Page 17 of Bitten by Bloodmoon (Mateless Shifters #2)

She freezes. “Can he get into my mind like you can? Has he been able to this entire time?”

Her fear is palpable in the air. I don’t need a connection with her to feel it. “My best guess, yes.”

“Fuck,” she screams, yanking on her silver hair to rip us both from her head.

“When I rejected his bond, did that sever my connection with him?”

“I don’t know.”

Finally, she collapses into the couch opposite me. She’s finally had enough of this madness and needs time to just think. And then she looks at me. Her eyes squint, locking on me with a fierce intensity, as if she’s trying to burn straight through my mind.

“What are you doing?” I chuckle.

“Trying to read your mind.”

“It’s more of a mental thing than a physical one. You don’t need to squint your eyes at me.”

She huffs. “You can’t believe I’m your mate. We are worse together than Ambrose and I were.”

“I don’t believe we are mates.”

“Then why tell the vampires that? We are no closer to breaking the curse than Ambrose and I were.”

“Because you are seeing visions, prophecies, so am I. I think our connection is because we are both seers. Together we can figure out how to break the curse.” I don’t tell her that my theory would also mean that Ambrose is probably a seer and has visions, and that’s why the three of us can talk to each other in our heads.

That would be too much for her to accept at the moment.

“And telling them you’re my mate means they won’t hurt you. You’re safe, and yes, I’d like to protect you so we can find a way to break the curse,” I continue.

“That’s it? You just want to break the curse? You don’t want to mark me as your mate?”

A primitive growl creeps up my chest, but I quickly push it down before I make an audible sound.

One that screams, she’s mine! You’re mine!

I want you spread before me while I feast on your flesh and drive my thick cock inside you as you orgasm over and over in blissful ribbons until every painful emotion you’ve been through vanishes and we are the only two souls left in existence.

But I don’t say any of that. It’s just the curse fucking with me.

She’s not my mate. She’s still in love with Ambrose for fucking sakes.

He’s probably her mate, but the gods put a spell on him to fuck it all up so he wouldn’t break the curse until we’ve all been punished to their satisfaction.

Only then will they allow them to break the curse.

“I just want to break the curse.”

“I’m not sure I care about breaking the curse anymore. And I definitely don’t want your protection.”

“Prove it.”

“What?”

“Prove that you don’t need or want my protection.”

She narrows her eyes at me as if she knows it’s a trick.

I rest my arms casually on the armrests, widening my legs in the most relaxed manner that I can.

“Attack me. Survive for one minute. Sixty seconds to prove to yourself that if you can survive that long, then you can survive long enough when faced against an enemy vampire or wolf shifter,” I prod.

“I don’t need to prove anything.”

“Not to me. But you do to yourself.”

She hesitates, thinking it through, but I know she still wants to kill me. She still dreams about it after Rowena’s death.

“Take your revenge,” I say in her head.

That does it. Her rage overwhelms her thoughts as she runs for me. For a second, I’m not even sure she bothered to pull her weapon from where it was tucked between her hip and her leggings, but she does. Pulling it free from the sheath, she leaps toward me.

I don’t move. I let her attack. I want her to see the damage she can do, but also how much more she could do with proper training. Despite her wanting to be independent and fierce, she’s going to need me and my pack to teach her how to live that way.

She does have one thing I don’t have to teach her—guts.

Her blade slices down hard as she aims for my neck, but the angle is all wrong, and the swipe of her forearms sends the blade against my shoulder, slicing into my deltoid muscle rather than across my neck.

She yanks her arm back, aiming for my chest. She doesn’t hesitate; she drives the knife down with both of her hands through my heart.

She releases her blade with a heavy breath before looking me in the eyes. She blinks several times, as if she can’t believe what she just did.

“I’m—I’m so sorry. I’ll grab Riven. You’re going to be okay. Just—”

She tries to pull away, intending to hunt down Riven, but I catch her wrist before she can climb off me.

I grab the handle of the blade and yank it out with a hiss before tossing it on the floor. The wound immediately starts healing itself. The mix of vampire and wolf shifter blood in me is tending to my wounds. I rarely, if ever, need a healer for my body to heal.

“Lesson one—don’t ever sink your weapon into an enemy unless you are sure it will kill them.

