Page 24 of Bitten by Bloodmoon (Mateless Shifters #2)

Nyx

S taying out of her head is damn near impossible as she dances with her so-called friend .

Her friend , whom she doesn’t have feelings for, and he doesn’t have the hots for her.

Her friend , who just initiated into my pack to be near her.

Her friend , who keeps grabbing her ass and holding her so flush against his body that I’m sure she can feel his erection pressing into her stomach.

If he’s just her friend , then she and I have very different definitions of the word.

“Want me to kill him for you?” Sylara asks.

“No, they are just friends.”

She scoffs. “You’re delusional if you think that.”

“Lumi’s just trying to relax after the trauma she went through.

Tonight brought up some bad experiences for her.

” I still can’t get the images of her spread naked, Isolde making her think she wanted to fuck the entire pack, while underneath, Lumi wanted nothing to do with them.

She was almost repeatedly raped by the entire Moonlight pack, all so she could prove her loyalty.

Fucking disgusting. If I didn’t want to kill Ambrose before, I do now. No one deserves to go through that.

“We’ve all been through shit. It doesn’t excuse her behavior,” Sylara says.

“Trust me, it does.”

Her eyes snap from me to Lumi.

“Whatever she needs to bury her trauma in tonight, she gets. Drinks, Kael, other men, I don’t care.”

“Fine, but she needs to at least do it behind closed doors. Everyone thinks the two of you are mates, and you’ll break the curse. If they find out that’s not true—”

“I know. I’ll send them to the house soon. I just…fuck.”

It’s too late.

I watch in slow motion as Kael dips her like he has a dozen times before. But this time, when he dips her, his lips seal against hers.

I jolt out of her head, not allowing myself to feel a single thought of what she’s feeling right now. I’m not sure if she wants the bastard or wants to sucker punch him for kissing her when her trauma is so bright tonight. Either way, I’ll end up making a bad decision that isn’t thought through.

“Fucker,” Sylara says.

Talonis, Brax, and Riven are at my side in a second. “What are your orders, sir?” Brax asks, already all business-like, like he knows a battle is about to happen, and he’s about to command a squadron in a fight.

Maybe no one noticed. Maybe he kissed her so quickly, and I, being the only one in tune with her, was the only one who noticed.

But when I look back at them, they are still kissing. She hasn’t pushed him away. Fucking hell.

“Kill him,” Sylara says, breaking me out of my head.

“No. Just get them both out of here as discreetly as possible.”

“Too late, boss,” Talonis says.

There is a shift in the air. The celebratory mood has now sobered, and the room begins to spin into slow chaos. The whispers start…

“I thought she was the lord’s mate.”

“Is that why he initiated? Because he’s in love with her?”

“We have to take her hostage. Torture her until we get the truth. The lord has been lying to us.”

“No, we kill her. She’s a distraction.”

“No, we take her.”

Godsdammit .

“The vampires want to kidnap and torture her. Stop them,” I give the orders, ignoring the fact that even many in my own pack are upset by what’s happening.

But they are loyal to me no matter what and will fight on my side.

The vampires, on the other hand, will deem me unfit to rule and serve me on an open platter to the vampire king.

Orson grabs onto Lumi’s arm, yanking her free of Kael’s kiss. I leap across the room, landing on top of him. My canines are elongated, and my wolf claws are beginning to sprout from my fingers as I pin him down.

“She’s mine. Don’t you dare lay a finger on her.”

“It seems to me, she’s his . And if she’s his and not yours, then she has no need for protection. She’s not a Bloodmoon pack member. She’s the enemy.”

“She’s. My. Mate.” I sink my teeth into his neck, but he’s fast, having lived as a vampire far longer than I have. He slips, my teeth dragging across his skin.

We circle each other. I shouldn’t kill him. I shouldn’t kill anyone, but my heart is out for blood. I want to kill. It’s my instinct as a vampire to kill. But my conscious brain says it would only make things worse.

“You’re nothing but a scammer. You lied to us.”

I swipe at him, hitting him across his shoulder as I pull my wolf back and let the vampire side of me take root in my body. “I’ve never lied.”

“Then you’re willing to share your mate? You shared her with a wolf, so it’s only fair you also share her with a vampire.”

I snap my teeth at him. “Get the fuck away from her. If you touch her again, you and the entire House of Nightfall vampires die.”

He smirks. “I don’t believe you. None of us do.”

He points to the others, where fights have broken out. Vampires against shifters. I don’t know how to stop it, but I have to try.

I notice Lumi is safe, surrounded by Sylara and Riven, but I’m puzzled as to why she’s still here, given that I gave the order to get her out. Kael is also nearby.

“It doesn’t matter what you believe. All you care about is us breaking the curse, and we will on the next full moon.”

