Page 1 of Taming His Vampire Mate

CHAPTER ONE || THIERRY

Tampering with fate has a price. Always. And tonight, under the full moon, we were about to pay it—yet again. It was almost midnight, which meant Poppy and the rest of the witches would arrive soon to perform the spell that would summon my fated mate. In theory, at least. In practice, that seemed increasingly unlikely. The last six attempts had all ended in disaster. But perhaps the seventh time would be the charm.

“Stop pacing, would you?” Michael, my progeny, gave me a sideways look from the couch. “You’re making us nervous.”

I paused in front of the living room window and narrowed my eyes at him. He was pale and built like a linebacker, with slabs of muscle. His silver eyes lingered on mine for a long moment. Despite his outburst, I could see the concern on his face. The sharp words I almost said died on my lips.

Instead, I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. I had, in fact, been pacing.

“We ought to be nervous,” Bryan Peterson said wryly from the floor, where he sat cross-legged. He traded a meaningful look with his mate, Tobias Hawthorne, who sat beside him. “Last time, Poppy started a forest fire.”

Tobias’s sour look deepened and he turned to glare at me. “Remind me again why you can’t leave my sister out of this?”

“She offered,” Michael said immediately, jumping to my defense even though no one had asked him to. “And we’ll haveEthan here, so it won’t get too far out of hand, even if the spell goes haywire.” He paused and grimaced. “Again.”

He was referring to Ethan Solomon, son of the reigning witch queen, married to the vampire king—my boss, technically—Nathaniel Bailey. A single drop of Ethan’s blood could neutralize even the most powerful magic. He had stopped the rapidly spreading eerie green flames conjured by Poppy’s last attempt armed with nothing more than a sterile lancet and a Band-Aid.

“I’m sure everything will go smoothly this time,” Michael’s mate, Danny, said firmly. He sat beside Michael on the couch, their hands threaded together.

Danny and Michael had been hunters—humans who fought the supernatural creatures that hurt innocent people. Then, while hunting a vicious nest of vampires in eastern Oregon, Danny had been turned. Michael, who had been in love with his hunting partner for years, hadn’t been able to kill him. Then Danny lost control of his vampiric instincts and nearly killed an innocent person. After that, he lost his humanity.

In the first few months after someone becomes a vampire, their humanity—their soul, if you want to fall down that particular rabbit hole—is at war with their vampiric nature. Humanity always wins out unless they kill someone. If they do, they become cold, sadistic, unfeeling, and focused entirely on their own pleasures—which usually include hunting and killing innocent humans for fun and profit.

That was what happened to Danny.

There’s one solution for a vampire who has lost their humanity: they must be destroyed.

Michael, out of desperation, asked me to change him. He believed he could bring his mate back from the precipice. Perhaps I’m growing soft in my old age, because I granted his request. And against all odds, Michael was right. The hunterhelped Danny’s humanity claw its way back into the driver’s seat.

Afterward, we realized this might be a sort of… cure. It was reasonable to believe no one had ever tried dealing with a murderous vampire by summoning their fated mate. In no small part because a spell to conjure said mate didn’t exist.

Yet.

Poppy—one of the most powerful witches I’d ever encountered—thought she was getting close.

“And we need to remember why we’re doing this,” Danny whispered.

“Darlin’, that wasn’t your fault,” Michael said, squeezing his mate’s hand. “You couldn’t have done anything differently.”

Danny swallowed hard, nodding.

“Don’t be mopey,” Rico Alvarez said brightly, appearing in the archway behind me. The little whoosh of wind told me he’d just used vampire speed to zip in from the kitchen. He wore a frilly blue-and-white checkered apron and held a plate of muffins that looked and smelled charred. A streak of flour dusted his face, shockingly white against his brown skin. He narrowed his dark eyes at Danny. Not exactly threatening, given that he was bouncing on his tippy-toes. “I enjoy being a vampire.”

“For now,” Danny muttered, raising his gaze to meet Rico’s. “I could have killed you.”

“But you didn’t. Bryan saved me. And now I’ve got two dads.” Then he paused, glancing at Tobias and Michael, and frowned. “Or, um… I guess four dads, actually.”

Tobias smirked. “What about your human dad? Wouldn’t that make five?”

Rico’s smile dimmed. “Who wants a muffin?”

Everyone in the room blanched.

Rico, who struggled to see the downside of anything, had decided to use his immortality to master all the things he’d never learned when he was human. Apparently, baking topped that list.

It wasn’t going well.

“Um, sure,” Bryan said, forcing a smile as Rico held out the plate. “They look—err—better this time.”