“Because I’m human so it didn’t know what to do with me?” she teased.
I shook my head slowly, and turned her hand so she could see her wrist.
She gasped.
“Because it recognized you as a member of the royal family. You’re my mate.”
6
Lyric
Mate.
The word clanged through me as if Alek had snapped a missing piece of my soul together. The logical side of my mind battled his words, analyzed and picked them apart with their absurdity.
You’re my mate.
But my heart? It practically purred at the declaration. Sighed the heavy breath of contentment at finally being justified. All those feelings—the longing, the hunger, the irrational jealousy when I had no claim on the man? Those three little words he’d uttered made everything make sense just as much as it made my world spiral out of control.
And the tattoo now on my wrist? The same spot that had tingled for days? It was beautiful and dark, just like him. My heart hiccupped, threatening to rise to a panic, but the other side of me, that uncontrollable portion of my soul that blazed hushed the hysteria. I’d seen many things that shouldn’t be possible since coming here, what was one more thing?
“Alek—”
The door to the dark clubhouse burst open, and I jolted from Alek’s lap to stand next to him. I’d barely thought the motion before my body reacted, my head spinning with clarity and chaos and…power. I could feel the extent of Alek’s power roiling through my blood.
“We’re needed,” Hawke—my appointed babysitter—said, his cunning eyes darting between Alek and me. “Your Highness,” he added.
Lachlan, the giant Scotsman, stood at Hawke’s right, not bothering to cast a glance my way. Instead he arched an eyebrow at Alek, the ghost of a smirk on his lips. The other two of his crew—Ransom and Benedict—seemed content to hang back near the opened doorway and brood.
Alek stared them all down, his eyes sharper than they had been in days, his skin looking less sallow. Pride and warmth and contentment swelled inside me at the sight of him. Restored—I’d done that. His mate.
The silence in the room was taut as the five incredibly powerful vampires held a conversation with mere looks and small gestures. Alek finally nodded, then subtly—so much so not even Hawke tracked the movement—he grazed his thumb over the new ink on my wrist.
A warm shiver raced down my spine as he quickly led me from his midnight clubhouse.
“I can make it back,” I said when he looked ready to walk me all the way back to his chambers.
“I…” His voice trailed off, words failing him as his eyes scanned every inch of my face. He didn’t want to go. The pull of what had just happened, whatever we’d just realized, had that much of a hold on him.
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t send a rush of heat straight through my soul.
“Go,” I said, already backing down the stone corridor that would lead me to his room.
He gave me a firm nod, something shifting in those eyes. One second they were warm and open, excited and curious, and the next? Cold, stone, and death.
“Alek!” I called when he’d nearly made it out of sight.
He paused, but didn’t turn. Nothing but a simple, predatory tilt of his head.
“Be careful,” I said, the words clawing up my throat before I could stop them. God, how stupid did I sound? Be careful? He was an ancient vampire king with the power of mind control.
And yet, he’d been weakened when he didn’t feed.
I’d healed him.
The power pulsed and spun in my head.
Alek dipped his head and disappeared from sight.
I hurried back to his room, shocked at how alive I felt when he’d nearly drained every last drop from my body. My mouth watered at the memory of his blood filling my mouth, the way he tasted—like dark chocolate and cayenne and something earthy I couldn’t place. Ancient, an endless well of power that now sparked every nerve ending in my body.
I fell on my back, his black silk sheets cool against my flushed skin. Holding up my wrist, I smoothed my fingers over the dark whorls of ink now decorating the space. Electricity crackled under my skin, my blood rushing, my breath catching. Touching it, studying it felt like studying a piece of myself I’d never seen but always possessed.
I blew out a breath, closing my eyes as my muscles uncoiled, the memory of Alek’s hands on my skin enough to send my heart racing. Was it always like that? Or was it because he was a vampire? Or was it because he was my mate? What did that really mean?
I forced the racing questions from my head.
Later. He’d explain everything when he got back.
Right?
My cheeks flushed as another question formed in my mind—what else would he do to me later?