21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Hayden

Joy so profound floods my chest, I don’t know what to do with it. Goosebumps rise all over me, Leander’s reverent words ringing in my head.

You are my soulmate. You can’t leave me. I won’t let you.

I don’t believe in fate, I never have. But then again, I also didn’t believe vampires existed until recently. My mind tries to rationalize Leander’s declaration, to explain it in a way that makes sense, but my attempts are futile no matter how incredulous the concept of soulmates initially seems.

Because I feel it. The pull between us. I thought it was the sex, that he was getting to me through it, but it’s more than it. It’s him. He’s mine, my other half. The truth of it is etched all over my body, into every fiber reacting to him whenever he touches me.

“Fuuuck.” I wrap my arms around him and pull him close in an embrace that makes my flayed nerves sing. “You mean it. I thought…” I take a deep breath, trying to reel in my emotions. This. This feels so fucking right, to have him in my arms. “I thought this was doomed. That I had no chance with you. I didn’t think there was any point even confessing but… God, I feel like an idiot.”

“I understand, Hayden. Your worry, your insecurity, your wish to make a potential heartbreak as painless as you could. I should have, perhaps, brought this up earlier. I just… I didn’t fully believe it myself and I didn’t want to overwhelm you. I could sense your unrest and thought it might be best to show you with my actions how serious I was about you. So you would know there was nothing fake about our arrangement to me. And then once it was over”—he brings his mouth to my ear, nibbling gently on the tip—“I’d ask you to stay and be mine.”

I shiver, tendrils of desire taking my stomach hostage. “Is that what you are doing? Asking me to be yours? It sounded a lot more like a threat, if I’m being honest.”

He hums, pleased. “You make it hard to control certain urges, lovely Hayden. Especially after last night.”

My cheeks heat up and part of me wants to hide so he can’t see how mutually true that statement is, but as his mesmerizing green eyes drink me in with unbridled affection, I decide it’s only fair. “I… Um, it was mind-blowing. The sex with you has always been amazing, but there was something different this time.”

“Yes. It was a public claiming, albeit incomplete. A declaration to the world that we are each other’s mate.”

Whoa. That sounds serious. But not in a bad way, but in a ‘I should have been aware what I was doing’ kind of way.

I fidget a little awkwardly, my cock waking up as my mind replays last night. “I didn’t know. Sorry if… I shouldn’t have.” I shrug. “Instigated it or whatever.”

I try to feel remorseful about it, but it’s not working. It didn’t feel wrong at the time and it doesn’t feel wrong now either, only more right. It’s like I’d known we are meant to be without even knowing it.

“You needn’t apologize,” he murmurs, angling my head to the side and tracing my jugular with his mouth. “That you weren’t aware, but needed me all the same and let me have you in this way only makes it more humbling.”

“You are such a smooth talker. If I wasn’t already your”—I lick my lips, feeling out the word before I speak it—“ mate , you would have no problem convincing me.”

He steps in, sliding one leg between my thighs. “I am more than happy to convince you regardless.”

I rub back and forth, lust sizzling in my stomach. A shock of heat surges to my cock. My tender hole clenches with a sense of impatient emptiness, twitching to be filled with him.

“I can smell how turned on you are.” Leander’s hand dips under the loose T-shirt I’ve changed into, leaving trails of fire as it slides up my abs. His fingers close around my left nipple, the little nub already perky and hard.

“Is it weird that I want you again already?” I muse, a delicious twinge of embarrassment rushing through me. “Despite how thoroughly you fucked me not even a day ago.”

He purrs, my body absorbing the vibrations. “It pleases me that my mate is so needy for me.”

I hump his leg, chasing more friction. “Even if I end up being constantly horny?”

“Yess,” he hisses, fangs out. “It will settle a little once our bond is complete. But it won’t disappear.”

I don’t think I want it to. I love the way Leander makes me feel like I am a feast only meant for him. I can sense the pulsating need within him that’s aimed at me. The hunger, the need to bury his cock in me and fill me up with his seed. It’s very animalistic, and it goes right to my dick.

“Ah, you mentioned that before. That the claiming was incomplete,” I force myself to say, arching my back as his second hand joins the first one under my clothes.

“Yes, I must bite you. Make you like me. Rob you of your humanity so nothing can take you away from me.”

