Dak knelt down, his rifle thumping the floor with a muted clank. Deuce could feel his impatience with Eden’s drama. Dak did not think Eden was worth risking two leaders of the alliance and had spoken against the healing, though when he addressed Edie, his tone was totally neutral. “Bohdan is not available.”
“He left?” Eden asked, shock freezing her in place.
Dak shook his head. “He is not well either.” His amber eyes missed nothing as he looked at Deuce. “You need to feed.”
“Yes.” Eden’s revulsion was immediate. He squeezed her hand reassuringly.
“You are too weak to hunt safely.” At the word hunt, Eden’s revulsion turned to horror. Mental images of monsters tearing out faceless humans’ throats whirled out from her mind.
Deuce glanced over at Dak. “Your terminology needs work.”
Dak merely shrugged, his thoughts hidden behind his impassive expression and flat catlike eyes.
Deuce tightened his grip on Eden’s hand, preventing her from indulging the need to move away that pushed at her.
Dak glanced down at his hand and then at Eden before meeting his gaze. “It is dangerous for her to remain so ignorant.”
“My mate is none of your concern.”
Dak inclined his head. “True.”
“What don’t I know that I need to?” Edie asked Dak, clearly seeing him as the weak link in the wall of silence around her.
It was a measure of their friendship that Dak remained silent. As the leader of the Pride, he had more than just Deuce’s feelings to consider.
“Dak is concerned that your disobedience will bring harm to the compound.”
“Disobedience? I’m not some child who needs controlling.”
No, she wasn’t. She was human and not used to working within the strict hierarchy of his people and the Others. “You would prefer that I use the term independence to describe your behavior?”
She yanked her hand free to slam it on her hip, her fear turning to the more comfortable outlet of anger. “And what’s wrong with independence?”
The move sent a wave of pain to his already overloaded senses.
Dak frowned, no doubt scenting the weakness. “Be silent and still, woman.”
Eden reacted immediately, jumping to her feet, challenging the Pride leader. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”
Deuce used all of his waning strength to manage the flood of physical anguish pouring from her body to his.
Dak’s lip lifted in a warning snarl any female of his Pride would have recognized. He stood, towering over Eden. “Though it is not my joining ring you wear, I am the one you will listen to.”
Edie gasped and turned red, but didn’t back down. Deuce got to his feet. The spike of healthy fear surging through her at the lion’s threat should have sent her behind him. Instead, it drowned under a wave of fresh anger. Along with that wave came something else, something he couldn’t identify. Dak snarled again and Deuce yanked Edie behind him. She bounced back like a ping-pong ball, hitting Dak in the chest with her hands, knocking him slightly off balance as she snarled back, “I suggest you save those fangs for someone who’s more impressed with them.”
Her foolishness defied description. No Chosen woman would ever endanger herself so.
Between one breath and the next, Deuce grabbed Eden and shoved her behind him. With a flash of his fangs, he ordered, “Stay.” He turned back, ready to battle if Dak wanted satisfaction. “My apologies for my mate’s behavior.”
“She is impulsive,” was all the Other said in the face of the tremendous insult Eden had just delivered, his power banked again behind the mask of placidity.
“Yes.” Deuce ignored Edie’s disgusted snort. “Do you demand satisfaction?”
“Satisfaction?” Edie asked, outrage evident in her tone.
Dak glanced around Deuce. Deuce looked down to find Edie peering around his side, maintaining her challenge of the Pride leader’s dominance.
He pushed her farther behind him.
The way the other man’s arms folded across his chest in combination with the smile playing on his lips told him Dak wasn’t done provoking Edie.
“When a female touches a male of the Pride, it is an invitation to her bed, and if she is mated, an invitation to fight her mate to prove his worthiness.”
Edie blinked and stepped a little closer to Deuce’s back. What in hell had she gotten herself into? From the set of his shoulders to the placement of his feet, Deuce stood like a man issuing a challenge, throwing off waves of testosterone like it was candy at Halloween. In front of him stood Dak, a muscle ticcing in his cheek, tossing back the same invisible challenge to Deuce. Were they about to come to blows?
“Good God! You can’t be serious?”
Dak smiled a smile that did nothing to ease her nerves as it showed the edge of his fangs and his personality. “I am debating my options. You are not displeasing. And you display a ring well.”
She blocked the urge to put her hand over the heavy hoop. There was nothing for him to debate. “I don’t want you in my bed!”
“Then you should not have made the invitation.”
Good God! Had she stepped back to the dark ages? She pulled the comforter tighter around her. “I was warning you off!”
His eyebrow rose in a habit that she was finding annoying. “From what?”
“Hurting Deuce.”
Dak stared at her for second, disbelief, surprise and at last humor spreading across his face. He shook his head, met Deuce’s gaze, and jerked his chin in her direction. “I have decided not to accept her invitation.”
Deuce nodded as if Dak had done him a huge favor, though he didn’t relax. “Thank you.”
Eden wanted to kick him in the shin. She settled for glaring at Dak, who shifted the gun on his shoulder. The twitch in his cheek turned into a smile as he motioned to her. “She is too hard on the ego.”
