Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
I think about every time I’ve drank blood since arriving at the residence. Saint’s always been there, helping me, altering my mind to make me believe I’m drinking red wine. It’s the only way I could get it down in the beginning.
“Okay, what do I need to do?” I ask, truly wanting to regain some form of control over the spiraling situation.
“We need to find someone you’re comfortable feeding from,” he says.
My fangs pulse as if excited by the prospect of being used properly for once. Instincts clash and swarm inside me. Images of sinking my fangs into someone’s neck and drinking their warm blood…of not being able to stop drinking—draining them the way Samuel drained me over and over again, within an inch of my life, before restoring me. Panic hits me like a lightning bolt. I refuse to be the monster he wanted me to be.
“I…I…” I don’t know what to say. How can I explain it to him? He’s been successfully feeding for centuries. Sure, he’s told me stories of the line he walked, the insatiable hunger he can never truly slake, but he’s managed.
“Annika already offered,” Saint says, his voice soft, gentle even, as he leans closer over the table between us. “There are human volunteers too. There are people who want to help you.”
A little warmth rushes through the panic, but the thought of biting my friend doesn’t settle well either. My eyes meet Saint’s, searching for answers there like I always do.
He’s the only one I’ve felt comfortable feeding around. He’s the only one who’s ever seen every broken part of me and not looked at me with pity. The one who, time and time again, has never given up on me, no matter how many times I’ve asked him to. It’s always been him I turn to, run toward, whether I’m scared or confused or questioning my existence.
It’s always been him.
“You,” I finally say as the only possible answer presents itself. “The only person I’ll ever feel comfortable feeding from is you.”
CHAPTER 3
Saint
“You’re pacing again,” Dagon says from where he sits at the table in what has been deemed the snack room. He’s already had three muffins in the time it’s taken me to recap what happened earlier.
“Did you hear what I said?” I stop pacing, glaring down at him.
He takes another bite of his fourth muffin, chewing it with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Yeah, I heard you.” He sets the muffin down.
I envy his calm resolve. The way contentment rests over every inch of him. He’s still the powerful, elemental hunter I’ve always known, but there’s a sense of stillness in him now that he’s never had before. I’d be a fool to deny that the shift in him has everything to do with his recent mating of Annika. It’s easy enough for me to read now that all my hunter brothers, save for Samuel, are mated.
“She only wants to feed from me,” I repeat the words. I keep thinking if I say them out loud enough, they’ll lose their shock factor. “Do you realize how fucked up that is?”
Dagon furrows his brow. “It makes a ton of sense, actually.”
I glare at him harder, reaching for my knife to give my hands something to do.
“Don’t stab me just yet,” he says. “Let’s pretend that mark on her neck doesn’t exist. Let’s pretend this happened a week ago. You’re the only one who’s been able to help her feed. You’re the reason she’s alive, Saint.”
The notion pricks my soul. Had I not helped her feed after she first turned, she would’ve succumbed to either stasis from not feeding or bloodmadness. Both were horrendous options I’d never let happen.
“That’s because I alter her reality and make her believe the blood is wine. She’s never bitten anyone before, Dagon.” Fire lashes the edges of my skin at the mere thought of Aurora biting into my flesh. My blood spilling into her mouth, filling her, sating her, strengthening her. My dick hardens at the image of her riding me while she drank—
Fuck. Stop.
“Okay, sure. Your powers help her,” Dagon says. “It’s still true. But she’s stronger than she looks. She’s come so damn far after everything she went through, and you and I both know that no one outside of you truly knows the half of it.”
Everything she went through. Meaning the chaos and torture my twin brother subjected her to. The madness that followed. The fog we’ve been chipping away at one dream and vision at a time.
“She’s opened up to me because of the connection my power offers,” I counter. “There’s no hiding the truth when I’m in that deep.”
Dagon cocks a brow at me. “You know that’s not the only reason she’s opened up to you.” He eyes the mark on my neck, the one identical to hers…identical to Samuel’s.