11. Cooper

11

COOPER

I 'm questioning all my decisions right now. I know she wants me. That much is extremely obvious. The scent of her arousal perfumes the air almost as strongly as her growing citrus and honey mating scent. I wasn't kidding when I said I was using amazing restraint.

She's stubborn. And ordinarily, I'd like this character trait, but right now she's just causing herself far more mental anguish than she needs to. Once the mating is complete she'll understand… everything. Until that time, it's clear she's intent on driving both herself and me to the brink of madness.

I don't know how much longer I can smell that smell without just mounting her. The things I want to do to this woman…

All things she'll enjoy, of course.

"So, I have no choice?" she says, and I swear she's about to cry.

If she starts crying, I don't know if I can bring myself to keep her locked up like this.

You have to. Remember what happened to Rowan's mate.

The thing is… I lied just a tiny bit about the scent thing. It is true that other people can't smell the scents coming off fated mates, but otherworld creatures certainly can.

Rowan's mate ran from him and died at the hands of a vampire.

Some vampires are obsessed with what they call gourmet dining . There are a lot of different ways for a vampire to get the best, most potent flavor out of human blood, but the top delicacy is a human destined to be a shifter's mate, where the mating link has started but hasn't been completed.

The way she smells is the way she'd taste to them. And plenty of vampires would do more than kill for a human whose blood tastes like citrus and honey.

"Cooper? Did you just stroke out?"

I shake myself from my thoughts and mentally scroll back to the last thing she said… Oh yeah… choice.

"I don't have a choice either," I say, which really isn't the best choice of words. And I'm shown how clearly stupid these words are when her hurt gaze meets mine, and then her accusatory words follow.

"You don't even want me."

She is so wrong about that. "Oh I want you, Rosalie, but this would be so much easier if you were a shifter. Do you think I want to kidnap and terrorize my mate?"

"Maybe. I don't know your kinks." She tries to sound flippant but I know her trust in me is eroding every minute I keep her trapped like this.

"Well trust me, this isn't one of them," I say.

We remain in this stand off, staring each other down for several minutes until she says, "I'm going to go eat breakfast, and I want you to leave me alone. You have me where you want me, and obviously there's no escape."

Her gaze shifts to the emergency stairs.

"It's locked," I say. I had to install a deadbolt onto that stairwell door that locks both ways. It's a fire hazard, but either I lock her in her room or lock her inside the penthouse. So I chose the larger cage. Besides, if there was a fire, she could get to the roof and jump in the pool if I wasn't here.

"So, no escape," she confirms, defeated. "You need to honor your word and give me some space and time."

I sigh. I don't know how much time I can give her. The penthouse does buy us a lot of space from the threats to her, but if word gets out that she's not fully mated, I don't know if I can hold off those who would drain her of her blood.

And draining her isn't even the worst they could do. Some particularly self-disciplined older vampires will keep a destined human shifter mate alive for years, playing with them, feeding from them, restoring their health with their potent blood just so they can do it all over again. In many ways if a vampire were to get her, it would be far better for it to be a young one who would drain her and kill her right away. The older ones are much more creative and would break her in ways I don't want to think about.

I hold my hands up in surrender and just nod. She backs away, watching me the whole time until she's safely behind her door. I hear the lock click into place. I could certainly get in there but she'll get hungry again and have to come out eventually. It's better to give her some space. She just needs to be able to trust me.

I sigh and run a hand through my hair. Maybe I should have just told her about the vampires. But I don't want her to be afraid or feel even more forced into this mating than she already does. And I thought it was pretty likely she wouldn't believe me anyway. I mean that story is just way too convenient… Give me exactly what I want for the rest of our lives or a vampire might get you. Yeah, that sounds like a real thing.

So here I am lying by omission to not look like a liar, so I can gain her trust. You can't make this shit up.

I've followed her, watched her, guarded her every night until sunrise since the full moon—a situation that is fast approaching once again. That's another issue. We really need to be mated before the full moon. It was fine when I first met her, but I don't trust the bear without the mating complete. He'll be… agitated, unpredictable. He wouldn't hurt her on purpose, but… I just can't predict what my animal side will do in this state.

Once the mate bond is complete, she'll be safe—both from me and from everything else. Vampires only drink from humans. No animals. No shifters. No otherworld creatures. Just humans. If my fated mate had been a shifter I wouldn't have to worry about any of this. But once the mating bond is complete, she won't be human anymore. She'll be off the menu.

Maybe I should just tell her. But then she really will feel like she has no choices. And she truly does not. If she refuses the claim, it's either be my prisoner for the rest of her life or die by vampire. And again, what the fuck am I going to do with myself on the full moon?

I'm just hoping the mate link does what the mate link does. The longer we're in such close physical proximity, the higher her desire and need will climb. Thankfully, male shifters stay at a relatively stable level of mating lust. It's the female that goes into heat to complete the claim.

And while Rosalie is a human and the heat isn't quite the same, it's still there. She won't be able to resist me for long. So there's no reason I need to bring up the vampires at all. Nature will take care of her resistance.