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Lucien

B lood. Metallic, tangy, cinnamon-scented blood, flooding his nostrils.

Luc’s mate was bleeding, and not for Luc’s pleasure…

That was the first fact that entered Luc’s consciousness as he came back into awareness.

Luc growled low, tugging his mate closer, enraged by the scream of pain his human let out at the movement. Why was his mate hurting? Why was he making those sounds at Luc’s touch?

Luc gentled his hands, rearranging their bodies so he was holding his mate close by an arm around his chest. That grip didn’t seem to hurt his mate, not the way grabbing his arm had.

Luc hadn’t meant to hurt him. He wouldn’t hurt him. He just needed Jamie near.

He was starting to remember things. Another vampire had tried to take his mate away for good. Another vampire had tried to take Jamie from him.

The next fact Luc became aware of was that he himself was injured.

He could feel his throat gaping open, its inner workings exposed to the air in a way that didn’t feel natural.

In the far back of his mind—in the dark depths, where he was still capable of reasoning—he knew it was open enough that something in his spinal cord had possibly been severed, enough for him to have lost consciousness.

Luc could feel it healing, that itching feeling of his parts melding back together. He’d need to feed soon, to aid the process.

He was also getting his mate dirty, covering his lovely back with blood from his wound, but that couldn’t be helped. He needed his mate close.

Because the next fact…there were people all around them. Vampires all around them.

Luc snarled, growling a warning at the closest figure. Threats everywhere. They were going to try to take his mate away from him.

Luc would tear them all apart before he let that happen.

His mate was meanwhile muttering nonsense words at him, craning his neck to try to look in Luc’s eyes from his restrained position. “Relax, monster. It’s just Danny.”

But names meant nothing to Luc. Not now. The only name that existed in his mind was Jamie’s. Anyone else approaching was just someone who could try to take his mate. His bleeding mate. That was the only thing that mattered.

Luc lifted his mate’s injured arm with one careful hand, trying to inspect the damage, growling louder when that awful whimper of pain came out again.

We’ll fix it , the other presence within him said. Luc set his mouth to the offensive wound, licking at it. He could fix it, yes.

No, no , the voice murmured. We’ll fix it. He’s too fragile like this. Too breakable. He was willing to die. We will not let him die. We tried it your way, Lucien. Now we do it my way.

Luc pondered that while he lapped at his mate’s wound, vaguely aware of other, less important conversations around him.

“What is going on with him right now?”

“He’s clearly snapped, gone feral. Guess we’re putting down more than one today.”

Luc lifted his mouth from his mate’s arm, letting out a challenging roar at that. No vampire would be putting him down. Not while he had a mate to protect.

“Easy, monster,” Jamie soothed before turning his attention to the source of one of the voices.

Luc didn’t like that as much—his mate’s focus on the intruders instead of him—so he rubbed his nose along Jamie’s chin, trying to get his attention back.

“He’s not feral . He’s nothing like that creep who tried to chew on me. ”

“ Tried to?”

“He’s just feeling…overprotective.” Jamie was petting the arm Luc had banded around his chest. It felt nice. Luc would be rumbling a purr if there weren’t so many other people around.

“Overprotective for sure.” The smaller vampire who’d tried to approach earlier agreed.

Luc knew he knew him—somewhere inside, he was aware he knew that smaller vampire quite well—but he couldn’t place his face at the moment.

He didn’t care to; it wasn’t important. “It’s like he’s…

regressed? He seems to be operating on instincts, and those instincts are to keep you safe.

And, um, keep other vampires away. Including me and Roman. ”

“Monster, it’s okay. They’re friends,” Jamie said.

Luc growled, long and low. His mate didn’t understand. Jamie’s self-preservation instincts were clearly not in working order.

Luc forced himself to form words. “Won’t. Leave .”

“Oh, look, he can speak.”

Luc’s mate made another soothing noise, as if Luc were some rabid animal. Perhaps he was. “I’m not asking you to leave anymore, monster. I promise, it’s okay.”

Not okay , Luc’s other voice whispered. He tried to die. We need to turn him before it’s too late.

“You asked him to leave?” The smaller vampire spoke again, but he was keeping his distance so Luc didn’t feel the need to growl at him again.

Luc nosed along Jamie’s neck as his mate answered the question.

“Yeah. I’d had a vision at my mom’s. I knew he was going to get hurt, and I was trying to get him to go to safety. I maybe wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Uh. Yeah. See, I think, given his past history, Luc might sort of have strong feelings about potential mates choosing death over a future with him.”

