Page 27 of Taming His Vampire Mate

“If this is the peak of your vocabulary, perhaps it’s best you don’t speak at all.”

“And about Rookwood?” I pressed. Maybe it was salt in the wound or a last-ditch effort to see if he really was as bad as he seemed. We had shared the same dream last night—even if he didn’t know that yet. Was he going to tell me about it? Or say anything remotely human about why he had immediately agreed to go?

Thierry just stared, as though waiting for a punch line. When none came: “What about it?”

“You volunteered to go alone.”

“Your observation skills are impeccable.”

“The town might be wiped out. Everyone might be dead. That’s what we might be walking into.”

“It’s tragic, but it happens.” His cold smile sharpened. “Don’t pretend you actually care.”

“I asked you first.”

“This is a job we must do. Nothing more.”

Then, before I could answer, he blurred from sight, gone in a rush of speed, leaving me staring after him.

My heart sank. He wasexactlyas bad as I’d feared.

Being mated to a vampire at all was a colossal screw-up on the universe’s end. But being mated to Thierry, who was as icy, callous, and dangerous as the worst of them?

Yeah. This was bad. Very bad.

* * *

“I don’t know if I like this, Jer,” Reed said, four hours later. “The way that vampire was staring at you in the council room… it was like he hated you.”

“I’ll be fine,” I muttered, giving the frosted glass windows of the bar a sideways glance. It was ballsy of the vampire king to have his headquarters planted right next to apartment buildings that probably mostly housed humans, in the heart of Capitol Hill. After all, how did they dispose of all the bodies? In theory, Seattle was supposed to be safe, but I didn’t buy that for a second. In a city with a thousand vampires, one of them was bound to slip up sooner or later, no matter how inconvenient that made things for the king. “Just go to the commune and wait for me. I’ll be back in a few days, most likely.”

Lindsey frowned. “You seem… different.”

“Not sure why,” I lied, not meeting her gaze. I hadn’t told them Thierry was my true mate. Or that we’d already gotten toknow each other in the biblical sense. Somehow, that just hadn’t rolled off the tongue. “I have a job to go do now. That’s all.”

“Which you don’t seem nearly as upset about as you ought to be,” she said, still studying me. “Given that you just spent a year living in the woods to avoid people.”

“The tact,” Reed said dryly. “It burns. Didn’t they teach you bedside manner at animal-doctor school?”

Lindsey ignored him. “Just don’t do anything stupid. Or reckless.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“And come back in one piece.”

“Sure thing,” I replied, feeling a flash of annoyance. The days when I needed coddling were long gone. To prove it, I gave Reed a meaningful look. “Nothing has changed. You know that, right? When I return…”

I let that trail off, but Reed’s expression darkened, and he looked away sharply, so I knew he caught my meaning. When I returned, our deal still stood. He was challenging me for alpha.

He swallowed hard. “You’re a fucking bastard, Jer. You know that?”

“Quite right,” Thierry said suddenly, having approached so silently he might’ve materialized out of thin air. Reed and Lindsey both startled. The vampire just smiled coldly. “Do tell, what’s the big bad wolf done now? Has he been hunting more unsuspecting human men? Capitol Hill certainly has no shortage of those.”

When no one answered, he sighed. “Are you ready to go?” Then he paused, nodding at Reed and Lindsey, before narrowing his eyes at me. “And it goes without saying, you’re not bringing the other wolves.”

“What, you don’t want witnesses?” Reed demanded.

Thierry smirked. “No. I don’t want collateral damage.”