by R. E. Butler
“But I won’t be a vampire?”
“No. You’ll still be you and can shift and everything, but you’ll have to take my blood once a week to maintain your immortality. It’s why beloveds only live as long as their counterparts. When the blood source is gone, they die.”
“You’re my mate. I don’t need to think about anything.” He growled and bared his fangs at me, and it was the damn sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
I licked the edge of one of his fangs and he shivered. “You have to be deep inside me, baby, before you bite me. If you’re sure?”
He pulled away from the door and carried me over to the bed. “Let me think about that for a second.” He dropped me to the bed and jerked his shirt over his head. “My mate rescued me from a fate worse than death. Not only do I get to fuck her senseless all night, but when I mark her as mine, I’ll get to fuck her every night forever. Um, yeah. I think I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
I smirked at him. “You’re kind of a dick.”
He grinned for the first time since I’d set him free. “You have no idea, sweetheart.”
He shucked his jeans and shoes quickly and straightened, giving me a view of the most spectacularly perfect cock I’d ever seen. Thick. Long. Oh-so-tempting. He leaned over me on one arm and lifted his hand, flexing black claws from the tips of his fingers. With careful precision he slashed my clothes from my body and threw my shoes across the room.
“Tell me what happens at dawn.” He climbed up the bed and held himself over me, nuzzling under my neck.
My hands found his warm back, the muscles tensing and relaxing as he moved. “I, uh, don’t die at dawn. I just sleep. I don’t have to go to sleep right away, but the sun will burn me, so I have to stay in the dark.”
His tongue slid against my jaw. “What about me? Do I have to sleep during the day?”
“No, but beloveds usually do so they’re awake when their vampire is awake. Sometimes a vampire will take a beloved as a daytime guard, like a royal female might have several beloveds so they can protect her, and they will alternate when they sleep.”
His head snapped up. “You only get me. No other beloveds.”
I smiled at his reaction and hooked my legs around his hips and tugged experimentally. He shifted slightly but then went straight as steel as if waiting for me to acknowledge what he’d insisted. “I think you’ll be more than enough for me, Griegs.”
His eyes narrowed slightly before a small smile curved the edge of his lush mouth. His lips descended on mine with all the passion I had expected from a man held in captivity for two years. But underneath that relief at freedom and anticipation of making love were tones of longing and affection that had nothing at all to do with his past and everything to do with our future. Our tongues tangled, slipping past each other as he explored every inch of my mouth and I returned the favor. His lips were soft like cashmere and kissably full. Little murmurs of pleasure seeped from his throat as I trailed my fingers across his expansive back. Scars dotted his flesh, which told me he hadn’t been allowed to shift to heal himself while he’d been in captivity.
He growled and nipped at my neck. “What was that for?” I asked.
“You’re cooling off. What are you thinking about when I’m trying to get you hot?” he demanded with a huff.
I slid my hands around his narrow waist and crept my fingers up the muscled expanse of his abdomen until I cupped his face. “I was just thinking that you’re a warrior, and I couldn’t have chosen a better beloved for myself.”
His voice dripped with sincerity when he said, “I will keep you safe for the rest of our very long lives, Sabrina. It’s my duty as your mate and my honor as your protector.”
He stared at me for several long moments before declaring that the time for serious discussion had passed, and he returned to kissing down my neck. My body flooded with heat as he licked across my collarbone before traveling up my neck to bite against my pulse. I tugged on him again with my legs and he growled, sliding down my body and pressing my thighs open roughly.
His eyes closed as he inhaled deeply, a look of pure pleasure easing the tension that had been there since the moment I met him. “Your scent, milani, it calls to me. I have to make you come.”
Any witty barbs I might have offered disappeared from my thoughts as he lowered his head and slid his tongue incredibly slowly around the hard nub of my clit as he exposed it with his fingers. My hips shifted, pushing against his restraining weight, chasing after his tongue. His free hand slipped from my thigh and two fingers pushed inside me. My nails dug into the covers as he filled me, thrusting his fingers into me while his lips closed around my clit.
