Chapter 21

Olivia’s POV

I didn’t want to tell him the truth, wanting to keep what secrets I could. The secrets of my heart felt the most vital to protect. I wouldn’t put it past Damien to threaten my love ones to further control me.

I stood and faced Damien, feeling like I was a warrior preparing for battle. I would need all my wits and courage to keep Jacob’s identity secret.

Damien leaned in, immediately entering my personal space like he belonged there. He towered over me, glaring down. “Answer me, pet.”

I swallowed thickly. “He’s no one.”

“You would draw no one?” Damien asked. His eyes were red moons, his focus intense. “I will not accept lies. Have I not already made that clear?”

My heart was racing and I cursed myself for being so obvious. It wasn’t totally a lie, though. It was just missing a caveat.

“He’s no one… to you,” I said.

Damien huffed out a harsh laugh. “All werewolves are no one to me. Even you.” Any trace of amusement vanished in the blink of an eye, and he was exceedingly serious again. “Give me a name or I will find it on my own. You will not like what becomes of that.”

“His name is Jacob,” I said. I had seen this terrifying vampire turn people to dust with a flash of his eyes, so I knew full well what he was capable of.

Inwardly, I cursed myself. I had known right away it would come to this, even as I had stubbornly tried to fight it. No matter what I did, he would use my loved ones against me. It was in his nature.

All vampires were monsters.

“And what is Jacob to you?” Damien asked me, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side. He was more amused than upset, like he enjoyed toying with me.

I wanted to lie, but he would see through it. Perhaps the truth was the best way to keep my loved ones safe, though it felt like a risk.

“He’s my fated mate,” I said at last.

Damien’s good humor soured. In a flash, he was closer to me, his chest against mine, my neck angled, my head all the way back to look up at him as his eyes blazed.

“You wish to leave,” he said.

“No,” I replied quickly – quicker than even I would have thought. It had to be solely because I wanted to protect Jacob and my family. My protective instincts must have been so strong that I replied on instinct. “I want to stay with you.”

I braced myself, worried he would call me out on the lie.

Instead, he hummed and said, “That’s better.”

No, what I said had to be a lie, right? Yes, I was drawn to Damien but that wasn’t enough to make me want to stay here with him… was it?

Damien traced his hands up the length of my arms from wrist to shoulder. I shivered at his cold, feather touch. His hands slipped over my shoulders to my collarbone. One reached up to cup my face.

“You answered my question well, Rose,” he whispered. “Now it’s time for your reward.”

Tilting my head to the side, he exposed my neck. Then, opening his mouth and extending his fangs, he leaned down and sunk his teeth into my neck.

I gasped at first, the pain overwhelming for the first second or two. But then, in the next few heartbeats, the pain disappeared and pleasure surged in its absence.

I trembled, as bliss rushed through my body. I pressed my thighs together, searching for friction from the sudden burst of lust that wracked through my body. Everything felt so good. It’s as if my insides were on fire, in the best possible way.

Damien hummed against my neck, sounding pleased. Somehow that only made things even more intense, bringing even more pleasure.

I pressed my body to his, needing something more…

Things I couldn’t express…

Whatever it was, the push of my breasts against his hard chest, the way his tongue lapped at my neck as he sucked and drank, the feel of his hand curling tighter around my shoulder…

Whatever it was, in the next instant, I exploded, shaking through my orgasm. His hand moved around me, keeping me in place as I trembled through the aftershocks and he took his fill.

When he both finished, he held me for a moment more, until the feeling returned to my body and I could be trusted to stand on my own two legs again. Then, he guided me away from him. He too stepped back.

Only then, glancing at the ground, did I notice that he was standing on the picture I had drawn of Jacob, which he must have dropped on the floor before grabbing me.

Before the bliss had even fully vanished, the guilt started to set in.

What was I doing? How could I allow myself to feel pleasure with this monster while my beloved Jacob was out there? I was betraying our mate bond by so easily and willingly giving myself to Damien, and I hated myself for it.

Yes, it was for survival, but that didn’t mean I had to enjoy what was being done to me. And this… draw… that I felt for Damien only made everything so much worse.

Damien, watching me, followed the line of my gaze down to the picture under his heel. The self-satisfaction that had curled his bloody lips now vanished. He frowned at me, then leaned down and picked up the picture.

“You think of this man while I have my fangs in your neck,” he said, a statement not a question.

I didn’t have to answer, so I held my tongue. He would have seen through my lie if I agreed, and I wasn’t ready for him to know the opposite was true.

I was a terrible mate to Jacob, because I had not thought of him at all.

In that moment, with Damien’s fangs in my neck, I had only thought of the hard press of Damien’s body against mine, and his hot mouth against my neck.

Jacob was nowhere near my thoughts.

“You will no longer think of this man,” Damien said. His tone went very cold, matching the sudden iciness in his eyes. “Or I will find him and kill him.”

I had no doubt he was telling the truth. After all, the vampires had viciously murdered my father. Why wouldn’t they do the same with my mate?

Still, I raised my hands to my heart, which ached with worry and fear. “Please,” I said. “He’s innocent in this…”

“I don’t care what he is,” Damien said. He crumpled up the drawing in his hand into a tight ball and then tossed it down onto the floor. “He is nothing to you anymore.”

I lowered my head, trying to be submissive, even though my heart was defiant. I would never forget Jacob, no matter what Damien commanded.

Damien placed his forefinger under my chin and forced my gaze back up to his face, to his eyes that now held mine prisoner.

“You will never see the outside of these walls again, Rose,” he said. “For the rest of your life, you will remain my pet.”