Chapter 3
It tookall of Mateo’s willpower not to pull Selena into his arms and crush her body to his.
She was okay. She was alive. And she was right here in front of him.
He needed to get a grip, calm the fuck down, and focus on what he came here to do—ensure her safety through whatever means possible and kill the Darkblood scum responsible for harvesting her blood.
He’d been on pins and needles since leaving New Orleans, pausing only to refuel on the way up to British Columbia. Given that he had a DayTran-equipped sports car to protect him from the energy-depleting sun, even daylight hadn’t stopped him.
As soon as he’d recognized that the blood from the vial was hers, he’d done a frantic search of the Agency’s databases, only to come up empty-handed. The names of known sweetblood humans were kept highly confidential within the local field offices, so he wasn’t sure what he’d been hoping—or not hoping—to find. A call to the Horseshoe Bay region hadn’t turned up much information either. She hadn’t been listed as missing, nor was there an obituary. Which meant there was a chance she was still alive. But if so, that meant Darkbloods were either holding her captive somewhere and using her as a blood donor, or they were visiting her unsuspectingly.
All this time, he’d assumed she was relatively safe on Vancouver Island where the vampire population was sparse. Because vampires couldn’t process sunlight into the energy needed to survive, they had to get it from human hosts by drinking their blood and absorbing it via physical touch. Human blood was more potent in regions with high UV levels, so vampires preferred living there. Cloudy, rainy climates like the Northwest, where the sun may not shine for months, weren’t nearly as popular.
Clearly, he’d been wrong, and he couldn’t get up there fast enough.
Now, here she was, standing before him, looking even more beautiful than he remembered.
Inhaling deeply, he drew her sweet scent into his lungs, thankful for the desensitization training he’d gone through since that last, disastrous time they’d been together. He quickly shoved those thoughts out of his mind, not wanting to dwell on past mistakes. He had a job to do, nothing more, then he would leave.
“Mateo?” Selena said, dark eyes wide. She frowned, as if his name sounded strange to say after all these years. “What are you doing here?”
He took a step back, allowing his gaze to roam lazily over her from head to toe, searing her into his brain. He would need these vivid memories to refer to later. He’d fucked a lot of women these past few years in the hopes of getting Selena out of his head. And it had worked…for the most part. Although he hadn’t fallen in love with anyone else, he no longer thought about her every hour of every day.
Her dark hair was shorter now, skimming just the tops of her shoulders and secured off her face by a rolled-up pink bandana. The faded concert T-shirt she wore was covered in flour and smudges of chocolate. Skinny jeans hugged that gorgeous ass of hers, and on her feet was a pair of not-quite-white sneakers. She still had that same casual, easy-going air about her that said not only was she comfortable with herself, but that you didn’t need to change either.
He’d forgotten how it was to be around her. Having grown up in a family with rigid expectations that he’d always fallen short of, he’d never felt that pressure with Selena. It was one of the reasons he fell for her in the first place. He’d loved how he felt about himself when he was with her, that he was enough just the way he was.
His gaze met hers, and that’s when he noticed the dark, faintly blue circles underneath her eyes. It was a classic sign of the longterm fatigue of a blood donor.
Grinding his teeth together to keep his temper under control, he willed his fangs not to descend. Even though it wasn’t entirely unexpected, seeing her like this, an unwitting victim, made him want to destroy something. Punch his fist through something. Hunt down whoever was responsible and rip out their throats.
Patience,he told himself. That will come. Just don’t scare her. Not again.
The first order of business was to get her to safety. Everything else was secondary.
He shrugged, trying to act casual. “I was hungry. Thought I’d stop by.”
She blinked and looked around. “Where’s Paula, my employee?”
“Gone,” he said, matching her flat tone.
Fury flashed momentarily in her brown eyes. “I can see that.”
Leaning back against the counter, he liked that he was having an effect on her, even if it was negative. He could handle anger. It was a thousand times better than indifference. “She said you were napping in the back and that she was going to deliver the food samples to your customer.”
Selena raised a brow at him. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Why?” He wasn’t lying. Not exactly.
She crossed her arms over her chest. She clearly wasn’t buying his explanation. “She left you, a stranger, here with me asleep in the back room?”
“I’m not a stranger.”
“She doesn’t know that,” Selena snapped.
“What can I say?” He spread his hands wide. “I look trustworthy, I guess.”
The look on her face made him glad there wasn’t a frying pan within reach.
