Chapter Fifteen

Scott

I slid off Terrick’s lap and instantly missed his warmth and his big, thick dick pressing against me. Still, vampire-to-vampire intimacy could get bloody fast. It was best we were both well-fed before things really heated up. I touched my face and the back of my neck, checking for signs of heat. Not yet. That was a good thing. Usually, the pull of the true-mate response magic gave you a few days to get to the point, but it wasn’t the only magic at play. Something, not quite as big or old, was working on us too. Whatever magic Frost cast was sealing the hound inside of Terrick. Every time I got another whiff of him, he smelled more and more like the pit hound as if they were merging right under my nose.

I started toward the freezer, but Terrick cheated and used his extra boost of Alpha speed to beat me there.

“I’ll cook for you,” he said, pointing at a chair.

“Nope,” I said and hopped up on the table instead.

“Easier to eat off a plate who puts himself on the table,” he teased as his eyes raked over my naked torso. “And,” he opened the freezer, “what a beautiful plate you are.”

“I’m adding that to my bio online. I’m a plate now.”

“Only for me,” he said, his voice going deeper as he pulled a couple of the mixes for the bloodshakes out of the freezer.

“Probably,” I teased him.

“You best be talking about puppies,” he said, his voice full of a growl he didn’t seem willing to let out.

“Quit reading my mind,” I laughed and stretched out on the table.

Thankfully, there wasn’t a frilly centerpiece to get in the way. As I watched the muscles in Terrick’s bare back move as he flitted around the kitchen grabbing stuff before starting up the blender, I wondered how many centerpieces were broken in these houses meant for romping.

I ran my hands over my chest and stomach as the blender roared to life rattling up everything inside me. I played at the peak of one hard nipple sending tiny jolts of longing straight between my legs. The smell of the blueberry bloodshakes filled the house but did little to hide Terrick’s scent. He was everywhere already, the only scent my brain would home in on. I breathed him in again and again until he was the only one on my mind. Right now he was the only one who mattered. I had to save him. I had to find a way to keep him here with me. This magic tugging at my navel would be my undoing too if I didn’t. I meant it when I said I’d follow him anywhere – even straight through the doors of life and death.

I shook away the thought. I was a Hemlock-Knight. We did not give up that easily. We did not bow down to fate. If we did that my siblings and I might not even be here.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Terrick asked when he turned the blender off.

“You,” I said, narrowing my gaze to his.

“That’s ironic. I was thinking about you too,” he said, opening cabinets until he found the glasses.

Then he went on the hunt for spoons. I rested my arms behind my head watching him zip around the kitchen until he was happy with the way the drinks were served up. Then he was in the chair he out with our drinks in hand. I sat up and scooted to the edge of the table. He grabbed one foot and then the other, and set them on his thighs as if he were afraid I’d get hurt by dangling my feet around.

I reached for one of the cups, but he held up a spoonful of the shake instead. I made a show of parting my lips just enough to wrap around the spoon. He licked his lips as I sucked the shake off the metal and the coppery notes of blood and blueberries filled my head. Leaning down I kissed him, letting him taste what I did. Spoonful by spoonful, he fed me the shake. My toes curled into the muscles of his thighs and I ran my hands over any of him I could reach. This is what life was supposed to be like. This moment right here – the edge of anticipation and the coppery taste of blood.

“I noticed they didn’t have any pineapple ones in there,” he said.

“Huh?” I blinked.

“No pineapple bloodshakes.”

“Do they make them? Wouldn’t the pineapple just break down the proteins in the blood?” I blinked.

“Not if you do it right. Maybe it’s just an us thing,” he shrugged.

“An us thing?” I grinned. “Someone’s having his memory sparked. How many vampires did you spoon feed like this before me?”

“Since I don’t remember ever doing this, I’ll say you’re the first,” he smirked.

“I like that answer.”

He stood up and cupped my chin. His lips claimed mine in a long, slow kiss sending a cascade of shivers down my back. I kissed him hard, meeting every sweep of his tongue. He guided me backwards until I was flat on the table again. Gripping my ribs, he pulled me up until my feet didn’t hang off the edge.

“Do you need a pillow?” he looked around before I could answer and grabbed the clean dish towels from the hangers and folded them up. “Up,” he motioned at me.

