Chapter 11 – Rorik
I’m going to lose my fucking mind.
She looks goddamn amazing in that dress and every supe in the club will try to claim her tonight.
I bought that dress for me. Yes, for her to wear, but I was going to give it to her after she agreed to be mine.
Then she started crying when realizing she had nothing to wear out.
I would give her anything in the world if it meant she’d smile like she did while opening that gift. I wish I could have been there in person to witness it, but I had to resort to watching her reaction through the camera feed on my phone.
Now, I stand across the street waiting as Peyton and Aurora exit the black SUV that brought them to Night Cap, a club Vara owns.
It’s one of her smaller ones on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
It’s a bit of a dive, but that’s the vibe Vara aimed for when opening the place.
There’s a band playing tonight, and it’s packed with supes and humans alike.
We’ve been recruiting human allies over the past few months as we prepare to reveal ourselves to the rest of the world.
These humans will be pertinent to how we’re accepted by others.
They’re prepared to advocate for us and convince the rest of their kind that we’re not the awful monsters urban legends have made us out to be.
At least, not anymore.
Once Peyton and Aurora have made it inside, I cross the street and enter the club.
The bouncer, a werewolf, nods as I pass by.
Most supes know who I am at this point. The first vampire kidnapping a woman has been the hot topic for the past five weeks.
Not to mention that I’d been somewhat of a myth until recently when I decided to emerge from the shadows and reenter society.
Plus, I’m incredibly sexy, so I’m hard to ignore and forget.
My anxiety builds at the thought of Aurora making her way through this crowd. Possessiveness consumes me as I imagine supes touching her, intentional or not, while she weaves through the throng of bodies.
I ignore the stares as I push past shifters, gargoyles, demons, vampires, and other mythical creatures—all of them doing double takes. It’ll be harder to hide in the shadows if everyone knows I’m here.
The fast beat of the song the band is playing vibrates throughout my body, loud enough to drown out the barrage of thoughts from everyone around me.
I find Aurora nearly immediately, as if my body is drawn to hers, but my plan tonight is to keep my distance.
To watch my little lamb. She stands at the bar with the gargoyle soldier, waiting for drinks.
Several supes stare or attempt to start a conversation with her, but Peyton is doing a good job of scaring them away.
When the two are handed glasses of alcoholic beverages, they turn and walk toward the dance floor.
They start out barely moving to the beat while chatting and laughing. My little lamb looks absolutely beautiful. A shining light. Her glowing smile warms my dark and damaged soul.
Guilt immediately clouds this feeling. I took this light away from her. I kept her locked up and hidden. She deserves the world, but instead, I made her my world.
It was selfish of me, especially when I don’t deserve this wonderful creature in my life.
I won’t ruin this night for her. I’ll just leave and—
Wait a damn minute.
A beefy bear shifter and a fae soldier hover around the women who either haven’t noticed or are ignoring them while they dance—now more seductively.
I’m too far away to warn off these supes with a growl.
I’ll just… monitor this situation.
OH HELL NO.
The bear put his hands on Aurora’s hips.
She’s leaning into him.
I’m going to lose my fucking mind.
“Don’t do it.”
The familiar voice from behind stops me from taking another step.
“Fuck off, Lochy Poo,” I say to the gargoyle soldier.
Locheran chuckles, the asshole. Normally, that nickname would piss him off. Now he finds it amusing? It wasn’t long ago that this gargoyle would have snapped my neck for saying the wrong thing. Now he’s acting like we’re buddies?
Locheran is the commander of King Xander Basque’s army and his second in command.
Or first in command as the gargoyle wrongly calls it.
His mate, Farrah, stands beside him, smiling at me.
She’s a short woman with as many curves as my sweet Aurora.
Her blonde hair and blue eyes sparkle as she clutches Locheran’s four-fingered hand.
Her pale skin is a drastic contrast to his deep purple.
The gargoyle lifts a brow at me and runs his free hand through his blue hair that falls down his back.
He’s close to my height, an inch shorter, but he’ll never admit to that.
“Hi, Rory,” Farrah says.
You look like shit.
I scoff at Farrah’s wayward thought. Her palm flies to her mouth, and her face turns a deep red.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean for you to hear that.”
Farrah is the estranged daughter of Mally O’Hern.
Even though she refused to be a monster hunter and distanced herself from the family, she still kept in touch with her younger brother, Ethan.
I know this because Xander asked me to dig into her mind and make sure she wasn’t lying.
I saw her relationship with Ethan. She tried to get him to leave the family business.
I should tell her about his ghost. I saw Ethan again the first day I returned to the warehouse to sort through Ciara’s belongings.