Jamie’s muscles tensed at that, which had Luc stiffening in turn. “What?— That’s not—”

Luc had had enough of these words. Too many words. He found his own again. The important ones. “Turn you.”

He sniffed at his mate’s neck again, nosing at the perfect spot for his fangs.

“Um, Jamie?” The smaller vampire kept talking . “I think he’s pretty focused on protecting you in the best way he knows how. And in his mind right now, that means turning you.”

One of the other surrounding threats scoffed at that. “What are you, a vampire psychoanalyst?”

“Do you need help? We can try to get you out, but it could get violent.”

Luc smirked into Jamie’s neck. It would get beyond violent. Luc would dismember every single one of them if they tried to take his mate away.

He sniffed at the soft skin, brushing Jamie’s hair aside.

Green. Such a pretty green. A gemstone. His jewel. His desert flower.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, in the deep, dark recesses, Luc knew this was…wrong somehow. He’d wanted to wait, hadn’t he? He’d wanted to be…gentle. To ease his human into the transition.

But that didn’t make any sense. His mate was already his. They were bound in every way but the last.

Luc’s other voice was right. It was time to make Jamie theirs forever.

“I don’t need help,” Jamie said firmly, twisting in Luc’s grip until they were eye to eye. “He can do what he wants. I’ve been ready for the last five years.” The words he spoke were directed at the others, but Luc knew they were meant for him. “See you all on the other side.”

He turned back around, baring his neck.

Luc bit down.

For the second time in one night, Luc rose to consciousness with a start. “ Jamie .”

“Is safe.” Roman’s smooth, deep voice rang out from where he was seated in a corner of the room—Jamie’s bedroom, Luc realized as he looked around frantically—legs crossed, looking decidedly relaxed and casual. “Danny is feeding him.”

A niggling at the back of Luc’s mind. “Feeding him…”

“Blood,” Roman supplied mercilessly, brushing a spot of dust off one pant leg. “Danny is feeding him blood.”

It all came back to Luc in a rush. His losing the fight with the feral vampire. His altered state of mind when he awoke, his brutal need to protect Jamie, to fix him. His monster whispering in his mind, convincing him.

You stupid beast , he chastised, wishing his monster were a solid thing he could tear into in retaliation. But it wasn’t, and the damn thing wasn’t even at the forefront of his mind. It was settled deep within him now—deeper than it had been in many decades—contented, practically purring.

Roman was eyeing him closely. “Ah, so you can feel guilt. I had been starting to wonder.”

“I didn’t—I meant to—”

“You did not intend to forcibly turn your mate on a dusty desert hillside while he was injured and your own head was barely connected to your body?” Roman looked almost amused, the sorry bastard. “You passed out immediately afterward, you know. I have never seen anything like it.”

Luc could only stare at him, speechless.

“Your eyes are green, by the way.” Roman cleared his throat. “I had forgotten how bright they are.”

Luc reached up a hand dumbly, as if he would be able to feel the color change with his fucking fingers. He paused, then licked his tongue over his incisors. Blunt teeth met his probing.

How strange, after all this time. Luc didn’t know how to feel, but anger seemed like the safest emotion with Roman there in the room. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

“Because I was not sure we would all survive the encounter, and I was unwilling to risk Danny’s immortal life for your mate’s humanity.

” Roman cocked his head to the side, still studying Luc like some sort of zoo animal.

“And I am not so sure anymore that we get to choose how our tethers join our ranks. Maybe it is always meant to be a violent initiation. We both know fate is a bit of a bitch, n’est-ce pas, mon ami? ”

Luc scowled at him. “I’m not sorry for turning Danny, if that’s your roundabout way to say you’re still looking for an apology. You would have dillydallied for years. He would have been hit by a car or something before you could even muster the courage to claim him.”

“You did hit him with a car. How consistent of you to remain such a complete ass, even with the green eyes.”

Luc was spared a reply by the bedroom door bursting open.

And there was Jamie, beautiful Jamie, his dark eyes wide with relief and love and all sorts of emotions Luc didn’t deserve to invoke.

“You’re up.” Luc’s mate broke into a wide grin.

“I could feel it. You got all panicky.” His grin turned to a glower, which he directed at Roman. “What did you say to him?”

Roman shrugged a careless shoulder. “I simply reminded him of the circumstances of your transformation.”