Page 44 of Pain

“I never did thank you for not straight up killing Zandren when he attacked you at the warehouse,” she said, her voice soft and tired. “You could have, but instead, you just injected him with a paralytic. Thank you.”

I closed my eyes and nodded. I would have very much liked to kill the big, dumb bear, but I knew she would never forgive me. I also knew that he was under mind manipulation from Lerris and didn’twantto kill me. It wasn’t a fair fight.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked, wobbling a little where she stood.

Uh-oh.

As good as it felt, and as much as I enjoyed the taste of her, I needed to stop.

I made a noise of agreement in my throat and quickly swept my tongue across her puncture hole to seal it, releasing her wrist. Almost as soon as I did, she fainted, and now that I had some of my strength back, I was able to catch her before she hit the floor.

With Omaera unconscious in my arms, and my heart hammering against my ribcage like a dog trapped in too small of a cage, I raced through the house until I reached the courtyard where Kenvin was grilling on the barbecue. His gaze fell to Omaera and all the blood drained from his face. “What happened?”

“I … she … she let me feed from her. I didn’t take much blood, but she fainted.”

“You what?” roared Zandren from behind me, grabbing me by the shoulder and whipping me around to face him, baring his teeth. His hair was damp from a shower, and the faint scent of sulfur from the water permeated the air.

He glanced down at Omaera in my arms and forcefully took her from me, scooping her against his chest and running to the room they had shared last night. Kenvin and I followed. The bear set her down on the bed as if she was made of porcelain, and swept his hand over her forehead.

“Little One,” he murmured, pressing his mouth to her forehead. “Little One,it’s your Pooh Bear. Wake up, my love.” Shooting me a glare over his shoulder, he growled, “Go.”

“She’s my mate as well,” I argued, not budging.

“Not a bonded one yet,” he shot back, leaving Omaera’s side, grabbing me by the bloody shirt collar and throwing me up against the hard concrete wall. He got right up in my face, baring his teeth as fury and fear raged in his eyes. “You selfishly took from her more than she had to give.” His grip on my collar tightened. “Not mate material, if you ask me.”

Kenvin was there beside us now, his arm on Zandren’s. “Let’s focus our energy on healing her, not on killing each other.”

With another growl that showed off more of his teeth, Zandren released my shirt and shoved away from me, returning to Omaera’s side.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped away from the wall and cracked my neck side-to-side, my gaze focused on Omaera. Kenvin sidled up beside me, but didn’t say anything. Maxar, entered the room, smelling vaguely of sulfur—just like the bear.

Zandren pressed his mouth to hers like she was Sleeping Beauty and he was Prince Phillip or whatever. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I was too busy berating myself for letting her talk me into feeding off her anyway. I never should have agreed to it. She was exhausted.

Yet, the mention of tasting her again, of getting to be that much closer to her, was too impossible to pass up. I was weak when it came to Omaera. Weak for any scrap of her she threw my way. All of it eased the deep, agonizing ache inside of me that grew worse the longer she put off our Mate Bond.

Zandren pressed his forehead to hers and murmured something none of us could hear.

“Is this common after training?” Maxar asked, concern laced through his tone.

“No,” Kenvin said bluntly, never taking his eyes off Omaera. “Then again, these are very unusual circumstances. She’s half human, she has three Fated Mates, she allowed a vampire to feed off her, and she’s probably the most powerful demon I’ve ever met. None of this iscommon.”

Zandren climbed onto the bed and curled himself around her. She was breathing and didn’t seem to be anything more than asleep. Placing his giant ham of a hand on her chest between her breasts, he closed his eyes and pushed healing powers into her through their Mate Bond.

She stirred, but didn’t open her eyes. Rather, she just turned into him, curling herself up into a ball and snuggling into Zandren’s body, making a little sigh and a hum of contentment.

Tension eased from my shoulders. She was sleeping now, no longer unconscious from fainting.

“Go,” Zandren growled at all of us. “Leave us.”

Kenvin nodded and departed. Maxar and I stood there a little longer. “Let me know when you need to eat and tap out,” Maxar murmured before turning around to leave.

The bear’s eyes met mine, hate in his gaze. I fought the urge to recoil at how much he wanted to rip off my head with just that look. He’d do it too if he didn’t know how much it might upset Omaera.

“Are you selfishanddeaf?” he asked, his voice dark and threatening. “I saidgo.”

I nodded, shut my eyes for a moment, counted to ten in my head, then spun on my heel and left, the ache in my chest intensifying just being in a different room from my mate.

The feeding helped, but it also gave me more of a taste of her and would make the distance between us all the more painful. I noticed that every time I fed from her, my body craved her more and went through withdrawal like she was a drug—because she was. The more I fed from her without us being mate-bonded, the harder being away from her would become.

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