Chapter 7
It had been three days since Volken and his brothers learned that Caesar Dragic was back in their lives.
Three days of tension so thick it settled in the mansion’s walls like smoke. Every night, they left at sunset, their voices low and sharp with plans and curses, returning just before dawn with more blood than answers.
And every day, I woke alone. Until now.
For once, Volken was still asleep beside me. The room was dim, the shutters drawn tight against the sunlight that would turn him to ash. His arm draped across my waist. The sight of him asleep, still, peaceful, almost human, did strange things to me.
But then the ache in my stomach hit, low and deep, and I groaned.
“Oh, no…” I muttered, sitting up slowly. It didn’t take a genius to know what was happening. I’d gotten my period.
I slipped quietly from the bed, careful not to wake him, and pulled on leggings and a hoodie. My bag didn’t hold much, definitely not what I needed. “Of course,” I whispered, glaring at my reflection. “Of all the times…”
I tied my hair into a messy bun and tiptoed out, the mansion was hushed, sunlight pooling faintly through the tall windows.
I made my way toward the family wing, where I knew Sorcha and Layla would be with the children.
Sure enough, I found Sorcha in the sitting room, perched on a couch with her little girl, Suraya, who was trying to braid her mother’s hair and getting it adorably tangled.
“Runa!” Sorcha smiled as she saw me. “You’re up early.”
“Yeah,” I said, tugging at my sleeve. “Listen… uh… I need something. Kind of… personal.”
Her brow furrowed. “Personal?”
I lowered my voice. “Pads. Or tampons. Or… something.”
It took a beat before she understood. Then her eyes went wide. “Oh. Ohhh.”
“Yeah.”
Her head whipped around toward the door, eyes darting like she was expecting an army to come bursting in.
“What?” I frowned also looking that way.
She stood quickly, scooping up Suraya and setting her down. “Okay, we need to get you back to your room. Now.”
I blinked. “Wait, what?”
“Runa,” she hissed, grabbing my wrist. “You’re bleeding.”
“I know that,” I reply with a frown.
Her expression tightened. “And there are vampires in the house.”
I stared at her for a second, then…God help me…I laughed. “Oh, come on, you’re joking. You mean Volken’s going to… what? Sniff me out and think uuu, snack?”
Sorcha didn’t laugh. “Exactly that, but not just Volken.”
My laughter died.
She hurried me through the hall, half-dragging, half-pushing me back toward the guest wing. I was still giggling nervously, shaking my head. “Okay, this is officially ridiculous. I’m not some walking blood bag. It’s fine.”
“You won’t be saying that once you have been going at it like bunnies.” I hear Sorcha mutter.
We rounded the corner just as Ivan appeared, his usually calm face twisted in sharp concern.
“Sorcha,” he said quickly, his gaze darting between us, nostrils flaring slightly. “What’s going on?”
“She needs to get back to her room now,” Sorcha said.
Ivan’s eyes locked on mine, and I could tell from his expression that he understood exactly what was going on. He stepped forward, gently taking my arm. “Come. Quickly.”
I was about to argue when I heard it…footsteps, fast and heavy, coming from the hall behind us.
I turned, and my breath caught. Volken.
His hair was a mess, his tracksuit pants hung low on his hips, and his magnificent chest was bare. He was barefoot, moving like a predator who’d been startled out of sleep. His eyes were molten silver, his pupils wide and wild.
When he saw Ivan’s hand on my arm, his snarl filled the hall, a sound low and animalistic, vibrating straight through my bones.
Ivan’s hand dropped instantly, palms raised in surrender. “She’s fine,” he said quickly.
“Out,” Volken growled, his voice low and shaking with control. “Now.”
Sorcha grabbed Suraya and backed away fast. “I’ll, uh, explain later,” she whispered to me before darting off.
I turned back just as Volken closed the space between us. His gaze burned into me, his jaw tight. “You’re bleeding.”
I blinked. “I told Sorcha that. You don’t need to…”
“Don’t move,” he warned, the words rough, feral.
My mouth opened, then closed again. “You can smell it, can’t you?”
His throat worked as he swallowed hard. “Every inch of me can feel it.” Okay. Suddenly, Sorcha’s panic made sense.
“I didn’t know it was… like this,” I said softly.
Volken dragged a hand through his hair, breathing hard. “When a vampire’s mated, blood from their mate isn’t just a scent. It’s a call. A demand.”
My stomach flipped. “You mean…”
“I mean I’m about three seconds away from forgetting what self-control is.”
Despite the situation, heat rushed to my face, and lower. “Sorcha said something about… bunnies?”