I raised my head up enough for him to slide the makeshift pillow under it and grinned up at him. He leaned down and kissed me hard. His tongue swirled around my mouth, playing with my tongue and my fangs. When the kiss broke, he glanced down my body, his eyes stopping on my fly. I took his hand and slid it down my belly to my dick. He squeezed and I bit my lip to hold back the moan that came from a million nerve endings all standing up at once.

In one swift, vampyric motion, Terrick had my fly undone and my pants off. From the bottom edge of the table, he leaned over me and kissed my hard dick through the black cotton of my briefs. He kissed it hard making my back arch as he slid his mouth down the cotton to my balls. His tongue drew quick zigzags over my sensitive flesh and even through the cotton it was enough to send me scrambling around for something to hold onto. Then his hand was there, resting on my chest, and I grabbed it, holding onto him as he teased me with his mouth. My heels came to rest flat against the table as I arched my hips to meet his hungry mouth.

His thumbs slid into the waistband of my briefs and tugged them off. His mouth found my scrotum again, skin to skin this time. His warm breath played over my skin and a chill shimmied down my spine as his tongue found me again, this time with nothing separating us. I gave into him, surrendering my pleasure, while my nails dug into his flesh. He sucked one of my balls into his mouth, his tongue tormenting me until I panted. Then his mouth was gone, and he picked up the glass still filled to the brim with his bloodshake.

My legs trembled, wanting more. My wolf whimpered, desperate for more of his attention, but I swallowed down the sound before it echoed out of my throat. He circled around to the head of the table again and stuck his finger into the bloodshake as if testing the temperature of it. Then he smeared it across one nipple and the other. It wasn’t as cold as I expected, but it was cold enough to send a cascade of goosebumps over my skin.

Terrick flashed me a wicked grin as he ducked his head and licked over my nipple. My back arched again as the warmth of his mouth and the chill of the bloodshake fought for control of my nerves. He licked the other nipple clean too before drizzling a line of it down my belly. My fingers played through his hair as he licked, kissed and sucked me clean before doing it again. This time the line drizzled a little lower, just beneath my navel. He stopped there, his tongue swirling over my bellybutton. I arched my back, needing him to go lower, but Terrick wasn’t done playing with his food. He finished licking away the bloodshake drizzle just to do it again. This time he poured more of the shake on me than before, it slipped and slid down my stomach in little streams heading south toward where I silently begged his mouth to return to.

His tongue followed the rivers and streams licking me clean and sending a wave of need shooting into every atom inside me. I arched my hips and he flashed me a smile that said he was enjoying revving me up. His tongue traced over the light lines between my lean muscles working his way lower but stopping before he went low enough.

Just when I thought he’d lick and suck at me forever, he sat back down in the chair and tugged from behind my knees until my feet were back on his muscular thighs. I dug my toes into him, reveling in how his muscles flexed under me. I propped myself up on my elbows to watch what he’d do next.

His long finger sank back into the cup of bloodshake. I expected him to drag it along my shaft or scrotum, but instead he reached up and offered it to me. I sucked his finger clean, teasing him by swirling my tongue around his fingertip the way I wanted to move it around the head of his dick. He pulled his finger away but didn’t slide it back into the cup. Instead he took a long gulp of the bloodshake before opening his mouth over my dick. The cold liquid shimmied down my shaft as he slid his mouth right behind, it warming me up before it was too cold to feel anything but good. I lost myself to his mouth as he slid up and down me over and over, stopping only to refill his mouth-supply of bloodshake. Everything inside me drew up tight. It’d been a while since I let anyone this close. It’d been never since I wanted someone to touch me forever like Terrick was. I arched my hips, meeting his mouth as it sank down over me, taking me in entirely. His bloodshake-sticky fingers rolled my balls around, teasing them even as they grew heavy and close to my body.

“Terrick!” His name bubbled over my lips as he pressed the flat side of his tongue against my shaft as he drew his mouth up my dick.

The corners of his mouth twitched like he might have smirked if he wasn’t so preoccupied with the task at hand. I thrust up again and his hands found my hips and held me in place. I pushed against his grip, reveling in how strong he was, but how safe his fingers made me feel at the same time. The same fingers that now held me in place while he blew up my train of thought would protect me if I needed him to.

His warm mouth slid up me again and stopped at my tip. His gaze flickered to mine as he drew crazy, erratic spirals over the head of my cock. I pushed against his grip but got nowhere except more pleasure. He held me hard as he teased me until I couldn’t hold back anymore. Every inch of my body trembled as I exploded into his mouth, releasing all the pent-up pleasure his affections put me under. He teased me, drinking down that pleasure until not a drop was left.

