Chapter 3
Rosemary
It was a good thing that I knew what to expect when it came to mates, because I was having a hard time keeping my hands off Daniel. I should’ve been freaking out that I felt such a strong pull toward him. I didn’t even know him.
However, I’d seen the mating bond in action before.
No hesitation on my part would change the outcome.
No second-guessing would make things any easier on either of us.
When I had a few more moments to myself, I could panic and scream into the void about how unprepared I was to meet the person I’d spend the rest of my life with.
I could shake my head in wonder that, out of all the human women in the world, I was one of the few who was connected to a Vampire for all eternity.
I could fist pump a little that my mate looked like that.
But those moments would have to come later. We didn’t have time for them, and frankly, even spending the fifteen minutes apart while I was showering was painful. I’d seriously considered calling him in to sit on the toilet until I’d finished.
“Shoes,” Daniel ordered as I opened the front door.
“What?” I eyed him over my shoulder. God, he was handsome.
“Put some shoes on. You’re barefoot.”
I looked down at my feet.
“You’re going to hurt the bottoms of your feet if you go out running in the gravel again.”
“I didn’t plan on running in the gravel,” I countered.
He just looked at me.
Letting out a long-suffering woosh of air, I slid my feet into my dad’s old slippers and continued outside. The air was cold against my overheated skin, and I’d come to the realization on the couch that I wasn’t actually sick.
The mating bond was making me feel like garbage.
It was the reason for the heat beneath my skin and the cramping in my belly and the pressure in my chest. If I’d been thinking more logically earlier, I would’ve put it together.
To be honest, when Aunt Halle had explained the symptoms to my cousins, I hadn’t been paying much attention.
It was one of the less fascinating parts of the mating bond, and I hadn’t thought it would ever apply to me.
“Why are we outside?” Daniel asked as we stopped at the bottom porch steps.
“Uh, well…” I glanced up at the house and back down at my mate. “I’m the sacrificial lamb.”
“You’re the what?”
“I think they believe that hearing it from me while we’re alone will somehow soothe the wild Vampire beast inside you enough that you won’t start taking heads.”
“Wild Vampire beast,” he repeated flatly.
“The crazy mate beast, yes,” I confirmed.
His lips twitched.
“So here’s the deal,” I said quickly, my words running together because I was speaking so fast. “This isn’t my house.
I live in town. I knew I couldn’t go back there, which is why I had you take me to my dad’s house.
I’m here most of the time anyway, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.
I was taken from the driveway outside my townhouse, and they’re probably watching it, but I don’t plan on going back, so…
whatever. And because of my dad’s history, no one knows where he lives.
Like, no one. He doesn’t get mail here, it’s not in his name, he used an LLC to buy it, you get the picture. ”
“Okay.”
“And I was chosen…Well, I wasn’t really chosen to go in. It was more like I volunteered.”
I could see the muscles in his neck and shoulders tightening.
“Because,” I continued quickly. “I’m trained.
I started training when I was eight years old.
My dad was adamant that I knew how to take care of myself.
The chance of anyone from his old life finding him is minuscule, but he made sure I was prepared anyway.
I’m proficient in jujitsu, better at Muay Thai, and I’m stronger than a lot of men.
Like, a lot. Probably 60 percent of the population.
I’m also very good with any kind of weapon I can get my hands on.
I’m best with pistols, but rifles are a close second.
I’d rather not fight with knives, but I can.
Honestly, I could take most guys in a fight with that beer bottle I was holding when we met. ”
I’d barely stopped to take a breath when suddenly I was flying toward the ground. My back hit the gravel with a surprising gentleness, and I found myself staring into the dark brown eyes of my mate, his lips flattened into a grim line.
“You were saying?” he asked, his hands tightening around my wrists, where he’d locked them behind my head.
“I can see you’re making a point here,” I conceded, breathless.
“You think?”
I shifted my leg, and both of us paused for a moment as his hips notched between my thighs.
“The difference is,” I said, forcing the words out. “I wasn’t on guard because I know you won’t hurt me. With anyone else, I would’ve been more prepared.”
“Sure, you would.”
“They don’t expect a woman can fight. Even a woman who looks like me.”
“A woman who looks like you?”
“You know, big, muscular.”
