Shea was burning alive. Sliding two fingers inside herself, she felt Jesse touching her. She didn’t know how he was doing it, but it was him using her wet heat to slide his fingers across her clit as she worked herself higher and higher. Her muscles strained, the heaviness in her womb building. Pinching her nipple, she couldn’t stifle her cry as she felt it all the way to her core. The warlock had brought her right to the edge with his wicked words and hungry gaze. But she needed more.

When he pressed the blade of the small knife through the skin of his wrist, Shea’s hips bucked beneath her hand. Her fangs ached to be the thing that sliced through that tan skin, bringing forth the bright red line of blood that appeared.

Making a clean cut horizontally across his wrist, Jesse leaned forward and braced his weight over her on one powerful arm. His sex hung thick and heavy barely an inch from where she needed him to be. He held the open wound over her mouth without touching her. “Drink, love.”

Shea opened her mouth. Warm blood dripped past her fangs and onto her tongue. It was dark and sweet, with a hint of something wicked, just as she’d imagined. Shea moved restlessly beneath her own hands as his warm blood slid down her throat and his life force tore through her body. The waves of her orgasm rose higher and higher, until it slammed into her with an intensity that was almost frightening. She cried out, convulsing on the bed, feeling something hot and wet hit her chest and stomach as Jesse’s words of encouragement joined her cries.

One word crashed over and over through her mind as she came—

MINE.

Her eyes shot open and zeroed in on the rugged male leaning over her. His head had fallen forward; his warm breath coming in ragged exhales to blow across the moisture on her chest.

Her lips pulled back from her fangs as her eyes fell to the rapid pulse on the side of his throat.

MINE.

She suddenly froze beneath him.

No. No. No! It can’t be!

A ragged sob escaped from her throat as her worst nightmare came true. She was mated to a male she’d never be able to touch, or kiss, or hold.

Jesse’s head snapped up. “Shea? Shea, what’s wrong?” He ran his eyes over every inch of her, making sure he wasn’t touching her anywhere, searching desperately for whatever caused her pain. “Did I hurt you?”

He had. He had hurt her horribly. But she couldn’t answer him, could do nothing but stare up at him in horror. Everything he had done to her and Luukas and Keira…it all flashed through her head, one thing after another after another.

“Shea, talk to me, godsdammit! Or I will make you tell me.”

She didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know what to do. She’d always known she had an unhealthy attraction to the warlock, but this—this was something she’d never expected. Would the fates really be so cruel as to mate her to someone she could never touch, and who could never touch her in return? Someone who she could never accept as her own?

Another harsh sob escaped her.

Jesse reached toward her face, remembered he couldn’t touch her, and pulled at his own hair in frustration. “Dammit, Shea. Tell me what the fuck is wrong! Tell me right now, or I will come in and see for myself.”

Scooting away from him, she pulled the blanket over her nakedness, looking anywhere but at him. It took her a moment to get a grip on her emotions, and her voice was thin when she finally answered him. “I’m fine. I’m just being stupid because I can’t do what I really want.” She tried to wipe the tears from her cheeks, but more kept falling. “I’m fine.”

He was off the bed and across the room at a speed that should only be attainable by vampires or werewolves, of which he was neither. Pulling on his pants, he grabbed a box of tissues from the shelf in the nightstand and handed it to her. “You’re not fine.” He sat down on the bed beside her while she wiped at face. “Please, talk to me, Shea. What did I do?”

She shook her head, unable to say the words aloud. “Nothing. You did nothing.”

“Then what didn’t I do?”

She just shook her head again. What the hell was she supposed to say? And what had she done to deserve this? And then another thought occurred to her, one that made her breath freeze in her lungs.

He’d given her his blood. She’d fed on the blood of her mate. Shea pressed her hands to either side of her skull and rocked back and forth. No, no, no! She couldn’t leave him now. Ever. He couldn’t leave her. She needed his blood to survive, would literally die without it. What the hell was she going to do?

Luukas, Nik—she couldn’t go back there. Not with Jesse. They would never allow this male to be anywhere near them. And she couldn’t say that she blamed either one of them. Luukas would never allow Jesse near her. She’d be lucky if he didn’t kill him on sight. He wouldn’t give her the chance to explain first. But what other choice did she have?

She would have to run, they would both have to run. It was the only chance she had to survive. Shea put her head in her hands and rocked back and forth.

What the hell had she been thinking? Coming anywhere near this male was a stupid, stupid, fucking mistake.

Shea suddenly realized that Jesse had stopped asking her to tell him what was wrong. Lifting her head, she pushed her hair back off her face.

He was sitting eerily still, the expression on his face unreadable, golden eyes intense as she felt him probing around in her head.

She held up one hand, palm out. “No, Jesse! Don’t—”

“Is this true?”

Shit. It was too late. She took a deep breath.

He knew. He knew everything she’d just been thinking. Everything.

Swallowing hard, she let her hand fall back down to her lap. “Yes,” she whispered.

Rising from the bed, he returned to the other side of the room and picked up his sweater from the floor. Without a word, he shrugged into it and slipped his bare feet into his shoes.

Shea watched him, confused, as he headed to the door. “Where are you going?”

Pausing with one hand on the knob, he said, “I’m sorry that fate did not give you the mate you would’ve wished for.” Then he opened the door and walked out, closing it behind him.

