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C laim him for all to see.

The tan man with dark hair and purple eyes, who is definitely not human, walks away. The waitress drops off our drinks, and I know beer won’t be enough, so I order whiskey right before she leaves.

I chug down my beer, trying to understand what just happened.

“Teddy,” Millie says, approaching the booth. “Are you okay?”

No, I don’t think I’m okay at all. My life is weird as fuck right now, but I’m here in a supernatural night club where a strange man sniffed me and said I was special. Now Otis freaking Redding is playing These Arms of Mine and all I want to do is dance with the woman who not only terrifies me but also makes me feel whole.

It’s as if I’d been searching for a lost item my entire life and have finally stumbled upon it. I don’t understand it, and I need answers. Especially after what just happened.

I stand and reach out my hand. “Let’s dance.”

She hesitates but takes it.

“Teddy, we should talk—”

I drag her to the center of the dance floor and tug her body against mine, snaking my arm around her waist.

“Oh, we’re going to talk, Milli Vanilli. But we’re also going to dance because when will I ever get a chance to do this again?”

“Actually, Otis plays here often, so…”

I sigh, because she’s trying to make a joke and it’s kinda adorable, but I’m also mad at her.

Well, not so much mad but frustrated because she’s been keeping things from me.

“What does it mean to claim me?”

“They just want to see me feed from you. I can say you are mine all I want, but to drink from you in front of everyone secures your safety. It’s a rite of passage of sorts. No one will dare touch you.”

“But you fed from me earlier. I still have the marks. ”

I graze my fingers over the spot, but I barely feel puncture marks.

“I used my blood to heal it. I wasn’t sure if you would want them…” She looks away. “Drinking from you in private doesn’t prove my protective claim over you. I have to do it around other supernatural beings. Almost like I’m a dog marking my territory.”

Okay. I suppose that makes sense. Or doesn’t.

“I thought one of the rules was no feeding in public?”

“This is a private establishment for supernaturals. It’s considered neutral territory. We can feed if given permission. Or if it is to claim a human to protect them.”

The idea of her feeding from me while they all watch makes my cock harden. I press it against her, and her eyes flare black.

“Drink from me now,” I say and dip her. When I bring her back up, I plant a kiss on her lips. Her mouth moves over mine, slowly. Appreciatively.

The kiss is quick because Millie is the one who pulls away. I’d fuck her here in front of everyone if she’d let me.

“I don’t know, Teddy.”

I twist her around, her back to my front, allowing me to bring my wrist to her mouth .

The entire room seems to lean in. They’re watching us. Everyone is staring our way with fangs bared or eyes glowing. It should scare me, but instead, I’m eager.

And extremely turned on.

Millie hesitantly wraps her fingers around my forearm and brings her lips to my flesh.

Otis continues to play, but the notes fade away and all I see and hear and feel is her .

My vampire queen.

I press my lips to her neck and whisper, “I’m yours.”

She sinks her fangs into my wrist, and I groan at the brief sting of pain. My free hand slides over Millie’s front, squeezing her breast and pinching her nipple.

She moans and clutches my arm tighter, growling as she draws my blood from the bite.

I don’t care that all eyes are on us. My hand slips beneath the bottom of her dress, and I push aside her panties.

“So wet, my queen,” I say before plunging two fingers inside her.

She bucks against me as I curl my fingers, grazing her g-spot. I start pumping in and out slowly because I know how much that frustrates her. When she moves her hips, signaling that she wants me to fuck her faster, I speed up my thrusts .

It doesn’t take long to build Millie up to her release. Maybe it’s because we’re being watched. Or maybe it’s my blood. A combination of both? Whatever the reason, the moment I press my thumb over her clit, she unlatches from my wrist to scream out as an orgasm washes over her.

I let her shakes subside before removing my fingers and shoving them into her mouth.

She licks them clean.

The room applauds, and I twist Millie back around to kiss her, tasting a combination of wine, blood, and her sweet pussy on her lips.

“Tell me why you think my blood is special,” I say the moment we part. “And what that man said about me making the supes foam—”

She clamps her hand over my mouth, stopping me from speaking. Glancing around, I notice everyone has yet to look away. We did put on quite the show. Are they hoping for more? I move us closer to the stage and the loud music.

“Will this drown out our conversation?”

“Not really. Teddy, look. I’ll tell you everything. But here is not the place. I just wanted tonight to be fun and special because I know how much you love music. I should have known better. There are too many supernatural beings here with enhanced hearing. They’re a bunch of nosy fuckers who should be minding their own business, but I’m a vampire queen with a human lover, and they want to know what makes you special.”

I look to my left and spot an exit sign. I take Millie’s hand and pull her toward the door. It leads us to a hallway and another door at the end, which opens to a trash area. Before the door shuts, I notice her bodyguards following. Millie holds up her hand and they stop before exiting with us.

“Will this do?”

She sniffs the air and listens for a few seconds.

“If we whisper, yes.”

“Good,” I say, then push her up against the wall. “Tell me everything while I fuck you.”

“Teddy,” she warns.

I unzip my jeans and pull out my cock.

“No, Millie. You’ve been keeping things from me.”

I kick her legs apart and slip my hand underneath her short black dress again. This time, I have no patience and rip the thin material of her underwear off her body.

She gasps as my fingers slide into her wet cunt. My other hand wraps around her throat as I drive them in and out of her.

“This is your punishment. You don’t get to come until you tell me.”

“I already came. ”

“That was for them. This one’s for me. You come when I say, okay?”

She nods and moans and grips the arm choking her. Her nails dig into my flesh until I bleed, and she swoops the blood up with her fingertip and pops it into her mouth.

