by Anna Santos
I bit him again on his shoulder, not feeding, just enjoying the feeling of my fangs in his skin, where I could feel the rush of his blood and the impulses of his brain. It was like I was tapping into his mind. The pleasure doubled for us both, because he got more intense and wilder. His fangs came out, and I felt his claws in my skin, though not hurting, because my skin seemed somehow harder. My own claws ran down his back, and we were moving so fast that I was finding it hard to breath and not be engulfed by the pure and raw pleasure I felt between my legs.
Then, all of a sudden, I exhaled in pleasure, feeling a burst of heat rise from my core and rush over my skin until it was released by all the cells of my body, making me moan for a long time, burning and radiating happiness. It was an intense orgasm, not different or better than we had before, but faster, really faster to achieve. Shane groaned after me; my orgasm had triggered his own.
I removed my fangs from his neck and looked for his mouth. We kissed hungrily, savagely, and he continued inside me, moving our hips together, breathless and needy once again. I had an urgency for him, to hold him really tight and kiss him again and again as if living depended of it. Maybe it did. Maybe I would just die of a heart attack if we stopped and didn't expend all that sexual appetite and rush of adrenaline in making love. Maybe I would lose my sanity completely if something bad happened to him. Or maybe, just maybe, the bond was having a possessive and creepy effect on me.
I came again, and this time I didn’t scream or even make a sound. My eyes rolled over, and my body felt like my soul had just left it and drifted away above all that was happening in reality. I felt the silence of the world hit me, all breath leave my lungs, and my limbs become numb. Did I faint? I was conscious but aware I wasn’t acting normal. It was like I’d been possessed by something, like I was out of my body, floating above consciousness and the frivolous feelings of having skin or a body. I felt like I was glowing, like all my existence was an amount of energy, white and gold energy molded into an ethereal body. Even if it felt amazing being there, I also felt scared. I think I screamed his name out loud, afraid that I might be stuck there forever.
Then, before I panicked more, a sudden pull made me drop, and I opened my eyes. I noticed how I was wrapped around Shane, my head lying on his shoulder and his hands rubbing my back. We weren’t moving, but his breathing was really heavy. He seemed unaware of what had just happened to me, because he seemed concentrated on calming down his breath and holding me with possession.
"Out of body experiences are scary," I mumbled, unsure why I’d just said that, but I needed to share it with him. I couldn’t explain it in words, but he wouldn't probably need that. Maybe he had lived it, too, and had just come down like me.
"Being unable to control my urges is scary," he answered me after a while.
I pulled back and stared at his face. He looked a bit scared, himself. I smirked at him, waiting for him to snap out of it and just smile back at me.
"I wanted to rip your flesh apart," he added, sharing his concern. I shrugged my shoulders as if it was not important, and he looked puzzled by my lack of fear and my calm face. "I could hurt you, you know?"
"It wouldn't feel like pain," I said, making him turn pale. I also felt weird saying that, but the way I was when we were having intercourse was unnatural: all my senses were on high alert and feelings were ten or twenty times stronger, making pain not seem like pain, making it all seem just pure, raw pleasure. I should have been freaking out, but I wasn't. "I don't know how other drugs work, but your blood is… like a powerful drug, a really strong and amazing drug that makes me lose all sense of reality and pulls down all kind of boundaries between us. We get wild. I like to be wild with you."
"I think you are still high," he said, amused. I stuck my tongue out, to his surprise. He wasn’t expecting that childish behavior. The look on his face was priceless. "You are babbling," he added, to make his point.
"And you are… so cute when you pout," I said, giggling. Okay, maybe I was still high, but it was a nice feeling, a fuzzy and warm feeling of peace and contentment. Suddenly, I just felt like laughing and laughing, until I couldn’t laugh anymore.
"Damn, shit, I'm high!"
And I didn't laugh; I got really serious, trying to get ahold on my emotions and acts.
"It will run out in a moment," he said, placing a warm and tender kiss on my forehead and making me relax. He was smirking, finding my reactions funny. Maybe it was amusing.
"You thought I was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen," I said, sighing and leaning my forehead against his, closing my eyes in the process. Heaven was that: us in each other’s arms, nestled together, feeling that amazing happiness.
"When?"
"When you first saw me."
"I still think that."
That made me smile and caress his chest with my damp hand. "I thought you were dreamy beyond words."
"So, I'm not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" It seemed like a teasing question.
"You are the most beautiful thing I ever saw and could ever imagine," I said, opening my eyes over his and noticing a smile light up his face.
"Okay, you win for originality."
I sighed, thinking he was priceless, and then I stuck my tongue out at him again like a spoiled little brat who was being annoyed by another little brat. It was not a competition between us, and I still thought he was dreamy.
"Come here. I'll teach you what to do with your tongue rather than tease me and be rude," he said, holding my hands and pushing me until our mouths met. I giggled, trying to get free.