Oh. Oh fuck . He’s talking about turning me into a vampire. I should be afraid. Appalled maybe, I mean that’s the normal human reaction, isn’t it? At least according to movies and books. But I’m not. My body buzzes with want, shockwaves of hot and cold mixing inside me. Things are moving so fast between us, but I can’t even put up a token fight. It’s just so fucking right it hurts.

Leander seems to sense my inner euphoria, his touch growing more frantic, more urgent. “My mate. My lovely Hayden. Let me make you feel good.” His hands drop down my body, groping my ass. One slides in my pants and his fingers press against my hole with no barrier to get in the way.

I whimper, pushing my hips out so I can feel more of the pressure. “Please, Daddy.”

A satisfied growl erupts from his throat, and suddenly my clothes are gone with a loud rip, pooling around my ankles. He lifts me up in the next moment, and before I can register what’s happening, I am being tossed onto his bed upstairs while bright sunlight from the balcony turns his naked form into a masterpiece of sharp shadows and highlights.

“On your fours,” he commands, raking a hand through his black hair to get the longer locks out of the way.

The moment I’ve complied, his hands are on my hips, holding me in place as the mattress dips with his weight. Anticipation flips my stomach upside down, my cock and balls hanging heavy.

“You are so pretty.” He rubs a finger over my hole. I relax and clench against his digit, trying to get it inside. “So tight and so perfect. So needy for my cock filling you up.” Oh god, yes. Please . “But not yet. I must taste you first.”

We can definitely kiss while he’s railing me, I’m down for that one hundred percent. Except it’s not what he means as he shoves his tongue in my ass.

“Fuuuuck. Daddy, yes .”

His hot hunger as he licks and prods me quickens my pulse. My abs flex and stay tight. His hands move up to my ass cheeks, grope them and spread me so he can get deeper, so he can eat more of me like some starving beast.

Wet noises fill the room, heightening my arousal even more. I am extra sensitive from last night and he knows all the right ways to make me squirm and whimper. Before long, I am begging him to fuck me, my toes and fingertips and ears pulsing with tingles.

“So greedy for me, Hayden,” he admires as he nestles behind me and lines up his cock. I feel the tip slide in, slowly and teasingly, and then back out. In and out, just the head.

“ Leander .”

He brushes his fingers along where we are connected. “Your little hole stretches so well for me. It eats my cock up, begging for more. Whatever shall I do?”

I groan, wiggling my ass as much as the restrictive position allows for. “Need you inside, please. Show me I’m yours. I want your cum leaking out of me again.”

He hums, satisfaction radiating from every pore of his ethereal skin. The sun makes it glow almost golden, also reminding me that I’m begging to be fucked in the middle of the damn day. But I can’t help it, I’m burning up with the need to be filled up. To be reminded that I belong to him, that I didn’t imagine last night or his confession today.

“Yess,” Leander hisses in that telltale way when his fangs are out. “Mine. Yess.” He rams inside, knocking the breath out of me.

My eyes roll back, moans spilling out of me as I pant and shake with the force of his thrusts. He folds on top of me, his mouth kissing a trail up the peaks of my spine until it’s at my shoulder, licking and nipping.

“Good, so good, Hayden,” he chants, slamming so hard the bed moves with us.

Fisting the sheets, I try to hold onto myself as my head spins and my body pulsates with delicious pleasure. He’s close, I can tell. He’s not prolonging it this time. Like me, he’s euphoric from our confessions, desperate. Our bodies and needs are in sync and it’s too much, the way he so perfectly completes me.

“Rougher, Daddy, please. I need to come. For you.”

A growly moan is his reply and then he gives me what I need, driving into me like there is no tomorrow. I see stars, coming with a scream the moment one of his hands wraps around my cock and gives me a few strokes. He’s right behind me, spilling inside me with a roar that shakes me to my very core. I can feel his cock pumping and throbbing and pulsing. Hot liquid floods me, the feeling amplifying that sensation of fullness I can’t get enough of.

We stay like this, sweaty and fighting for breath, his dick plugged in me as it starts to soften. My eyelids weigh too much and my eyes start to close. I’ve gone boneless, the bliss so all-encompassing I can’t resist the lull as his arms come around me and pull me close.

“I want to turn you, lovely Hayden,” he mutters, grazing his teeth along my heated, damp skin. “To complete the claiming, our bond.”

