Lover Reborn

John wrapped a towel around his hips and tucked the end in at his waist. As he turned to her, his grave eyes made her sad. Would you like me to put on a robe?

What the hell had happened to them? she thought. And for fuck’s sake, they had been through too much just to get to what should be the good stuff only to screw it up.

“No.” She shook her head and wiped her eyes. “Please… no…”

As he came forward, he kept that towel right where it was.

When he got in front of her, he sank down onto his knees and put up his wrist. Take from me. Please let me take care of you.

Xhex leaned in and clasped his hand. Passing her thumb back and forth over his vein, she felt the connection rise between them once again, that link that had been sliced through in the alley reknitting, an injury healing.

Reaching out, she clasped the back of his neck and brought his mouth to hers. Kissing him slowly, thoroughly, she spread her legs, making room for him as he eased forward, his hips finding the place that was his and his alone.

When the towel hit the floor, her hand went to his sex—and found that it had hardened.

Just as she wanted it to.

Stroking him, she curled her upper lip, exposing her fangs. Then, tilting her head to the side, she ran one razor-sharp tip up his neck.

His huge body shuddered—so she repeated the motion, this time with her tongue. “Come up on the bed with me.”

John wasted no time, filling the space she vacated as she pushed herself back to make room for him.

Lot of eye contact. As if they were both reacquainting themselves with each other.

Taking his hand, she put it on her hip as she rolled into him, and as their bodies made contact, his grip tightened, his bonding scent flaring.

She’d intended to keep things slow and low-key. But their flesh had a different plan. Need grabbed the reins and took over, and she struck his throat with a powerful lunge, taking what she had to have to survive and be at her strongest—and also marking him in her own way. In response, his body jacked against her own, his erection wanting inside of her.

While she took great drags on his vein, she struggled to get her scrubs off—but he took care of that for her, gripping the waist and yanking the pants so hard the fabric split on a clean, screaming rip. And then his hand was right where she wanted it to be, moving against her core, slipping and sliding, teasing and then entering her. Working herself against his long, penetrating fingers, she found a rhythm that was guaranteed to get them both off, her moans competing in her throat with the blood she was downing at an alarming rate.

After her first orgasm, she shifted around—with his help—and straddled his hips. She needed to stay relatively still to keep locked on his throat, but he took care of the motion side of things, pumping up against her, closing in and retreating, creating that friction they both wanted.

When she came a second time, she had to retract her mouth from his flesh and call out his name. And as he pulsed deep within her, she stopped moving and absorbed the sensation of the kicking and jerking, so familiar, and yet so fresh.

Jesus… what an expression he had… his eyes squeezed shut, his teeth bared, the muscles in his neck straining, all while a streak of delicious red left the puncture marks she had yet to lick closed.

When his lids finally opened, she stared hard at the blissed-out haze in those blue eyes of his. His love for her wasn’t just emotional; there was an undeniable physical component to it. That was the way bonded males worked.

Maybe he couldn’t have stopped himself in that alley, she thought. Maybe that was the beast inside the civilized shell, the animal part of vampires that separated the species from those watered-down humans.

Dipping low, she licked at his neck, lapping the wounds shut, savoring the taste that clung to the inside of her mouth and the expressway of her throat. Already she could feel the power coursing out from her gut, and this was just the beginning. As her body absorbed what he had given her, she was just going to feel stronger and stronger.

“I love you,” she said.

With that, she drew him up off the pillows so she was sitting in his lap, his arousal pushing even deeper inside her core. Palming the back of his neck with her free hand, she brought him to her vein and held him in place.

He didn’t need any more urging than that—and the pain that came with his strike was a sweet sting that carried her right back over the edge of release, her sex milking him into another orgasm, working against his shaft, squeezing him, pulling at him.

John’s arms locked around her, and the sight of them out of the corner of her eye made her frown. They were huge, bulging limbs that, in spite of how strong she was, could lift more, strike harder, punch faster. They were bigger than her thighs, thicker than her waist.

Their bodies were not, in fact, created equal, were they. He was always going to be more powerful than her.

A reality, sure. But how much someone could bench-press was not the determining factor when it came to competence in the field; nor was it the only way to judge a fighter. She was just as accurate a shooter, just as good with a dagger, and equally furious and tenacious when faced with prey.

She simply had to make him see that.

Biology was one thing. But even males had a brain.

When the sex was finally over, John lay beside his mate, utterly sated and sleepy. It would probably be a good idea to scrounge up some food, but he didn’t have the energy or inclination.

He didn’t want to leave her. At this moment. Ten minutes from now. Tomorrow, next week, next month…

As she curled into him, he snagged a blanket from the side table and draped it over the two of them, even though the combination of their body heat was keeping them pretty damn toasty.

He was well aware of when she fell asleep—her breathing changed and her leg twitched from time to time.

He wondered if she was kicking him in the ass in her dreams.

He had shit to work on; that was for sure.

And no one to go to talk about it—it wasn’t like he could ask Tohr for anything more than the advice he’d gotten on the fly tonight. And everybody else’s relationships were perfect. All he ever saw at the dining table were happy, smiling couples—hardly the sounding board he was looking for.

He could just picture the response: You’re having problems? Really? Huh, that’s weird… maybe you could call in to the radio or some shit?

The only thing that would change would be whether that was delivered by someone with a goatee, a pair of wraparounds, a mink duster, a Tootsie Roll in his piehole.…

He had this moment of peace, though. And he and Xhex could build on it.

They were going to have to.

You were okay with me fighting. Right before we were mated, you said you were cool with it.

And he really had been. But that was before he’d seen her cut right in front of him.

The thing was… and as much as it pained him to admit this… the last thing he wanted to be was the Brother he admired the most. Now that he had Xhex properly, the idea of losing her and stepping into Tohr’s boots was the single most terrifying thing he’d ever faced.

He had no idea how the Brother was getting out of bed every night. And frankly, if he hadn’t already forgiven the guy for taking off and disappearing right afterward, he would have now.

He thought of that moment when Wrath and the Brotherhood had come to them in a group. He and Tohr had been in the office here at the training center, with the Brother calling home time and time again, hoping, praying for something other than voice mail.…

In the corridor outside the office, there were fissures in the massive concrete walls—in spite of the fact that the damn things were eighteen-inch-thick concrete: Tohr’s release of energy from his anger and pain had been so