Soon, our lips touched and I gave in completely, forgetting all about whatever we were saying or trying to say. Who cared, really?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Shane
Having Annabel bite me was erotic beyond words. We were still in the bathtub, kissing but mostly talking. I still needed to bite her and complete the mating bond, but I had time for that. My blood was making her say the most adorable things. Mate blood will do that. It will also make her feel connected and more vulnerable to my questions. I didn’t want to use that to get information from her, but I was feeling extremely happy since she had agreed to complete our bond by marking each other.
I had that uncontrollable fear of being dumped and forgotten when her time here ended. She wasn’t giving any hint about whether she would stay for the next year or leave the school and me in the process. Especially because she had a whole different life outside of her teaching career. I doubted that teaching was even her real job; maybe it was just a cover-up job or hobby. So hearing from her that she wanted to be marked was like the best news I’d ever gotten in my life, up to that precise moment. However, I needed her to be sure about it.
“Anna, when I mark you, we will be connected forever. I will always know where you are, and you will be able to talk to me and access my thoughts, memories, and feelings. Are you sure you want this?”
“Yes,” she agreed. “I couldn’t reach you today. I almost went mad. I want to know where you are, always. I’ve missed you terribly!”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
“Where were you?” she inquired. Her breathing was faster; she was probably revisiting the fear she’d felt when she wasn’t able to reach and talk to me.
“I was in a meeting with the king. Sorry about that.”
“The guys said you were away all weekend! Did the meeting take two days?”
“You were away all weekend, too,” I reminded her, making it clear that she had no right to question me about my disappearance when she had had her own secret escape and wouldn’t talk about it.
She pulled her eyes from mine and bit her bottom lip. She understood me perfectly. She knew she had no right to ask me when she wouldn’t tell me what she was doing, herself. Her hand caressed my shoulder pensively.
“Well…” She broke the silence after breathing deeply. “I went to talk to my cousin.”
I waited patiently for her to continue.
That wasn’t useful information; more like an excuse.
“I went to tell him,” she added. The vibration on her voice gave away her anxiety.
I frowned, curious about what she’d told him. I remembered they were having some kind of discussion, and he wasn’t happy about it. Was the discussion about me? Did she tell him about me? And did they use to date? They seemed—close. Was she breaking off with him? She had told me that she wasn’t in a relationship when we started ours, and also that she and her cousin weren’t romantically involved. Had she lied? I was getting paranoid. I couldn’t help but feel jealous. The suspense was killing me. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him that I won’t go back. That I want to stay here longer.”
“Just longer?” I asked between my bliss and sadness. I wanted her to stay forever and not just “longer.” But I would follow her anywhere. I had come to terms with that. I had thought about that a lot the past week. I would go with her anywhere. I would not let her leave me or use the excuse of not wanting to stay there with me to go away. I couldn’t blame her if life there was not as attractive as in the big cities. She was young and needed to see the world, feel the freedom of traveling and know new cultures and ways of living.
“Yes, longer. Would you come with me if I asked you to?” she demanded, her eyes shining while she appeared to be holding her breathe. “I don’t want to be apart from you, but I can’t stay here forever. There are things I need to do.”
I paused intentionally, just staring in her eyes. She seemed worried by my answer. I was just happy for her to say that, for her to ask me that question and want to include me in her life.
“I will go wherever you want me to go with you. I won’t ever leave you. You’re mine, Anna. We belong together.”
She sighed, relieved by my answer. I was not so stubborn as to want to force her to do just what I wanted or be just where I wanted to live. I’d lived in that place for decades. I’d protected and paid my debt to the royal family of vampires a long time ago. I was just there because it was where I had my friends and they were like my family. Now, Anna was my family. I smiled at that thought, because from now on I could actually have a family. She would be my family, my life, my dreams, and my whole world.
“I’m not asking you to leave your pack and your king. I like it here, I feel at home.”
Her words made me smile. I loved hearing that she felt at home. She was at home, so much more than she could know.
“But?” I inquired, knowing that there was a “but.”
“I have stuff to do before–”
I was intrigued by her reluctance to share what that stuff was, but I was getting used to it. “Will you eventually tell me everything?”
“Yes,” she said with a long sigh that captured how difficult it was for her to keep secrets from me.
“Is that stuff related to your parents’s death?” I wondered aloud.
“Yes.” She bit her lip and looked at her hands, eventually breathing deep.
I paused for a moment, wanting to tell her things, to ask her a million questions, but I didn’t. I still needed to check something, to get some results to have absolute certainty. But my heart knew already, and I could only stare at her, overwhelmed and feeling amazed by the weirdness of destiny. If things did not happen the way they had, she would have never existed. I would have never met her.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked, probably intrigued by my silence.
I wasn’t mad, just mystified by all that I had found out. I was also incredibly in love with her, even more than before, which was amazingly impressive. I thought I could not love her more than I already did; I guess I was wrong.
