Chapter 3

3

CELESTE

F ury shone from Ren's blue eyes, and I couldn't blame him for his reaction to my engagement ring. Although we'd just met, I had a feeling that I would be devastated to learn that the tall, dark-haired daywalker was supposed to belong to another woman. I'd met attractive men before, but none of them held a candle to Ren. And I had never felt drawn to any of them like I was to him. Which made sense, considering how little I knew about the connection between a daywalker and his consort.

I would have been stuck in a loveless marriage if I hadn't met Ren today. One that wasn't my choice in the first place. Something that I needed to explain to the sexy daywalker before he got even angrier.

"I am," I confirmed with an apologetic smile, turning my hand to interlace our fingers. "But the engagement didn't happen the way you're probably thinking it did. What do you know about witch marriages?"

A slight gleam of humor broke through the anger in his intense blue orbs. "Turning my earlier question around on me?"

"It seemed appropriate." I shrugged and stared down at the ring as he tugged it off my hand.

"There, much better." He pressed a kiss to the spot where the gold had been wrapped around my finger, and a sensual shiver raced down my spine. "Now tell me how you ended up engaged to some bastard who never should've had any claim on you since you were meant to be mine from the moment you were born."

"My world is different from yours in so many ways," I began with a sigh. "Witches don't have fated consorts like daywalkers. There are no mystical connections between couples in my coven. Instead, we're paired off based on our powers."

Ren's head tilted to the side, and more of the anger drained from his gaze. "It was supposed to be an arranged marriage?"

My lips curved over his choice of wording, as though my engagement was a thing of the past now that we'd met. His confidence only made him more appealing to me—which was saying a lot since he was already pretty darn near irresistible. And it was well-earned since I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life in a loveless marriage now that I'd felt my first spark of desire. "Yes, the High Priestess and my parents agreed that her son and I would be a good match since our hereditary powers complement each other. It's been understood that we would marry since I turned sixteen, and it became official last month on my eighteenth birthday."

"Eighteen," he drawled, shaking his head. "So young."

"Too young for you?" I quipped with a quirk of my brow.

Shaking his head, he dropped the diamond solitaire into his pocket. "I'm more than five hundred years older than you, but our age difference could be a thousand years, and it wouldn't make you any less mine."

"Five hundred years," I echoed softly, my eyes going wide. Logically, I knew Ren could be that old because daywalkers were immortal and didn't age like humans, but I hadn't really considered that the gap between us would be so big. Especially since he only looked about ten to fifteen years older than me…in the very best way possible.

"Callidora was your age when she and Braeden discovered they were destined to be together." At my look of confusion, he added, "The adorable daywalkers dressed as vampires for Halloween are my niece and nephew. They belong to my brother and his consort, who have probably already let everyone else in my family know that they're the reason I found you."

Remembering the cute little girl and boy he'd been with, I grinned up at him. "Choosing those particular costumes makes them even cuter. No wonder I thought they were such convincing vampires."

He shook his head with a sigh. "Maxine has her father wrapped around her little finger. That's the only explanation I have for why Braeden agreed to it."

I thought about how the man who resembled Ren had placed his hand on the woman's lower back when they'd led the kids away from my home. I couldn't remember a single time my father had done something similar to my mother. "From the little I saw of them, your brother and his consort seemed very close."

"No more so than any other daywalker couple." Lifting our hands, he brushed a kiss across my knuckles. "We're raised with a healthy appreciation of the importance of our consort and the place they'll hold in our lives. Just about every fated pairing results in an all-consuming love. The few that don't are still utterly devoted to each other."

"That's so foreign to me." Tugging my hand from his hold, I padded over to the fireplace and stared into the flames. "Love doesn't factor into witch marriages, only power. I don't think a single couple in my coven truly care for each other, except for what their partner can do for them."

Ren moved closer, his bright blue eyes filled with concern as he frowned. "I hate that you grew up in a loveless environment."

"The irony would be funny if my life wasn't so messed up." I shook my head with a sigh.

"Irony?" he echoed, his brows drawing together.

"In the fictional stories mundanes tell about vampires, you're supposed to be ice cold." Sweeping my hand toward the fireplace, I cast a simple spell that had the flames leaping higher. "But you've shown me more warmth in the short time since we met than my own mother has done in I don't even know how long."