She couldn’t see Deuce’s face because he kept blocking her attempts to get around him, but there was no mistaking the amusement in Deuce’s voice as he said, “Fortunately, she compensates in other areas.”
She did kick him for that. Not hard, but enough to hurt her toe, and have him grab her wrist and anchor her to his side as she rubbed her toe against her shin.
Dak took in the exchange and laughed out loud. “May the Maker spare me from a human mate.”
“She will learn.”
“No doubt.” The glance Dak cast her let Eden know he was well aware of her distaste at being so discussed. The faint lines by his eyes expressed his amusement with her reaction more clearly than words. He turned his attention back to Deuce and his smile faded. “You are not in good shape, my friend.”
“I will heal.”
“Quick enough?”
“Quick enough for what?” Neither man paid her any attention.
“As fast as I need to.”
“You need blood.”
“Yes.”
“I offer you mine.”
Edie felt Deuce’s shock in the tightening of his body, and in the thickening of emotion in the air. “The offer is generous.”
Dak inclined his head. “I have my moments.”
“It is not without risk.” Deuce’s tone was cautious, but she could feel how much he wanted this. There was more than just a food chain going on here. She looked between the two men. Dak didn’t look any more civilized than Deuce for the fact that he was wearing khakis. Both were males in their prime. Both wore the mantle of authority as if it were made for them. And one was offering his blood to the other.
“The trust must be complete if we are to succeed.”
Deuce nodded, acknowledging the point. “The Chosen are honored by your sacrifice.”
“I’d prefer no one but you and I know of this.”
“Agreed.”
Dak held out his arm and with the claw that suddenly appeared at the end of his finger, slashed his wrist. Blood welled and pooled. Beneath her hand, Deuce went rigid. “
Mate, go shower.”
“I don’t want to.”
The eyes Deuce turned on her were wild, the black pupils swirling with flickering shards of red. His “Do as you are told” reverberated in her ears, in her mind. She went, the order too dark, too compelling to ignore. She closed the bathroom door behind her, but before she pulled it all the way shut, she looked back. Deuce advanced on the other man, the way he moved, the way he held his head was that of a predator stalking his prey. Dak stood as he’d been when she’d fled, relaxed, waiting. She shuddered and shut the door. There were parts of this mate business that were going to take some getting used to.
Chapter Fourteen
Halfway through her shower, Eden’s mental and physical strength gave out. She sat down and let the water pour over her head and body. Too weary, too overwhelmed to do more. She was married to a vampire, had a half-vampire child, and was living among vampires and werepeople. Her family was gone, everything she’d thought her life to be was a lie, and there was no going back. Ever. From here on out she lived as the Others did. On the fringes of society. Hated or revered, depending on the mindset of the person feeling the emotion, but never accepted. In her wildest dreams as a child, she’d never anticipated her life going like this and honestly didn’t know if she could accept it.
Steam swirled as the door opened. “You will accept it.”
Eden looked up through the water pouring over her face, mixing with her tears for all that she’d lost, and saw Deuce. He was stronger now. She could sense it. See it. He’d gotten that way by sucking another man’s blood. “I thought vampires bit people’s necks.”
“Vampire is a human term. I am Chosen.” He opened the shower door. “And that is a pleasure reserved for mates.”
“Great. Can’t wait.”
He held out his hand. She didn’t take it, just stayed where she was, weighed down by the enormity of change. “I don’t think I can do this, Dusan.”
He stepped into the shower and sat down in front of her. “It is already done.”
Water bounced off his shoulders and splattered her eyes. “Maybe the right term would be I can’t accept this.” She pushed her hair off her face. “Good God, you just sucked the lifeblood from your friend.”
“I was honored by his offer.”
“I was repulsed.”
“That is to be expected, but in time, you will understand.”
“That’s what I am trying to tell you. I don’t think I will.”
His sigh was not unsympathetic. “It is my duty to see that you adjust.”
“I don’t want to be your duty.” Why couldn’t he see that? “I don’t want to understand. I don’t want to be weak. I don’t want to be hunted.” Her voice rose with every syllable until her “I just want to be normal” ended on a muted scream.
“I know.” Deuce’s calm flowed over her agitation, muting it. His hand slid behind her head, pulling her into him. “It is my duty to give you whatever you want, but of all your wants, the only one I can help you with is to make you strong.” He tipped her chin up. “Will you let me do that?”
She searched his eyes for some sign that he was holding back. Hiding a secret. She found nothing but compassion. “Do you have to?”
“Your pain tears at me.”
“Then give it back.”
“I cannot.”
“You told me you could do anything.”
“Anything but hurt you.”
“I don’t have the same restraint.”
“It does not matter.”
But it did. It seriously did. “We are so different.”
“Not in the ways that matter.”
“I almost got you killed!”
“My powers are beyond your comprehension, Edie.” He cupped her shoulders in his palms and let them slide down her arms. “The Pride would not have taken you.”
“Because he was teasing?”
“Because I would have killed him.”
