Page 7 of Taming His Vampire Mate
He froze, then looked back. He didn’t seem surprised.
“There is, Thierry,” he said after a moment, his tone gentle. “Don’t doubt it. Everyone has someone.”
I swallowed hard. “I thought you were supposed to be stoic and emotionally repressed. That’s what it said on the packaging.”
He chuckled. “Bad things happen when you don’t communicate openly and honestly. Believe me, I would know.” He paused. “But I’m not going to push. When you want to talk, you’ll talk. Whenever you’re ready.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
With a blur of speed, he was gone.
Staring after him, I tried to believe he was right. Maybe someone was out there. Though whoever he was, he was likely better off not meeting me. And I was better off not knowing him.
Because when you let yourself love someone, you risk losing them. And no one knew that pain better than I did.
CHAPTER TWO || JEREMY
It was just after midnight, give or take, when I caught the scent of freshly spilled blood. I froze, my ears flattening back against my skull on instinct. All of my senses went on high alert.
The surrounding forest was brighter than it would have been in my human form. It seemed almost lit from within. The dense trees were a mix of grays and blues, ghostly in the moonlight. Somehow the forest felt both vividly real and ephemeral at the same time, like a dream poised on the edge of full lucidity.
The forest was eerily silent. Even the insects had frozen into stillness. That was never a good sign. I was deep in the heart of the Cascade Mountain Range, at least a dozen miles from the nearest town. There should have been some ambient noise. Small mammals rustling in the underbrush, snakes slithering, or insects buzzing. Something. But even the wind had gone still, as if waiting for some unspeakable danger to pass.
I waited, but nothing moved. Wolves have an exceptional ability to detect motion compared to humans. But the subtle inner sense that not even regular wolves possess told me something deeply unnatural had recently passed through. A predator that didn’t belong to the natural order. I had always figured that inner sense—which Emma, the elder for my former pack, called “true seeing,” even though no actual sight was involved—was similar to human intuition, though stronger and more complete. An unmistakable certainty that settled deep inthe gut. Then again, I couldn’t be sure it was the same. I wasn’t human and never had been.
After several long moments, the forest let out the breath it had been holding, and the sound returned. Insects buzzed again. The wind resumed, rustling the tallest branches overhead. The sensation of wrongness lingered, but even that faded fast.
Whatever had caused the disturbance was gone.
But the scent of blood remained, overpowering the petrichor of wet earth from the last good rain.
Because the threat might still be near, I didn’t run. A lone wolf—even an alpha—isn’t invincible. Many of the strange creatures that populate the forest will give chase if you run. And if they catch you alone, you won’t stand a chance. It’s a lesson every wolf in my old pack learned. Those who didn’t rarely lasted long enough to repeat their mistakes.
I moved steadily toward the scent, weaving between the trees. My paws barely made a sound on the earth, though my wolf form was far larger than any ordinary wolf had a right to be.
There, between two trees, I saw it.
A deer lay on the ground, bathed in silver moonlight from a gap in the canopy. A ghastly wound split its side, and blood—black to my vision—pooled around it, soaking into the soil. But the creature was still alive, valiantly struggling to breathe. I could practically taste its pain, an unpleasant, chalky-metallic flavor filling my mouth.
Its eyes widened in alarm as I stepped from the trees.
It tried to move, legs kicking uselessly, but found no purchase on the ground. An ordinary wolf might not have felt pity—it was prey—but I was as much man as wolf, and its suffering turned my stomach. No creature should suffer if there’s another choice.
I paused beside it, then shifted into human form. Unlike in most stories, shifting isn’t painful or slow. The magic in ourveins makes it effortless and swift. It feels like the relief of stretching a long-still limb. Returning to my human form felt like pulling on warm clothes fresh from the dryer. Shifting back into wolf form after too long as a man felt just as right. Both bodies belonged to me equally.
“It’s alright,” I said, my voice thicker than it should’ve been from disuse. It had been a very long time since I’d last spoken. “I won’t hurt you.”
The deer’s wide eyes tracked me, and it let out a low sound of agony—somewhere between a gasp and a moan. The sound was almost human. Whatever had done this hadn’t fed on the deer. Hadn’t even bothered to kill it. Say what you will about earthly predators, but most at leasttryto kill their prey first. Animals rarely kill for sport. That’s the domain of humans—and monsters.
I reached out and slowly placed my hand on the deer’s neck, right where the skull met the spine. There’s an energy center there—a nexus of life force—that connects to a creature’s subtle body, the part more spirit than flesh but still bound to the physical so long as the heart beats.
The center opened to me at once. I didn’t need to try to feel its pain. It was right there—searing and consuming. Shock had set in, but even that couldn’t dull the agony. Every breath felt like fire.
Tears sprang to my eyes. I let them fall. The toxic ideas of masculinity that plague human males don’t apply to wolves. We are as we are. Always. Mixed with the pain, panic had taken hold. The deer, though not capable of complex thought, knew it was about to die. The fear of the unknown, standing at death’s threshold, is universal. Nearly all creatures feel it.
“I’m here,” I whispered hoarsely. “You’re not alone. I’m with you. It’s okay to let go. It’s okay to give in to peace. There will be no more pain, I swear it.”
Steeling myself, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then I opened to the connection, letting the creature’s suffering pour into me like a tidal wave.
