Page 36 of Outcast Island

An empath is a rare ability, and for good reason.

We don’t survive for long.

But Magnus had called me strong—not weak.

I’m starting to believe him.

With a proper Alpha on my side, the missing piece slides into place and lends me his control. It’s what I had been going without all this time, forced to deal with everyone’s emotions rampaging me without direction or guidance, leaving no room for my own to thrive.

Now, Magnus is waking me from a deep sleep, delicately biting my neck in a blood-bond that permanently links us together.

It’s what I had asked for, so I had already given consent for that.

My body won’t cooperate with me so I can tell him I am ready. But he seems to know. The ache in my stomach roars to life when he began a purr.

You’re safe,that sound says.

And for the first time in my life, I know that I am. At least, for now.

There is a nagging fear in the back of my Alpha’s mind. He worried about discovery, as well as details involving other vampires.

Maybe my nest?

There is the matter of my father, and it is clear to me that I can’t go into estrus until that threat is dealt with.

I have no doubt that Magnus can kill my father, but I worry about my brothers overwhelming him when he tries.

Stay with me,Magnus’s praising touch seems to say.

He bites harder, making me whimper, but I still can’t open my eyes. His emotions swirl with lust and need. They’re powerful, but they don’t overshadow the devotion and adoration that thrums from him like a heartbeat.

Vampires don’t have beating hearts in the technical sense—but Magnus makes my body thrum for him as if I was the heart he had been missing all along.

He unlatches, making my mouth part as he spreads my legs open. His cock throbs against my thigh, but it’s his fingers he uses on me first.

“Time to wake up, little diamond,” he says.

I’m lucid enough now that I can hear him, but something is still holding me under an ocean of peace.

Why can’t I wake up?

I search my mind for any sort of influence. Maybe another Vampire Alpha did something to me. That could be preventing me from fully bonding to Magnus—because once I do, I’ll be safe.

Magnus swirls his fingers over my clit while he presses a kiss to my lips. He dips his tongue in to graze mine, leaving the taste of my own blood to brush my senses.

It’s not unpleasant. I’m aware that I taste like cherries. It had made my blood a desirable commodity and my father regularly sold it or half-drained me when he wanted to reward his allies.

My blood was addictive, as most Omega’s blood would be to aVampire Alpha.

But mine, especially, seems to have drug-like qualities to those who tasted me. My father had tested it himself, though he thankfully doesn’t enjoy my blood and didn’t want more after the initial few drops. Others enjoy it, though, quite immensely. And that appeal gives my father control over them.

Or at least, it had.

I bet you’re foaming at the mouth now that your supply has likely run out.

It pleases me that Magnus is the only Alpha who will feed on me now. And when he bites his own tongue and gifts me his blood, I know that pleasure will only ever go both ways.

I am his.

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