I rested an arm under my head, panting as he leaned back in the chair, smirking and satisfied with himself. That fucking smirk as going to be the death of me.

“You taste good,” he said, leaning back to observe how limp and content his work left me. “You rest and I’ll clean up from our snack.”

I opened my mouth to say if he gave me a minute, I’d wash up the cups and the blender, but he was already moving. I turned my head just enough to watch him zip around the kitchen putting everything back as it was and then wash his hands. He dried them on a dish towel he found in the pantry before coming back to the table. He leaned over me and we kissed hard, despite my panting. I kissed him like he was my oxygen because I didn’t think I could live without him now that I met him.

“I’ll be right back,” he said and disappeared into the house.

I blinked at his sudden and speedy departure. A door opened and then another further inside the house.

“He’s looking for the bedroom,” my wolf offered up into my thoughts.

I blushed. How in the name of Juda could I still blush after his mouth spent at least twenty minutes on my dick? I didn’t know, but I could. Everything inside me drew up tight again as I imagined him sinking into me. Then would come the claiming bites.

“Then we unlock his memories and tell Frost he can’t have him,” my wolf reminded me.

I took a deep breath and let it out before I could sink back into the land of my worries. Yes, we would save him, but this was also our first time together. We’d never get these minutes back.

Fortunately, Terrick returned to the kitchen and swooped me up off the table before I wandered too far into the labyrinth of my thoughts. He carried me through the house and down the hall into the only open door there. Terrick lay me gently on the bed, not bothering to turn on the light before he crawled in with me. We were both vampires after all. The dark meant nothing to our eyes. I tried to pull him in for a kiss, but he was out of the bed again, stripping out of his pants and underwear before returning to my side.

In the dark, his eyes glowed blue now, another sign that the pit hound and he were becoming more and more like me and my wolf. I kissed him hard before he could speak, and the room grew darker as his eyelids drifted shut. We lay on our sides, kissing with swollen and nicked lips. Each sting was a promise of love and I reveled in them. I found his dick, hard and ready, and stroked him. He murmured words of pleasure against my lips that I couldn’t decipher.

“Was that even English?” I laughed when the kiss broke.

“Some type of elvish. Sometimes I think in it too,” he whispered. “Something left over from our culture back in the Other World, I’d guess.”

“I can’t wait to find out everything about you,” I said, squeezing his dick hard until his eyelids fluttered with longing.

“Me too,” he let out a breathless chuckle. “Me too, mate.”

I shifted toward him. The small movement let me know how slick I still was. I wanted him inside me – every last thick inch of him, inside me.

“Are you okay with doing the claiming vows with the way things are?” he asked, managing not to trip over his words while I continued to stroke his silky, smooth shaft.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You’re mine. You don’t get to escape me that easily,” I laughed, trying to smooth out the tension clinging to his expression.

“Because for all you know I’m the end of the world,” he said, locking his glowing gaze to mine.

“Then we’ll build a new one,” I shrugged one shoulder and slid my hand back up his dick. “You’re mine. We’re true-mates, Terrick. I don’t believe for a second that you’re a monster. You’re you and you’re mine and if we found one another in the Other World and chose each other for all time, I know you. Something deep and primal inside me knows you. I don’t know what happened to you or what you did, but you’re not a monster.”

“I wish I were as confident about that as you are,” Terrick flashed me a soft, sad smile.

“You will be. We’ll find out, together,” I said.

“I don’t want the claiming vows to show you that I am a monster,” he said.

“They won’t,” I shook my head.

“With our luck they won’t show you anything.”

“Hey,” I said, sitting up and letting go of his dick. “I’m going to tell you something right now, mister. Frost might be the almighty progenitor of one side of my family, but he’s not the be all end all of any damn thing, okay? He’s strong. He’s magical. The true-mate magic outdates him. He had to go back to the Other World to get it for him and Juda and bring it over here. He couldn’t just call it to him and that means he can’t surpass it. I don’t care if you think he cursed you or blessed you or is trying to teach you some lesson that we can’t see yet. Whatever he did, he’s not stronger than this. He’s not stronger than us. Not stronger than our bond and the magic we wove together so long ago. I’m not having you think that. I’ve waited for you. I’ve thought about you everyday since I was fifteen years old and realized that one day – if I were very lucky – I’d meet you. Here you are. You showed up covered in so much of your own blood that maybe you would’ve been dead without Frost’s magic. I don’t know. We might never know, but against those odds you’re here with me. So, I don’t think we have bad luck. I think we’re in a tight spot, but that means we just have to pull closer together.”

