“That’s not a good thing, love,” he said. He sighed, shaking his head. “Kimberly, I don’t want to force you into this, but you have to make a choice.”
“Fuck you or fight you?”
“Fuck me or die,” he said. “We’re mated, love. Even if we weren’t, there’s a reason that vampires only sire humans they’re sexually attracted to.”
“What do you mean?”
“When a human is turned into a vampire, they don’t just drink the blood of the person who turns them. They also need to make love to them.”
He spoke these words gently, as though he were talking to a child.
“It’s the final step in the ritual. Without it, the ritual fails.”
“You mean I turn back to human.”
“I mean you die,” he said. “You will turn back to human, but your human self is died. I killed you last night. Now you can either make love to me, sealing your induction into the world of vampires, or you can perish.”
“Seems like a hard choice,” I said, keeping my face straight.
His brow furrowed, and he looked worried. Who would have thought that the Vampire of Garnetia had a heart? Not me. I’d been hunting him for what seemed like an eternity and now...now I was toying with the idea of having sex with him.
Not that it would be a burden.
I was embarrassed to think that when I’d been human, I’d often masturbated thinking about him. He was handsome, for sure. He was good-looking and he was fierce. I’d seen the way he hunted. He prowled like a tiger, slinking through the jungle that was the Grove.
“It’s not much of a choice,” I whispered.
“Choose,” he said, but his eyes were sad. “But if it makes a difference, know that I don’t want to live without you.”
“You don’t even know me,” I whispered.
“I’ve known you for a long time,” he said.
Then something hit me: a realization of sorts. He’d known. He’d known on that night that I was supposed to be his mate, and that was why he let me go.
“You knew,” I said. “That night we sparred. You knew I was to be your mate, but you still released me instead of mating me then. Why?”
“It wouldn’t have made you happy?”
“And now?”
“Now you have nothing else to live for,” he said. “Being a vampire might not be the thing that will bring you joy, but it’s better than your never-ending quest for revenge. Besides, what’s a better revenge than keeping me under your thumb?” He joked.
Somehow, I didn’t think that anyone, not even his mate, would be able to keep Liam under their thumb.
“You knew I was dating Hank,” I said carefully.
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t stop it.”
“You are not mine to control,” he said.
“
Even now?”
“Even now,” he said.