He sucked my clit, probing my wet pussy with his eager fingers. His tongue whipped across my captured bud as his fingers thrust wildly into me, pushing me closer, closer to the edge of oblivion. I closed my eyes, losing myself in the heat that spiraled and coiled through me until all at once my stomach clenched in a hard knot and the world fell apart. I cried out as I came, writhing under him. He growled and I felt the vibration of it throughout my whole body, quivering as he released my clit from his lips and whipped his fingers across it until I came again, wailing in pleasure and arching off the bed.
He growled happily, lapping at the silky evidence of my pleasure, before kissing slowly up my body. I caught his hips with my legs and reached for him, tangling my fingers through his thick hair. The broad head of his cock probed at my wet and tingling entrance, and I raised my hips to meet his as he pushed inside me. Overwhelmed, by not only the sheer size of his cock, but of the feelings that grew inside me, I pulled his mouth down to mine and kissed him, sucking on his tongue and moaning. With a grunt, he lifted from my mouth and shoved himself into me entirely, and I gasped in a breath.
Flexing his hips, he slid out of me fractionally before thrusting back inside. There was no stopping, no sensual lovemaking, only fast, hard fucking as he drove himself into me, harder, faster, harder, faster...oh...oh...oh!
“Fuck, Griegs!” I shrieked as waves of pleasure thundered over me like the most delicious, erotic storm that had ever existed.
He pulled me up with him, never breaking the connection of our bodies until I was straddling his lap as he knelt on the bed. He flexed his hips, and I ground mine against him until I couldn’t tell where he ended and I began. His body vibrated against mine as he growled, his cock twitching inside me. Our fangs elongated at the same time, his eyes darkening with lust and power as he held me tightly.
“Forever, Griegs,” I said thickly, emotions running rampant through me. Desire. Passion. Hope.
“Mine,” he growled and our heads tilted as we reached for each other, my fangs piercing the hot flesh of the side of his neck at the same moment that he sank his thick fangs into mine. The first swallow of his hot, sweet blood caused both of our bodies to plummet over the edge of climax again and again, and I moaned against his flesh, unable to move as our minds opened to each other and our memories were laid bare.
I saw him walking away from a red barn wearing trousers and nothing else, his long hair blowing wildly in the wind. He walked for hours, through fields and woods, until he reached a stand of red-barked trees. Extending his claws, he scraped a long strand of bark from the tree and then cut his wrist, wiping the blood across the bark. He wrapped the bark around his hand and gripped it tightly, settling onto his knees in front of the tree with his hands on his thighs and his head bowed. He began chanting in an old language and I knew, through his memories, that he was asking the great bear spirit to free him from the pain and loss and lead him to his truemate. As he chanted, he entered into a meditative state. Just moments before he was released from his communion with the spirit, he felt a sharp prick against his shoulder and passed out. When he woke, he was in a cage with silver-coated bars in the back of a van with other people, all werewolves. The men who had found him had been lucky; they had been following the trail of some werewolves and stumbled into the bears’ ter
ritory. I knew, too, that those men had died in the arena.
I saw that he refused to fight, that he would only defend himself but would cause no permanent harm to the men who were also prisoners. For his loyalty to weres, he was beaten and starved, sold at underground auctions to humans and vampires. It wasn’t until the vampire who had bought him most recently, The Doc, had put him in a cage for a fight with five other werewolves — who had been tormented so long that they were more beast than men — and dropped a small, human girl into their midst that Griegs had no choice but to fight. To protect the girl, he killed the werewolves who would have torn her apart in their bloodlust. It hadn’t mattered, in the end, because although the girl survived the arena, she was later killed by a werewolf when she was put into his cage as his prize for winning another fight. That werewolf, later, had killed himself.
The flood of his memories grew until I saw his childhood in the den, felt the love he held for his family and people, and the sorrow that laid there because he knew they would feel as if he had abandoned them.
