Page 63

Severin snorted. “The fuck you say. I’d have been the first they invited if superior was what they wanted.”

Savage rolled his eyes and continued walking.

“You going to wear that to breakfast with the females?” Severin ran the knuckles of his right hand down the half-unbuttoned buttons of the black dress shirt she wore. The shirt’s tails almost reached her knees.

Thana raised one side of the collar to her nose and sniffed. “I like the way it smells. Citrus and bergamot. All my male.”

“When I get back, I’ll make sure you smell even more like me.” Severin pressed a swift kiss to her lips.

“Hurry back so I don’t forget how much I love you, mo ghaol. I can’t wait to see you in your costume. We’re gonna be the sexiest Elektra and Daredevil ever.” Thana palmed him between the thighs.

“Mate, I will toss you over my shoulder and say fuck the damn berries,” Severin growled, promising Thana with his eyes he wasn’t kidding. He looked at the bed beyond them and then back down at Thana,

“Get out of here and get back quickly, Sev. Aurora and Starla are probably already planning something crazy I’ll need to temper. The sooner you get the berries, the sooner you can return. And if you return quick enough, we can have a quickie before the party.” Thana wiggled her brows.

“Baby girl, we can have a quickie no matter when I return.” Severin jerked her into his embrace, covering her lips with his. He licked the seam of her mouth, demanding entry. His female, never submissive, bit his lip, then opened for him. Their tongues dueled and tangled together. When he finally pulled back, they were both breathing hard.

“Fuck, Severin. You make me lose my mind.”

She had to know it was mutual. Of all the females in the world, only Thana fascinated and captured his heart, mind, and body, to the point that nothing, and no one else, mattered. Sure, he’d had other females before and after Bianca, but none held a candle to Thana. He didn’t know why she meant so much to him, except that the Goddess truly created her for him and him alone. He’d give her everything he could. Seeing her smile, the happiness on her face, was one of the greatest joys of his life.

He closed his eyes, fighting the urge to stay and make her his again before leaving for the Carpathian Mountains. He hadn’t told anyone about the demons those treacherous forests held. He’d been captured during one of his treks through the beautiful area a long time ago. In those mountains, he’d become a monster. His captors thought they’d won, holding him in a cell they’d thought would hold any kind of prisoner. They’d thought they’d defeated him. He’d nearly gone insane, then emerged from deep beneath the Earth as a monster they’d wished they'd never tried to take down. He’d killed without mercy.

Severin thought about those bastards. He’d buried the memory deep within his psyche while he prepared to hunt for the berries Savage’s female craved. His survival instincts had driven him to escape the entire continent and to lock those memories away in a box deep within his mind. Now, those same instincts were opening. Survival was always strong for him. He’d nearly succumbed to the torture they’d inflicted on him. As he left Thana at Savage’s and was transported back to the area where he’d been when he was barely a couple hundred years old, he noticed similarities between his case and those he’d recently read in the files from the abandoned missile site and the other one. Shit.

His memory took him back to the site where he’d escaped. His breath caught in his lungs at the familiar scents and the not-so-familiar surroundings. Amid the tall trees, he could barely make out the clouds overhead. A slight breeze ruffled his hair, carrying the fresh scent of autumn and the unmistakable scent of dried foliage.

Severin couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by the past, aware of the danger surrounding the entire Carpathian Mountains.

Chapter 30

He looked through the dense fog blanketing the forest floor and recognized it as unnatural. A master vampire used the illusion to scare humans away, which meant they had a dwelling nearby. Severin made sure not to hide his presence or his reason for being there.

The scent of Merișorul berries reached him on the wind. He moved swiftly toward the high mountain meadows, among dwarf pine and heather—where the ground was warm, and the air smelled of mountain freshness. From there, the clouds were easier to see, the blue sky closer, and the fog less oppressive.

He pulled off the backpack, unzipped the top, and pulled out several storage containers. After filling them, he put them back in the backpack and stood up.

“What are you doing in my territory?” a deep, growling voice asked from behind him.

Severin had felt the other male’s presence long before he’d spoken.

“I came for the berries that a friend of mine’s mate has been craving. She’s pregnant, and for some reason her little one decided she wanted them.” Severin turned, refusing to be intimidated by the other male.

“Interesting. Has she had them before?”

Severin wouldn’t give the other male any information about Savage’s female. “That’s not something I’m aware of. I left plenty of berries for others to find and gather if that’s your issue.” However, time was running short.

“My name is Zaid. I’ve seen you before. You were much younger then.”

His unshakeable control threatened to break. “Is that so?”

Zaid nodded. “Yes. I had just settled here when I caught the scent of copper and pain. My female and I found this little bit of land we thought would be ours, only to discover it tainted by...bastards. I had to get her back to her family for safety. By the time I returned, you were gone, and the entire structure where I knew you’d been held was destroyed.”

He tried to get his wits about him so he could string together words that made sense. Shit, he had no clue what to say. “I get it. Your female comes first. I’d have done the same.”

“I’ll be straight with you. I could’ve tracked your ass down, but ensuring the safety of my female and the child we were expecting was my priority. I knew that if I ever caught a whiff of your scent again, I wouldn’t let you get away without confronting you. Of course, how the hell would anyone have known it would be hundreds of years before you came traipsing through my home again?”

“How’s your family now?” The child would be hundreds of years old by now, which meant the male or female would be grown and possibly bonded.