“He’s your friend.” He lifted her and drew her forward, draping her hands around his neck.
“You are my mate.”
She balanced her hands on his shoulders and straddled his thighs as he lowered her onto his lap, the hard ridge of his huge cock sliding in the folds of her labia, surging through the wet cleft, catching on the ring, tugging attentive nerves to vibrant life. Her breasts swelled and pushed outward. Her pussy ached and pulsed in answer to the throb of his cock. The hot steam from the shower intensified his scent and then hers, until they blended together—the way her body wanted to be blended with his. So tight and so solid that not a degree of separation remained.
“A pretty dumb mate.” She dropped her forehead to his chest. “I all but propositioned your friend.”
Deuce smiled and opened his hands on her back. “Your ignorance of custom was known.”
“Then why the big deal?” She arched her back and slid her torso side to side, teasing her breasts with the light abrasion of his chest hair on their sensitive tips. She was scared and she was confused, and she just wanted to forget about everything that she had to accept.
“He is the leader of his people. Protocol could not be ignored.”
“Your culture is so backward.”
“I have often had that thought about yours.” His fingertips grazed her skin as they traveled the path from her buttocks to her waist, raising goose bumps in their wake. Desire slammed into her with the intensity of a brand, strong, unmistakable and familiar. So blessedly familiar. She leaned into his chest. His arms came around her, holding her close to the heat of his skin while the warm water poured over her back. She shuddered at the sheer bliss of being in his arms. She’d dreamed of it the whole time she’d been trapped in the makeshift lab, made all kinds of promises to God if he’d just allow her to feel Deuce’s arms around her one more time. She’d needed him so. Which brought up something she needed to deal with.
When she’d first met Deuce, she’d thought he was human, and she’d loved him enough to consider marrying him. When her grandfather had used her to trap him, she’d loved him enough to die for him. And now that she’d found him again, she needed to know if she could love him enough to live for him. In his world and on his terms. She slowly inched her hands up his chest, over the swell of his pectorals. Across the ridge of his collarbone until she could wrap them around his neck. She pulled herself hard against him and tucked her face against his breastbone. “Do you remember that last date we had before everything went bad?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember how I was?”
His whole body jerked and his cock surged up against her, putting pressure on the ring, leaving her no doubt that he remembered how close she’d come to surrendering everything to him that night. “It is one of my fondest memories.”
“Can you make me feel like that again?”
His hand left her hip. Light as down, it settle cross the side of her head, protecting her face from the spray. “Yes.”
“Will you?” His index finger traced her jawline from her ear to her chin. She didn’t wait for him to apply pressure to lift her face, and didn’t wait for him to ask the question she could see in his gaze. “For tonight, I want to forget about everything that’s happened. I want to forget about everything I’ve lost and everything I’ve got to face. I just want to go back to that one night and live it like I’ve regretted not doing every day since. Would you be willing to do that?”
His “Yes” held its own wealth of regret and nuance of hope. She touched the corner of his mouth with her fingertip. “Good.”
He kissed the pad of her finger and sucked it gently. She felt the edge of his fang against the side of her finger. Her first instinct was to pull back, but she stopped herself. This was her man, her mate. She needed to start as she meant to go on, and running scared wasn’t on the agenda. She left her finger where it was and concentrated instead on the brush of his tongue on the sensitive tip. The tingle started in her finger, spread out to her hand, balled and gathered ener
gy before shooting down her arms, shards of the tingling energy stroking every nerve ending on the way, until her entire torso strained for more. She’d probably go to her deathbed wanting this man.
He’d go to his grave wanting her. Almost had once, but she was here now, with her heart open, asking him to give her his fondest wish. A night with no past, no future, just the here and now and what they felt for each other. Deuce looped Eden’s arm back around his neck, keeping his fingers locked around her wrist, sliding them over her arm until the width of her forearm forced him to open his hand. Her flesh was soft and smooth, the fine hairs decorating her skin providing a tantalizing caress to his palm. He would give her everything she asked for but first they had to deal with something else. “Before we can put it all behind us, we need to face one more thing. “
She pulled back slightly, a frown between her brows. “What?”
“You need to feed.”
“You told me I didn’t need to drink blood.”
“You need my blood to make you strong.”
She groaned and dropped her head to his chest. “That’s really going to put a damper on the evening.”
“Not if you let me shield you.”
“You want to start our lives by playing let’s pretend?”
“There is nothing to be proven between us.”
“I’ve always believed in starting as I mean to go on.”
“Trusting your mate to see to your comfort is not a bad thing.”
“Needing him to is.”
“It is right that you need me.”
“Not like that.”
He brushed his lips over her eyelids, closing them. “Any way you need. Whenever you need it. I am your mate.”
“Forever.” She said the word with an edge of fear, without the rejoicing a Chosen would feel.
“Why does that scare you?”
“I can’t even conceive of that long.”
He could, and those endless years had stretched before him with no end and no relief when he’d thought her dead, but now that she was here, he could not see it being long enough. “Then in this, you will allow me to guide you.”
Conception Page 20