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He cupped my face like I was something precious. “We are mates until the day we die,” he said. “Nothing changes that. Not time, not distance, nor your fear or anger. This between us is forever.”
My chest tightened. I could feel the bond inside me pulse in agreement like it was alive.
“And if you ever think to try to disappear from me,” he finished, voice turning almost savage, “I will tear this city apart until I find you.”
I stared at him, breath trembling. Then, against every instinct I thought I had…I nodded once. It wasn’t surrender, not fully, but…understanding.
“I need time,” I whispered, “I still can’t believe what my eyes and body are telling me.”
Viking’s strong arms tightened around me. “You have it,” he said, voice softer than it had any right to be. “But you’ll have it right here with me.”
And for the first time since tonight began, I didn’t feel like I was falling. Like everything I knew had imploded around me. Instead… I felt like I was being held, even if the arms holding me belonged to a monster.
The thought should’ve terrified me more than it did, but it didn’t. It lingered in my mind like a thorn I couldn’t ignore, even as his warmth surrounded me and his presence pressed into mine like a shield.
Monster!
I swallowed, my fingers tightening on his skin as I searched his face, the angles of it hard and beautiful in the low light. Tattoos cut across him like dark poetry. His eyes watched me with a hunger that wasn’t just physical, but something deeper.
I should have been shaking but I wasn’t or at least not the way I expected. My voice came out quieter than my thoughts. “So, what kind of monster are you?”
Viking stilled, not like prey freezes but like a predator deciding how much truth to show. His gaze didn’t leave mine. “The kind that doesn’t let anyone hurt you.”
That wasn’t an answer, not really. I gave him a look that would’ve made any human man back off. “That’s not what I asked.”
A flicker of something almost amused crossed his face, then vanished. “You want the ugly truth.”
“I want the truth,” I corrected in a huff.
His hand slid up my spine, slow and grounding, like he already knew I’d bolt if he stopped touching me. His naked skin like a scorching torch of passion touching me. “I’m not human,” he said. “I don’t live by human rules. I don’t feel things the way humans do.”
My stomach twisted. “You drink blood.”
His eyes darkened at that. “Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt around me, the word vibrating through my bones. The reality of it tried to punch through the haze in my head.
Oh Lord, he really was a Vampire. My pulse kicked up again. “So… what does that make you? What are you?”
He looked at me as if I was the only thing in the world worth answering for. “It makes me the man who will keep you alive.”
I exhaled sharply, frustrated. “You keep dodging.”
His jaw flexed once, a hint of temper threatening at the edges. Then he forced it down, forced himself calm, like he was doing it for me.
“I’ve killed men,” he said simply. “For less than what that one at the club was thinking about you.”
My breath caught. It wasn’t bravado, I could tell that it was a fact. My throat went dry. “You can’t just kill people.”
He leaned in, mouth brushing my cheek, voice dropping to something intimate and deadly. “I can, and trust me on this Angel. Anyone ever dream of harming you and I will.”
That should have sent me running. Instead, it made my skin prickle with something hot and complicated. I pushed at his shoulder lightly. “Viking… we don’t even know each other.”
His eyes flashed. “I know you. I know you right down to my very core.”
“That’s not true.”
He was too close now, gaze burning into mine. “I felt you the second I stepped outside. You think that was coincidence? You think I chose to lose my mind in the middle of a crowded club?”