I replied to her with a husky, deep voice. “Not mad, Anna. I just don’t want to lose you.”
She got pensive for a while. I noticed she was fighting against her rationality to tell me something or share a little about her life, her feelings, and her secrets.
“When my parents died, I thought my life was over. Everything I knew was broken and destroyed. But then I found a reason to keep existing. It gave me purpose to walk among the living. You see, my parents waited almost one hundred years to have my brother and me,” she whispered, clearly emotional. She laid her head on my shoulder and breathed deep to calm down all the feelings inside her. “They waited for the mentalities to change, so we could be safe and not feel like outcasts. And then they gave their lives to protect us.”
“What do you mean, Anna?” I asked, troubled by her words. She had told me that her parents were killed by a racist organization that came inside their house and executed them. She told me that she and her brother weren’t at home, so they were lucky to have survived. However, by the way she was talking, it was like she knew all that had happened. Had she witnessed the killing? That would taint her for life.
“My dad was a bit of a paranoid when it came to safety. He had cameras everywhere. They—tortured them trying to find out where we were,” she said near tears, and I swallowed hard.
I gently brought her face to mine and asked. “Did you watch the tapes?” I knew the answer already.
“Yes…” Tears rolled down her eyes.
I felt like a punch had just hit my stomach. Watching her family get tortured and killed was a feeling I knew way too well. I didn’t know what to tell her, because there was nothing I could say to make her feel better. I just held her tight and stroked her wet hair, feeling her sobs against my chest.
“He thinks we are abominations. We had to change our names because he chased us, and he killed the people who helped us hide. He created a serum to kill hybrids,” she explained, trying to calm herself. She breathed deeply several times. But she was venting, and I wanted her to tell me everything that was weighing on her soul. “My brother was hit by the darts when he was trying to protect me. He wants to kill all who are like me. I’m not the only one whose life he ruined. And he will want to hurt you, too, because we ‘shouldn’t’ be together. This whole town is a capital sin for him. Its mere existence is blasphemy.”
“Yes, I know a lot who think like that, too. We are used to defending ourselves. We aren’t afraid of people like the ones who killed your family. You’ll be safe here,” I told her, to calm her down and give her comfort. “Don’t you think it’s time for you to stop running?”
“I’m not running anymore,” she said, raising her head to face me. “I stopped running. Now he’s the one that runs from me.”
Her words came out sober and dark. She had a certainty in her voice that made me shiver.
“I will kill him and all who get in my way to stop me from doing that. I got tired of running and being afraid. He is the one who should be afraid. When I catch him, I will rip his heart out and then cut his head off after I stare deep into his eyes and remind him about killing my parents.”
“Anna.” My voice must have trembled, because I could feel her wish for vengeance so deep inside her heart that it made me feel scared. Vengeance could be terrible and wouldn’t necessarily be satisfied after achieved. She could lose her soul in the process. I could lose her in the process. She would be reckless and driven by just the feeling of hate. “Vengeance can make people blind. There is much more to life than that.”
“It’s not vengeance. It’s justice.”
“Not if you plan to be the judge, jury, and executioner.”
“I plan to stop him from killing others,” she said calmly, looking deeply into my eyes.
Her eyes were static and focused. She wasn’t crying anymore. I felt scared for the part of her that carried all those feelings of vengeance and hate. What was done to her and her family wasn’t right. However, now that I had found her, I wasn’t ready to let her go and be killed in the name of justice. I wanted to keep her safe and close to me. I wanted to make her forget everything bad; I wanted to stop her from being killed. She was mine, and I was hers. Couldn’t the love she had for me be enough to keep her living?
I verbalized my fear, clenching my jaw and gr
ipping my fingers a bit harder in her flesh. “And if he kills you?” I couldn’t keep myself from feeling anxious.
She sighed and leaned her forehead against mine, closing her eyes in the process. “I’m not planning to die, not now that I found you. I’m… I’m just trying to help others, to make a difference. It’s not hate that drives me. It’s not,” she said, trying to underscore her words so I would believe her. “Of course, I cannot forgive the person who killed my parents. Neither can I dishonor my parents’s sacrifice. They gave their lives so I could live. It’s not hate. We can’t let people spread hate like that, kill others and not face the consequences. Someone must make the difference and help the ones who are weak and powerless. So you don’t need to worry, because I’m not on a suicide journey.”
“Good,” I said with relief. She was really mature for her age. I couldn’t help but be extremely proud of her being my soul-mate. But knowing who her father was, I shouldn’t have expected less from her. “Because I’m not planning to let you die. You’re the most important thing to me. I’m not going to leave you. And you can trust me to keep all your secrets and all your fears, hopes, and dreams. I love you more than my own life,” I whispered near her lips. She still had her eyes closed, but I could feel her calm breath against me.
We were still naked in the bathtub, and I figured we should probably get out before the water got cold. Besides, there was something I needed to finish.
***
Anna