Lesson two—only a stake through the heart can kill a vampire.

” In the next blink of the eye, we’ve switched positions.

She’s beneath me, her warm body melting my icy exterior as I press my canines against her throat, giving her a view of the wound that is already mostly healed.

“You’re brave. Possibly the bravest of us all. And you’re mourning. You want revenge. You want to make all the pain go away. But letting me or another vampire or witch kill you isn’t the answer you’re looking for. That’s just letting us win.”

Her heart thunders in her chest as she stills with my sharp teeth brushing against her flesh. She swallows as if taunting me, like she knows I won’t actually bite her. She doesn’t know me very well.

“We both need each other—”

“I don’t need you,” she protests.

“You do if you want to stay alive. If you want your wolf back. If you want to be able to back up that bark with some bite and teeth of your own.”

She growls.

I grin. “I want to make a deal with you, one we cast in blood this time.”

“No, I’m not making any sort of magical deal with you.”

“Even one that assures I won’t kill you? That gives you back some of the power in our dynamic? And that ultimately ensures you have the power to survive in this world?”

“No deal can give me all of that.”

“I need the information to break the curse. You need that knowledge as well—it will give you back your own power. Power to control your own fate again, instead of Ambrose or me assuming you are our mate. And you want your wolf back. We agree to share any knowledge we gain about the curse or how to get your wolf back, through our visions and by consulting other seers together. We won’t stop until we find out how to break the curse and you have gained your wolf back. ”

“It’s not enough.”

“I vow to protect you, no matter the consequences. I will do everything in my power to keep you alive, including sacrificing myself if it comes down to it.”

“And I would have to do no such thing for you?”

I chuckle. “No, you don’t have to protect me. In fact, you can continue to actively try to kill me.”

Her lips curl up at that. “What happens if we don’t honor this deal, if we seal it with blood?”

“Depends on the transgression, but usually the magic of the deal would try its best to force you to honor it. If you still didn’t, then it would cause you physical pain. And if you really broke the deal, you’d die.”

“So all I have to do to honor it is tell you about my visions and go with you to see seers?”

“Yes. And I’d do the same, plus lay down my life to protect you.”

Her eyes narrow, searching mine as if she wants to ask more of me, but isn’t sure how to ask it. “And you promise not to use your mind control on me.”

I wouldn’t anyway, so it’s an easy yes. “I promise not to use my mind control on you.”

She thinks as if she is searching for one last thing to ask me. Her brows furrow, and the lines at the corners of her eyes deepen. “You also have to promise not to kill Ambrose.”

I flip us back around so she’s straddling me, and I can look deep into her eyes, searching for the reason for her ask. Is it because she’s still in love with him or because she wants to kill him herself?

I can’t see the answer there, but she has the upper hand in the negotiations. She knows I’ll agree to any of her terms because I’m desperate to break the curse. She saw a little bit of the reason for that desperation tonight, but not enough to fully understand.

“I promise not to kill Ambrose as long as our deal lasts,” I add.

She purses her lips, but then nods, her long hair sweeping over her shoulder and brushing against my chest as she does.

“Now what?”

I lift her left hand from where it’s gripping the armrest, my eyes never leaving hers as I lift her index finger to my lips.

“Can I prick your finger with my fang to draw blood for the deal?”

“Yes.”

I nick her finger against my fang before doing the same to my own finger. I hold out my finger, giving her one last chance to back away from our deal. She doesn’t hesitate. She smashes her finger against mine, our blood mixing together.

“I will honor the deal and terms we have agreed to with each other until my dying breath,” I say.

“I will help you break the curse as long as I’m breathing,” she says.

A jolt sparks between us as the magic mixes and seals us together, like a shockwave running through our bodies.

She yanks her hand back.

“What the hell?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Sorry, I should have prepared you for that.”

“I thought you weren’t a witch?”

“I’m not.”

“Then how?” She stares at her finger, then mine.

“When two magical creatures enter into a deal like this, magic is formed.”

“But I’m not—”

I shake my head. “The universe thinks you are still a wolf shifter, even if you can’t control your wolf yourself.”

Her eyes widen.

“Do you regret our deal yet, snow wolf?”

“No.” Her eyes twinkle at me, and my heart skips a beat. I’m terrified I’m going to live long enough to regret it, though.