I let out a long, slow breath, praying I didn’t sound too much like my carrier giving a lecture, but I meant every word I spoke to him. He wasn’t about to give up when our life together was just starting.

He sat up and opened his mouth. My ears strained for what he might say, but instead he claimed my lips in a hard kiss. A second later, with his strength and speed, I found myself on my back with him over me. His weight pinned me to the bed, making me feel small and safe, as his tongue twirled around my mouth. His hard dick brushed against mine as he reached between our bodies. His long nimble fingers found the slickness pooled around my hungry omegahole. My body quivered as he rubbed small circles over the slick opening, teasing me and opening me up for what was to come. I let out my breath in a sigh and pushed down on the pads of his fingers.

His tongue swirled around my mouth as his digits sank into my slick passageway, opening me up for the pleasure his body had to offer. He rocked his fingers, hitting all the right spots, until I rocked my hips in time with his tiny movements. I gasped into the kiss as he found the best spot and rocked right over it until my whole body trembled again.

Reaching between us, I found his rock-hard dick and held onto him. Slowly, I started to stroke him, pushing past the fog the pleasure brought down upon my brain. I stroked him slowly moving him toward my slick, hungry hole and dislodging his digits out of the way.

He groaned above me, his eyes fluttering again, as I rubbed the mushroom-shaped head of his thick cock against my slick hole. He thrust forward, slipping out of my fingers and up against my balls. We both laughed as I scrambled to grab ahold of him again.

A few seconds later, he was lined up again. This time I held him loosely in my fist, letting him slip through my fingers as he prodded into my omegahole, opening me wider than his fingers had. My hungry body welcomed him in inch by inch until he filled me and my heart thrummed in my ears along with his. Our blood pumped through our veins fast and hard as we took a few seconds to adjust to being adjoined and to find the rhythm between our needy bodies.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down fully on top of me. I needed his weight there to keep me from floating away. This damn day had been surreal. He was here and he was in need, but I also needed him. I needed him to be my safe harbor from my crazy family and the social media world who was all too happy to follow the lead of the twins.

My nails dug into his shoulders as he thrust deep into me, chasing away any stray thoughts that didn’t include him. I lost myself to the warmth he dragged back and forth inside me with each thrust of his thick cock. I squeezed him tight, making him work for each and every movement. He pressed against the sensitive nerves inside me growing and growing more with each thrust. He knotted, but still moved as if my body just opened to make more room for him. The bump slid along my nerve endings.

Terrick kissed up and down my throat, dragging his lips over my skin and grazing me with his fangs. He moved his attention to my shoulder. It was time for the bite. It had to be. Soon we’d be stuck together until his newfound inner beast managed to unknot, but that was a problem for a few minutes from now. I breathed in his scent, warm and slightly furry, all coppery notes hidden under his desire. He kissed my shoulder until his mouth found my squishy claiming gland that was full of the clear magical fluid that would complete our claiming vows when exchanged and open up our mating link. With a little luck from Juda, it’d also show me whatever Terrick forgot. Maybe, just maybe, we’d have even more luck and it’d show him enough to remember his life before me too.

There used to be a rumor that went around that vampires didn’t true-mate respond to other vampires. They had all sorts of bigoted reasons for saying that, but it was bullshit. It happened more often than the shifter community knew about. When it did happen, it was customary for the Alpha to lay the first bite. Not because of some outdated rule, but because biology demanded it. Whatever blood Terrick took and drank down from me during his claiming bite would be returned when I concluded our claiming vows with mine.

“Ready, mate?” Terrick asked, his voice low and needy.

“More than you’ll ever know,” I nodded, and he kissed my squishy claiming gland again.

A shiver shimmied down my spine as his fangs grazed against my shoulder. When his bite came, one fang punctured my claiming gland and the other my flesh. The sting from the bite came and went before I fully wrapped my head around the fact it hurt at all. Blood mingled with the clear magical fluid in streams and rivulets down my shoulder. Terrick’s warm, nimble tongue chased down every last drop. He was inside my soul then. I wasn’t sure what the magic showed him, but he laughed against my flesh. I bit my lip. Hopefully he wasn’t currently seeing Trista’s video.

