Daric’s Mate (The Vampire Coalition #5)(10)
Author: J.S. Scott

Hannah squeezed his hand as she replied, “He was King. Was it even possible for you to stop him?”

“I don’t know. But I could have tried. I wasn’t there. I should have been there. I was studying the books of the ancients, trying to figure out if there was any way to save Nolan.” He hadn’t found anything, and his father and brother had died without him being present. “I went as soon as I heard Nolan’s cry of distress in my mind, but it was too late.” Daric had been greeted by a pile of ashes that had once been his father and brother, able to read the preceding events from their remains. They were images that he had never been able to forget, his father’s outrage as his son slipped away, his father’s mad act of changing the Book of the Vampire Healer so it was virtually impossible for any healer to find his mate, hoping it might reverse Nolan’s death. Then, realizing that his desperate attempt had failed, draining his life energy and magic into Nolan. Nolan had already been gone, so it was an act of suicide, although his father’s mind had been so twisted, he probably didn’t think of it that way.

“If your father was capable of changing the mating rules, I’m sure you couldn’t have stopped him, Daric.” Hannah crawled into Daric’s lap and rested her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I know he was grieving, but I don’t think I like him. He left you alone. I understand it was a horrible loss for him, and I don’t blame him for mourning, but he had another son to think about.”

If anything or anyone had ever felt as good as the warm, comforting woman in his arms, Daric didn’t remember it. He tightened his arms around her, sighing against her hair, losing himself in her softness. “Nolan was his whole world.”

Hannah tightened her arms around his neck. “What about you?”

Her tone was defensive, protective and indignant. Daric would have laughed at the thought that she was rising to his defense if it hadn’t touched him so deeply, made his heart ache with tenderness for the small, human female who reacted like a tigress. “I was a second-born prince. Nolan was the heir, the future King.”

“You were his son, dammit. It shouldn’t matter when you were born.” She pulled back to look at him. “Were you and Nolan close?”

He looked at his woman, so fierce, so angry on his behalf, and he felt the ice crack a little more. “Yes. I still miss him to this day. He was patient and kind. We were so different, but we were very close. He would have made a fine King.”

She laid her head back on his shoulder as she murmured, “You still haven’t explained the King thing.”

Unable to stop himself, Daric stroked her silky hair. “It isn’t complicated. I didn’t want the title. I can watch over my people without the title of King.”

“Yes. Obviously you can. You’ve watched over your people for a thousand years without it.” She shook her head against his chest. “Yikes. That sounds odd. Exactly how old are you?”

“I was only two hundred years old when my father died,” he muttered in amusement.

“Only? So you’re twelve hundred years old? Can a vampire that old even get it up anymore?” She laughed against his chest. “Do you still have your own teeth or do you need…like…denture fangs?”

Daric smiled against her hair, knowing he should be insulted by Hannah’s questioning of his manhood, but unable to do anything other than let her laughter surround him, filling him with a peace he hadn’t felt in…well…ever. He growled playfully and pulled her ass into his groin. “I’d have no problem satisfying my mate.” And then some! His c**k was straining against his jeans, swelling impossibly large as Hannah’s delicious ass wiggled against it.

Mine!

“Hmmm…I guess I’ll have to take your word on that one since you’re refusing me,” she murmured in a sleepy voice.

At that moment, Daric wanted nothing more than to teleport them to his bedroom and show her all of the ways he could pleasure her, sate her until her body was limp and begging for mercy. His need for her was already becoming almost impossible to deny, growing stronger with every touch, every word, every bit of her sweetness that he lapped up like a starving man.

I need to speak the words. Release both of us. This is f**king torture.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to form the words to refuse Hannah, set her free, but they stuck in his throat, clogging him into silence, choking him like dry grains of sand in a sandstorm.

She’s my mate. Mine. I’m not giving her up. Never. I want her. I need her.

Cursing himself for being a selfish bastard, he kept trying, but the words wouldn’t come.

Fuck!

Hannah stirred in his arms and then settled back in with a feminine sigh, after finding a comfortable spot on his chest.

Daric’s arms tightened around her possessively, his heart racing. Who in the hell did he think he was trying to fool? Somewhere deep inside…he had known the truth, had probably known since the first moment he’d realized that this woman was his, that he wouldn’t be able to refuse her. He’d been inside her head, seen glimpses of her heart. Maybe his goddamn noble ancestry demanded that he try to do the right thing and let her go, but everything inside him, every vampire instinct he had, told him that this woman belonged to him.

She deserves better.

Oh, f**k no! He might be royalty, but he wasn’t feeling particularly noble. The thought of his woman with anyone else nearly sent him over the deep end, making him want to claim her in the most primal way possible. Over and over again, until she could do nothing but moan his name in ecstasy.

Daric rose gracefully to his feet, Hannah cradled in his arms.

She lifted her head slightly, whispering in a drowsy voice, “I’m sorry. I think I dozed off. Is it possible for you to take me home?”

“You will stay here. Sleep.” Daric glanced at the clock. It was nearly dawn. No wonder his woman was exhausted. She’d had an exhausting day and the wine had probably added to her desire to sleep.

“The restaurant–”

“Will function just fine without you. You stay here.” He had seen the memories of Hannah going home to the empty house her father had lived in, surrounded by sorrow and regrets. She wasn’t going back there again. Not until she had healed enough to go without pain.

“For tonight,” she agreed in a slumberous voice.

Forever.

Daric’s covetous gaze caressed her face, watching her eyes flutter closed as she fell back to sleep. Having already been roasted over the coals by his woman for teleporting her earlier, he made sure she was asleep before he transferred them from the living room to his bedroom.