That earned me a dark, dangerous look and the ghost of a smirk. “She’s not wrong.” he murmured, voice thick as smoke.
Before I could ask what he meant, Volken moved.
In one swift motion, his hands slid to my hips, and he lifted me clean off the ground like I weighed nothing. I gasped, grabbing his bare shoulders for balance as he turned and started down the hall with long, deliberate strides.
“Volken…hey, put me down!” I hissed, glancing around in panic. “People will see!”
“They already saw enough,” he growled, the sound low in his throat as his chest brushed against me. “You’re bleeding, you’re mine, and every fucking vampire in this house can smell it. You think I’m letting you wander around like that?”
“Volken!” I smacked his shoulder, though it did absolutely nothing. “You’re being ridiculous!”
“Ridiculous?” His voice dropped lower, rougher. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me right now.”
Heat flared through me at the edge in his tone, half warning, half hunger. My protests died on my lips as he pushed open our bedroom door with his shoulder, stepped inside, and kicked it shut behind us.
The movement jostled me just enough that I grabbed tighter onto him. My pulse thundered against his chest, and when his gaze caught mine, I saw it, that flicker of restraint, the thin thread he was hanging onto by sheer will.
“Volken…” I whispered, suddenly breathless.
He set me down gently on the edge of the bed, leaning in close enough for his breath to warm my cheek. “You drive me insane,” he muttered, the words barely human anymore.
His pained expression had me amused when I thought what had him this excited, I couldn’t hold back the grin and then a giggle broke through.
“And if you keep laughing at me, I might forget how to stop.”
And that, somehow, made me laugh even harder. I couldn’t help it. The sound spilled out of me, nervous and teasing, cutting through the heavy air between us. And that laugh broke the tension just enough for him to groan, drag a hand over his face, and mutter, “You’re impossible.”
“Apparently irresistible, too,” I said, still grinning as I wiggle my eyebrows at him.
He sighed, the edge softening his expression as he took a careful step closer. “You’re not leaving this room again without telling me first. Not when you’re like this.”
“I was just looking for…”
“Runa.” His voice dipped low, warning.
“Fine,” I said quickly, biting back another laugh. “But next time, I’m making you go buy the pads.”
That almost drew a real smile from him. Almost.
He exhaled hard, eyes softening as he brushed his knuckles against my cheek. “You drive me insane.”
“Good,” I said sweetly. “Someone needs to keep you on your toes.”
His gaze darkened, but there was something else there now, a mix of amusement, frustration, and raw affection. “Careful what you wish for, little one.”
And as he herded me gently back toward the bed, muttering under his breath about stubborn human women, I couldn’t help thinking that for all the danger, all the madness that surrounded us, I had somehow found the one person who could understand my madness.
Even if he occasionally wanted to eat me first.
That thought had me giggling again.
The sound snapped something in him.
One second I was laughing, and the next I was pressed against the wall, his mouth devouring mine.
His hands, his lips, traveling over my body in a scorching path of decadence that has both of us breathless. He makes quick work of divesting me of my clothes, his hands like lightening stripping everything that is in our way.
The hunger between us wasn’t gentle, it was tidal, an unstoppable current that dragged us both under.
When he lifts my legs around his waist and plunges deep into my depth we are both mindless with lust. My gasp of pleasure driving him faster, deeper with abandoned passion.
Every time I thought we’d reached the edge of control, we fell off the cliff again.
It wasn’t careful, or patient. It was need and instinct colliding until the world outside vanished completely.
Hours blurred into a feverish haze of touch and whispered names. When exhaustion finally caught us, it was only long enough for a breath before the pull dragged us back together again.
By the second night, the bond was a wildfire; neither of us could keep away. Volken tried, he always did, but the sound of my heartbeat, the scent of my skin, the very pulse of me drew him like gravity.
And I didn’t want to stop him. Not once.
By the third dawn, we were both wrecked, his voice rough from whispering my name, my body trembling from the relentless rhythm of us. He lay behind me, his arm wrapped around my waist, his breath uneven against my neck.
For the first time since this madness began, the house was quiet. The craving in his blood had eased. And mine, mine felt sated, spent, blissfully still.
I smiled faintly against the pillow, thinking that maybe Sorcha hadn’t been exaggerating after all.
Three days. Three days of heat, hunger, and the kind of connection that rewrites everything you think you know about love.
And when sleep finally took me, I dreamed not of danger or demons, but of Volken, of his voice, his promise, his touch. Because for all the chaos he brought into my life… I couldn’t imagine it without him anymore.