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I pulled him down for a kiss. No one should have to navigate a life filled with loss and hauntings on their own. I kissed him so he’d stay with me both in mind and body. Everything else we’d take care of later. I’d call his mom and see what she knew. I’d call in help from wherever I could find it. I’d figure out how to keep him. I’d go train with the Nightshade Bear shaman to keep the ghosts away if I had to.
Terrick kissed me hard. His tongue swept hungrily around my mouth until the rest of the thoughts faded away. He tried rocking his hips, but his knot only budged a bit at first. Every time it did, my legs trembled from the pleasant pressure nudging around inside me.
“Can you hear me?” I tested the link while we waited for his knot to ease up.
“Perfectly, mate,” he murmured back to me over our mating link.
He nuzzled his face in my neck. I turned my head, offering my throat to him. Hell, I just about needed a drink after all that. Only he wasn’t a monster. He was haunted. That was the important part. He was a haunted man trying to protect his little sister. Trista and Travis could learn a thing or two from him.
“Hey, now,” he chuckled over the link, “none of them right now or the knot’s not going to be the only thing that softens up.”
I squeezed his ass and wiggled around until I found his mouth for another kiss. I squeezed his dick, reveling in how it pressed back against me. Terrick moaned into the kiss and everything within me trembled, wanting more of him. Slowly but surely his knot eased up and we found our rhythm again. I lost myself to him and the pleasure he pulsated inside me. Over our mating link our pleasure mingled together until I lost track of which sensation belonged to who. Only in the end it didn’t matter we were both chasing the same wish.
Terrick reached between our bodies and wrapped his long nimble fingers around my dick. My breath hitched as he stroked me. I opened my mouth to say I was close, but Terrick already knew. He was close too. His thrusts came harder and faster, pushing me closer and closer to the edge. Everything inside me exploded as my pleasure erupted between our bodies, warm and sticky.
I clung to Terrick as he chased down his own pleasure while drawing out my orgasm. Everything still felt good – almost too good. I panted, bucking my hips desperate to keep up with him. Rising up to his knees, he gripped my thighs as he thrust into me again and again, before throwing his head back and growling as his warm, sticky seed spilled inside me.
We stayed like that for a long moment, panting and looking at each other. The tips of his fangs glistened with my blood as he grinned at me.
“See, getting you back to yourself, wasn’t so hard?” I panted out.
“This should be the cure for every disease,” he laughed, throwing his head back and exposing the pale skin of his throat.
“I think I need a bloodshake. I want to eat you up.”
Terrick slid off the bed and picked me up. I thought he’d head toward the kitchen, but he carried me into the bedroom’s attached bathroom instead. He sat me on my own feet and turned on the shower. My reflection in the mirror on the back of the door showed just how much blood we’d gotten on ourselves. I made a note to wash the sheets and burn them if the blood didn’t come out. I knew enough of vampyric magic to know not to leave a vampire’s blood around where just anyone could find it. Yeah. I was burning those sheets.
“They make soap to get that out,” Terrick laughed, picking up my thoughts over the mating link.
“Maybe I’m not taking anymore chances with something hurting you,” I said as he tested the shower to ensure it was warm enough. When he was satisfied, he picked me up and stepped inside before setting me down on my own two feet again.
I rose up on my tiptoes and kissed him hard, because I couldn’t stop myself.
“No more of that unless you’re planning on feeding from me,” Terrick said, stepping back.
He picked up one of the loofahs from the basket suction cupped to the side of the shower. He sniffed it, said it was new, and grabbed the vanilla scented bodywash from the shelf. He scrubbed me as if he planned to take me out and wanted no one ever to be able to smell me again. He washed away the blood and semen in soft scrubbing circles that made me want him that much more. Just when I thought he was finished, he grabbed the shampoo and started on my hair, before sinking onto his knees to wash my feet. Where the shower-diluted blood gathered around my toes.
Then he stood and soaped himself up before grabbing the removable showerhead and rinsing us both. I kissed him again as he rinsed the shampoo from my hair. I leaned forward but he kept his distance. Over the mating link, his thoughts were clear and focused on not dragging our blood through the house and getting me to the kitchen to feed me. I opened my mouth to tell him that I’d be okay, but then stopped myself. Our mating link was new and raw. The magic old and primal. Of course, he wanted to feed me.
We toweled off and didn’t bother to dress again. If we were anything like the true-mates who responded before us we’d just romp again soon. That night we followed the footprints of all the true-mate pairs that came before us. We alternated between bloodshakes and romping – in the kitchen, on the sofa, back in the shower. We fell into bed exhausted, but connected. Tomorrow would be a long day and we had a lot to figure out, but I smiled as exhaustion pulled me under while I was all wrapped up in Terrick’s strong arms. This was home now. He was my safe place.
Chapter Sixteen
Terrick
I woke up with my hound’s tail wagging inside his inner sanctum and Scott’s head resting over my heart. His pulse was the gentle thrum of a sleeping wolf. I kissed the top of his head and held off the moment when everything would come flooding back.
It started the night before after whatever magic the claiming vows used to override the memories Frost’s magic blocked. I was more comfortable with the dead than the living. Even when the dead were assholes it wasn’t like they could actually hurt you. Most of them grew tired of badgering me and moved on in a few days. Did the others know about the dead who weren’t my father? Did they sense them and flinch away from me? I shook the thoughts away, because it didn’t matter now. I was staying here or wherever Scott went. I’d have to do something about Salta, but that was a battle for later.
I didn’t want to leave Scott behind in the warm bed alone, but thirst burnt my throat. Despite the bloodshakes, Scott had chomped on me a few times the night before. I didn’t mind, but it left me craving blood and protein. Holding my breath, I slid out from under him and wiggled my pillow into place under his head. A smile still pulled at the corners of his mouth. I left the bedroom already missing him, but feeling pretty damn good that he was still smiling in his sleep after last night.
I opened the fridge first. There were no ready to go blood pouches. I stared down the blender but in the end started making shakes and prayed Scott was a hard sleeper.
“TERRICK! TERRICK! I’M HERE BUT THEY WON’T LET ME GO!” A desperate high-pitched voice sounded off in my thoughts. “TERRICK! HELP ME!”
The hound growled and I searched the room for something it put on. Salta! Fucking aye! What was she doing here all alone? Who had her? Looked like I was live feeding after all this morning!
I sprinted back to the bedroom where Scott lay on his back spread eagle and shoved myself back into the sweats Dara gave me the night before. Still pulling them up, I sprinted back to the kitchen and out of the back door with my baby sister’s voice still booming in my head.
