Dark Cravings [Claiming Series, #2]

- Final -

But he saw a shadow creep into her gaze, even as her arm tightened around him. "Beth?"

She bit her lower lip and dropped her gaze. At once he felt a pressure in his chest unlike anything he'd felt since he had realized that staying near his family would make him a threat. That for their sakes he had to walk away.

"Beth," he said again, his tone almost imploring. "Have I scared you beyond bearing?"

Her head jerked and suddenly those bright green eyes met his again. "No! Oh, no, Soren. What made you think that?"

"I get the distinct feeling you're not happy."

"Oh." A small sigh escaped her and she closed her eyes.

"Just tell me," he demanded. "Just say it, whatever it is. Don't go away like that."

"I'm afraid," she said finally, in a small voice.

He couldn't have turned colder if the death sleep had taken him in the frozen Arctic wastes. He could barely force the words out. "Of me."

"No! I told it's not that." Her eyes seemed to spark.

"Then what? I told you I'm not a mind reader. But I smell fear and worry and sorrow all over you. Please, just tell me."

She rolled away from him, tightening his chest even more with her rejection. God, how had he been such a fool as to come to care to this degree? He knew better than to think many mortals could tolerate his kind except for the sexual thrills he had refused to fully give her.

Now he saw rejection in the way she pulled from him and gave him her back. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, and knew that he had fallen into that place every vampire tried to avoid: he had claimed her. Without any assurance whatever, despite his efforts to avoid it, he had claimed her. And he had claimed her while ensuring that she was still free to leave him.

His future, once nearly endless and unwanted, suddenly shrank to a few moments or hours. When she left he'd have two choices: to stalk her endlessly, or to seek mercy. And he knew which option he would choose. Pain seared him all the way to whatever soul he had left.

She sat up, her back still toward him. "This is embarrassing," she said, her voice sounding both thick and weak. "Soren..."

"Yes?" He steeled himself to hear what she really thought of him, and plenty of ugly words sprang to his mind. He knew them well because he'd often applied them to himself.

"Soren, I'm afraid of losing you!"

The words burst from her in a rush, so fast he wasn't sure he heard her correctly. "Losing me?" he repeated, uncertain.

"Yes. I know it's too fast, I know you keep saying I don't appreciate what you are. That I don't really understand. Maybe I don't. But this week... Soren, am I just a woman who smells good to you? Or am I more?"

Never had he felt quite as torn as he did in that instant. Part of him wanted to leap for joy at what she was suggesting. Another part of him insisted that is he really cared for her, he would send her away, protecting her from his unnatural existence.

But in the end, the strength of his yearning outweighed his conscience. This once he didn't have the strength of will to deny himself what had become essential to his life. "You're more to me than you can possibly know."

Slowly she turned until she looked at him over her shoulder. "Really?"

"Really. I would have died for you last night if I had needed to. I would have killed for you. You are more important to me than I am."

Her face brightened, and she turned toward him, sitting cross-legged. He wished she would come closer, but apparently she wasn't ready to yet.

"I hope you never have to do either of those things for me," she said with a gravity that touched him. Then an impish smile tipped the corners of her mouth. "But it's kind of nice to know you would."

He felt a smile begin to dance around his own lips. "Beth, I've tried. I've to make it clear to you what I am and how I live. I've tried to keep no secrets. Do you believe me when I tell you I'm by nature a predator?"

She tipped her head. "Yes. I've always believed lions and tigers. I've thought this over more than once. I've wondered if I was losing my mind. Then I realized something."

"What's that?"

"We are what we are. Ad I love you, even the parts of you you're not so proud of. And I love you all the more because you have to fight yourself so hard to do what you believe is right."

A shell that encased his heart, one that was nearly a century old, cracked wide open. He held out his arms and she came to him readily, willingly, as hungry for him as he was for her.

This time he held nothing back from her. He couldn't any longer. He ripped the clothes from them both, tearing fabric, popping buttons, bringing her into the most basic part of him. She came willingly, unafraid, giving her tender flesh to him with utter trust.

He painted fire all over her with his hands and mouth. He let her touch him in ways he hadn't permitted to anyone in forever. And then he slipped into her, claiming her as man claims a woman.

Finally, he claimed her a vampire claims his mate, sinking his teeth into her, drinking from her deeply, reveling in his cries of ecstasy as he took her with him to that borderland between death and life.

"I love you," he growled. "And you're mine. Claimed."

Her eyelids fluttered. "Claimed?"

"Forever. I'll never let you go. You know what that means." For an instant he knew terror that the idea of being claimed might repel her.

"Claimed," she repeated as if she savored the word. Then in the same instant, a tear leaked from one eye and a smile lifted her face. "I've never wanted anything more than I want to be yours. Always." She wrapped herself tightly around him. "I love you. Make me like you, Soren. I want to be like you. I want to be with you forever."

"No," he whispered, forcing himself to a moment of sanity even as heaven called to him. "Later. Much later. Wait. For my sake. I need to be sure you're sure."

Their eyes met, and he saw his answer there. She would wait, but not for long.

He could deal with that. Because now there was ample time for them both.

Then he closed his eyes, buried his fangs in her tender breast, and took her with him to that place only vampires could go, hearts beating as one, bodies feeling as one.

Claimed. Forever.