His cool collectiveness hurt her more than any touch she’d ever had to endure. As the door shut with a soft click, her soul shattered into a million pieces.

Jumping from the bed, Shea flung open the door and ran down the passageway after him with the comforter trailing along on the floor behind her. “Jesse! Jesse, stop!”

He was already at the end of the tunnel, heading back the way they’d come in.

Shea caught up to him easily just as he exited the mountain. “Jesse, where are you going?” The rain was cold on her bare head and shoulders, the mossy ground sucking at her feet like a sponge as she followed him outside.

He didn’t stop, or acknowledge her in any way as he made his way across the small clearing to the SUV where it was hidden just inside the tree line.

He was leaving her there?

In a spurt of panic, she rushed around him at vamp speed, placing herself between him and the driver’s side door. He pulled up short, just in time.

“Shea, please get out of the way.” His voice was quiet, controlled. Always so fucking controlled.

She shook her head. “No. I’m not just going to let you take off and leave me here.”

“The sun is coming up soon. You won’t have a choice.”

The iciness that emanated from him made her blood run cold. She could sense nothing of what he was thinking or feeling, although she now shared his blood. She didn’t know how he was doing it. “Jesse—”

“Move, Shea.”

“No. Come back inside—”

Suddenly, his fist flew past her head and through the back passenger window. Golden eyes burned through her, glowing with fury. The muscles in his jaw jumped as he gritted out, “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”

Shea didn’t move. His anger didn’t frighten her, because she knew it was only a disguise to cover up what he was really feeling—hurt. She felt something akin to satisfaction that she had finally managed to break that calm façade he always wore like armor, although this wasn’t the way she’d wanted to do it. “Come back inside and let me explain.”

He tilted his head, a quizzical expression on his face. “Explain? Explain what, exactly? How I repulse you? How you hate yourself for being attracted to me? How you would rather the gods had mated you to a slug than me?”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. That’s exactly what she had been thinking. “That’s not all there is to it, and you know it.”

“Ah, yes.” He nodded, his brows drawn and his forehead creased in thought. “There’s the problem of Luukas, your maker. You think he will kill me before you can tell him that you need me to survive, therefore ending your life in the process.” He threw his head back and laughed. “I’m half-tempted to let him. Just to see his face when he realizes what he’s done.” In the next second, he grew perfectly serious. “Except that it will never happen, Shea. Luukas cannot kill me. And I know you already suspected as much. So, the real issue here isn’t what Luukas thinks of me, but what you do.”

He was right. She held one hand out in front of her in supplication, keeping the blanket from falling with the other. “I just wasn’t expecting this.” It was a lame excuse, and she knew it, but she didn’t know what else to say.

“But, weren’t you? Come on now, Shea. I felt it—this thing between us—the first time I laid eyes on you. I knew there was something there. I just didn’t know what it was. Although, looking back, I should have guessed, especially knowing what was happening with the others. However, I’m not a vampire.” His eyes came back to her. “Can you honestly tell me that you had no idea?”

Shea looked away, but it was impossible to hide the guilt that weighed on her.

“Yes. You knew.” He released his breath on a heavy exhale. “And yet you came with me, anyway. What were you hoping to get out of taking such a risk?”

Wiping at a tear that fell from the corner of her eye, she shook her head. But there was no use denying it. She had known. She’d known the moment she saw him, with the hood of his robe covering half of his face and that silly bird on his shoulder. He’d protected her from Leeha, and she’d never questioned why he had done it. Not really. Because she’d known.

“The sun is coming up. You should get inside.”

She shook her head again. “Not without you.”

He narrowed his gaze in warning. “If you don’t go inside now, I will carry you in myself, and I won’t care how much you scream.”

“Jesse—”

“Go, Shea. NOW.”

The sky was beginning to lighten, the clouds clearing away, taking the rain with them. Shea looked up at him beseechingly, but was at a complete loss as to what to say to make it fix what she had done. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to. For that would mean betraying Luukas and the others.

“There’s nothing more to say,” he answered her frazzled thoughts. “Not right now. I’ll ask you again. Please, go inside.”

The pain he was trying so hard to hide tore at her soul. The pain she had caused. “Are you coming back?” she whispered.

He just looked at her for a moment, his expression unreadable. “I will have to. Eventually. If I don’t want to let you die.”

Shea swallowed hard. He was referring to her need of his blood. The first rays of the sun began to peek up over the horizon, still hidden behind the surrounding mountains. Her skin began to tingle and burn where it was exposed to the elements.

“Shea.” There was a warning in his tone, and a stubborn set to his jaw.

“Okay. I’m going.” Stepping to the side and out of his way, she paused to look over at him. She opened her mouth to say something, although she had no idea what it was.

But he didn’t give her the chance. As soon as she was out of the way, Jesse wrenched open the door of the SUV and got inside. He started the engine and put his hands on the steering wheel, staring straight ahead for a brief second before throwing the vehicle into reverse and backing out of the hidden spot.

Shea pulled the blanket up over her head, staying where she was until he was out of sight. Then she ran back inside just as the sun broke through the trees.

Cruthú greeted her from her perch, her beady, black eyes looking past her for Jesse. When he didn’t come, she flew over to where Shea had collapsed on the bed.

Shea sat staring straight ahead, numb from all that happened, until exhaustion overtook her and she curled up with the raven to sleep.