Page 35 of Taming His Vampire Mate

“Vampires.”

“We’re not a monolith, Jeremy.”

I snorted. “Whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. Stop being prickly and answer the question.”

“Please don’t mistake the fact I haven’t torn your throat out for anything other than sheer practicality.”

His words should have chilled me. He was faster, stronger, and I couldn’t take him in human form. But my wolf knew better—and so did I. The mate bond, even if Thierry wasn’t consciously aware of it yet, wouldn’t let us harm each other.

However… he felt fear.

I became aware of it abruptly. I didn’t feel his emotions like they were my own or anything like that. Instead, I just knew. Bone-deep. There was something here Thierry was terribly afraid of.

And he knew exactly what it was, even if I didn’t.

I thought of the black-haired man in our dream—cold-eyed, a predator watching prey. Was he the one Thierry feared? Was that the real reason Thierry wanted us to split up? Was he afraid this vampire was still in Rookwood?

“Well, well,” Thierry murmured, lips curving in a thin, mirthless smile. “If I knew threats to your life would shut you up, I’d have tried it sooner.”

Before I could do something stupid, like confront him about the emotions I had just sensed, he yawned.

In fact, he’d yawned three times in the past fifteen minutes. The sun was taking its toll on him. I could feel that, too.

“We should keep moving,” I said.

Without waiting for him, I crossed the street to the deeper shade beneath the awnings.

“We’ve determined this wasn’t bleeds,” Thierry said, following. “You ought to leave. You can tell Nathaniel—”

“That I abandoned you?” I snorted. “Yeah, that’ll go over great for the pack.”

He sighed, long and beleaguered.

At the far edge of town sat a single-story motel, unimaginatively namedThe Rookwood Motel.It was one of those older L-shaped places with a front desk on one end that doubled as a live-in apartment. There was access to the rooms directly from the parking lot. How it stayed in business in a town this size was anyone’s guess.

Thierry frowned at it. A few cars sat in the lot, but there was no sign of movement.

Then he yawned again. When I glanced at him, his eyes were bloodshot and watery. When he caught me staring, he turned away sharply.

Sorry, pal, I already saw it.

The sun beat down—far harsher than back in western Washington, where clouds often obscured everything to a dull gray. There, he probably barely noticed the sun except in summer. Here, near the California border, the sky was a flawless, dazzling blue.

It was nice, with the crisp spring breeze. But sunlight was a no-go for most vampires. And Thierry was apparently no exception. Pack lore said it weakened them until they could barely move. That part was clearly wrong.

And if my father and grandfather had both been wrong about something that basic… what else had they been wrong about?

Because if Thierry couldn’t feel anything human, then how could he be afraid?

And I knew he still was.

It was also the second time he’d tried to send me away.

If I didn’t know better, I could almost imagine he was worried about my safety.

“We should check out the motel,” I said, nodding toward the parked cars. “There might be people in the rooms.”

My ulterior motive was getting him out of the sunlight. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Thierry as a person, but I couldn’t stand to see him suffer. My wolf couldn’t, either—it was practically pacing in my chest from the moment it noticed his discomfort.