“No, mate,” he murmured against my skin.

I slid my hands down his back and groped his ass to get him moving again. His knot swelled, but I wanted to keep moving - to keep feeling him slide and brush against all the nerve endings that kept me from thinking about anything or anyone. Just him. Just Terrick. That’s all I wanted to think about.

When he finished chasing down all the streams of the clear magical fluid, he kissed me hard.

“You bit them a lot as a kid,” he whispered.

He didn’t need to say it. He was talking about Travis and Trista.

“What can I say? They were just a bit older than me, but they had blood,” I laughed at my toddler antics and then pushed them out of my head again. It’d been a long time since either of them were those kids. I didn’t want to think too hard about how we all grew up to be who we were.

“Nothing horrible then?” I teased, squeezing his ass.

He sank deeper into me making my breath hitch for a second.

“No, I’m the one who needs to worry about that,” he said and kissed me before I could ask anymore questions.

Our hips rocked together, even as his knot grew. There was no way Frost could separate him and the pit hound now, right?

“Shhhhh! Don’t think about that,” he whispered. “Here,” he cocked his head to the side. “Bite me.”

I took a deep breath. This was it. Sink or swim. Either I’d see enough to save him, or we were back to the drawing board after our claiming vows.

“Do you remember knotting before?” I asked him.

“No, but I like it. I like how it makes you press up all tight around me,” he said, his voice husky.

“Me too,” I said as he turned his head to the side to present his claiming gland to me.

“Just do it! Even if it doesn’t give us exactly what we’re hoping for, it has to give us something,” my wolf chimed off in my thoughts.

I kissed Terrick’s claiming gland. It was soft, squishy, and very profound on his shoulder. He murmured and rocked his hips as I traced my tongue around its edges. My heart pounded in my ears. This was it. This was the start of forever.

“Don’t think about how long forever is,” my wolf said. “Just do it!”

He panted into my thoughts with more impatient ramblings, and I pressed on. My fangs were already out and tastebuds danced in anticipation of his blood flowing across my tongue. He smelled delicious and a second later, when my fangs sank into him, he tasted even better. The coppery tang of his blood mixed with the silky taste of cream and something sweet I couldn’t put my finger on. I lapped at the clear magical fluid and waited for something to happen.

Terrick’s memories came to me slowly. First everything was about a baby. A tiny little girl with big eyes who looked so much like Terrick, she could’ve been his daughter. Except, for so many of the first memories he only called her sister as if someone forgot to name her. It was only later as she grew that she became Salta. Their mother’s face drifted in and out along with men who I guessed were her mates. He called no one father.

“He died giving birth to her,” Terrick whispered into my thoughts.

I took a deep breath, still lapping at the clear magical fluid that seemed to be a never-ending fount. As Terrick and Salta both grew older the others in their coven started to avoid them. Terrick always had some reason they should go away. He walked around like a guy looking for a fight. The fight never came, but the others flinched in his presence. His problem or theirs? I wasn’t sure. He snarled and growled whenever the other adults got too close to Salta.

Then came the ghosts. Terrick was a haunted man. Sometimes the ghosts of the men his mother and the other protectors of the coven slew for safety followed him around for days demanding answers. Other times, it was his father. Those times were when he was the happiest.

“That’s why Juda got involved! He has the Omega Sight!” My wolf chimed off in my thoughts and we both let out a laugh.

It wasn’t the Omega Sight. That was visions. Sometimes they saw ghosts too, but whoever Terrick inherited his other worldly sight from it wasn’t Juda. He descended from another line completely.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Terrick shook his head. He was right. Now wasn’t the time to talk about any of this. He pushed himself up on his palms and leaned down to kiss me hard. His knot had tightened into place, and I glanced around the room. Were the ghosts here with us now?

“No,” he shook his head. “Most of those were laid to rest. Not Dad. Maybe not him. She keeps trying, though,” he blinked as memories flooded into his mind.

I pulled him down for a kiss. No one should have to navigate a life filled with loss and hauntings on their own. I kissed him so he’d stay with me both in mind and body. Everything else we’d take care of later. I’d call his mom and see what she knew. I’d call in help from wherever I could find it. I’d figure out how to keep him. I’d go train with the Nightshade Bear shaman to keep the ghosts away if I had to.

