15. Ezra
FIFTEEN
ezra
It’s okay, I’m here. You’re safe,” I told her, holding her tight against my body.
She was still shaking as I pulled her out of the store, leaving the werewolf’s corpse on the floor with his throat ripped out.
I hadn’t wanted her to watch—hadn’t wanted her to see how brutal I could be.
Because no matter what happened, I would never treat her like that.
“What the hell was that?” She panted.
“A werewolf,” I growled. “They’re our mortal enemies.” One who clearly had a grudge and a bone to pick with all vampires, even though I had nothing to do with his daughter’s death. I’d overheard enough of the conversation before I’d stepped in, my body intent on keeping my mate safe from harm.
He touched her, and therefore he needed to die.
“Why did he come after me? I don’t understand.”
“Because you smell like me,” I muttered, averting my eyes. Or at least she had before she got werewolf blood all over her. Now she smelled repulsive. My insides itched with the desire to wrap her up in my arms, to erase that god awful wolf smell and replace it with my own.
Her natural scent was my favorite, of course—the faint smell of roses and cherries that seemed to cling to her clothes and her pillow. Not that I’d sniffed it.
“Because I smell like you?” She repeated my words, indignant. “What the hell, Ezra?”
I grimaced. “Didn’t any of the other witches in your coven with mates explain it to you? It’s classic mate biology.”
“How would I have known? We don’t exactly go around advertising our personal lives, and I definitely didn’t get a chance to talk to any of them about this.”
The realization dawned on me quickly. “You didn’t tell your friends we were mates?”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest, crushing the shopping bags to her. “When would I have had time? You whisked me away pretty fast.”
I glared at her. “Whose fault was that?” She’d been the one to insist that she didn’t want to be with me immediately after she’d found out about our matehood.
“Not mine!” Rina opened the back door, dropping her bags on the seat. Ambrose popped his head up, clearly looking around for his new mother, letting out a small chirp.
I let out a huff as I opened the trunk, fishing around for a clean towel.
“Here you go,” I handed it out to her.
She eyed the cloth with disdain. “What’s this for?”
I wrinkled my nose. “To clean the blood off. You reek of wolf.”
Rina made a strangled sound. “Are you kidding me?”
“No.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I almost got killed, and all you can tell me is I stink? Fuck you, Ezra. Maybe I should take Ambrose and go. Better yet, I’ll call Damien and ask him to take me home.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Get in the damn car, Sabrina,” I growled.
“Or what?” She bit back.
A rumbling sound came from me, one that I couldn’t quite explain the source of. “Or I’ll make you. And you won’t like that.”
But I did. I liked the sound of that a little too much. Just like I loved the idea of chasing her if she ever ran from me. Fuck, that thought had me half hard in my pants. “Let’s just go. I don’t want to be here when someone comes sniffing around, trying to figure out what happened.”
“But the man inside—”
“Relax. I took care of it. Humans won’t suspect what really happened.” Not unless we were still here. Then we’d have bigger fish to fry.
She let out a hmph before rubbing the towel—my towel—across her shoulders. “Fine.” She smiled at me sweetly, blinking up at me with her big, hazel eyes. “Is that better, baby?” I could feel the sarcasm dripping out of her, and all I could do was grunt.
“Come on. Let’s go before your raccoon decides we’ve taken too long and gnaws on my leather seats.” Though the creature seemed content, wrapped up in Rina’s hoodie and my shirts. Both of our scents had intertwined on it, and gods. It was maddening.
Particularly because I knew that would never be my reality.
Rina finally got in the car, cradling Ambrose on her lap before pulling some items she’d bought out of her bag.
I was impressed by the way she’d been so quick on her feet, using her magic to protect herself. Of course, a half feral werewolf wouldn’t have been stopped by aura magic alone, even if she’d tried.
She needed a better way to protect herself. Against werewolves and vampires, let alone the other creatures that lurked in the night. If an undead had found her… I shivered. No, we weren’t going there.
Something silver. Werewolves were extremely weak to pure silver. I nodded to myself, already thinking of what I could give her to guarantee that never happened again.
Rina was fine. She was safe, sitting in my car, nuzzling her baby raccoon. Even though we still had a long drive back to my home, at least I would protect her.
Though one thing was going to change: I wouldn’t let her out of my sight again.
After the sun had risen the next morning, we’d both agreed to check into a hotel, bleary-eyed and exhausted from the events of the night. Rina had immediately showered, still feeling gross from the idea of blood splatters from the feral wolf on her.
I’d felt better instantly when she stepped out, smelling like herself again.
I lounged on the bed with one leg crossed over the other, idly flipping through a random book I’d found in the drawer, not really reading.
I just needed a distraction from my mate wearing that tiny set of silk pajamas.
It was an improvement from just a towel, but my cock didn’t care about the difference.
Fuck. I needed release, to stroke my erection until I came, to let all of this tension pour out of me so I could stop thinking about getting Rina back on top of me.
It was hard not to touch her.
Even harder when we were sharing a bed once again, though tonight, she had Ambrose curled up in her arms. After bathing him and dressing his wounds, she’d gotten him to eat a bit of wet food, feeding him small amounts every few hours.
He looked a lot less feral after she’d gotten rid of the dirt and grime that had come from living in the wild.
“Such a good boy,” she cooed to the animal.
He’d already perked up, appearing less like the injured, malnourished animal we’d found on the side of the road and more like…
hers. Maybe he was special. The way he brushed his nose against hers, cuddling into her chest, didn’t feel at all the way a wild animal would react to a human.
Though, maybe it was just her. Something about her was so endearing, even when she was infuriatingly stubborn and unable to budge.
Over the last two days, I’d realized I actually liked that about her.
It was her strength—her armor. I couldn’t deny there was some magnetic attraction I felt towards her, some part of her that kept drawing me back in.
Whatever feelings she buried deep inside, I recognized a part of myself in her. A wounded part that I longed to hold, to reassure that everything would be okay. I didn’t know if it would, but I hoped so.
Hoped I could figure out a way to make her happy, with or without this mate bond she resented so much.
Still, there was something about my mark on her wrist that made me want to keep it there forever—and never let her go.
Something Archer told me kept ringing in my brain. If I made her like me, would she want to stay?
We were both quiet as we began the final stretch back to my manor. There was so much I still hadn’t told her—things I hadn’t explained, conversations that I owed her—and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to explain any of it.
Maybe because I knew that once I had, everything would change.
Once she knew my past, who I really was… could she ever choose me or this life?
“Pretty deep in thought over there, aren’t you, vampire?”
My vocabulary had turned back to barely there responses of grunts and acknowledgements. “Yes,” I muttered.
“Care to share with the class?” She fluttered her eyelashes at me, her eyes sparkling. Fucking sparkling. The witch was unreal. If I didn’t know we couldn’t affect each other with our powers, I would think she was using her magic on me.
But no, that was all her.
“No,” I grunted.
She sighed. “You sure have a small vocabulary for being so old.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m immortal, not senile. You make me sound ancient.”
Rina hummed, a small smile touching her face. “Whatever you say, Ezra.”
The raccoon in her lap gave a chitter of agreement. “Not you, too,” I said to the creature. Ambrose barked, and then curled back into Rina’s lap, clearly cozy and content.
Pulling my eyes away from my mate and her familiar, I hid my small, secret smile. Rina had no idea how adorable she was, even when she was irritated with me.
I’d almost lost her, and that had shaken me to my core.
It also made me realize that I had a new mission: to make her like me. Somehow, I was going to make her mine.