She took a step away from him, but he grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her back.
"No," he said so quietly she knew no one else had heard him.
"But—"
"I said no!" his eyes flamed with fire as his jaw clenched.
"But it's because of me!" she protested as she squirmed to get out his embrace. His hands clenched on her. She winced in response, and he immediately eased his grip. "It is, isn't it?"
"Yes." It was David who answered her. Sera stopped struggling as she turned to look at him. David's eyes were pitying before he looked at Liam. "You've tasted her?" Liam nodded sharply. "And she tasted you?"
Sera's face flamed hotly.
"Yes," Liam grated.
"But she's not one of us," Doug stated.
Sera felt herself turning redder as she realized they knew everything. "No, she's not," David said. "That's the problem."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Liam spat. His body trembled; his arms locked around her were as taut as a bowstring.
"I met some of our kind in Pennsylvania—" David started.
"How did you know they were our kind?" Jack interrupted.
David shot him an aggravated look. "Like knows like," he explained hastily. "You'll see when you meet others. Trust me." His gaze returned to Liam and Sera. "After I talked to you, I went and asked them about our relationships with humans. We aren’t meant to be with them, not seriously anyway."
"They told you this?" Liam demanded.
"Yes. You have marked her as yours, Liam. When you let her feed on you, she became a part of you, and vice versa."
"Beth did the same thing!" Liam seethed.
"It's not the same, Liam, and you know it! You never loved Beth, but you love Sera, and the thing inside of you needs her to be with you, forever. When we fall in love something happens, something changes. Inside, we are savage, and we need to mark our mates. You will kill anyone who hurts her; you will kill us."
"So he says," Mike muttered.
"So he will," David said firmly. "You'll also destroy her."
"No, he won't!" Sera cried.
David's eyes were sympathetic as they met hers. "Yes, he will. He will turn you. He's fighting it now, but he will. He can't let you go Sera, not in any way. The demon inside him senses the mortality in you, the frailty of your life, and it will not have it."
"Then I'll let her go," Liam said even as his arms tightened upon her waist.
"No!" Sera was horrified and broken at the mere thought.
"Sera—"
"You can't," David said flatly.
"Of course I can," Liam insisted.
"No, you can't!" Sera denied.
"No, he can't," David reasserted vehemently. "Don't give me that look; you can't, Liam. Even now, while you're saying the words, you're changing."
Sera twisted to look up at him. He diverted his head, but not before she caught a glimpse of red eyes and elongated teeth. "Liam," she whispered as she touched his cheek.
He took her hand and pulled it away from his face. "Don't!"
Tears welled in her eyes, but she withdrew her hand from him. She could feel him trying to put a wall between them, and she didn't know how to stop it. He was determined to keep her away from him.
"Look," David said. "I'm going to tell you what they told me about this. First of all, you can't let her go. We don't often find our mates, in fact, the two vampires I met are over two hundred years old, and they've never found theirs. From what they’ve been told, once we find our mates, if they are human, then all control for the vampire is lost. What you're going through now, Liam, is nothing. It will only get worse until you make her yours in every way. If you send her away, you will go insane; you will become a threat to everyone around you. She is the only thing keeping you from losing your sanity now.
"Simply put, you can't let her go, and she can't stay human."
"What about Beth?" Liam demanded. "We exchanged blood."
"You didn't give two shits about Beth, and no matter how much she fancies herself in love with you, she's not. She's obsessed with you because you didn't want her. You never had a problem with walking away from Beth, but I bet going for that walk today almost drove you crazy, didn't it?"
Liam refused to answer the question. "I thought so," David continued. "Our mates are ours. We know them when we find them, if we find them. It's instantaneous. You might not have recognized it at first, but if you look back over everything, I'm sure you realize it now, right?"
Liam's resentment at David's words was growing by the second. However, he was right. Every minute he spent away from her today was horrendous, and he desperately needed to get back to her. The beast within him was clawing to emerge every second they were apart. It was only the knowledge Mike and Doug would keep her safe, and he needed to find Beth to ensure Sera stayed that way, that kept him going.
David was also right about Liam not being able to leave her. His need to get her away from him, before he injured her, was nowhere near as strong as his urge to drag her from the room and take possession of her in every way possible. One thing was for sure, his need for her was growing, while his control was weakening.
He took a deep breath and met David's intense gaze. David was also right about another thing. From the beginning, he needed to speak to Sera, gone out of his way to meet her. He told himself to stay away from her, yet he hadn't been able to do so. So far, David was right about everything, and Liam was certain this conversation wasn’t going to end well.
"He was going to let me leave his room," Sera said. "After he told me what he was, and I was terrified. He was going to
