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Fleeing three more times, I suffer new bites on my shoulder, lower on my neck, and then on my hip.

Ze’ev spits out my blood every time.

The last bite has my knees buckling as I collapse to the forest floor. A wave of powerful need rushes over me, and my mouth parts on a pant. “Ze’ev. This isn’t working,” I tell him as the forest wavers and dizziness washes over me. “I’m going to pass out.”

Or combust. One or the other.

He appears in the blink of an eye, lifts me up, and presses me against one of the massive trees. His mesmerizing face leans into mine, and I find myself looking up at his mismatched eyes, wondering how I’ve gotten myself in such a predicament.

You’re stronger than this, he says. It’s disconcerting to hear his voice in my head, yet his lips aren’t moving as they hover over mine.

He gently sinks his teeth into my lower lip. The spike of pain is soothed as he licks at the wound, then he spits in my mouth, sending a metallic taste over my tongue from my own blood that he rejects.

I make a show of swallowing it. His eyes widen.

“Who said I was strong?” I tell him as fury builds in my chest. “I’m just a rejected girl from a family of Rinholds.”

His hands massage my sore muscles, running down my arms as he avoids my fresh bite marks.

They’re fools, he tells me. You have no idea how badly I want you.

I attempt to squeeze my thighs together, but his leg is between them. He pushes me higher up the tree and pins me there.

Grabbing my hips, he grinds me over his thigh, and a mewling sound of need escapes me. The bite marks on my left side ache, but I can barely feel it as my arousal blossoms.

He kisses my cheek as pleasure blooms through my core.

Your blood is an aphrodisiac, he tells me. You’re not the only one being tested today.

He’s testing himself?

My eyes flash open, and I see the edge of mania in his gaze. His nostrils flare as he continues to roll my hips.

“What’s different about my blood?” I ask him as I take over and shamelessly grind myself on him. Ze’ev has assisted with the management of my pseudo-heat for weeks, so he’s aware of how to help me focus. An orgasm will calm it down.

Hopefully.

I don’t know, he answers honestly. But your heartbeat called to me from across the isle before your ship even docked. Your blood is all I can think about.

That lines up with what Godric had told me about how I “chose” my sponsors.

He licks his lips as he watches my mouth. As well as that delicious pussy of yours.

A blush rushes over my cheeks.

Ze’ev keeps up the slow, rhythmic motions of rolling my hips over the hardness of his thigh. Come for me. Then, when you’ve recovered, we resume our game.

“Why?” I pant as pressure builds in my core.

Just because you chose me as a sponsor doesn’t make me worthy, he says.

I blink at him. Holding on to his arms, I make him stop. “Why wouldn’t you be worthy?”

The vampires in my bloodline suffer from bloodlust, he tells me as he runs his nose over my neck where he bit me. He kisses the prick marks that have stopped bleeding. His bites haven’t been deep.

Yet.

“Is that why you were in a pack and not in the court?” I ask. “You can’t control it?”