seething anger, and it grates suddenly against my already shitty feelings for him.

  “And what would that reason be?” I ask, folding my arms hard across my chest.

  “You know the reason why.” His gaze narrows on mine.

  But I won’t let him gloss over this.

  “No. No I don’t. Explain it to me.”

  Say it. Say it. Say it.

  “Because you’re mine,” he hisses.

  And that’s the fucking show, folks.

  My finger stabs hard into his chest. “Listen the fuck here! I belong to no one. I’m not your fucking property, and I’m not your goddamn human pet to despise one minute and toy with the next.”

  His cold hand snatches around my wrist.

  Prey’s skin against mine does something strange, laying claim to my erratic and confused little heart. The way he looks at me isn’t possessive.

  It’s sad.

  They’ve tagged this man as a low ranking vampire. A servant. He knows it would be an embarrassment for a High Council woman to bear his mark.

  I’m not a high ranking anything, though. I’m just a girl wanting to put an end to the death count. I want to make what happened to my sister right.

  And now I’m suddenly a woman who doesn’t want to hurt Prey’s feelings.

  “I covered it because Kyra would have marked you a long time ago if that were an option. It would be too suspicious if I suddenly woke up with your mating mark and a human heartbeat to go along with it.” My gaze flicks away from him, toward the floor. I still feel his attention burning over my features though.

  His hand around my wrist is a strange caress now. Long fingers sweep back and forth along my pulse. It’s a soothing sensation that reaches deep into my chest.

  “I need a fucking cigarette,” he whispers.

  And then he’s gone once more.

  My eyes close. The air in my lungs slips out in a heavy woosh as I tread on with the bizarre nightmare of a life I’m currently living.

  “Where are we going, exactly?” I ask as my high heel sinks into the grass for the fourth time in ten minutes.

  Kyra would be absolutely pissed at the sorry state of her beloved shoes.

  A chill clings to the air, despite how nice the sun feels across my face. Acessa leads me along through the tall grassy field without a single wavering of her steps. Somehow, her sunshine yellow wedge sandals are without stain or scuff while I nearly break my ankle with every misplaced step behind her. The morning laughter of small children and the rhythmic sound of the runners along the sidewalk of Lincoln Park faded away long ago. We’ve been weaving deeper through the trees and empty grasslands of the park for around an hour, and the hint of the cars and lives that fill this city aren’t even a whisper any more.

  It’s just us, and nature. Suddenly, five enormous fucking wolves are lounging lazily in the bed of grass laid out before us. The tall grass is folded in on itself, pushed down and formed just right to create a fluffy bed for each of the five wolves.

  The dark one of the pack lifts its head and immediately my heart stumbles as his eyes widen and his pointed ears perk up all at once.

  Then he’s running toward us at full speed.

  The thumping of its paws mirrors my pulse. A growl of some kind rumbles from his throat as his big paws eat up the span of space that’s safely between us and the monstrous beast.

  Closer he comes. Faster.

  He leaps!

  And then in midair the shape of a man emerges from the fur of the beast and in less than a shaking breath he grapples Acessa to the ground.

  A screech crawls up her throat and just as I take a step forward to pull the man off of her… Musical laughter, untamed happiness shakes out of her throat as he holds her to his chest and nuzzles his mouth into her neck. He whispers sweet nothings as he kisses her, and she just melts right into him.

  It’s Louis.

  His lips seal over a black shape etched just behind her ear.

  A crescent moon with patterns similar to mine.

  A mating mark.

  My mouth hasn’t closed in several seconds and I’m not aware of anything else as I blatantly stare at the beautifully happy couple who haven’t truly smiled once since I met either of them.

  Until now.

  “You came,” a deep voice like warm honey calls out from over my shoulder.

  My stomach flips at the simple sound of his familiar tone. I’m smiling like a giddy idiot when I turn to gaze at Vuitton’s handsome face.

  Oh. My. God.

  And his mostly erect cock.

  Why is his cock out? And why is it looking at me?

  Shit. Why am I looking at it?

  I fumble as I distractedly look away from the real monster among all these beasts.

  Except, it wasn’t really that big… was it?

  I peek back down, just to look away even faster this time.

  It definitely was that big, and I think it’s still growing.

  Just stop! Stop looking at it.

  Stop it.

  The rumble of Vuitton clearing his throat forces me to say something.

  “Um. It’s cute. I mean— I meant that they’re cute. Acessa and Louis.”

  I hate myself so hard right now.

  The delicious sound of Vuitton’s laughter sends shivers of awareness all across my arms, despite the oversized black coat I have wrapped tightly around myself.

  “Sorry,” he says. When I sneak another look over my shoulder, he’s pulling on a thin pair of black boxers over the etched lines framing his hips. A good thing never lasts long enough, does it? “I didn’t expect to see you for a while yet.”

