“What are you doing with my daughter?” the vampire hissed, fangs bared. My eyes flew open to see the face I had seen only in passing. Christine’s stepfather. I smirked, pulling my hands away from his wrists, grabbing his forearms while my clawed thumbs embedded in his skin. He grimaced enough for my body to push him off and flip him, so now he had his back to the wall.
I sneered, putting my arm next to his neck, my claw near his stomach. “What do you think I’m doing?” I rumbled a growl in my throat.
“She isn’t someone to toy with. You best leave her—” His ears pinned back, now hearing my heart beating. “Oh, gods.” He panted. “You’re her beloved?” I let him go, his body slipping down the siding. His shirt was now smudged with dirt from the wall.
Rubbing his hands down his face, he shook his head. “Christine, she’s—”
“Different.” I wiped my hands as if the dirt on his clothes had tarnished me. “I know that. I am handling her in my own way. She doesn’t know she is my mate,” I mentioned, beginning to walk away. Even if he was her stepfather, he had no business with her being my beloved, my mate. I would deal with the other half of my soul accordingly.
“She’s still my daughter.” He tried to read my mind. He was too young, but I could feel him nudging my mind. Quite impressive for a vampire that was young.
“And she is my second chance.” I cleared my throat.That, in itself, should be enough of a warning. Second chances were rare, and once you lost a beloved, it made a vampire much more possessive. Because no soul could bear to lose another.
I had done my best with Christine, held in my stalking tendencies buried deep in my blood. We had become close in a matter of hours, and now the bond was pulling so strongly, it was hard to stay away.
“So, are you the one that ruined the windowpane?” Justin asked. He walked around the house, trying to catch up with my long strides. We were told to stay away from the house. Elder Rowan was going to find out the smell and see if some youngling was trying out stalking. I tutted, rubbing my fingers over the splintered wood.
Stalking was an old practice. For thousands of years, vampires stalked their prey, not just prey, but our mates, our beloveds. The males hunted, hiding in the shadows even if it was another vampire they were after. It was a tantalizing game buried deep within our genetics. By the time I met my first mate, vampires had shied away from the game due to King Darius’s unbridled passion for blood. As old as my parents were, my father often told tales of my mother, and he stalked her before he claimed.
“Yes,” I replied. “Some human named Ashton is trying to pursue my mate. I’m keeping watch of her until she knows who I am,” I said passively. “I do it because of my own insecurities.” I stopped to look back at him. “And it’s for the best if anything happened to her—”
“Nothing will,” Justin snapped. “Not on my watch or this coven. The entire coven knows to protect the humans,” he argued.
“But what of another human that tries to steal what’s mine?” I hissed. “I cannot touch him if he dares lay a hand on her. I don’t want that dirty piece of filth touching my mate.” Justin pursed his lips, shaking his head.
The veins in my neck tightened, my claws piercing my palms. The deep red blood dripped down my fingers. “What if Christine dares to look his way?”
“Christine doesn’t trust anyone. She still doesn’t trust me, not fully. Her mother said she sticks with what she knows, and the scent I smell on you shows she shows genuine interest.” Justin stepped closer to his house, shaking his head.
His light blue home was three blocks from Christine’s. If he looked out his bedroom window, I’m sure he could see her barreling out of the house to check on her mother each morning. Justin’s fierce gaze continued down the sidewalk as if waiting for her to emerge.
We both glimpsed at her bedroom window. My dick was already hard again, watching Christine pass by the glass. Her light had been shut off, and her silhouette hung in the window from her computer’s light giving away her ample curves. “You are also the one that asked everyone to keep quiet then?” Justin asked. I grunted, continuing to walk away.
“You don’t talk much for a vampire that is soon to call me a father-in-law.” He chuckled, catching up with me. “In fact, I would think you would be a little nicer. She’s taken a liking to me.”
“When your beloved is sleeping in a human house with a man trying to get in her dress and you can’t do a damn thing about it, like rip his testicles from his body, you have your mind elsewhere.” I grunted. “Not like I need your approval, anyway.”
Justin stopped at his home, the light still on downstairs. Christine’s mother peered out the sheer drapes and waved for Justin. “Can I at least tell her mother? It would give her peace of mind.”
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. The further and further away I went from Christine, the harder the steps became. The urge to sit outside her window in a damn tree to make sure she slept was too strong. This bond, this feeling, it was keeping me from thinking straight.
Growling, a bear rustled in the bushes on the far side of the plantation house. “You all right?” Justin came forward, his hand touching my shoulder, but my snarl ripped through the air. I wanted to fucking kill something. The bear was better than any human to take upon my wrath.
Darting from his hold, I reached the edge of the forest, the bear oblivious to my prowling when I caught my mate’s scent. My eyes glowed, watching from afar. Her window had been opened, and the cool air that entered her room replaced the outside with the alluring mixture of her scent and mine.
I breathed in deep, calming my body until I walked back up the path. “You can’t do this, Sebastian.” Justin trekked with me. My long strides had him run. My nose flared, the heat of my breath flowing behind me. The cool air was a lighter contrast as I stood at the bottom of the house, her window cracked just enough to smell her.
Christine’s bouquet collected me, my body letting out a slow compelling breath. I turned, sitting into the dirt like a starved, depraved beggar. If I couldn’t have her in my bed, if I couldn’t mark her neck, I would stay as close as I could without her knowing. That time was short. Sunrise couldn’t come soon enough.
I couldn’t wait.
Justin stood with his arms crossed, the look of unease settled in his stance. “I don’t know what it’s like, to have a second chance.” I growled, not wanting it mentioned. My previous mate didn’t even compare to Christine. This was so much more. “Let me talk to her tomorrow before you speak with her,” he pleaded. “It will help your case.”
Was I that desperate? A growl resonated in my throat.
“You are going to need all the help you can get, Sebastian,” Justin warned. I couldn’t help but believe that everyone knew that Christine was my mate, and she didn’t. She would be the last to know, and that gutted me.
“I’ll take care of it.” I breathed in deep. The smell of coconut, honeysuckles, and freshwater cascaded from the window. My beloved had just showered. Thinking of her glorious body naked in nothing but a towel made me groan.