Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Aura, I might be in trouble again. I don’t like being alone with these men. One is Petru, the man I am promised to, but I feel too vulnerable. He healed my wounds, but I’m dizzy and weak. I want to go home.
* * *
• • •
Safia was reaching out to someone else for aid again. Petru could read her fear. He detested finding her torn up by a vampire, in such a dire circumstance. His lifemate. Two thousand years ago, a promise had been sworn to him. They would protect her, keep her safe, guard her. Instead, he had come across her, drawn by unbearable pain.
She was human, not Carpathian. What did they expect her to do after being ripped to pieces by a vampire? She clearly was afraid of him and the situation she found herself in. She feared receiving blood from him, even though she needed it desperately. That didn’t make sense. She’d been taught to fight a vampire but not taught the ways of her lifemate?
Petru closed the laceration on Nicu’s wrist and lifted his slashing gaze once more to meet Safia’s directly, refusing to allow her to look away from him. He had to take charge immediately before it was too late. He’d wanted to start off their relationship on as equal a footing as possible, but she needed blood, and she needed it immediately.
He stood, keeping his movements fluid and nonthreatening. “I’m going to give you the blood you need, Safia, and at the same time, create a link between us so we can speak telepathically. That way, we will be better able to support one another during every battle with our enemies.”
He was careful to tell her exactly his intentions so there would be no surprises, but he didn’t give her the opportunity to protest. She had a strong barrier in her brain, but fortunately, when the door had opened to both their memories, they shared that path, leaving him an entryway into her mind.
Petru was an ancient and extremely powerful. Very gently, he pulled her into his arms, cradling her on his lap as his mind took complete control of hers. She would have resisted, fought him, but she had no chance when she hadn’t a clue to his intentions. He’d told her, but she still hadn’t read his resolve in his gentle, almost tender touch.
He didn’t waste time but immediately slashed a line in his chest and pressed her mouth over the welling blood. His blood was rich and ancient and would heal her fast. It would also tie them together. Just the touch of her lips on his bare skin had his body reacting unexpectedly.
He’d deliberately refused to see in color after the initial shock of hearing her voice, when those colors had exploded around him in bright, vivid, dazzling light. Then he had to push all emotion aside so he wouldn’t feel a berserker’s rage at the idea that his lifemate had been left alone like bait for vampires to kill. Now his body was responding physically to her touch, another new sensation when she was scared and feeling vulnerable, surrounded by strangers.
Why was he considered a stranger to her? To give himself something to concentrate on other than the way his body was reacting to her, he examined her memories. He didn’t need to look at the ones from their shared past but at the recent ones, from her birth to present day.
“Nicu, she was not told of me until this rising. She knew nothing of having a Carpathian lifemate. She believed she was promised to one of her people.”
Above their heads, lightning forked in the dark swirling clouds, barely seen through the thick fog. Thunder rolled and boomed, spreading across the sky in all directions. The sound waves traveled like a dark, brooding foreshadowing of what the ancient had become.
Nicu glanced up at the sky and then at the man he had traveled with on and off for hundreds of years. “You have every right to ask questions of these people, Petru. I can see why this woman was frightened of us. She slayed a vampire on her own and faced the three of us when she was wounded and in a very weakened condition. I have nothing but respect for her. She is worthy of you.”
When Petru knew Safia had taken enough blood to replace what she had lost and also for a full exchange, he stopped her feeding and closed the laceration over his chest. Taking her blood would establish a blood bond between them and give them their first step toward her coming into his world. It would take three blood exchanges to bring her into the Carpathian world. He planned on bringing her in as quickly as possible. This time he was taking no chances with his lifemate. She would be close to him, under his protection at all times. He would never survive her death without succumbing to a thrall. He was too old, and there were far too many scars on his soul.