Page 97 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

I bit my bottom lip, turning to Reed. Begging him to understand with my eyes.

“Yes,” I told the vampire, lifting my chin as Reed’s eyes began to glow with his wolf.

“Absolutely fucking not,” Reed snarled, hands shaking as his wolf fought for control.

I knew he’d hate it. I understood that it wasn’t in his nature to let any other male touch me, and I didn’t ever want to intentionally hurt him.

But his pack had taken me in without question. If the only thing I had to offer in return for their acceptance was my blood, so be it. I’d meant it when I said they were my family, now too. We needed the omega stone, and if this was how we got it, well, my neck would heal.

“Excellent.” The vampire took a step toward me, a wicked gleam in his unnerving red eyes, and Reed put himself bodily between us. Every part of him shook now, as if he was on the verge of the change, and I knew if I didn’t do something, he would shift and charge Carmine.

But he couldn’t do that, because weneededhim to forgive Cysernaphus’s debt—insult, whatever—so we could get the stone.

I stepped forward, pressing myself to Reed’s back, wrapping my arms underneath his and pressing them tight to his chest, my cheek against his back.

“I’m right here, Reed, and I’m okay. Please don’t do anything you’ll regret.” The last words came out a whisper, tears pricking my eyes at the pain I couldfeelradiating off him. It was like my heart was wrapped in barbed wire, tearing from so many directions that all I could feel was misery. His misery.

“She ismine. I would never let you touch her, let alone bite her.”

“I believe the lady said yes, Reed. I have her consent. As you two have arrived together to negotiate this deal between our kind, yours is not necessary.”

The vampire snapped his fingers, the sound loud in the close room, and then vampires swarmed from side doors, all of them arrowing toward Reed and me.

He snarled, claws extending from his fingertips as he tried to keep himself between me and the threat, but there were too many, moving too fast. Hands on my shoulders tore me away from his back asfourvampires wrestled him to his knees in front of me.

“Please don’t hurt him! I agreed, but I won’t let you bite me if you hurt a hair on his head!”

The vampire chuckled, the sound menacing as it caressed my skin. “You heard the lady.” He gestured with one fingertip, and the vampires loosened their holds. Not enough so that Reed could get up, but enough that their nails weren’t digging into his flesh, at least.

I forced myself to stand still, stay strong, as I watched Carmine stalk closer.

“Such a brave little thing,” he said, studying me with a critical eye as he walked around me, like I was some fine objet d’art in a museum, not a living, breathing woman. “But a wise choice. Vampires can learn a lot from a taste of someone’s blood. Did you know that?”

“Fiona, please. Tell him no. You don’t have to do this.”

“Will it hurt?” I asked, holding Reed’s gaze, even as I directed the question to Carmine.

“Only for a second. A vampire’s bite is in factverypleasurable to most species. Our victims rarely fight once our venom floods their system. Some come to crave it, the high it gives them.”

Somehow, the idea that it would be pleasurable gave me more pause than the idea of pain.

Pain, I could endure. But could I scrape the shame of pleasure off my skin afterward? Would Reed be able to forgive me for feeling pleasure at another male’s touch? We’d bonded. He’d feel every bit of desire in my body the same way I felt his rage right now.

It was too much to ask, our bond too fresh. But what choice did we have? I could feel it in my bones that this vampire had made up his mind. He was fixated on whatever strange power was in my blood.

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, and Carmine clearly read the hesitation in my stance, or perhaps my thoughts. He waited, a shark on the verge of tearing into its prey.

“I don’t want it to be pleasurable. Can you… can you hold back the venom?”

Reed’s fingertips had grown claws, wicked sharp and deadly, still fighting, even from his knees and outnumbered.

“No, little human, the venom comes with the bite. Fear makes blood unappealing. Arousal makes it better than the finest wine, and I would never dream of tainting a vintage as one of a kind as yours.”

I swallowed hard. “Reed, I—” I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to hold him, make it all go away. But I needed to do this for our pack. If the omega stone could make us safe…

“If he can control himself, you can hold him. I don’t need to be the recipient of your affection, only your blood.”

Goddess, how could I ask such a thing of him? Ask him to hold me while a vampire sucked my blood and made me feellike that. I couldn’t. A tear trailed down my cheek, as I hated myself for considering it, for my own weakness, as I dashed it away.

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