Page 14 of Blood Moon Heat

“Look at me, Mina,” I said, my voice oddly rough.

“Why?” she said, though it was barely a whisper.

Why was she doing this? “Because your bonded has asked you to.”

“Yeah? Well, your bonded wants you to let her the hell out of this room, but that’s not going to happen. Get used to the disappointment. I have.”

I wasn’t sure what to do, what to say. When I gave an order, it was obeyed, always. Closing the space between us, I took her chin in my hand. I needed her eyes on me, for some reason. I needed my little doll to look at me. She let me turn her head my way, but she kept her eyes averted, refusing to give me what I wanted as if she knew how desperately I needed it.

“Look at me,” I said, and it came out an animal growl, my voice so different, I barely recognized it.

Her lashes fluttered, but still she refused.

I gripped her chin harder, and she winced. I quickly let go. I didn’t like that, either, that wince of pain. “Mina,” I said again.

Still she gave me nothing.

“Why are you behaving this way?”

She turned back to the window, looking out at the concrete wall across from it. I stared down at her while the thump of her racing heart throbbed through me. She wasn’t afraid, not really, there was something else. I didn’t know what she was feeling. It tasted bitter like fear, but there was more to it.

“You need to eat, and you need to feed,” I said into the silence. “I demand you stop this.”

Still, she gave me nothing.

She was hungry, I could hear it, and I could already see how her lack of sustenance of any kind for the last three days had affected her. Her shoulders looked narrower, her wrists and arms thinner.

Being this close to her had my own pain radiating through my body. It was sweet, an intoxicating agony, and it increased daily, worsening when I was close to her like this, and staying away was becoming much more difficult.

Every instinct roared at me to snatch her from her seat, to force her to feed, to fuck my stubborn bride, to claim what was mine, to mate, but I wasn’t sure I could survive such an onslaught of sensation and come away with my sanity intact. I’d gone too long without emotion, without true pleasure. There was a real chance I would kill her if I gave in to the force of need that burned inside me.

There was a real chance that if I did give in, if I allowed myself to have her, I would tear her apart, glutting on her in every conceivable way until there was nothing left.

For the longest time, I’d convinced myself I was glad I felt nothing, but now…now she was here, I felt a shift inside me, and I wasn’t so sure anymore. All I knew was if I let my control slip, even a little, I could lose her.

I hadn’t wanted anything, not like this, in a very long time, and I wanted to keep her, which meant I couldn’t let her die, not by my hand or hers.

Not knowing what else to do, I sunk my fangs into my wrist and held it in front of her mouth. She jerked away, pressing back into the chair, trying to escape my blood as it dripped onto her pink gown. “Drink,” I ordered.

She turned away completely when I held my wrist closer. I gripped the back of her head and held my wrist to her tightly clamped lips. Mina thrashed wildly, exploding from the chair, and dragged the back of her hand across her mouth, wiping away my blood. Her eyes flashed and I felt her fury. She ran to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door after her.

I strode up to it, gripping the handle. It was impossibly hard to hold back, but I didn’t turn it. Gritting my teeth, I wrestled down the sensations flowing over me, through me. It was dangerous, what I was feeling, I recognized that much. I could easily break through the door, hold her down, force her mouth open, and make her drink.

But I wouldn’t stop there. I knew that after I fed her, I would feast on her, on her blood, on her cunt. I’d take and take. I would break her down and tear her apart until there was only a bloody shell of my little Lalka left.

So instead, I forced myself to release the door handle and retreat before I did something I couldn’t take back.

Five

Nero

Hours later, I was still pacing outside Mina’s door.

I’d left her room, but I couldn’t walk away.

I could smell her.

I could hear her breathing and the rush of her blood—the growls of her empty stomach.

---