Chapter 27 #2
Torin growled, long and low, as if warning me of his hunger for me, but I had nowhere to go. His steely arms encircled me in a death grip.
His fangs scraped over my skin, and I froze, anticipating the moment his teeth sank into my flesh. I gasped as his hot tongue licked at the skin of my neck, mapping out the contours and hovering over the skin where my mate should have marked me.
The vampire inhaled my scent deeply, and he hummed with his throat. “You taste as delicious as you feel.”
His rough hands moved to my thighs. I placed my hands behind me on his legs, my breaths turning raspy and fast. I pulled my head away from his, and when I looked at his face, Torin grinned. My throat only grew drier.
“What have you done, Princess?”
“No, I don’t know…”
“Mmmm.” Torin’s nostrils flared, and he inhaled deeply again. “Your scent and your arousal smell divine.”
The grasp of his hands tightened, and I didn’t need to look down to know his talons were out, sharp points poking against my delicate skin. One wrong move and I’d be cut.
Torin dragged a sharp talon over my hips and the side of my breast. Although his touch was rough, he didn’t draw blood.
I’d triggered the vampire's bloodthirsty hunger for me. How much could I reason with him now?
“Torin, how much are you in control right now?”
“Mmm…” He leaned in and licked the spot of my skin under my earlobe. “I bet your blood is as sweet as the taste of your skin.”
I’d let myself become too comfortable around Torin, building up a false sense of safety around him. Now I would pay the price.
My stomach hardened, and I wondered how to stop the vampire. I wanted Torin to mark me, but only when he was in control and when he wanted to claim me.
“Torin, you’ll regret it if you draw my blood.”
He continued to suck on the sweet spot, and more blood rushed to my head. My cheeks flushed.
“The scent of your arousal is like a drug to me.” He ground his hips against mine, reminding me to move.
I rocked my hips, and the vampire closed and reopened his eyes. His erection hardened and throbbed inside me. His lips parted wider, revealing sharp fangs and endless hunger. Torin’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as if his throat had grown parched, and he desperately tried to swallow.
He leaned in again, and I was sure this would be it. He’d taste me, but how far would he go? The vampire’s fangs pricked at my neck, and his hands dug deeper into my hips, urging me to move faster. I obeyed, not wanting to set off the vampire further.
Scraping his fangs against my skin and sucking on my neck, Torin seemed torn between drinking my blood or not. Would his hunger win this time?
I shouldn’t have played this dangerous game with him, pushing each other’s boundaries until we both teetered on the edge. And yet, here I was.
I moved rhythmically above him, meeting each powerful thrust with equal vigor. As a forceful storm, he burst and pulsed inside me for a long moment. He then held me, unmoving, his head still buried in the crook of my neck.
“Torin, you’ll have to shift back,” I whispered.
Just in case.
“I don’t want to. My vampire wants to stay inside you.”
I didn’t mind that, but the chances of biting me increased as we stayed connected.
“You didn’t draw my blood.”
His panting slowed down, his breathing normalizing. “No, I didn’t, but I wanted to. Very much. To the point that I’m ashamed of myself now.”
I sighed in relief and ran my fingers through his soft hair, which started to change color.
The protectiveness of his mate was ingrained in Torin, but that mixed with his vampire desire for my blood only tortured Torin to the point of guilt and shame.
What had come over me to trigger Torin? Why had I done it, even in the heat of the moment? Was I turning into an animal? Or did I have some dormant werewolf gene that wanted to bloom?
I couldn’t shake off the jittery feeling forming in my gut, as if I’d drunk too much coffee. The raw and wild energy that had overtaken me was real. A hidden part of me had awoken only after Torin entered me in the most pleasurable way possible.
Torin pulled away from me, lifted my butt, and deposited me onto the bed. He then walked to the bathroom and immediately returned. I watched his every move with widened eyes.
“Don’t ever do that again, Princess,” he said, but his tone didn’t sound as harsh as when he was in vampire mode. “I was so close to—”
He shook his head and remained standing in front of me. His shoulders slouched and his face grew withdrawn—the signs of Torin building up that wall again.
“I’m sorry that I pushed you too far,” I said.
Torin’s hands clenched into fists.
“It was an instinct I followed. I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would trigger your urge to bite me back.”
Torin walked around the bed and slipped under the covers, his gaze set on the ceiling, hands crossed behind his head. At least he wasn’t walking away.