“Not until I get a taste…”

He lunges for me at the same time three other vampires make their move toward me. But that’s not the movement that catches my eye. Lumi is running toward me after leaping between Sylara and Riven.

Fucking hell. How do I get her out of here unharmed? They are going to tear her to pieces.

I grab her, turning her so that the vampires attack my back instead of her flesh. I cry out as they sink their teeth into my back.

“Stop! He’s my mate!” she screams. She fights in my arms, but I only hold her tighter. They don’t stop attacking me. Their lashes are getting deeper and deeper into my flesh to the point that I know I’m going to need Riven’s help to heal properly if I survive this at all.

“Stop! I’ll do anything you want. You can kidnap me. Rape me. Torture me. Whatever, just leave Nyx alone,” she says.

My heart freezes as I try to understand why she would say that. Why would she offer herself up to save a male she loathes and has proclaimed many times she wants me dead? But it gets everyone’s attention enough that attacks on my back stop.

“I’m the only one who gets to kill you,” she mutters as if that explains everything.

“I’m not letting them take you.”

“I know.”

“So this was all a bluff? You weren’t ever really going to offer yourself to them? You have a lot of faith in me, especially since I haven’t actually saved your ass yet.”

“I saved your ass, though.”

She’s right. She did. The attacks have stopped. Slowly, I rise from my hunched-over position, but I’m careful to keep my body between Lumi and the vampires.

Orson looks at me expectantly, as if I’m about to hand her over to him. Not going to happen.

I snap my teeth and growl at him, which only makes him laugh. But he looks to Lumi.

“You have to make this right. You kissed another male. You almost started a war between our species. Almost got your supposed mate killed. You either let us take you or figure out another way so that we can all leave here peacefully,” he says to her.

“Do you have any ideas on how to get us all out of here?”

“I’m working on it,” I reply.

I can feel her roll her eyes at me in her head. “Looks like I’ll be saving your ass again, then.”

“Then take me. I offered myself up to stop you from killing my mate, and I stand by that offer. Take me, but you’ll be taking away your only chance at breaking the curse.

I’m the snow wolf that all the seers talk about breaking the curse.

Whether he’s my mate or not, it doesn’t matter.

If you kill me, you kill your chance at breaking the curse, and you’ll be starting an all-out war.

Because if you take me, there is nothing this man won’t do to get me back or avenge my death. ”

“Except we don’t believe that. If he were your mate, he wouldn’t let you go around kissing other males.”

She glares at him. “Nyx doesn’t let me do or not do anything. I’m my own person. I make my own decisions. But you didn’t give me a chance to let everything play out before you attacked Nyx.”

“And what were you about to do?”

“This.” She starts to walk out from behind my protection. I grab her wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“Trust me.”

“I’m not going to let them take you. I’ll kill them all first and start an all-out war.”

She stares at me intently, like she’s realizing something for the first time. But doesn’t say anything else in my head. She starts moving again, and I hold onto her for as long as I can before I’m forced to make a decision. Hold onto her or let her go and trust her.

I hold on with every fiber until I’m forced to let her go.

She keeps her eyes on Orson as she struts with all the confidence that has been bubbling inside her.

I think she’s going to walk straight for Orson, straight into his arms. I almost lose it and snatch her back before she makes a hard left and turns toward Kael and the others.

What is she doing?

She walks right up to Kael, and my stomach knots.

If she gives him any warning about what she’s going to do, it’s unnoticeable.

Raising her hand, she slaps him hard across the cheek.

“Don’t kiss me, don’t touch me without my permission.

You’ll be lucky if Nyx doesn’t immediately kick you out of the pack.

And if he chooses to, I won’t stop him. I don’t care that you’re my childhood friend.

I don’t care how drunk you are, I’m not fucking yours to play with. Do you understand?”

Kael nods solemnly.

She spins on her heels and marches right back to me like she doesn’t have an audience ready to kill her if she makes one misstep.

She beelines it back to me, and then, without a word of warning, she rises on her tiptoes, reaching her hand up for a moment.

I think I’m about to get slapped, too, but instead, she reaches around the back of my neck and pulls down.

I don’t fully grasp what’s happening until her lips crash into mine.

The moment they touch, it’s like a spark igniting dry tinder—sudden, wild, consuming.

There’s no hesitation, no gentle testing of boundaries.

She kisses me with a fierce certainty, like she’s done this a thousand times before.

Like she’s claiming what’s already hers.

Her tongue doesn’t ask—it demands, slipping past the seam of my lips with bold intent.

Mine meets hers instantly, a hungry sweep in answer.

She tastes like ice, like snow melting on my tongue, shockingly cold even against my already chilled skin—and I’m addicted.

The way her fingers tighten around my neck, the way her tongue commands mine with ruthless precision—I could unravel from this alone.

She releases me far too soon, but it’s probably for the best. She looks up at me with heat in her eyes.

“Take me to bed,” she purrs.