He wanted to talk to me… a lot. I get it.
The ghost is lonely, but I’m not much of a conversationalist and told the sunshine man to let me work in peace.
He disappeared, and I didn’t see him the rest of the time I was there. Though I still felt his presence.
I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings, and I plan to return to the warehouse… eventually. But now’s not the time to bring up his existence to his sister.
I need to rescue my mate.
“A pleasure, as always,” I say to the two, not responding to Farrah’s comment even if it’s true.
I look like shit because I haven’t truly rested since the night my heart stopped beating. I’m also stressed as fuck about everything happening in my life right now. I’m sure my appearance reflects that.
I flip Locheran off before turning away, his bellowing laugh fading as I put some distance between me and the couple.
This situation mimics one I found the gargoyle in just months ago. He got jealous when Farrah became turned on in a room full of monsters. He wasn’t guarding his thoughts from me, and I heard his plan in his head before he followed through.
He picked up his mate and carried her out of the room.
And that’s exactly what I’m about to do with my mate.
I zone in on my little lamb, stalking her as I slowly make my way through the crowd. As if sensing my presence, she lifts her head and locks eyes with me. They widen and her entire body stiffens.
Peyton and the two supes chatting with them notice her strange demeanor and follow her stare.
The bear shifter and fae give each other a knowing look before leaving.
Good. I’m not looking to kill anyone tonight.
The only thing stopping me from following the two supes and ripping their hearts from their chests is fearing Aurora will witness the violence and learn exactly the type of monster I am.
Peyton scoffs and rolls her eyes before stepping in front of Aurora and crossing her arms.
“Absolutely not, vampire.”
I narrow my eyes at the gargoyle. “She needs protection from all these supes.”
“I’m protecting her.”
“It’s not enough,” I growl, loud enough that a few monsters and humans near us turn to see what I’m yelling about.
“What do you mean it’s not enough?” Aurora asks, peering around Peyton’s body.
I push the gargoyle out of the way and grab Aurora by the wrist to drag her further out onto the dance floor. The bodies part to give us some space. Not a lot, but enough that no one touches us.
Good. The only one who should be touching Aurora is me.
Peyton follows but keeps her distance. She knows she physically can’t stop me. Or maybe she’s not doing anything because she doesn’t want to make a scene.
Or because Aurora isn’t fighting me off.
I twist my little lamb around, bringing her back to my front.
Leaning in so my mouth is next to her ear, I say, “It means… I’m going to claim you. Right now. Here on the dance floor in front of everyone.”
“What? No.” She wiggles, attempting to get out of my hold, but I refuse to let her go.
The band is playing a cover of Purple Rain by Prince.
Perfect.
I sway us to the beat, rubbing my hands up and down Aurora’s arms. She shivers, but at least she’s not trying to get away from me.
“If I claim you,” I say, running my nose against her neck, “then every supe in this club will know you belong to me. They won’t touch you. They won’t come near you.”
“Maybe I want them to touch me. Maybe I want to be flirted with,” she says, her voice breathless.
I drop my fangs and scrape them along her skin. She whimpers, letting me know how badly she wants me to bite down.
“You must know that I will kill any fucker who touches you, who flirts with you.”
She scoffs. “That’s ridiculous, Rorik.”
“I kept you my captive for five weeks. Do you really think I’m being ridiculous about this?”
She yelps when I spin her around to face me. I tug her closer to my body and take her chin between my thumb and forefinger, lifting her head to meet my eyes.
“My feisty little captive.”
My lips graze over hers before moving along her jaw. She inhales a sharp breath and squirms in my arms again.
The sweet scent of her arousal reaches my nose, and I groan.
If I can smell her, so can every supe near us.
I nip at her earlobe, and a sigh escapes her plump lips.
“I’m going to fuck that tight little cunt of yours with my fingers now, Little Lamb.
Then I’m going to bite you.” I skate my fingertip along her neck, over her fast-beating heart.
“No dream. No waking up in bed. Just us, right here. Right now.”
She shakes her head. “No. I don’t want you to bite me.”
I tsk. “What did I say about that word?”
“What… what word?”
“‘No.’ You keep using it when you don’t mean it. Remember your word, Lamb?”
I pull back to see her. She searches my eyes, brows furrowed. As if still not believing we share dreams.
“Captive,” she finally says.
“And do you want to use it now?”
She shakes her head, no hesitation.
I smile, baring my fangs, and take her face in my hands. She licks her lips, readying them for me. I lean down, my mouth centimeters away.
“I’m going to kiss you now, okay?”
“Please.”
The breathless word is a beautiful plea.
My lips collide with hers, and the world around us fades away.