As the memories trickled to a stop, I disengaged my fangs and watched as the wound scarred quickly, marking his copper skin with two dots. He groaned softly as he laid us gently on our sides, our bodies still tightly connected. My leg slid over his hip and hugged him closer, and I snuggled into the warmth of his arms.
“That was incredible,” he said after several quiet minutes. “It was like watching your life in fast forward.”
“It’s the way of the beloved bond. Only truly bonded pairs will share memories like that. Nothing but death will ever part us.”
He looked thoughtful. “Does that mean that vampires can bond but it wouldn’t be like that?”
“Sure.” I traced the line of his bicep with my fingertip. “Sometimes vampires will be forced to take beloveds to save a life, or for protection like I mentioned. They will still be bonded and live forever, but they won’t share memories.”
“I like not having to tell you everything that happened. It feels like a great weight has been lifted from me, knowing that you already know.” He sighed and pulled me closer.
“I feel the same way, too.”
Chapter 5
“So, do you actually eat food?” Griegs’ stomach grumbled, suggesting the reason for his question.
“No. I live strictly on blood. I drink synthetic blood, called SyBl, every day, and I’ll need to actually feed from real blood once a week.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to feed from anyone but me, right?”
“Possessive much?” I countered.
His eye ticked. “Tell me, milani.”
“What does milani mean?”
“Don’t change the subject. Promise that no one else will feed you but me.”
I thought to make him suffer a bit, but he had the look of a man who was not in the mood to be pushed so I relented. “You already know that I won’t feed from anyone but you, you big bully.”
“I’m a bully?” He took mock offense and then grinned. “Not a bully, possessive of my woman.”
I liked that....being his woman. “And milani?”
“Beloved.”
* * * * *
When the sun set, and we were both awake, he looked at my cell and fiddled with it. He was a dichotomy. Last night, he’d been completely, arrogantly sure of himself. Tonight, he looked lost and worried. We’d spent the night getting to know each other, and before dawn struck, he made sure that the curtain was closed, tidied up, and pulled me into his arms for sleep.
I scooted over behind him and wrapped my arms around him, kissing his neck. “You’ve been away from them for more than two years. When you tell them why you didn’t come back, they’ll understand. I’m sure they were worried about you.”
He sighed. “If I hadn’t been so foolish, I wouldn’t have stormed out in the first place, and then I wouldn’t have gotten captured.” He squeezed my arms and pressed his temple against mine. “The only good thing that came out of that dark time was you, Sabrina. You’re my angel, my salvation. I’d suffer in those arenas for a hundred years to have you.”
I kissed his ear. “I’m glad I found you, too.”
He was quiet and I let him have the silence, and finally he lifted the phone and I squeezed him and sat back, leaning against the headboard.
“Dad?” His voice was high and thready. There was a rush of heated questions on the other end of the phone. “No, Dad, Dad, I’m okay. I know it’s been a long time. I, uh, I was captured and held prisoner all this time.”
The silence on the other end of the phone was so loud I could hear it, and then a woman began to sob, and his father offered to come and get him and bring him home, wherever he was. It must be nice to have that kind of family. If I disappeared for two years, I wasn’t sure my mother would even notice. Maybe ten years, though. She might notice that.
“No, no, I’ll come, in a couple of hours. I found my mate, Dad. I’ll bring her with me. Okay. See you soon.” He ended the call and looked at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears.
I held my arms out to him, and he moved into my embrace, snuggling against me and pressing his ear over my heart. I closed my arms around him, holding him tight, and pressed a kiss to the top of his onyx hair. “Told you,” I whispered.
“You were right.”
He began to nuzzle and kiss across my chest, and I closed my eyes with a soft moan. “I thought we needed to leave?”
“There’s no way I’m taking you to the den until you’re covered in my scent, and we just showered, so I need to start from scratch.”
Sounded good to me.
