Chapter 1
AVA
The dark-haired Adonis now stationed on my couch is hard to ignore. Even through my closed bedroom door, it’s like an invisible thread is pulling me to him. It’s a tugging sensation in my chest.
Valen.
Does he feel that same tugging feeling?
After the big mate reveal, I panicked and used tiredness as an excuse to shelve the discussion for another day. I know it’s shitty of me when the man has been held captive and just found his mate, but I’m spiraling a little, if I’m honest.
Zavier and I spent weeks trying to find Celine after she’d been taken.
I was still reeling from my break-up with Spencer when she was kidnapped.
Finding out my bestie’s boyfriend is a vampire was the what-the-fuck icing on top of that three-tiered shitshow cake.
Thank God she’s home safe and in one piece, but Valen popping up made me realize how much I internalized while all that was going on.
I was so focused on locating Celine that I pushed my emotions to the side, and now they’re starting to bubble to the surface.
Valen’s hot as fuck, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m curious about him, but the wounds from my relationship with Spencer are still fresh.
Our mutual break-up was the best decision for both of us, but it still hurts.
He was someone I pictured spending the rest of my life with.
I can’t just suddenly turn those feelings off because I apparently have a mate.
I know from Celine that this means Valen is my one, true purest kind of love, but I don’t know him, so it’s hard to see him that way yet.
It was her suggestion that had him moving in with me.
I know she’s thrilled that I have a mate and now I’m even more intertwined in the supernatural world like she is.
I wanted to say no, but when Valen seemed so grateful for a place to stay and explained that he’d been sleeping wherever he could, including the roofs of buildings, I couldn’t do it.
So now there’s a vampire sleeping on my couch.
“Ugh,” I mutter out loud and shove my blankets over my head in exasperation.
Just then, a weird sound comes from the living room. I pause and wait to see if I hear it again. A few seconds later, the murmuring continues and picks up in volume.
My feet softly touch the ground, and I creep over to the door.
If an intruder has already offed Valen, I need to be ready with the boxing skills Celine has forced me to learn.
I’ll karate chop their ass. I might be a mere human surrounded by supernatural creatures, but that doesn’t mean I’m going down without a fight.
Opening the door as quietly as I can, I peek around and scan the room but find nothing out of the ordinary. A thrashing on the couch catches my attention, and I find the source of the noise.
Valen writhes and lets out whimpers of pain in the living room. Acting on instinct, I rush over to him and gently touch his shoulder, avoiding a hit to the face with his swinging arms.
“Hey.” I shake him, but nothing happens. “Valen.” I shake a little harder. “Valen!”
I gasp when a large hand encircles my wrist and grips tightly. Looking down, I make eye contact with Valen’s brown eyes that are wide with panic.
“Ava?” Valen breathes out between short pants. Once he realizes it’s me, he loosens his grip but doesn’t fully let go.
“Are you okay?” I ask, my heart racing in my chest.
The black T-shirt he wears sticks to his sweat-soaked skin, and the urge to push wet strands of hair off his forehead comes over me.
He lays his head back down and closes his eyes. A small tremor runs through the hand that continues to hold me.
“Go back to bed,” Valen finally sighs, and reluctantly releases my wrist. “Sorry for waking you up.” He rolls over, ending the conversation.
I press my lips together, wanting to say more but not knowing what to say. Giving up, I shuffle back to my room, attempting to settle in, but now it’s even harder than before.
Valen has to be haunted by his imprisonment, and the trauma he must hold is immeasurable. This man is an enigma. I know that for certain.
When I finally drift off, I feel the ghostly trace of his touch.
“You’re a vampire. What the fuck, Luna!” I hiss at the woman in question across from me.
Celine and I ducked out for some much-needed girl time over coffee at Bean Hive this morning. Valen was gone when I woke up. I’m secretly glad I didn’t have to face him and may or may not have been practicing what I was going to say in the mirror before I left my bedroom.
“Say it a little louder, why don’t you?” Luna sips her iced matcha nonchalantly.
Celine watches the interaction with a smirk.
“You’ve known this for weeks, Ava.” Luna tips her cup at me.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I level her with a playful glare. “Correct, but we haven’t talked face to face about it yet.”
While Zav and I were searching for Celine, he had plenty of time to fill me in on the supernatural world and how mates work. I had no idea how useful that information would actually be, since I certainly didn’t expect Valen to show up.
“What do you want me to say?” Luna laughs and tosses her blond hair over a slender shoulder.
Her flowy boho top flutters against her body. I wonder how I didn’t notice the ethereal glow to her before. She carries herself with an elegance and grace a normal human just can’t possess.
“U-Uh well,” I stutter. “I hadn’t thought that far. Just what the fuck,” I reiterate and hide behind my coffee after the embarrassing retort.
Luna giggles and Celine snorts.
“The whole vampire thing is crazy, isn’t it?” Celine’s gaze drifts away. She keeps playing it off like she’s fine, just like someone else I’ve recently met. “Have you and Valen properly chatted yet about the situation?” She raises a dark brow at me.
“No,” I promptly respond, and Luna squints at us.
“What situation? Who’s Valen?” she questions.
“Get a load of this.” Celine hooks a thumb at me and lowers her voice. “Not only am I the mate to a vampire, but so is she.”
“What?” Luna gasps, laughter bubbling out of her. “One human being the mate to a vampire is unheard of, let alone two—the fact that you two are best friends makes it even crazier.”
I lift my hands in a what do I know gesture and Luna lets out a harrumph.
“That’s odd,” Luna muses. “Really odd.” With a shake of her head, she asks, “So, you’re avoiding him at the moment?”
My chest rises and falls with a loud sigh.
“Maybe.” I wince and Celine flattens her lips at my lie.
“Okay, yes. I don’t want to get his hopes up when I’m not sure when I’ll be ready for a new relationship.
” I play with the handle of my mug. “Being mates is a huge deal, and I can’t rush into anything.
Look at you and Zav. He follows you around everywhere like a puppy.
I’m not ready for that.” I point to where her redheaded mate sits on the opposite end of Luna’s coffee shop, sipping at a mug that I think might be filled with blood instead of coffee.
When he catches me looking, he looks away and whistles innocently.
“I’m sure Valen understands,” Celine reasons.
“He’s probably feeling very overwhelmed by the state of the world and everything.
He didn’t tell me exactly how long he was held, but it sounded…
” She pauses, shaking her head. “Like an unfathomable amount of time.” She rests a hand on top of mine.
“Meet him where he’s at and just get to know him.
Okay? He probably needs a friend right now more than anything. ”
She has a point. Who am I to act this way toward someone dealing with their own demons and trying to find their way in a new world? A friend seems like an easy enough thing to be to him.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Filled with a new sense of invigoration, I formulate a plan in my head to get to know the quiet, brooding man—vampire—who landed on my doorstep.