God, that was hot.

“Can’t. Talk,” Millie wheezes.

“I didn’t know you could breathe,” I say, easing up but not releasing her neck just yet. I lean in to take her nipple into my mouth, tonguing it through the fabric of her dress.

She whimpers.

“I don’t need air to survive, but I still breathe out of habit. But for speaking, I need my vocal box and you were crushing it.”

I remove my fingers from her hair to wrap one of her legs around my waist, then I line my cock up to her opening.

“Fine, now talk.”

I thrust into her, and she clamps a hand over her mouth to hold in her scream. She removes it once getting control of her pleasure.

“I… I believe… you might be… my blood mate,” she whispers, the words broken as I fuck her against the wall.

I pause inside her to the hilt.

“What is a blood mate?” I mouth, making sure we can’t be heard by anyone inside the club .

She squirms, trying to get me to move.

“Is that like a soulmate?” I ask, and she winces. “Of course. It all makes sense.”

“What?”

“This connection between us. I mean, I’ve had one-night stands before but never any like this.”

I pull out of Millie only to slam back in. Her eyes roll into the back of her head as I piston into her.

“Bite me again. All my blood is yours.”

She shakes her head. “I took too much—”

“Take more.”

I drop my hold from her throat so she can press her mouth against my neck. She scrapes her teeth over the skin. I moan, nearly coming as I pump into her faster, harder.

She’s no longer holding in her screams.

“That’s right Millie. Scream so everyone in this neighborhood and inside the club hears how well I fuck you. No more whispering, right?”

“Yes,” she wails.

She’s close and right before she comes, I stop. She fists my shirt and tries to move her hips, but I have her pinned to the wall.

I tease her with a soft kiss and lick a fang. Then I kiss her harder, allowing the sharp canine to pierce my bottom lip. She greedily drinks the blood that slowly pools out .

I start fucking her again.

“Feed from me, Millie.”

“What if I can’t stop?”

“You were able to stop when feeding from me on the dance floor. And you stopped right before I stabbed you earlier. I trust you.”

She’s already worked up enough that it takes a few more pumps for her to come.

Her fangs sink into my neck the moment her pussy walls choke my cock, and I’m sent over the edge with her. I wait until every last drop of cum is inside her before I withdraw. Millie stops drinking from me, refusing to take much of my blood this time.

“Now,” I begin, tucking my dick back in my pants and zipping up. I help Millie smooth out her dress and fix her hair. “When we go back inside, every supernatural being will smell my cum dripping from your cunt and they’ll see your bite on my neck. There will be no doubt who I belong to.”

We move to walk inside, but Millie whips around and pushes me behind her. Her guards rush out, but she holds up a hand, stopping them from advancing.

“What the hell, Millie?”

“Quite unbecoming of a queen to fuck a human while feeding from them in public,” a dark voice says.

A man appears from the shadows, holding up a delirious blonde woman in front of him. Blood drips from her neck and streaks down the front of her white dress. He clearly fed from her and didn’t stop.

I gulp. “Is she…”

“Dead?” He tosses her to the ground as if she’s a doll. “She will be soon.”

He sniffs the air, which is something I’ve noticed a lot of supernatural beings doing tonight.

“This human of yours smells delectable, Mildred. Would you consider sharing him? Like old times?”

“Fuck you, Henry,” Millie growls, and I’ve never heard her sound so… territorial. Not even with Layla.

Henry? Wait. I know that name. This is the vampire who turned her. Who made her do horrible things against her will.

He’s slimmer than me, but still built. Taller too. Handsome in that mysterious and dangerous way. He has long black hair, which is tied up in a man bun. His eyes are silver, like Millie’s, and I wonder if that’s because he sired her.

“Ah. The ever so feisty, Mildred Maycot. The one who got away.”

I want to kill this man. I want to drive a stake through his heart for everything he did to Millie. And now the poor woman on the ground, drained of blood. She can’t be older than twenty-two. I want to check on her, but I’m also terrified. Millie is shielding me from him for a reason.

“Why are you here, Henry?”

He slowly paces the small space, his hands behind his back. Under the building’s security light, he resembles a horror movie monster. His victim’s blood is evident around his mouth and chin. He’s wearing all black clothes, otherwise I’m sure I’d see his frontside covered in blood as well.

“Of all my fifteen hundred years of existence, I’ve never been to the Big Apple. Can you believe that? Initially, I wasn’t interested in coming to this pompous country. But after you’ve traveled the world and seen it all, what’s left than to cross the pond? I’ve now been here for ten years. I’ve visited many cities across the United States, but never New York City.”

He pauses and smirks.

“Quite the metropolis you have here, Queen Mildred.”

“It’s Millie, and when you’re in my territory, you’ll address me as Your Majesty.”

Henry scoffs.

“If I have my way, it won’t be your territory much longer. And if I were you,” he drags his eyes to me. “I’d keep that human close. It’d be a shame if he were to go… missing. Or found dead, much like the other bodies that have been piling up these past few days.”

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

Henry shrugs. “Guess the only way for you to find out is to catch me and kill me. See if the deaths stop then.”

“You will be sentenced to the sun when we catch you.”

“And why haven’t you detained me now, Mildred?” He feigns a gasp. “Oh, that’s right.”

In a flash, he has me by the throat.

“I am faster and stronger than you. Now you decide… Will you chase me or save him?”

Millie’s guards are now moving toward the feral vamp, but he’s gone in a blink. My eyes struggle to follow the action and seconds later, pain rips through my stomach. I clutch it, then pull my hands away.

They’re covered in blood.

“Millie?”

I collapse to the ground and fall into darkness.