Page 102 of Taming His Vampire Mate

I locked eyes with him. “How’s this?Hellno.”

“Jeremy, leave town,” Thierry said it quietly, but I flinched anyway. “It’s what I want. It’s what I need from you.”

I swallowed hard. The urge to turn and walk away was startlingly strong—the urge to give him anything he wanted or needed felt woven into every fiber of me.

“We have nothing in common,” Thierry said, not meeting my eyes. “You were fine for a quick lay. And I won’t deny you were an amusing diversion. But I’m done with that now.”

“Stop it,” I ground out, anger sparking. “I know what you’re doing. You’re scared of Godric, and you’re trying to push me away.”

“Godric is dead.”

“Stop lying to me!”

“I don’t want you here,” Thierry said, his voice ragged. “Go back to your pack. They’re your people, not me!” His voice grew thicker, and he tried to raise his gaze but didn’t quite manage it. “And for the sake of all that’s holy, go be their bloody alpha, you twat! Stop running away from them.”

“Thierry—”

His eyes went wide, finally meeting mine. “No, Jeremy, don’t fucking say it.”

“I thought you couldn’t read my mind until we sealed the blood bond?”

“I said it before and I meant it: your thoughts are alarmingly easy to read, even without telepathy.”

“Look, I have to say it, and you need to hear it.”

He swallowed, his eyes suddenly glassy, but he held my gaze. “Don’t you get it, you stupid wolf? If anything happened to you,it would crush me. I don’t know how I’d get through the day, much less an eternity.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You won’t be,” Thierry said firmly. And I could suddenly feel his fear again, leaking through the bond between us. “Even in your wolf form, you’re no match for him, Jeremy.I’mno match for him. Godric is twice my age.”

“Sic Simone and Poppy on him, then! Between the two of them, they could probably overturn heaven and hell if they wanted to.” I gestured at him. “But pushing everyone away the moment things get scary—that’s just dumb.”

“Says the wolf who ran away from his pack for a year.”

Direct hit. It was like being punched in the chest. But he wasn’t wrong. I had turned my back on them. I had been selfish. I hadn’t given a thought to what would happen to them—only that I couldn’t face them.

And the truth didn’t sting as much as it should have. Maybe I needed Thierry’s honesty. Or maybe I just needed him, period: soft and strong, brutal and kind, savage and gentle. I needed the whole Thierry package.

“I chose wrong, too,” I admitted. “But you’re a better man than I am. You always have been.”

“Jeremy, I’m asking you to leave town. This has gotten too dangerous. That’s the truth of it. Godric destroyed Rookwood. He destroyed Quinn’s life and the lives of everyone else in that town. I have to end him.”

“Not alone.”

He shook his head slowly. I wasn’t surprised by his next words.

“I can’t put you or anyone else in danger. It’s not right.”

“That’s not a choice you get to make for any of us.”

“Jeremy—”

“Thierry, I’m in love with you. And I’m not leaving.”

The mask fell, and the walls between us crumbled. I could feel the way my words hit home, even as his expression turned stricken. Beneath the surface was a torrent of emotion—memories of my arms around him in flight, the way my scent stirred his fondest recollections, how I was somehow always both familiar and unexpected.

“You’re a bastard, Jeremy,” Thierry whispered, voice hoarse, eyes glassy. “This wasn’t the time, nor the place.”