Chapter 9
Nine
Mina
My feet hurt, but I couldn’t stop smiling.
Lucinda grabbed my hand, and I watched as she made eye contact with Rainer, then blushed and smiled.
“You’re lucky. Rainer must be a kind male.”
She snorted. “He was anything but kind when I first went home with him. He was surly and snappy and distant.” Then she shook her head and her face softened. “But he was pushing me away because he was afraid he’d hurt me.”
“Really?” I glanced up at Nero, and my heart thumped when I found his gaze locked on me. I quickly turned back to Lucinda.
“There’s more to these males than they choose to show us and, I guess, more than even they know. I had to force Rainer’s hand. I was scared, but I refuse to live an eternity miserable. My parents love each other deeply. I’ve seen what that looks like, and I wanted it, so I made it happen.”
“How?”
She bit her lip and blushed a deeper pink. “Their drive to mate us is extremely strong and painful.” I knew that part, about the pain, though Nero hid it well. “So, I used my, uh…body to…to tempt him.”
“You did?” Heat flushed through me.
She nodded and giggled. “I pretended I didn’t know I was doing it. He fought hard, trying to hold on to his control, but they were no match for me.”
“They?”
She snapped her mouth closed.
“Lucinda?”
Her gaze darted to her mate, and she bit her lip, then looked back at me. “Rainer has an…inner beast, and sometimes he transforms completely. That’s why he was so scared that he might hurt me.” She squeezed my hand. “Rainer’s beast may be unique among his brothers, but I think they all have their own inner beasts in one form or another. It’s our job to tame them, and to take what we deserve.” She straightened her spine. “They claimed us, but no one said we don’t get to claim them as well.”
I stared down at her, my pulse racing. My parents loved each other as well; it was something I’d always wanted for myself. Was Nero’s behavior and his odd demands because he was scared he’d hurt me, like Rainer had been with Lucinda? Sometimes I looked into his eyes, and what I saw staring back froze the blood in my veins. He was struggling for control, even I could see that.
What would happen if I fought for more? If I pushed and tempted Nero?
What would happen if I made him lose control completely?
Nero
“Did you have fun?” I asked Mina as we headed down the stairs, heading back to her room. I needed to know. She’d seemed to be enjoying herself tonight, but I needed to hear her say it for some reason.
She smiled up at me. “It was the best night of my entire life.”
I will give you anything you want, but in return I want my freedom.
Her words reverberated in my head, coming back to me time and again since she’d said them. After finding out that Rainer, of all our brothers, had mated his female, I was struggling to hold on to my resolve. Not to mention seeing her dancing in that pink dress that she’d taken a pair of scissors to, and baring too much of her smooth, supple skin.
It also didn’t help that I needed to feed. I had to get away from her, now, before it was too late, before I snapped and took her vein, then proceeded to take everything else I wanted from her.
Pretender was walking toward us. “Take Mina to her room.”
She spun toward me, a look in her eyes that made my stomach grip impossibly tight. “You’re leaving?”
“There’s something I need to do.”
“But—”
Somehow, I turned away, cutting her off. I forced myself to walk back down the hall, then quickly used my key and strode through my private entrance into The Vault.
The club was busy, as always, and I stood there, scanning the room for a donor. I wanted Mina’s blood, but drinking from her alone would only make my craving for her even worse. I hadn’t fed since the blood moon ceremony, and usually that wouldn’t be a problem. I could go weeks without feeding, but not with my little bonded so close.
I took my place in the booth at the back of the club. It was in shadow, and a good place to watch what was going on. A male, a regular here, and one I’d never fed from, walked by. He’d do. I crooked my finger at him.
The male froze for a split second, then rushed to my side.
Feeding was a sexual experience, and in the past, I would have allowed this male to get himself off while I fed. Once upon a time, I might have fucked him. But fucking anyone but Mina didn’t interest me—as it was, I’d have to choke this male’s blood down.
“Sir, I am at your serv—”
“Did I say you could speak?”
He quickly shut his mouth.
I dispassionately took in the pulsing vein at his throat. I desperately needed to feed, but my fangs wouldn’t even drop for him. That had never happened to me before, and now I knew they wouldn’t, not for him and not for anyone else because they weren’t my bonded, they weren’t Mina. She was all I wanted.
With a snarl, I shoved him away. “Leave.”
He scrambled back, almost tripping in his haste to escape. Pretender appeared at my side a moment later, placing a glass of bourbon on the table in front of me.
“Did she say anything when you took her to her room?” I asked him.
“No, she was quiet.”
Every muscle in my body tensed in anticipation of me standing, of walking back through this club, back into the hall, and down to her room.
Why was I resisting? I could keep her safe. I was one of the most feared vampires in this realm—and in many others.
Because she makes you weak.
Growling under my breath, I snatched up my glass and downed its contents, but it wasn’t what I fucking wanted.
A familiar heartbeat reached out to me suddenly, beating fast, frantic, and my head shot up in time to see Mina enter the club on the other side of the room.
“How did she get out of her room?” I snapped at Pretender.
The younger vampire quickly searched his pockets. “My keys, they’re gone. She fell…she grabbed for me, she—”
“Are you saying she picked your pocket?” I scented him. “Then why can’t I smell her on you?”
“Because I changed.”
“Wise.” The mood I was in, I would have torn him to fucking shreds if I’d scented her on my ward. There is no way he would have given her his keys willingly. He would never betray me that way. It didn’t matter that he’d been a loyal servant to me for many years, with my lack of control, there would have been no stopping it, and he knew it.
“I’ll take her back to her room,” he said.
I shook my head, stopping him before he took a step. “Leave her, but stay close, make sure no one touches her.”
Pretender nodded and slipped around the edge of the room.
Sitting back, I watched her take in the club. Her pulse was wild, and over the scent of lust and blood, hers reached out to me, coiling around me tight.
My little doll thought she’d outwitted me, but I realized as she stood there, blushing and wide-eyed, that what she was seeing in this room was having an effect on her. Her control was nowhere near as strong as mine, and maybe seeing others drink and fuck would make her hunger for my vein. Maybe it would have her begging for my touch. I wanted that on a primal level, for my female to want me, to need that from me, with a ferocity that consumed me.
She still hadn’t seen me, but I could tell she was searching for me. As she got closer to where I was sitting, I stood and slipped into the shadows, moving around the edge of the room so I was standing behind her.
So many eyes were on her now, so many lustful, hungry eyes.
No, that wouldn’t do at all.
Closing the space between us, I grabbed her slender throat from behind and pressed my mouth to her ear. “Not enough fun for one night, Lalka?”
She sucked in a startled breath but didn’t try to pull away. “I—I was looking for you.”
“Were you? And why is that?”
She was panting now. “Because I wanted to spend some time with you.”
I didn’t know what game she was playing, but if she wanted to play, I’d play. I curled my other arm around her waist and walked her forward, to the back of the club, where my booth was in shadows.
Sitting, I pulled her onto my lap, so her back was pressed to my front. I expected her to try to wriggle away, to fight me, to tell me I wasn’t permitted to touch her, but she didn’t. She sat where I put her, posture rigid.
I gently took hold of her jaw. “You went to all this trouble to escape your room and get into my club because you wanted to spend time with me, yes? Because you wanted to see what was going on in this room? Well, I’m in a giving mood, Mina.” I pulled her more firmly against me and pressed my mouth to her ear. “So you’ll sit here, and you will watch.”