Lifting my hand, he pressed my palm against his chest. "Be prepared for a fuck of a lot more heat in your life because that's what you'll get from me every single damn day."

Ren was so different from any other man I knew…and not just because he was a daywalker. I'd been taught that all vampires were evil—whether they'd been born or bitten. But I didn't sense even the tiniest smidge of maliciousness from him. "You'll need to give me a little time to wrap my head around all this. I'm not sure what to think about being a daywalker's destined consort."

"Not just any daywalker. Mine," he growled, a muscle jumping in his jaw as his hold on my hand tightened.

I was surprised by my reaction to his possessiveness. Whenever my fiancé acted jealous, it made me so angry. Yet here I was, melting over the fact that Ren insisted I was his.

"I know, but—" My words were cut off by the ringing of my doorbell. Heaving a deep sigh, I stomped through my living room and muttered, "I should've cast a refilling spell on my bowl of candy. I bet some greedy person took everything in there, and some poor trick-or-treater found the empty bowl they left behind."

I flung open the door, and my irritation quickly turned to anger. I really needed to stop conjuring up people I didn't want to see just by thinking of them. If I didn't know better, I'd think I had developed a new power. One that I would quite happily give back, just like the man on my doorstep, if only it were that simple.

"What are you doing here?"

Arthur quirked a brow as he smirked at me. "Visiting my fiancée. It seemed like the thing to do since I haven't seen you all week, and tonight is a big holiday."

"Shouldn't you be getting everything ready for the Samhain Eve bonfire?" I asked, shifting in the doorway so he couldn't see past me. The last thing I needed was for him to spot Ren and ask questions I didn't want to answer. Not when I hadn't figured it all out myself yet.

"My mother has it under control." His eyes narrowed as his gaze swept down my body, taking in the casual clothes I'd been wearing beneath my cape while handing out candy. The black leggings and long-sleeved, V-neck T-shirt with ‘You say witch like it's a bad thing' written in orange on the front would earn me a lot of dirty looks from my fellow coven members if they ever saw me dressed like this. "Shouldn't you be getting ready to head out? I can drive you to the bonfire if you'd like."

His offer would've been polite if it had come from anyone else, but I knew he had to be playing dumb since he was the first person my parents would've run to about me skipping the coven's Samhain Eve celebration this year. "Thank you, but that's not necessary."

"Don't be silly, Celeste."

Arthur reached for my arm, but before he could wrap his hand around me, Ren appeared in the doorway to square off against my former fiancé. "You heard the lady. She said no, clear as can be. Walk the fuck away while you still can."

I'd never really had anyone speak up for me, not unless they had an ulterior motive. One that benefited them. But Ren hadn't hesitated to come to my defense, and I had no doubt he'd follow through on his threat if Arthur didn't leave.

Unfortunately, I knew my unwanted fiancé well enough to be certain that wasn't something he'd do. Not when there was another man in my home. And a daywalker at that.

"Who the hell are you?" Arthur hissed, his eyes narrowing when Ren settled his hand at my waist. "Never mind. It doesn't really matter because you're the one who's going to leave and never return if you know what's good for you."

"That's never going to happen." Ren slid his arm around my back to pull me into his side. "I know exactly what's good for me, and it's sticking as close to Celeste as she will allow."

I appreciated that Ren left the decision to me, but I couldn't say the same for Arthur. He didn't even bother to glance at me before he lifted his hands, magic swirling in his dark orbs as he began to chant a spell.

The last thing I wanted was for Ren to get hurt—or worse, since Arthur's magic was strong—while he was trying to protect me. So I raised my palms to ward off whatever he planned to do to the sexy daywalker. But Ren had another plan to keep us safe.

His muscular arms tightened around me, and then it felt as though I was stuck in the middle of a vortex with Ren as my anchor. Time and space meant nothing as we hurtled into the unknown, but the sensation was thankfully brief.

Blinking my eyes, I took a few slow breaths after Ren set me on my feet. Then I took in our surroundings and realized he had teleported us to another location. The ability was unique to vampires, so I'd never experienced it before, but the ease of going from one place to another was definitely something worth getting used to. "Where are we?"

"Our home."