Page 38 of Reign of the Beast

But it sounded so far away, I convinced myself that I was imagining it.

I was being swept away in the undertow, the demon fighting hard to usurp me. And knowing I could continue to feed until I was beyond sated, to continue to taste his sweetness on my tongue, feel it like a living thing inside me, had mewantingto succumb.

“Stop. You’re… taking too much.”

Pain nagged at me.

His pain.

I was hurting him, weakening him.

Just knowing that sickened me and turned my stomach.

I tore myself from his wrist, my fangs retracting instantly, my vampiric features dissipating.

I looked up to see him drawing his arm away and sitting back on his haunches on top of me.

And to my utter astonishment he was smiling.

“You aren’t harmed?” I asked, at a loss, because he didn’t have the abnormally pale complexion that happened to those who were drained of too much blood. His eyes were sharp and focused, not glassy with exhaustion.

“You didn’t take that much,” he said as he swept a glowing green palm over his wrist wound and healed it in an instant.

“Then begging me to stop? That was merely a test?”

He nodded. “One that you passed with flying colors.”

“A devious plan indeed.”

“Desperate times. Iknewyou wouldn’t hurt me. And I was right. I neededyouto believe in it, though. I needed you to trust yourself.”

“Very well done. You have opened my eyes.” I glancedat the tent straining against the confines of his jeans. “To more than one thing.”

He blushed and looked down. “You know it turns me on to have your mouth on me, your fangs buried deep.”

I longed to reach out and tip his chin up so I could see the look of desire in his eyes that his husky tone betrayed.

“It was more than that. My bite was harsher than you have experienced from me before. Was it the pain?”

He raised his head, his look smoldering. “You were feral. Unleashed.”

Interesting.“I had assumed that side of me would frighten you.”

“No. Far from it.”

He reached out and trailed his fingers over my cock. As I bucked from his attentions, he smiled lazily and said, “It’s strange seeing you bound like this, the one in the submissive state for once.”

I chuckled, amused at his naivety. “You forget yourself, my beloved. Just because I am restrained beneath you, it doesn’t diminish my dominance.” I growled low in my throat as I took in his appetizing form. “Please feel free to test me.”

His eyes hooded. “You’re more impassioned than usual.” He fondled my belt. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Straining, I was able to reach him with my outstretched fingers. He jolted as I grabbed his hoodie, jerking him down to me and holding him at my mercy with my vampiric strength.

“It is your blood.”

“What?” he gasped.

“Did you think I wouldn’t taste the difference?”

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