  “Ever? Did you ever really expect to see me again?” I can’t help but laugh, and now that I have the nerve to actually look at him the most warm and calming smile shines through in his pretty eyes.

  “I’d have seen you again. I told you I’d be watching. I wouldn’t have walked away without checking in on someone Kyra loved.”

  Why does my heart feel so funny? He didn’t confess his love, he just said that he would do a wellness check. Calm down!

  But I’m still smiling like an idiot.

  Luckily, he is too.

  “Want to see my burrow?” He changes the heart-fluttering subject with ease, and I am kind of curious about his burrow of his.

  “Yeah,” I nod and look back just once at Acessa to find her tangled up in the arms of her own very naked lover. “Yeah, let’s go check out that burrow. Right now, before the wilderness gets a bit more wild over here.”

  Vuitton leads the way across t
he open field, the tall grass tickles along my fingertips as I follow him. The golden kiss of sunlight that highlights across the lines of his muscles is the kind of stuff sonnets are written about, I’m sure of it. His posture is hard and proper. I’m still stunned by his perfection when he lifts his hand and with the next step, the tall grass slips away.

  Nature itself is folded down, criss crossing like architecture across the ground.

  “You made this?” I turn, admiring the circular room he’s created for himself among the walls of grass.

  “Lie down,” he says, and I don’t know why my stomach dips at that command.

  I kneel first, and then slowly lie on the soft blanket of bedding that he has made. It’s warmer here. The wind doesn’t touch my skin, and the sunlight soaks across me like it’s peeking out from behind the clouds for me and me alone.

  “It’s comfortable, right?” Vuitton is smiling so hard I can literally feel his pride beaming.

  “Incredibly so.” I can’t take my eyes off of the sweet smile he’s lavishing down on me.

  Until he too lies down, at my side. His arm brushes mine before he folds it behind his head and stares up at the soft white clouds.

  I’m immediately too aware of our closeness. I’m all too aware of the last time he was this close to me. Our tongues were touching, he was just about to caress the neediest part of me, our entire beings were wrapped up in one another, and then we were so rudely interrupted..

  I clear my throat hard and try to focus on what’s important.

  “Did my sister ever mention the vampire who turned her?” I ask.

  An uneasiness shifts between us, replacing the erotic emotions that had recently swirled through me.

  “Yeah,” he says it so quietly that I can barely hear him.

  “Who was it?” I ask in a rush as Aston’s image flashes in my mind.

  He shakes his head slowly, his attention never leaving the drifting clouds.

  “She wouldn’t say.”

  The apprehension and hurt he feels about that is clear in his smooth features.

  “She didn’t tell me either. Just… the details.”

  He nods. “We looked after her more closely because of it. She wasn’t comfortable around men. She warmed to Prey quickly because they’d both been turned at the same time, but it took her a year to really depend on me. To trust me with more than just menial tasks.”

  I kick that thought around a bit.

  “What about Rival then?” I can’t help but wonder how she could never have mentioned a lover to me.

  His rumbling laughter is so pure, I can even feel it reverberating in my own chest.

  “Rival wanted to protect her. Men would test her. Male vampires of a lower rank tend to go mad when a woman is above them. So, Rival made it clear that Kyra was not to be fucked with in any way. He claimed her as his, but there wasn’t anything there for him to claim. They were just friends, really. She didn’t want any physical love, but she appreciated what he gave her all the same.” His sigh is heavy, but reminiscent of better times. “I don’t think there was anything between them but a ruse. He protected her by simply acting like a mate. Kyra would never take one though. She never even tried.”

  A comforting warmth sears through me.

  Rival? The bitter Irish vampire with a cross too far up his ass? He was kind to my sister?

  “That’s sweet,” I finally admit.

  But then why did he react so ravenously drawn to me when he first saw me posing as Kyra?

  “She had all these people around her who wanted to protect her, and yet none of us could.” A thin line forms between his brows and I don’t know why, but my fingers skim over his temple before smoothing the imperfections away.

  Then he rolls over and turns away from his forlorn memories in the sky. He looks at me with a slow appreciation that I feel all over.

  “I’m going to protect you, Kira Vega” he whispers like the vow is already set in stone.

  It’s unfair that I live in a vampiric house of cruel and crass men, but the sweetest man I’ve ever met isn’t allowed inside.

  I’ve even been claimed by one of them. My stomach does a flip at that reminder.

  “How does a mating mark work?” The question sneaks out before I can stop it.

  His lips quirk at one side before a big smile spreads across his lips.

  He’s so chiseled, even his jaw is a hard angle of perfection.

  He’s… so damn sexy. Sweet and sexy. How is that possible?

  “For wolves, a mating mark is the ultimate goal in life. We travel in a pack of extended families, but we all crave to fill that one opening remaining in our lives. We want affection like most people want love.”