His look turned incredulous.
“I’m not saying how I look is bad.” I pulled against his fists, but my arms were stuck in his hold. “I look damn good. I’m just saying that I’m not some petite little thing.”
“Thank the Gods,” he said under his breath.
“Want to repeat that a little louder?” I asked, a smile tugging on the corners of my mouth.
“You’d have to be very lucky to come out on top in any fight with a Vampire.”
I relaxed into him, my legs falling wide and my back arching just enough to brush our chests together. Daniel’s eyelids lowered as he sucked in a slow breath. The moment I felt his muscles shift as he let his guard down, I used just my legs and hips to flip our positions.
“You were saying?” I joked, throwing his words back at him as I straddled his thighs.
His lips stretched into a smile as he let go of my wrists and slid his hands up my arms.
“I get it,” he said, brushing my hair out of my face. “You’re impressive.”
“About time you noticed—” I let out a squeak of surprise as he swiftly sat up.
Our faces were less than an inch apart.
“That doesn’t mean that Dalton should’ve ever agreed to that idiotic plan. You know why they held you for so long?”
“I figured they were waiting for something,” I replied, distracted by the way his hands had wrapped around both sides of my throat.
“They were waiting for you to show signs of heat.”
My gut sank.
“We noticed it right away. You weren’t showing any signs of the heat. No sweat. No pain. No jitters. When Chance wrapped his hand around your ankle, you didn’t even flinch.”
“Fuck,” I breathed.
“They’ve been doing this for years, and they know what to look for. They knew you weren’t a Vampire’s mate,” he said, tilting my chin up a little with his thumbs. “So they were waiting to see why the fuck someone had reported you were.”
“They’re on to us.”
“They’ve already researched you down to the hospital where you were born.”
“I was born at home,” I muttered.
“I’m sure they know that now.”
“They spent the week researching me.” The implications of that weren’t lost on me.
I’d never hidden my relationship with the Cavendish family.
Pop didn’t get out much—he preferred to stay close to home—but his friendship with Dalton had never been a secret either.
Dalton reporting that I was Ian’s mate had just sealed the connection.
“You’re putting it together,” Daniel said. “Good.”
“I need to—” I braced my hands on his shoulders to climb off his lap, but he held me fast.
“Dalton’s already realized,” he said easily.
“They know he’s the one looking into them.”
“I’m sure his family is already on high alert.”
My mind raced. I’d done plenty of jobs for Dalton since I’d turned eighteen.
Vampires couldn’t work for Vampire Command—their military force—after they’d found their mates, which meant that a whole lot of mated Vampires possessing a particular skill set had needed a place to use it.
Uncle Dalton had created a company in that vacuum.
Outside the hierarchy of the strict military, Strike had thrived.
There were always people and Vampires who needed help and couldn’t go through official channels.
I wasn’t a Vampire, obviously, but because of my training and background, I’d fit in well with the teams I’d worked with.
Sometimes they needed a human liaison to smooth things over, or a woman to do things a man couldn’t, or just someone who could spend longer stretches away from home, and that’s where I’d come in.
Many times, their mates had come along because they weren’t able to be separated, but they’d never worked with us.
Vampires balked at the idea of their mate walking into sketchy situations.
I’d done security in hard-to-find places around the world, helped a family retrieve their daughter from some creepy-ass religious cult in the south, and helped uncover and prove some corporate espionage. I’d even done threat analysis for a very high-profile Vampire wedding in the South of France.
None of it had ever followed me home.
I’d been a nameless, practically faceless, part of a team. After doing my job, I’d come home with a fat bank account, check in on my pop and Thunder, and go about my regular life.
The physical symptoms of the mating heat had calmed with Daniel in such close proximity, but honestly, I didn’t feel any better. The thought of bringing trouble home to my pop’s doorstep had never even crossed my mind.
“We’ll figure it out,” Daniel said quietly, his thumbs gliding down the front of my throat.
“Who the fuck are these guys?” I asked in exasperation.
I couldn’t imagine that the morons who’d kidnapped me could remember to pay their bills on time, much less organize such a large-scale attack on the Vampire community. They weren’t even close to the head of the snake.
“We don’t know yet. It has to go pretty high, though. They’re targeting new mates, and the only way they’d have that information—”