* * * * *
When we pulled up to the red barn, there were five men pacing back and forth in front of the open doors. Griegs stepped out from the SUV and came around to my side, opening my door and holding my hand to help me out.
“Brace yourself, baby, it’s about to get intense.” He grinned.
The five males approached us quickly — Grieg’s father Adriel, his twin brothers, Ash and Axe, and his youngest brothers, Lynk and Tavian.
“This is my mate, Sabrina,” he announced after they embraced him in a way that made my heart ache. I’d seen love like that in movies, but I’d never witnessed it before. They truly loved him and had missed him.
Griegs came to stand next to me. I smiled at his family and watched all five men regard me curiously. “You’re a vampire?” Adriel asked in surprise.
“Natural,” I nodded.
“I didn’t know your kind stayed in the states,” he said.
“We don’t normally, but I’m a Hunter, so I travel quite a bit.”
The sound of rushing feet alerted us to the swell of people who were coming from the depths of the barn. Griegs had told me that the den was underground, with the entrance through the barn door.
Three women moved quickly ahead of the larger group. Without a word, the woman in the middle threw her arms around Griegs and wept openly. “My son, I missed you so!”
Grieg’s let go of my hand for only one moment and hugged his mom. I could see how hard he fought for control of his emotions.
She leaned back and sniffled. “You don’t smell like yourself. What happened?”
He reached for my hand and pulled me close. “This is my mate, Sabrina. She’s a natural vampire, and as of last night, I’m her beloved.”
One of the other two women cocked her head to the side. “Beloved?”
“My immortal mate,” I supplied.
The twins looked shocked. “Immortal?”
Griegs grinned and squeezed my shoulder. “I get to love this sweetheart every day forever. It was worth it. All of it was worth it.”
I was introduced officially to Elizabeth, who was the one who questioned him. The other woman was Shaylee, mated to the other two brothers, Lynk and Tavian. The crowd of were-bears demanded attention, and Adriel turned to the crowd and raised his voice.
“My son who was lost has come home. Tonight, we feast!”
The crowd cheered, and Griegs pulled me with him to greet his people. There were too many for me to remember all their names. I marveled at the sense of family that surrounded the members of the den. It wasn’t just Griegs’ own family who missed him, but the many members of the den who had worried about him, too.
I was greeted warmly, welcomed as Griegs’ mate. Preparations were quickly made for a welcome feast, and we moved down into the den. The underground den was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The expansive cavern was filled with tents, community areas, gardens, and livestock. We were directed inside his parents’ tent, which had a large open area in the front with couches, a small kitchen, and a curtain closing off the back section, which I assumed held a bedroom and bathroom.
Griegs pulled me into his lap on one of the couches and accepted a mug of tea from his mother. The eight members of his family sat down with us and waited expectantly for his story.
He told it straight. He explained that he’d felt lost and unhappy after the collaring ceremony and had gone to the area of their ancestors to ask for guidance. Although I had seen first hand through his memories what his captivity was like, hearing him speak about the things he had seen and done sent chills racing down my spine.
He squeezed me tightly. “And then a few werewolves crashed through a window in the roof of the building, and this gorgeous woman leapt to the floor, wearing an entirely inappropriate party dress.”
I laughed and blushed. He looked at me, his brown eyes dancing.
“I knew she was mine. It was like something snapped inside me, and nothing else mattered but freeing myself and keeping her safe.”
“What did they use to keep you from shifting?” Axe asked. He and his brother were identical, but Axe had a hardness to his eyes that Ash did not. I knew from Griegs’ memories that although twins, they were as different as night and day.
“It was an electronic shock collar. It was coated in silver with spikes running around the interior. If a were tried to shift, the spikes would embed in their neck and wouldn’t release until they either passed out from the pain or stopped trying to shift. I saw many die trying to shift.” He regarded me carefully. “Two vampires were coming for Sabrina, and she didn’t see them. I felt like I had the strength of a hundred bears when I wrapped my hands around the collar and broke it so I could shift.”