Page 137 of Taming His Vampire Mate

“Is this… hard for you?” I asked. My eyes flicked to Thierry, then back. “I don’t know how I’d feel if our roles were reversed.”

“Our destinies are different, for now,” Ian said slowly. “But we’ll see each other again, eventually. And in the meantime, Thierry will take good care of you. I couldn’t ask for more. And honestly?” He chuckled. “I like him. He grows on you.”

Despite everything, I smiled. “Yeah. He does.” I drew a deep breath. “Goodbye, Ian.”

Mischief flared in his eyes one last time, the look I had loved so much. “Nah. No goodbyes, Jer. I’ll see you around. But not for a long while. Probably an eternity or two.”

Feeling a strange tangle of emotions, I nodded. Then I bent and laid my hand on my body’s chest.

Reality turned itself inside out.

I wasn’t standing anymore—I was lying on my back. Thierry’s hand gripped mine. His quiet tears dripped onto my skin. Through the bond, his grief was bottomless, unbearable.

I opened my eyes and squeezed his hand.

Thierry froze, disbelief widening his electric-blue gaze. For a heartbeat, his emotions shut off completely, like he couldn’t trust himself to feel anything at all.

Then a woman gasped behind him. My hearing was sharper than before, and I knew it was Lindsey, even without looking.

Thierry narrowed his eyes at me. His voice was hoarse, raw from weeping. “You’re such a dick, Jeremy. You kept us all waiting long enough.”

A soft chuckle slipped out of me.

Thierry’s expression crumpled, fresh tears spilling. He collapsed against me, and I caught him, holding him as he sobbed into my chest, each one tearing its way through him.

I stroked his hair, murmuring into it. “I told you. I’d do anything for you.”

And no one—wolf or vampire—had ever meant it more.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT || THIERRY

“How are you feeling?” Simone asked an hour later, peering down at my wolf as though perplexed. Or, well—I supposed he wasn’t quite mywolfanymore. None of us was exactly sure what he was now. But he was alive. I didn’t care about much else.

“I’m fine, I think.” Jeremy shrugged. “I feel mostly like myself.”

“Your senses haven’t changed?” Nathaniel asked, frowning. The vampire king stood beside Simone. Anyone who wasn’t me—or Ethan, probably—wouldn’t have seen the tension coiled beneath his stillness. To most, he looked relaxed. But knowing him the way I did, I saw he was a mere hair trigger from action.

Jeremy’s eyebrows shot up. “I guess I feel alittleweird—everything is way louder and brighter than it should be.”

“You’ll probably be sensitive to the sun, then,” Simone mused. “Maybe.”

Are they about to shoot me with a dart and put me in a zoo exhibit?His mental voice was every bit as strong as before he’d died and come back. Through the bond, I knew he meant what he’d said—that he felt almost exactly the same as he had before.

They’d lose a limb in the process,I promised.

Jeremy snorted, then flashed me a warm smile that made something unclench in my chest.

“What is he saying?” Nathaniel asked sharply. “What is he feeling right now?”

“He’sfine,” Jeremy repeated before I could answer. “Andhe’sstanding right here.”

“Jer, you can’t blame them for being freaked out,” Lindsey said. Her voice was still rough with grief, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy from all the crying since Jeremy’s heart had stopped.

She stood a few feet back beside Reed. For their safety, we’d sent the rest of the wolves away. Poppy, Ethan, and Daniel, too—they were with Danny, Michael, and the twins, working on a spell to seal the bleeds. They had been working on it while I was trying to accept the idea that Jeremy was gone. That I would be alone for the rest of my eternal life.

But I’m not gone,Jeremy told me silently.And you’ll be alone over my dead body.

You’re hilarious. Truly.