Chapter 8

Oz

Bite Me? What was throwing me off about the club was the fa?ade that screamed insecure vampire having a centennial-life crisis. Standing at the doors were what smelled like two burly bears. Didn"t matter what they were on the inside. After play-fighting with my king and Nova, my beast was ready for a real fight. Though I doubted I"d get much of one from these two.

The late afternoon air was cool on my skin in contrast to the heat building inside me as I crossed the street. There were only a handful of people out now. None were looking in my direction.

Without warning, I lunged at the first bouncer, my body a blur of motion. My claws partially shifted, elongating into lethal, razor-sharp extensions. With a lightning-fast strike, I slashed across his chest. The fabric of his shirt tore. Blood welled from the gash. He let out a guttural grunt of pain, stumbling backward.

The second bouncer reacted swiftly, attempting to grab hold of me. I danced out of his reach, my movements fluid and impossible to predict. I delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to his midsection, sending him into a stack of empty crates with a satisfying crash.

The bear let out a guttural growl. Instead of coming to his aid, the few people around disappeared into storefronts and alleyways. Only the sound of heavy breathing and the pit-pat of my victims" blood sounded on the street.

The first bouncer, clutching his bleeding chest, was far from defeated. He lunged at me with a wild swing. I dodged effortlessly, allowing his momentum to carry him past me. With a calculated strike to the back of his head, I sent him sprawling to the ground, unconscious.

My breath came out in ragged gasps. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. Bloodlust nearly consumed me. I wanted to tear their throats out, but they were no longer a threat. Their massive forms lay crumpled on the ground.

I was ready for more. My muscles coiled, my senses hyper-alert. That"s when I heard it—a faint sound, a shift in the air that had me spinning around, claws at the ready, only to find the street eerily deserted.

The silence was unnerving. In Arcadia, if any other supernatural had dared an attack on one of us, it would have been met with a swift, collective response. Under King Dion, our kind rallied to each other"s defense, bound by a pact of loyalty and brotherhood. But here in the Crossroads, it seemed such camaraderie was non-existent. Or perhaps the very name of this club and its owner cast a shadow too dark for anyone to cross.

I reached for the door to the club. On the other side was my future queen. A woman who was destined to stand by the side of King Dion, my liege, my brother in all ways except blood.

The thought of her, so close yet guarded, ignited a fire within me. It mattered little whether the beings of this place chose to stand with me or against me. With a final glance at the shadowed alleyways and shuttered storefronts, I turned back to the club"s entrance.

Just as I thought the battle was won, the door slammed open. A third man emerged from the club"s interior. He was stockier than the previous two, with a determined look in his eyes. He had been alerted to the commotion. Likely by the second bear"s cry of defeat.

I pushed him back into the interior of the club. The door crashed shut behind me, and then I slammed him into the frame. With my partially shifted claws, I swiped at another man"s attack, striking his chest with enough force to send him stumbling backward. He hit his head on the post holding a velvet rope and was out. The room spun around us as I maintained my balance, my senses attuned to every nuance of the fight.

The man who"d had the bad luck to open the door lunged again, this time with a low, sweeping kick aimed at my legs. I leaped over his attack and cleared his reach. As I landed, I struck with precision, delivering a crushing blow to his abdomen.

With a gasp of pain, he crumpled to the ground, incapacitated. The entryway fell into silence once more, save for the labored breaths of the defeated men. My pulse raced and my chest heaved as I stood victorious.

When I looked around, I saw more men coming out of the woodwork and heading straight for me. I was outnumbered. But then the world shook.

It was the portal. It was opening.

The vibrations traveled through my body, disrupting the brawl. Confusion rippled through the men, their attention torn away from me. It was as though the very earth had rebelled against this violence.

I seized this moment of distraction to slip past them and make my way into Bite Me. I could taste her presence in the air—my future queen.

The lights assaulted my eyes. The base of beats that was a piss-poor form of music hurt my ears. Then, in a whirlwind of golden hair, she appeared before me. A vision in pink that seemed almost surreal against the backdrop of chaos.

Her hair was a cascade of gold, shimmering like the coat of a jaguar under the sun, with streaks of black at the roots that lent her an air of wildness, of untamed beauty. In those pastel colors, she looked like a flower blooming in a concrete jungle.

She stopped just short of me, her chest heaving, her eyes wide and filled with fear. Shame stopped me from reaching out for her. Was that terror in her gaze directed at me? Did she see past the royal treatment of cleaned fingernails and washed face to the feral creature that I truly was? Did she see me as a threat?

But as I followed her gaze over her shoulder, I saw the true source of her fear: two vampires, their faces twisted in anger, barreling toward us.

Conflict raged within me, a primal urge to protect her clashing with the violence that surged through my veins at the sight of her pursuers. I was torn between the desire to tear those vampires limb from limb and the duty I owed to the woman before me.

Her eyes met mine again, and in that moment, I knew what I had to do. The duty to protect her overrode everything else. The decision was made in an instant.

I reached out my hand to her. "Come with me if you want to live."

I saw the indecision in her gaze. I was a stranger to her. The men at her back meant her harm. I saw the calculation in her golden eyes as she decided to take a gamble on me.

The moment her fingertips touched mine, the ground was ripped out from under my feet. My entire soul was squeezed in a vise-grip. My vision blinked out. My heart restarted.

It had all happened in a split second. I wasn"t sure if I"d died. But I knew I had been reborn. I also knew that the impossible had taken place.

The two vampires behind us had fallen to the ground and were scrambling to their feet amidst the glassware and fixtures falling down around us. My focus was solely on the woman with her hand in mine.

I pulled her close, my arms encircling her protectively. Her eyes were closed, likely experiencing the same soul-stirring realization that I just had. When those golden eyes met mine, I knew that I would do anything for her, not because she would be my queen but because she was my fated mate.