Page 26 of Blood Moon Heat

“Fuck,” he muttered and quickly yanked off his hooded sweatshirt, tossing it on the floor.

“What are you doing?” He looked up, and I gasped. He was…beautiful. Though that word didn’t seem enough. I’d never seen a being that utterly beautiful in my life. So impossibly handsome that he didn’t seem real.

He ignored my reaction to seeing his face properly for the first time. “If Nero scents you on me, he’ll kill me.”

He said it without fear but with utter certainty. “He wouldn’t do that.”

Pretender grinned and it was heart-stopping. “You’re his bonded, Mina.” That was all he said, as if that explained everything.

Then he opened the door and motioned me through. I stopped in my tracks when I saw Nero and his brothers across the room. “What if they don’t like me?”

“They will.”

“But what if they don’t?” I didn’t hear Pretender’s reply because Nero had stopped talking to the massive vampires with him and had turned my way. I couldn’t read his expression as that violet gaze sliced down my body to my bare legs and back up, lingering on my arms before coming to my mouth.

On shaky legs, my belly in knots, I started toward him. I’d almost reached him when his lips peeled back and he flashed his fangs. My step faltered.

Was he angry?

He strode forward, his fingers curling around my wrist. “What are you wearing, Lalka?”

I blinked up at him. “What do you mean?”

“You have taken a pair of scissors to your dress.”

“I know.”

He bared his teeth again. “If we weren’t in this room with males I trust, I would drag you back to your room, put you over my knee, and spank you before I made you change into something else.”

Anger flashed through me, taking me by surprise. “You are not my father, Nero. You are my mate, or you’re supposed to be. I am a grown female, not a child to be punished. What I wear is my choice despite your attempts to control that as well. Get used to seeing me like this because I will not dress like a child…or a…a doll any longer, and if that means chopping up every gown in my closet, I will.”

He leaned in, his mouth brushing my ear. “No one has ever gotten away with speaking to me the way you do, Mina, and I’ve decided, that neither will you.”

I tilted my head back. “What are you going to do?”

His gaze moved over mine and he grinned, one of his emotionless grins—no, not totally emotionless this time because his eyes shone bright.

“Mina!” A chorus of voices reached me over the music.

I turned and four females, the same females I’d seen briefly at the blood moon ceremony, stood across the room and were waving me over. I spun back to Nero.

His nostrils flared, and I knew he was scenting me. “Go meet your new friends,” he said, then released me.

Fighting back the nerves, I strode over to them. I was scared, shy, but I would not waste this opportunity.

They instantly surrounded me.

“I’ve been so desperate to meet you,” one of them said. “Are you okay? Is Nero being kind to you?”

This female, whoever she was, was the first person to ask me that since the ceremony, and without my say-so, tears filled my eyes.

They gathered around me more tightly, comforting me without question, offering kindness. I hadn’t realized the toll this whole thing had taken on me until this moment. I’d been in survival mode since I got here, and it felt like this was the first breath I’d taken.

Another female took my hand and they kept me hidden, forming a shield as they ushered me over to a booth on the other side of the club.

“Talk to us,” another of them said.

“Whatever you’re going through, we’ll understand,” a small female with soft features and vibrant lilac eyes said.

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