Although I wouldn’t be burned to a crisp by the sun, not like how the movies and books portrayed my kind—with a fiery death—prolonged exposure to daylight would weaken us by the second, the minute, the damn hour until we were susceptible to injuries and wounds not healing and finally death.
I looked around my study, where I spent most of my time while here. This fucking beast of a house was more of a compound than a home, with security cameras all over the fucking place, even around the acres of woods that surrounded the house. If anyone stepped foot a mile away from this place, I’d fucking know it.
“How did you know to be at my house tonight, last night… whatever? How did you know those men would be there?” Her voice shook on the last part, her fear rising, the scent like burnt wood. “And who were those men? Why were they there?”
Just thinking about those fuckers made me want to kill them all over again, to tear their heads from their bodies for daring to make my mate feel as though she wasn't safe.
“Who were those men?” she asked again when I didn’t answer her the first time. Her voice was breathy, barely audible, her words laced with the pressure she was feeling right now. She probably hated it, loathed that I made her feel this way, that her body was betraying her. But she’d soon realize it wasn’t a betrayal, but her body, her soul, her very essence submitting to me, because she was mine and I was hers.
“They were humans, the bad kind, the kind I don’t want anywhere near you.” The truth was I didn’t want any men near her, not human nor Otherworlder. But she wasn’t ready to hear all of that. “They were after you because of me. You were just collateral, a way to get to me, because you’re mine.”
“Humans…” She licked her lips, and I was transfixed at the sight. “You keep phrasing things weird. Mates, humans, that I’m yours. What does that all mean?”
“What do you think it means?” I was being purposely evasive, getting off on going around in circles with her, because I knew the moment I said what was really hanging between us, she’d no doubt close off, a defense mechanism, because her mind wouldn’t be able to comprehend it right away.
A long moment passed as we stared at each other. “I think it means you’re dangerous.”
My smart, pretty little female.
“I’m very dangerous.” I wanted to move closer, be that predator who stalked her, getting off and becoming excited to watch her retreat, knowing at the end of it all she’d give in to me.
“The bodies,” she whispered instead of saying what she really wanted to, and she looked at me, eyes wide.
“If you’re looking for an apology for killing them”—I slowly shook my head—“I can’t give you that.” I took another step closer, a low growl leaving me at the thought of her retreating. “I’ll give you anything, everything, but I won’t give you that. In fact,” I murmured, my focus on her lips again, “I enjoyed ending them. I reveled in it.” It made the feral beast that I inherently was growl in anticipation. “They meant you harm, and for that, I’d kill them ten times over.” I bared my teeth. “I’ll destroy anyone or anything that tries to take you from me.”
But the truth was I hadn’t known they’d be at her place. I should have been more careful. I should have known with the Assembly coming out of the woodwork again, especially with them trying to take Cian and his mate down, the human fuckers were getting more daring. They were willing to take chances, even if that meant crossing me.
I took a step toward her, and I was proud that she held her ground. No one stood up against me, not the ones who wanted to live. But my sweet, vulnerable little mate who barely reached the center of my chest refused to back down in the face of a very real predator.
I stopped when I was a few feet from her, looking down into her green eyes that were too wide, too apprehensive. “That’s not really what you want to ask me though, is it?” No, no, it wasn’t.
I knew what question rolled around in that gorgeous head of hers, something she didn’t want to contemplate as reality, something that was more important right now than the fact that she’d had a home invasion, or that I’d slaughtered two people in her home.
It was a question that churned in her mind over and over again since the last time we’d been together, when I had her pressed against the wall of my club, when I smelled her arousal and knew her pussy was wet… tasted the ambrosia that was her blood.