The sex had been amazing, and yet my eyes moistened. I kept blinking. I wouldn’t let Torin see me cry, and I couldn’t explain why I felt so emotional.
“I always want to bite you, Anna,” he said, and I turned my back to him. “But I wouldn’t do that to you.”
But I wanted him to. Not to drain my blood but to mark me as his.
I couldn’t stop my frown from forming, so I kept sitting with my back toward Torin. My heart ached as if shrinking in size. How would Torin mark me as his mate without biting me, then? Didn’t he plan on fully mating me, or was this a game to him?
“Are you afraid you’ll turn me if you bite me?” I asked.
I didn’t entirely believe that, but I had to be sure.
“No, it doesn’t work that way. A vampire has to have the intent to turn. When bitten, a serum is released from the fangs that starts the transformation. Blood is exchanged between the master and the other party. Then the victim has to drink human blood to complete the transformation to a vampire.”
The victim. This was how Torin saw himself.
“Then why are you so afraid to bite me…well, besides drinking my blood dry?” I tried to keep my voice steady.
“Yeah, that, and biting you would remind me of what was done to me.”
As the silence stretched, the tightness in my chest grew. When I glanced over my shoulder, Torin’s eyes were closed, his icy mask back on his face.
Was he that mad at me that he couldn’t show me some warmer treatment after what we just did? I could only blame myself for pushing him too far when he wasn’t ready. My naked body grew cold, and I fidgeted on Torin’s bed. My muscles stiffened and cramped.
“If you don’t want to bite me, then you couldn’t mark me as your mate. Am I right?” I propped my knee on the bed and turned my entire body to stare at him.
Torin reopened his eyes but kept looking at the ceiling. “Why can’t you be by my side without being marked? Isn’t it enough to just be with me, Anna?”
Why couldn’t he see my point?
“I’m an outsider in the supernatural world, but I also don’t fully belong to the human world. I can’t understand why I was born a human when my parents were wolves. I don’t have a home.” I regretted my snappy tone immediately.
“This pack will be your home,” he said, his gaze still averted.
“No, it won’t. You signal to me and the world that I belong to you and your pack when you mark me. All the mates in the kingdom do that.”
His amber gaze flew to me, and some emotion passed behind his eyes but disappeared quickly. The frosty look he gave me had a chill run down my spine.
I stood and walked toward Torin’s closet. There was one last thing I had to do.
Even when I spoke, I didn’t turn around so he wouldn’t see my tears. “Is it better if I move to my bed?”
“I think it’s for the best even if I want you to stay,” he said.
I took a sharp breath.
“If you don’t mark me, you’re casting me away, making me feel different from all other mates and Lunas in the history of werewolves. I’m already different and an outcast, and you’ll just widen that gap.” I paused, keeping my back toward his bed. “I don’t want to be different anymore.”
The silence that followed made my stomach harden painfully. I couldn’t stop the feelings of being “less than” from overwhelming me.
I drew in a deep breath and stepped inside Torin’s closet.
After wiping my tears with the back of my hand, I pressed on the mirror decoy door for his safe room. I knew he could hear me going inside to take my book, but Torin didn’t say anything and didn’t bother me.
Torin. I was losing him. He was slipping out of my reach. Torin wasn’t meant to be mine.
I was a fool to think I could be his Luna and ignore my duties to the werewolves and to my father.
He couldn’t stand next to me in the kingdom as my mate and my King, even if I wanted him to.
The Alphas and the King wouldn’t allow a half vampire, the very creature they despised, to rule over them.
They wouldn’t take orders from someone with compulsion power, which all werewolves feared and resented.
As I clutched my witch book, walking toward my bedroom felt like I swam against an ocean current, draining my life energy.
I tightly shut the inside door between our bedrooms, slipped on my PJs, and walked to my bed with The Grimoire Book of Athame. My body relaxed against the softness of the mattress as I clasped the book against my chest.
I drew in a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for the inevitable visit to the kingdom.
Seven years after I’d left, I was going back to the kingdom.
The realization hit me hard, bringing back memories of the day I left.
An image of my parents’ ashen faces as my royal family dropped me off at the Los Angeles airport popped into my mind.
Mom’s silent tears almost broke my resolve to leave, and Dad’s heavy sighs made my throat so thick and dry that I couldn’t speak.
Mom had kissed my cheek and walked away, probably not wanting me to see her break down. After Dad hugged me, he’d said, “Come back soon.”
I thought I would never return to the kingdom. Little did I know how wrong I was.