Terrick kissed me hard. His tongue swept hungrily around my mouth until the rest of the thoughts faded away. He tried rocking his hips, but his knot only budged a bit at first. Every time it did, my legs trembled from the pleasant pressure nudging around inside me.

“Can you hear me?” I tested the link while we waited for his knot to ease up.

“Perfectly, mate,” he murmured back to me over our mating link.

He nuzzled his face in my neck. I turned my head, offering my throat to him. Hell, I just about needed a drink after all that. Only he wasn’t a monster. He was haunted. That was the important part. He was a haunted man trying to protect his little sister. Trista and Travis could learn a thing or two from him.

“Hey, now,” he chuckled over the link, “none of them right now or the knot’s not going to be the only thing that softens up.”

I squeezed his ass and wiggled around until I found his mouth for another kiss. I squeezed his dick, reveling in how it pressed back against me. Terrick moaned into the kiss and everything within me trembled, wanting more of him. Slowly but surely his knot eased up and we found our rhythm again. I lost myself to him and the pleasure he pulsated inside me. Over our mating link our pleasure mingled together until I lost track of which sensation belonged to who. Only in the end it didn’t matter we were both chasing the same wish.

Terrick reached between our bodies and wrapped his long nimble fingers around my dick. My breath hitched as he stroked me. I opened my mouth to say I was close, but Terrick already knew. He was close too. His thrusts came harder and faster, pushing me closer and closer to the edge. Everything inside me exploded as my pleasure erupted between our bodies, warm and sticky.

I clung to Terrick as he chased down his own pleasure while drawing out my orgasm. Everything still felt good – almost too good. I panted, bucking my hips desperate to keep up with him. Rising up to his knees, he gripped my thighs as he thrust into me again and again, before throwing his head back and growling as his warm, sticky seed spilled inside me.

We stayed like that for a long moment, panting and looking at each other. The tips of his fangs glistened with my blood as he grinned at me.

“See, getting you back to yourself, wasn’t so hard?” I panted out.

“This should be the cure for every disease,” he laughed, throwing his head back and exposing the pale skin of his throat.

“I think I need a bloodshake. I want to eat you up.”

Terrick slid off the bed and picked me up. I thought he’d head toward the kitchen, but he carried me into the bedroom’s attached bathroom instead. He sat me on my own feet and turned on the shower. My reflection in the mirror on the back of the door showed just how much blood we’d gotten on ourselves. I made a note to wash the sheets and burn them if the blood didn’t come out. I knew enough of vampyric magic to know not to leave a vampire’s blood around where just anyone could find it. Yeah. I was burning those sheets.

“They make soap to get that out,” Terrick laughed, picking up my thoughts over the mating link.

“Maybe I’m not taking anymore chances with something hurting you,” I said as he tested the shower to ensure it was warm enough. When he was satisfied, he picked me up and stepped inside before setting me down on my own two feet again.

I rose up on my tiptoes and kissed him hard, because I couldn’t stop myself.

“No more of that unless you’re planning on feeding from me,” Terrick said, stepping back.

He picked up one of the loofahs from the basket suction cupped to the side of the shower. He sniffed it, said it was new, and grabbed the vanilla scented bodywash from the shelf. He scrubbed me as if he planned to take me out and wanted no one ever to be able to smell me again. He washed away the blood and semen in soft scrubbing circles that made me want him that much more. Just when I thought he was finished, he grabbed the shampoo and started on my hair, before sinking onto his knees to wash my feet. Where the shower-diluted blood gathered around my toes.

Then he stood and soaped himself up before grabbing the removable showerhead and rinsing us both. I kissed him again as he rinsed the shampoo from my hair. I leaned forward but he kept his distance. Over the mating link, his thoughts were clear and focused on not dragging our blood through the house and getting me to the kitchen to feed me. I opened my mouth to tell him that I’d be okay, but then stopped myself. Our mating link was new and raw. The magic old and primal. Of course, he wanted to feed me.

We toweled off and didn’t bother to dress again. If we were anything like the true-mates who responded before us we’d just romp again soon. That night we followed the footprints of all the true-mate pairs that came before us. We alternated between bloodshakes and romping – in the kitchen, on the sofa, back in the shower. We fell into bed exhausted, but connected. Tomorrow would be a long day and we had a lot to figure out, but I smiled as exhaustion pulled me under while I was all wrapped up in Terrick’s strong arms. This was home now. He was my safe place.