Slumped against the brick wall, I pressed my palms to my eyes and tried to breathe through the overwhelming sensations still flooding my system. Her taste. Her scent. The feel of her in my arms.
MINE.
The word pulsed through me like a heartbeat. Like the one truth I'd ever known.
My fangs ached. My cock was painfully swollen. My instincts urging me to go back inside, to finish what we'd started.
But I couldn't. Not yet. Not until I had some control back. Not until I could look at her without seeing prey and possession and mine written in every thought.
I'd spent over a century building walls. Creating order. Maintaining control.
She'd shattered it all in less than a week.
And I didn't know whether to worship her for it, or run as fast and far as I could.
Chapter 6
Talin
I ran.
Not physically. I had enough dignity left not to literally sprint out of The Purple Fang like a scared rabbit. But the second Elias disappeared through that back door, the second I heard it slam behind him, I slid off the bar and grabbed my coat with shaking hands.
My throat still burned where his fangs pierced my skin. The wounds were already healed, sealed by whatever supernatural magic lived in a vampire's saliva, but I could feel them. Feel the ghost of his mouth on me, the weight of his large body against mine, the way his hands had gripped my hips like I was something precious and breakable.
I pressed my fingers to the spot and stumbled when pleasure shot from the bite and hit me right between my thighs. A needy moan escaped before I could stop it.
No, no, no. What the hell did I just do?
The cool night air hit me like a slap when I finally made it outside. I gulped it down, trying to clear my head, but all I could smell was him.
Elias.
A few people passing by gave me a curious stare, but I ignored them. His scent clung to my clothes, my skin, my hair. Leather and bourbon and something delicious and inhuman. Something that made every nerve ending in my body light up with awareness even though he wasn't here anymore.
Because he left.
He tasted my blood and he fucking left.
The thought sent ice through my veins even as heat still pulsed between my legs. I started walking, one foot in front of the other, no real destination in mind, beyond relieved that it was still early enough for the streets to be relatively empty. I just needed to get away. Far, far away. Before he came back. Before I had to see whatever expression was on his face now that he knew what I'd been refusing to admit to myself all this time.
That I was his fated mate.
Because that's what was happening here. I wasn't stupid. I'd heard enough stories from the others about their vampire mates to recognize the signs. The way he trembled. The possessive growl that rumbled through his chest. The absolute horror and certainty in his eyes when he finally looked at me before fleeing like the building was on fire.
He knew.
And now it was just a matter of time before he realized what a cosmic fucking joke the universe just played on him.
My apartment was only a forty-minute walk from The Purple Fang, but it felt like it took hours, and I cursed myself for not bringing my car. But I was so frazzled when I came here there was no way I'd have been able to drive safely.
Every step I took sent aftershocks of pleasure and panic through my system. Every breath reminded me of how his mouth felt on mine, every cool breeze how his body had felt pressed against me, how right it'd been in the moment before everything went to hell.
When I got home, I fumbled with my keys, nearly dropped them twice, and finally got the door open. Shutting it behind me, I locked every lock then turned around and pressed my back against it. Not that something as silly as a locked door would keep out a vampire if he really wanted to get in, but it made me feel better all the same.
Glancing around, I took a shuddering breath. The familiar space should comfort me. Instead, it felt like a cage.
I paced from the living room to the bedroom and back again, trying to calm down. But my hands wouldn't stop shaking. My throat wouldn't stop burning. And underneath it all, underneath the panic and the fear and the humiliation, was a thread of silver light that tugged at my chest with every rapid heartbeat.