My heart skips a beat, every hackle going on alert at the authority and the yearning in his voice. “Maybe after a nap? I don’t think I can last another round just yet.”

He purrs, rolling his hips gently. I feel his dick and the cum, though not as intensely, the sensation languid and so very right. “Sleep now, there is no rush.”

I giggle, my body floating in the clouds. “I don’t know, Leander. It didn’t sound like you want me taking too long in agreeing to let you turn me into a bloodsucking monster.”

“It will make you stronger. Faster. No longer a slave to the fragility of a human’s life. Few things will be able to take you from me, and that gives me a peace of mind.” He nuzzles into me, fingers roaming my stomach and pressing just under my navel. “You will be unmatched on the ice.”

My chest flutters, giddiness spreading from it through the rest of me. His wish makes sense, and despite my very non-romantic nature, it’s oddly endearing. He wants me by his side, with no constraints looming above us. I turn just my head, not wishing to let him out of me just yet, and kiss his chin.

A month ago, I didn’t even know vampires existed. So having a badass Clan Leader as my boyfriend and mate? Yeah, that wasn’t in the picture. Not even in my wildest dreams did I consider the possibility that I’d one day find my person and he might end up not being quite human.

Leander’s practically immortal. He has some kind of superpowers. And he wants me, a nobody hockey player who would be homeless if not for his stupidity leading him to discover the greatest secret of the century.

So yes. Hell fucking yes, I want to be a badass vampire and bang this Adonis for the rest of our longass lives. But as much as my own heart yearns for his gift, I can’t agree yet. I have a teeny tiny bit of unfinished business I’d like to wrap up before no human will ever again be my equal.

“Can we do it after the charity game? I… It would feel unfair, I think. Like I’m cheating by being a vampire. I’ve been training hard to get here, Leander, and I’d like to make it on my own merit. I’d like to be picked based on my skills and the hard work I’ve put in. Not because I have super speed or super strength or some other vampiric advantage.”

It’s maybe stupid, but I need it to happen this way or it will haunt me forever. Was I good enough on my own? Was I worthy? I want to prove to everyone that my shitty background doesn’t matter. That I got the scholarship because I am good and not just because I’m poor.

“So silly,” he muses, capturing my lips. “Your vampire nature… you can learn to tune it out. Not entirely, but enough so that you appear as normal as a human. But I understand, my dear Hayden. It is something that you need to do your way. So I will wait. However long you need me to.”

Fuuuck, he’s the best. Joy sweeps me away like a tidal wave, tightening my chest and my stomach. “I can’t believe you are real,” I breathe out, my cock waking up. “You are so fucking perfect, it’s crazy.” My body is on fire again, for no other reason but his easy understanding. “It’s like you were made for me, Leander Adetu.”

He smiles, snapping his hips. “Because I was made for you, Hayden Johnson. Just like you were for me.”

I giggle, can’t hold it in, but it turns into a moan partway as his dick hardens fully inside me. “This was so cheesy, but fuck, it’s really doing it for me right now.”

Humming, he rains kisses on my shoulders and neck. “I can tell. Your hole is twitching to be fucked again.”

I snort, arching back into him and craning my head so I can seal my lips against his. Our kiss is dirty and deep. “Get moving then, vampy. Screw the shit out of this slutty little whore with your magic cock and go make me lunch. I’m starving.”

His laugh rings around the room, bright and warm like the sunlight seeping in through the window. He gives it to me slower this time, deliberately dragging it out until I’m about to pass out from overstimulation. I kind of space out after my orgasm barrels through me anyway, and when I open my eyes after closing them just for a second, I find myself cuddled into his side on the couch in the downstairs lounge. A mouth-watering feast of my favorite foods is laid out on the coffee table, and when I glance at the TV, a Gators versus Falcons’ game is just about to begin.

“Fuck, Leander. It’s a good thing we are sitting, or I’d be swooning and passing out in your arms. You’re seriously the best.”

He kisses me on the cheek, handing me a perfectly crispy drumstick. “Anything for my mate. Now eat and watch. Areos and Onyx are dying for a run.”

Ah yes, our horses. The ones he got because I was fanboying over Vivian’s. I shake my head, my smile stretching wide. Leander’s such a dork. But he’s my sexy vampire Daddy dork and I’m here for it.