  “Aren’t they the same thing?” I ask honestly.

  “Affection and love? Oh no. Not at all. Our pack provides us with an unspoken sense of love. It doesn’t mean that we like one another. And it doesn’t mean we’re kind and forgiving. But the mating mark, it doesn’t guarantee love will be there. What it does mean is that one person will always care for us. Their heart is connected to our own, and despite any hate that might be under the surface, genuine affection will always find a way out. We just can’t stop ourselves from being drawn to that source of feel-good feelings.”

  Feel-good feelings...

  “You make it sound almost like a drug.”

  His laughter is warm and drips all through my chest until I’m smiling right along with him.

  “Oh, it absolutely is,” he whispers.

  Vuitton watches me from the corner of his eye before rolling over again, and then his body heat is spreading across my arm in a tingling sensation of hyperawareness.

  “Why do you ask about the mark?” His hand props beneath his head, fanning his honey blonde hair in the slight breeze as he stares down on me.

  The thought of Prey and the wildness in his eyes creeps up in my mind once again bringing a heavy wave of uneasiness clinging to the memory.

  “No reason,” I say instead of word vomiting all my problems to this one man who already has more issues than he deserves. “How do wolves leave a mark if they can’t feed the way vampires do?”

  That sexy smile of his brightens until a dimple appears.

  “They fuck,” he says with a hard emphasis on the K, and I don’t know why my thighs shift together at the sound of that dirty word on his sweet tongue. I don’t know what he sees in me, but his laughter grows louder, shaking his whole body. “Some don’t. Most supernaturals don’t need any contact at all, really. I just wanted to see you blush. I love when your humanity shows.”

  I turn my head when I realize that I’m showing, and I try my best to calm that part of me. I’m supposed to be deep undercover in this world, aren’t I?

  When I look back at Vuitton, his gaze feels heavier against my skin. The sun seems to amplify the jade colors within the warm whiskey of his pretty eyes. And I’m all too aware of his attention when it falls from my eyes to my lips.

  The breath in my lungs pauses, as if afraid it might be seen were it to slip out. I swallow hard, and still he’s staring like…

  Like he just might kiss me.

  Again.

  A sharp inhale seems to cut off his trance as he looks abruptly back up to the sky and my heart finds its regular beat once again without all that attention making me squirm.

  “It’s a full moon tomorrow,” Vuitton’s hand lifts and he points to the pale moon peeking out over the morning sky.

  “It’s our birthday tomorrow,” I shake my head hard at that foolish wording.

  There’s only one of us left to celebrate. Not that Kyra celebrated for the last two years, anyway. So now it’s just my birthday. Not ours, we don’t share it any longer.

  His head turns back to me and those dimples are there at his lips once more. “It’s your birthday tomorrow? On the night of a full moon? How old will you be?”

  I nod, trying to shake the thoughts of my sister out of my head for a single moment of m
y day. “Twenty-One,” I try to keep my voice steady when I reply, but it still dips a little anyway.

  It really does feel like I’ve been alone without my other half for three years, rather than just a few short days.

  “Twenty-One! You should have a wild party for a wild night. What do you want for your birthday?”

  I look up at the perfect and charming man leaning over me. I have a nearly naked man alone right in front of me, yet all I can think about is Kyra’s ghost.

  She’s all I ever think about these days. Her problems are my own now. They have been for the last three years, and if anyone really wanted to know what I want for my fucking birthday, it’s to feel some kind of normal.

  To live for myself more than I live for my twin sister for once.

  At that thought, I study the faint five o’clock shadow kissing Vuitton’s hard jaw. I follow the trail down to the curve of his chin and then over the soft line of his lips.

  And suddenly my hand’s there. My palm brushes over the course texture of his stubble while my thumb hovers over his full lower lip. His bright eyes remain locked on mine all the while.

  I don’t know when I lifted up toward him… but I’m just one bad decision away from pressing my lips to his and tasting that all-consuming euphoria I know he can give me so easily.

  “What do you want, Kira?” It’s the way he says my name that breaks my will. He speaks it like it’s spelled heartbreak and remorse, one after another.

  I know exactly what I want.

  “I want to forget my guilt. I don’t want to think. For a little while, I just want to feel.”

  His starburst eyes search mine. They hold me there, even as I lean closer and closer. Until his hooded gaze closes softly, and I press my lips to his and cherish every single heartbeat that slams in my chest without worrying that it might sound too loud, or too erratic, or too human.

  A hungry breath slips between us just before his tongue claims mine. He kisses me deeper than the first time our lips met. He pushes for more, until he’s all in. And both of us know, nothing could make us turn back now.

  Fingers thrust through my tightly pulled back hair and he tears away my hair tie there. My locks fall across my shoulders and back down while his hand trails through the length of them, pulling at the ends as he goes.