Nathan’s Mate (The Vampire Coalition #3)(4)
Author: J.S. Scott

Regan moved behind him slowly, shooting her sister one last, perplexed look as she followed Liam.

Sasha watched as the pair disappeared, her mind whirling. She remembered the monsters that attacked her and seeing a brief glimpse of the vampire that Liam had introduced as Nathan before she lost consciousness. She also remembered sending out a calling spell to Regan. She had obviously received it. She was here, and she must have healed her.

"You saved my life," Sasha whispered, knowing that he must have destroyed the creatures attacking her.

Nathan walked around the bed and sat on the floor beside the bed before replying, "I almost didn’t make it fast enough." His eyes never left her face. Sasha could see the fear and concern in his expression.

She lifted a hand to his cheek, unable to stop herself from comforting him. "You made it. I would have been dead had you not shown up. What were they?"

"Fallen vampires."

Sasha shuddered. She didn’t know that vampires could fall and become such hideous creatures. "And you hunt them?"

"Yes." Nathan answered simply. "They prey on the innocent."

"And you don’t?." She couldn’t stop herself from asking the question. Weren’t all vampires evil?

A volatile look crossed his face as he answered roughly. "No. I do not. Vampires may survive on blood but we take from those who aren’t so innocent and we don’t kill to do it."

She believed him. His insulted look was definitely not false. He looked like she had slapped him. Remorse stabbed at her sharply as she replied, "I’m sorry. I know very little about vampires."

"Probably about as much as I know about the mage." His voice was rough and low. "Do you know that we are mates?"

Sasha flinched. "I knew I was the mate of the vampire because I have the mark. I didn’t know who he was. But I have dreams…" Her voice shook. "I never see a face…but I dream. I recognized your voice."

"I dream the same dreams. But I could see you very clearly." Nathan willed his mark to appear and held his forearm out to her. "We are definitely mates. I can feel the mating instinct even now."

Sasha stared at Nathan’s mark, a twin to her own. She could feel the mating instinct too, and it wasn’t comfortable. She wanted to pull Nathan into the bed and have him at least a million different ways. The only difficult part would be where to start.

You cannot mate with a vampire…no matter how handsome and compelling he may be. You are mage.

"Mage and vampires do not mate." Sasha said it as much to herself as to Nathan, trying to convince herself that she could never have this man that was turning her inside out.

"Make no mistake, little one…we will mate. The process has begun and it will end with us being mated." His stare was intense and his voice rumbled. "I understand that you do not understand all there is to know about vampire mates. I will explain it to you."

Sasha felt her temper rising. He may have saved her life, but no man was going to tell her what to do or what was going to happen with her life. She made her own destiny. She opened her mouth to tell him exactly that, but he had started explaining the nature of mates.

Curiosity overruled her anger…and she listened as he explained exactly what being the mate of a vampire really meant.

******

Sasha smiled as she woke one week later in an array of silken rose petals. She stretched in her bed, inhaling the fragrant smell that surrounded her. As she opened her eyes she ran hand a through more than an inch of soft, red petals piled high around her. She laughed as she tossed a handful in the air and watched them waft slowly back to the bed.

His courting is bewitching me.

When Nathan decided something…he was immovable. He had decided he was going to court her…and she had been spoiled rotten for the last week. All she had to do is wish or want for something and it appeared.

This was the seventh day she had woken up in a bed of rose petals. Sasha knew from experience that once she exited the bed, the petals would disappear and her bedroom would be filled with several vases of roses on every available surface of the room.

Nathan’s power was terrifying, but strangely enough, Sasha had never feared him. She got in his face often enough when he pissed her off, but he showed nothing but patience with her. His control was nearly as scary as his power.

She hopped out of the bed, shaking off petals as she went, yawning as she glanced at the window. It was twilight. Although she had never been an early riser, her nights had gotten longer and she slept the day away.

Coffee.

She made her way sleepily toward the kitchen to put on the coffee pot only to find a large, steaming mug of latte waiting for her. Extra milk, extra sugar. Just the way she liked it.

Exasperating man! He probably had not even woken from his day sleep yet and he was able to cater to her wants. Ah..the benefits of having a six hundred year old vampire mate.

Sasha blew on the steaming mug and took a small sip of the much needed caffeine. Perfect. As usual. Sighing softly, she carried the mug back to the bedroom. The rose petals were gone and the vases were arranged around the room. How in the hell did he do that? Did he arrange it with magic before he slept or was he so powerful that he could do all this while he slept? She had asked him before and he had just shot her a deliciously wicked look.

She sat on her bed and cradled her coffee, sipping at it leisurely as wondered what she should do this evening. She could go to the homeless shelter and help out as she had been doing the night she had met with the two fallen, but she had promised Nathan that she wouldn’t go there without his escort.

It was Saturday night. She and Regan never worked on the weekends. They had been working in her basement workshop all week with Nathan, his brothers and their mates as frequent visitors. She had even met Adare and Kristin, friends of the brothers. They were all so…likeable. Even Regan, shy and quiet as she was, laughed and joked along with the brothers and their mates, enjoying their company. They all teased each other mercilessly, but Sasha could also see the bond between them all.

So different from the mage, Sasha thought. Mages were serious creatures that rarely laughed or showed their emotions to one another. Their main concern was the survival of the species and keeping the purity of their mage heritage.

She shuddered, her coffee nearly spilling as she thought of her parent’s reactions to her revelation that she was a vampire mate. They were disappointed in her and they showed it. She was treated as a dirty outcast by everyone except Regan, who treated her no differently than she always did. Her parents had told her in no uncertain terms that she was an aristocratic mage and she would be mated to another of her kind.