Page 12 of Outcast Island

My entire being screams at me to submit as well. I bow my head and curl into myself, more out of instinct than fear.

Ishouldbe afraid of him, but he’s not giving me the same signals he was before.

Whatever rage he had been funneling into me feels manageable now. It’s as if my body had accepted the molten iron core, and now it simmers inside my chest. I place a hand over my sternum, marveling that I can feel it there.

When he kneels on the bed, that warmth shoots down my core once again, making me swallow a pitiful mewl I don’t want him to hear.

He doesn’t need to know the effect he has on me. He’s already in a position of power.

He lifts my chin with a finger, then offers me a soft smile. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Do what?” I ask him.

He sucks in a breath, then his smile grows bigger. “Blood, your voice is beautiful. Are you from Greenland? What’s your name?” He eases next to me, drawing his arm around my small frame as he tucks me against his side. The motion seems natural and protective, but after what he said to Ja’ar, I’m under the assumption that Magnus is not like the rest of the vampires on thisisland.

And, it seems, I’m under his protection, too.

The last vampire who had offered me protection had the stipulation that I take hisknotand feed him my blood.

Is that what this vampire wants from me?

I find myself not so appalled by the idea, in his case.

Instead of telling him I don’t know my name or where I’m from, I spew idiocy from my mouth. “You didn’t answer my question,” I remind him, then mentally curse myself as I dip my head again.

He asked me a question, and instead I challenged him to answer mine first.

He chuckles as if I amuse him. He offers a rumbling sound that reminds me of the growls I had heard, but this sound is softer and doesn’t send knives tumbling around in my stomach.

Rather, it comforts me and makes my shoulders relax. A cocoon of protection and assurance wraps around me, telling me I’m safe.

“You don’t need to submit,” he says, his words vibrating as he continues the alluring sound. “I made sure that no one can hurt you now. I’m strong enough to keep you safe. I promise.”

I hum and close my eyes, then lean into him. “Because you’re a Vampire Alpha?” That much is clear, but I feel like a blank slate without my memory. I want confirmation and clarity on all fronts.

“Is that not obvious?” he asks, still releasing that sound that has me floating in a sea of peaceful bliss.

His fingers dig into my hip, and he slowly massages muscles I didn’t even know were sore. I melt into him when I respond. “I guess… I just don’t know what a Vampire Alpha is, exactly.”

He goes still. “You’re a Vampire Omega with an incredibly rare empath power in your bloodline, proving you’re royalty, and you don’t know what a Vampire Alpha is?”

It’s my turn to chuckle. Figures I’m royalty. I’m probably some unwanted heir better off dead and abandoned. Or maybe I’m on the run from an undesirable betrothal.

If that’s the case, then I’m an idiot for landing on an island of Vampire Alphas who want to fuck me until I’m dead.

Sighing, I feel like I can’t worry about such things while this male holding me is making such an amazing sound. It makes me want to open up to him, but I don’t even know who I really am. “I think I have a little memory loss problem.” I point to my head as I manage to slit one eye open. “Bumped myself on the landing.”

If one could call that a landing.

Guilt I don’t understand washes through me, and I realize the emotion is coming from him.I’m a Vampire Omega with the power of empathy. That’s why I’m feeling all these emotions from everyone around me. Great. Why couldn’t I get a cooler power like jumping three stories or bossing around other Vampire Alphas?

“Why do you feel guilty for my crash?” I ask, now that I know the emotions I’m feeling are his. “And what is that sound you keep making?”

He grins at me, then whispers in my ear. “It’s called a purr. Do you like it?”

I hum in agreement. “Yes, but stop pushing the guilt on me. It feels… cold.” The emotion is unlike the primal energy he funneled into me earlier. As a vampire, I can only come to the conclusion that I naturally run cold, so I like the source of warmth.

“I crashed your escape pod,” he murmurs against my ear as more guilt douses me. “Or, well, it was my fault it was redirected.”

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