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Breaking free, they sprinted into the yard, but the outside watchman was already running toward them. Clearly an overeager beaver, the second guard had a gun in hand. Blazing toward the fence, Cortana and Riaz pushed their bodies toward escape. The clipped sound of gunfire ripped through the otherwise still night, and adrenaline raged like fire through her veins.
Her feet barely connected with the ground, flying so quickly over the dry grass that no crunch sounded upon contact; tingles pricked her fingers; her heartbeat thudded in her ears. Riaz rushed the trail alongside her, leaping over the fence and bounding into the dark of the surrounding forest without looking back.
By the time they finally stopped, Cortana’s joy burst from her lungs in a tension release, her cheeks hurting from smiling so broadly.
For the first time in decades, she felt alive.
“You’re a straight up sadist, aren’t you?” The note of teasing in his voice made her yearn for more. “Laughing like a maniac while we’re being shot at with bullets that can turn us feral?”
Riaz shook his head, thumbing his temples. The movement drew Cortana’s attention to his bulging biceps and the sculptured angles of his masculine features. The man was a walking temptation.
And somehow, Riaz was hers.
Giving in to her lowered inhibitions, she used vampiric speed to enter his personal space and nip at his lower lip. His surprised gasp allowed her to claim his mouth a moment later, desire driving her into his arms.
Shock gave her the advantage, and she easily took him to the ground. Straddling him, Cortana’s mouth connected with his in unrestrained desire. With a growl, Riaz flipped her, taking the dominant position above her, loosening his hold on her waist so that he could drop his lips lower.
A moan escaped as his tongue brushed along the column of her throat, his teeth flirting at the sensitive skin in the next moment. Closing her eyes, Cortana luxuriated in the sensations. Then Riaz gently bit down on the vulnerable area between her neck and her shoulder. The deep rumble in his chest made her spine tingle, but it signaled an escalating need, not a threat.
It only added fuel to Cortana’s fire.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mating instincts flooded his mind, his every move choreographed by his wolf. The man had taken a back seat to the predator beneath, and now, duplicitous intentions warred in his mind. If Cortana knew how far gone he was, she would’ve been leery of him—with good reason.
The animal was possessive, and Riaz had to willfully wrestle the other half of his soul to remove his teeth from the vampire’s flesh. Seeing her so ecstatically happy, and the intimate result that followed, had riled his claiming urges.
His creature desired one thing: Cortana as his mate.
The urgency of the situation just increased tenfold. Limbs shaking with the difficulty of containing the wild inside, Riaz pulled away from her. Hooded eyes, swollen lips, and a delirious smile greeted him as he retreated, framed perfectly by the light of the moon.
“Beautiful.”
“You’re not too bad yourself.”
A satisfied chuckle, infused with passion, rumbled in his chest. He shook himself, grasping at the sanity it’d taken to get him to retreat. Riaz knew that it was time to come clean and to admit why their connection had burned so brightly in so little time.
“Cortana.” The words tumbled from his lips. “We’re mates.”
Riaz observed her closely as the meaning sank in. Her beautiful, delirious smile vanished along with the playfulness in her eyes, her relaxed expression tightening into one of confusion and chaos.
“I can’t be your mate.” Cortana’s tone was a whip of spite and disbelief, cutting barbs into his flesh. “You’re a wolf!”
For a moment, all Riaz could do was gape. In the next instant, offense boiled beneath his skin, both the man and wolf taking exception.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
The vampire backtracked at the consternation in his eyes. “I—I don’t want to mate anyone. I didn’t come here to find a man, Riaz.”
Cortana shoved at him, hard enough to earn a grunt before he settled back on his haunches. She scrambled to her feet. Pivoting on one heel, she made to go back toward the motorcycle, but there was no way she was getting out of this conversation.
Riaz cuffed a hand around her bicep. “Mating instincts aren’t there for kicks and giggles, Cortana. We’re fated. Made for each other.”
“Back off, Fido. I’m no one’s mate, least of all yours.” Cortana’s eyes flashed, displeasure and rejection wafted off her like a cornered skunk.
Something in him snapped.
“You think I was expecting to find a mate in you? A vampire from the big city who is literally my opposite in every way?”
