Page 119 of Of Nine So Bold

But I did. Gods help me, staying in control wasn’t the half of it. Feeding was so intimate. I didn’t want to share that with anyone but my men.

“Please…” I begged Ozias as the forest continued on, unrelenting. “Are we…”

“Just a little farther.”

I clung to the words like a rope to save me from being pulled beneath a bloody, ravenous sea.

The trees came to an end in an open space of snow and leafless bushes. The remains of a massive fallen tree lay across the middle, its gray and weathered trunk split as if by a lightning strike. It must have been hundreds of feet high when it was alive, so large it blocked enough light that nothing much could grow around it, and when it fell, it left a clearing.

But suddenly, the clearing started to change. Vines twisted up through the snow, weaving together at high speed. Each tendril moved with a will of its own, darting between its neighbors in an intricate dance that spread around the clearing, climbing higher and higher until they formed a green and luscious wall that surrounded us completely, shutting us away from any giants who might have tried to follow.

A ripple spread through the snow like something beneath it was moving. Blades of grass appeared, pushing against the white blanket covering them in a wave, like the forest itself was shrugging off its carpet of snow.

“What—” I spun, searching for the source of this magic. It didn’t look like something my stepmother would have done.

It wasn’t trying to kill us yet, for one thing.

Tiny pink blossoms suddenly peeked out from between the vines, and I froze. I recognized those. Niko had grown them for me when I first came to the giants’ cabin.

Dex smiled. “I take it Niko’s making sure we stay safe.” He gave Ozias a brief questioning look, and the other man twitched his head in silent agreement.

“Good.” Dex turned. “Casimir?”

The vampire was on him in an instant, bearing him to the ground with his fangs buried in the side of Dex’s throat. Beneath him, Dex groaned, pain and desire in the sound.

Paying them no mind, Ozias turned me to face him. Moving his hair and then his beard aside, he bared the side of his neck. “Feed, little mate.”

My eyes locked on his throat, my vampire side surging up to fracture my control. But memories suddenly flashed through my mind too.

The forest past the Wild Lands. The cave where I’d run. Ozias’s body on the ground, his chest going still because I’d taken too much.

“I-I don’t want to hurt you like I did before,” I whispered.

“You won’t.”

He couldn’t know that.

“You are my mate. My life is yours.”

I whimpered.

He took a step closer to me. His hand came up to unfasten the collar of my coat and blouse, drawing them aside.

Cold air bit at my skin. I barely felt it. Every bit of my focus was taken up by the effort of not attacking him. “What…” Gods, words were difficult. “What are you?—”

His fingers brushed the four thin lines above my breast where his claws had cut me to form our mate bond.

Pleasure shuddered through me in a hot, molten wave, making my knees weak and scattering my concentration.

The vampire in me seized the opening.

My fangs were in him before I realized what was happening. The heat of his blood flooded my mouth and throat, rushing straight into my veins and making my pussy flutter to life. Gulping him down, I moaned as his hands slid around me, holding me in place, supporting me as I clutched his shoulders and drew deeper on his veins.

“That’s it, little mate,” he murmured. “That’s it.”

Carefully, he eased us both down to the earth. Never releasing his throat, I crawled on top of him, pinning him. While I dragged on his veins, he lay beneath me, stroking my sides, my back, continuing to murmur encouragements.

Fuck, I… I wanted him. Needed him. Needed?—

---