Page 28 of Vampire Pack

Carmen eyed me in warning when I held the passenger door of my car for her, but she slid into the seat anyway.

The motion flashed me a look at the bite I'd left on her inner thigh, and a bolt of carnal pride rolled through me.

The scar would show every time she wore shorts like that—which was often.

There would be no question whether or not the woman was claimed.

"You're staring at my thigh," she drawled, before I shut the door.

"It's a nice thigh." I tried to play it off. To hide the pride that I knew my female wasn't ready to hear about.

And now, she was mine, in every way there was. There was always a chance that she could ask me to break the bond with her, but she'd give us a shot, first. Breaking a bond was too painful not to. Neither of us would be able to play hockey if we did, and hockey was her first priority.

My first priority had been her for the past few years, even if she'd never accepted it.

I shut the door, and she stared pointedly in the direction I wasn't as I walked around the car.

"Mallory can still take me," Carmen said, as I sat down in the driver's seat. "It's not too late for you to stop being a possessive asshole."

"Considering the bond between us, I think it is too late." Most newly-mated pairs struggled with being away from each other for the first few days. The possessiveness was supposed to be intense.

"We don't need to talk about that."

"We absolutely do."

She made a noise of disagreement. "It doesn’t change anything."

"We're mates. It changes things."

"Not many things."

I gave her a look that asked if she was serious. She didn't turn away from the window, so she didn't see it.

Pulling out of the parking lot, I forced myself not to give in to the instinct to put my hand on her thigh.

The drive wasn't far.

Controlling myself was manageable. It would be less manageable when we were with the medical team, and some other fucker had to put their hands on her body. I'd deal with it when I had to.

"We should act like we mated on purpose," Carmen said stiffly, after I parked in front of the medical building. "People will gossip otherwise, and we already have too much attention on us. We'll just have to act all… obsessive."

That would be significantly more difficult for her than it was for me, considering I was obsessive when it came to her.

"Alright," I said.

"I'll see if I can get out of practice for the day, in case your possessiveness is bad. Coach would otherwise still have me doing skating drills or something. The team would make us take at least a day or two off if we were really mated, but⁠—"

"We are really mated, Carmen."

"You know what I mean."

She glanced my way, and I lifted an eyebrow at her.

"We'll come up with something," she finally said.

"If you want to go to practice, we'll go to practice. We're going to sell the mate bond either way, because it's a real mate bond. I won't be able to act like I'm not affected by it. You won't either."

"I think I will."