He is mine.
And I will forever be his.
“I fucking love you too.” I repeat his words, and he laughs before kissing me once more and spending the night showing me exactly how much he loves me.
Chapter 41
Warm sunlight beams down my hand on Henry’s chest, and I smile at the simple enjoyment of the moment as I slowly wake up. I move my hand to trace circles on Henry’s chest, and his hand covers mine as I look up, lifting my head from his shoulder.
“Morning, mate,” he gruffly says, clearing his throat once, making me notice the bite marks that are nearly healed. “I think we need—” he starts, but the door banging open, smacking across the floor as it comes off its hinges, distracts us. I tug the blanket over me as I meet Ren’s burning red eyes, seeing how very pissed off he is.
“Outside. Now!” he shouts at me, but I don’t flinch or reply to him as he storms out the room. I’m not scared of Ren anymore...and I doubt I ever will be again. That time has passed between us, and for the first time, I want to stand up to him. I will not be weak, silly little Kaitlyn again. I know who I am now, and I won’t be a fool anymore.
“I will—” Henry starts, but I kiss him. After gently brushing my lips against his, I climb out the bed with the sheet, leaving Henry lying there naked.
“Ren is my problem, and I will talk with him. He won’t hurt me,” I say, gathering my clothes. I quickly use Henry’s shower and brush my teeth with a spare toothbrush I find under the sink. After brushing my hair and getting dressed, I come back out into the bedroom where Henry is sitting on the edge of the bed in shorts.
“He won’t hurt you, I know that. If I doubted it, I would follow you outside,” he warns, and I have no doubt he means it. I kiss him once more before leaving his room and stepping over the door on my way. “Just remember he has been through a lot, and he is reacting like a jealous mate. He doesn’t mean it.”
God, Henry loves Ren a little too much, and I doubt he will ever see Ren as the bad guy in this.
I used to think the same when he was my ghost friend.
“Sorry about the door!” I shout back to Henry, hearing his laugh behind me as I go down the stairs. The front door is open, and as I walk out, I see Ren right away. He stands under a tree nearby, his arms crossed, his whole body tense. Everything about him screams anger and jealousy...and he has no right to be.
We aren’t together, and he has stolen everything from me without so much as a second thought. I storm right up to him and press my finger into his chest.
“Who I decide to mate with is no one’s business except my own and those close to me. We are not close, I am not yours, and you don’t get to—” He cuts me off, picking me up like a doll and turning me around, pushing my back into the tree behind us. His whole body harshly presses into mine as I glare at him, and he glares right back.
“You’re my mate! We might not have sealed the bond yet, but everything you do is my business. The boy doesn’t deserve you, he never could! No one ever could! You are fucking everything!”
Anger fills every ounce of my body. “And what would you know about deserving anyone, Ren? You spent all the time we knew each other lying to me and deceiving me. You might have made me a half vampire and have some silly claim to be my mate, but there is nothing, and I mean nothing, between us!”
“Oh yeah?” he questions, and he kisses me. I freeze as his lips possess mine with a fevered passion, pressing all his emotions into every touch, and hell, I hate myself as I kiss him back with just as much anger and passion. Heat rises in my cheeks as his tongue touches mine before he presses deeper, showing me exactly how amazing he is at this. Hell, I could kiss him forever. He breaks the kiss eventually, and I miss him straight away, my body itching to press closer and kiss him once more. “Let’s not pretend there is nothing between us anymore. Please.”
I close my eyes at his plea. “You have my people in chains like dogs. My friends.”
“If I let them free, they will attack us, and then my people will kill them. This way they are alive,” Ren counters with a frown.
“But, Ren, this isn’t how you lead. How you be a king...it’s cruel. It’s terrible, and I can’t love a man who would do that to my people,” I plead with him. I can’t love a monster. I just can’t.
“You keep saying ‘my people’ as if angels are the only blood you share. You belong to the vampires more,” he reminds me, like I don’t already know that, “and furthermore, this island is all that is left of vampires. Two thousand and twenty-two of us and one master. Our race was created by angels loving a goddess...and they never want the world to know that. So they kill and take whatever they want, they destroy whole races when they feel like it. How are we monsters for fighting back? For protecting ourselves, Kaitlyn?”
“In this war, we are all monsters, Ren. I want you not to be one,” I firmly say. “Because I am not. Vampires, angels, goddesses, who cares when everyone is in pain? Can there not be peace? Can we not leave the academy and the angels, and take the vampires somewhere safe to live our life?”
His eyes narrow, and he lets me go. “I will never stop the war. Not for anything. The angels will suffer for murdering my entire family and leaving me with nothing but blood and vengeance.”
He walks away from me, and I open my lips to tell him he does have something. He has me...but nothing comes out.
The king of the vampires is lost, and I don’t have a clue how to save him.
Chapter 42
“Myles, these flapjacks are so good. How has no one noticed you cooking in the kitchens?” I ask after inhaling more of the sweet snacks than I really should have done. Myles flashes me an amused grin.
“It’s become a fun game. The vampire cooks can’t figure it out and keep setting traps. Luckily, I’m a wolf; I can sense any new changes to any room if I really want to,” he says and laughs. “And put the traps in different places so the vampires get themselves caught.”
I laugh with him as I imagine how annoyed the cooks must be, and I’m happy Myles is finding some way to keep himself amused. Picking up my horse whistle necklace, I hand it to Myles.
“Could you put it on me?” I ask, and he nods as he takes it from me. I lift up my hair into a bunch in my hand, and he steps very close, pressing his body into my back as my wings spread out at my sides. Oddly, I hear a slight rumble come from him as he places the necklace around my neck, and his fingers graze across the back of my neck as he does up the clip. I turn my head back to look at him and let my hair fall down. Myles surprises me by stroking my hair and lifting a strand between his fingers. I tell myself it’s normal to feel so much attraction to a hot man in my room, standing so close to me. It doesn’t have to mean anything more than a simple attraction.
I’m sure Myles doesn’t see me that way. It would be too complicated if he did...and I have a plate full of three men who I don’t think know about each other. How I’m supposed to tell Henry about how I might want to really mate with Ren, feeding on and kissing Thallon...I don’t know. There isn’t a handbook on how to juggle three men at the same time without letting them kill each other. I need Vesnia’s advice.