Who knows what fate has in store, and I close my eyes for a second. I’m accepting. It is what it is until a throat clears, and a scent I’d know anywhere greets my senses.

I don’t need to open my eyes to know it’s Theo.

“Look at me,” he commands, voice deeper. Rougher than I’ve ever heard, and I follow the order without pause, nearly screaming when I see his bloodied clothes, his features hardened with eyes glinting red, and the two white fangs protruding from his gums.

“Hello, pretty girl.”

34

Theodore Astor

Vampire King

“W

hat did you just call me?” Gabriella’s shaking, her hand in her hair and fisting the lovely red locks I adore. “This can’t be. No. No. NOOOOOO!”

“Relax, sweetheart. Just breathe, and I will explain.”

“What the hell is there to explain? It’s just a coincidence and—”

“You’re busy making excuses when we both know I’m real.” I take a step closer but she scrambles up, pushing against the wall as if it would move for her. “When you visit me each night in your dream, pretty girl. When you taunt me every moment of the day while awake.”

“It’s a dream. Just a dream.” Her head shakes from side to side, and her breathing becomes choppy. My beautiful little artist is panicking, but I’m not going to stop. I’ve waited so long for her. For this moment. “This is just a figment of my imagination…I’m probably on heavy medication and seeing shit.”

“Then why do your legs still clench at the sight of me?” My nostrils flare, and her sweet scent seeps—infiltrates my senses. Her breathing is arousing to me, but scenting her desire is a weakness; always has been. “Why does your pussy clench in need? Why do you still want me no matter how many men I killed outside this room?”

“I don’t.” Yet I catch the flash of fire in her eyes. My bride is there. Trapped. “Besides, this isn’t real. None of it is.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“Okay.” Theo makes a whistling sound, and a second later the albino python slithers inside once more, stopping at a safe distance from her. He turns his head toward me, asking for permission, and I nod while watching my beauty break and crumble. Her mind is shutting down, while her body wants to flee and never stop running. Silly girl.

“What’s happening? Why is…” she trails off, freezing, as her serpent guard becomes Tero who watches her through caring eyes. He’s known her just as long as I have, a century of missing his queen, and his loyalty is unbreakable. She saved his sister, the only family he had left.

“My Queen.” He bows, looking toward the ground, but Gabriella makes a tsking sound—one she’s made a thousand times in our past, and a small smirk curls at my lips. Her human mind might not process like we do, but a part of her remembers.

At my smile, she tilts her head to the side while I simply raise a brow. “What about now?”

“I need a minute.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Alone,” she clarifies while I scratch my jaw, the drying blood on my hands making her shake. “Just a few minutes is all I ask, and then we can talk.”

Liar. “Go ahead and run, Gabriella,” I croon my mate’s name, and I revel in the pleasurable shiver that runs through her at the sound. The way her nipples pebble beneath the thin shirt she wears, her bra nearly nonexistent. She’s still attracted to me even while trying to make heads or tails of what’s real and what’s not.

I’ve played dirty with her.

I’ve hurt her.

“You’d chase me?”

“To the ends of the earth without hesitation.”

“Would you let me go if I asked?”

“Never.” At my honest answer she closes her eyes, breathing in deeply before letting it out slowly. “Tero, please head out and deliver the package.”

“Consider it done, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you, old friend.” He exits after giving Gabriella a bow, leaving us alone. Then, I walk deeper into the room and calmly survey her—take in any bruise she may have—and I see red when I smell blood coming from her head. Lost in her arousal and discovery, I didn’t smell the older blood, but now it’s a pungent calling that I don’t ignore. I have her in my arms before her next intake of breath, my lips at the cut. “Who did this to you?”

“How did you move so fast?”

“Who hurt you?” Each word leaves me on a growl, my anger palpable, and she pales. Her fear is as delicious as her arousal, and I take a moment to inhale deeply and hold her essence in my cold, dead lungs. Every part of her is a heady distraction; always has been. “You’re bleeding, pretty girl, and I don’t like it.”

“It was a cop. Never seen him before,” she says, tone breathy as I skim my lips over the area. Tasting her. “He was a little older and heavy set.”

“Did they touch you anywhere else?” I lick the small head wound, cleaning her up. The cut closes a second later. She’ll have a tiny scar, but it won’t hurt.

“No. I’m okay.” There’s also no missing the way she leans into me. Subconsciously, she misses my touch even though there’s a hint of fear lingering in her scent, that vanilla with cherries that drives me wild. “But I would like that minute alone.”

“I won’t stop you, pretty girl.” My lips skim down to her cheek and then her ear, nuzzling her a bit. “But please know that there’s nothing more pleasurable to a vampire than the chase.” Her nod is barely perceptible, the salt of her tears sweet on my lips. “You have five minutes. Use them wisely.”

Then I leave, walk out while she stands in the middle of the room, confused and without direction.

Is it fair of me to prey on her weakness? No.

Do I care? Not in the least, when the end game will always be her. In my arms. Back where she’s always belonged.

And if this makes me a deplorable son of a bitch, I’ll proudly wear the badge because this life came with a heavy price I’ll be lifting tonight. They bound my beauty—her powers hidden and suffocated by the greed of the Veltross family for over a century. Her soul survived in limbo, unable to inhabit a body until the day of the sacred moon twenty-one years ago tonight. Her real birthday.

Something Elise knew and tried to prevent, but failed. At every turn. At every lie.

And while the sacrifice made to bring her back bound my hands, I never stopped watching from a distance. Protecting her without being seen. Gabriella never knew the danger her life has been since birth, and I made sure it stayed that way.

Until tonight.

No more lying. No more pretending to be what we’re not.

She is mine, and I will always be hers.

At the two-minute mark she exits the room, her cautious step still loud inside the room, but more so are the gasps and choked sobs that escape her small frame when she comes face to face with the carnage I left behind.