Each suckling tug, every erotic sweep of his tongue, confirmed what she had already known.

She was his.

If she hadn’t been before, the connection he had just activated between them ensured she always would be. He could never take another as his Breedmate so long as his bond to her was intact. For him, there would only be her.

The joy that understanding gave her was almost too much to bear. It filled her heart, even as it awakened something raw and primal inside her.

“You belong to me now, Ettore.” She tunneled her fingers through his hair, holding him to her throat as he drank. “Mine.”

He moaned, still rocking atop her, their bodies intimately joined. His strokes intensified along with the suction of his mouth against her vein. The combined sensations flooded her with desire, stoking her need all over again.

“So good,” he murmured, his deep voice as rough as gravel, his breath rushing hot against her throat. She felt his tongue sweep over the twin punctures, sealing them closed.

He lifted his head to watch her now. His eyes were glowing as bright as coals, gazing at her with such a ferocity of emotion it stole her breath. She had never seen his fangs look so sharp and unearthly. She licked her lips, hungry to feel them at her throat again.

Everywhere.

He was ferocious and otherworldly, the most magnificent man she’d ever seen.

His wicked mouth curved as he caressed the side of her face and the tender skin where his bite had been. “I can feel you inside me, Bella. I feel your blood in my own veins, in every cell of my body. And I feel your pleasure. I feel how badly you need me to make you come again.”

As if to punctuate, he thrust long and slow and deep, a rumble of satisfaction vibrating through him as she cried out in helpless ecstasy.

“My sweet Bella,” he said, lowering his head to kiss her forehead, her cheek, her parted lips as she sighed. “I wish you could feel how much I love you.”

“Show me,” she whispered, reaching up to trace her fingers along his rigid jaw, her gaze drifting to his fangs. “Let me taste you now, Ettore. Give me your bond.”

She didn’t have to ask him twice.

On a snarl, he brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit into it. Blood dripped onto her breasts, hot splashes of crimson that inflamed her dark thirst for him as he guided her mouth to his wounds.

She sealed her lips over the punctures. The first drop of blood on her tongue felt like a kiss of flame. She moaned, both in shock and in thirst.

She lapped at his skin, astonished at the intense rush of heat through her body as she drank from him. Ettore’s blood felt alive with a wildness and strength she could barely comprehend. As powerful as an electric charge, each sip blasted into her body, into her cells…into her soul.

There was no fear left in her. No doubt. Everything peeled away, leaving only their love. This connection that nothing, and no one, could sever.

And beneath the contentment she felt as she sipped from Ettore’s vein was a deeper blooming of desire.

It was the most erotic thing, to drink from him as he moved inside her, watching her with those eyes that burned everything away except the bond they now shared.

She didn’t think her body could withstand another hot race toward climax, but Ettore’s blood had unleashed something animal inside her. Something fierce and demanding. Something violently carnal.

“Ah, fuck, baby.” He groaned, the tendons in his neck straining as she suckled his wrist and writhed beneath him. “I know. I can’t be gentle now either.”

Pulling his wrist away from her, he quickly sealed the wounds then flipped her over onto her stomach. One strong arm slid beneath her, hoisting her backside up to meet him as he slammed home from behind her.

He took her swiftly, aggressively, giving no quarter until they both were fully spent and collapsed on the bed in a sated tangle of limbs.

She didn’t know how long they lay there, wrapped in each other’s arms, their bodies slick with sweat and blood and the musky scent of their lovemaking. Bella could have stayed there for hours. Days. Forever.

She groaned when he rolled away, bringing her with him.

In the adjacent bathroom, the water began to run in the tub at Ettore’s mental command.

Bella rose off the bed with him, smiling as he caught her in his embrace and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.

She drew back, searching the banked embers of his gaze. “That was…amazing.”

He inclined his head in solemn agreement. “Yes, it was. More than amazing.”

She traced one of the dermaglyph swirls on his chest. “So…where do we go from here?”

He grunted, a smile playing at the edges of his sensual mouth. “To the bathtub for starters. I’ve made a mess of you.”

“No, Ettore.” She slowly shook her head. “You’ve made me whole.”

His expression intensified, sparking a soberness that she could feel now, in his blood. In her own blood too, as it throbbed heavily in her breast and in the pulse points that all craved his bite.

“Ah, Bella. God, I love you,” he murmured. “But I don’t know where we go from here. Back to Rome to begin with. From there, we’ll have to figure it out. Right now, I only know that I need you with me.”

It was all the promise she needed. Him. With her. Together.

She could hardly believe this was her new reality.

Tipping her chin up, he kissed her with reverent care. Then startled her when he scooped her into his strong arms and carried her to the bathroom. He stepped into the tub with her, sinking down into the water with her straddled against him.

Bella sighed into the comfort of his arms and the softly lapping pool around them. “This is heaven,” she murmured, resting her head on the muscled pillow of his shoulder. “I’ve never been so happy. I never thought I would be.”

Ettore tenderly caressed her, his hands wet and warm and soothing as he bathed her. She started to drift, her mind relaxing as she watched the little ripples dance in the bath water.

The vision came on so suddenly, she flinched.

It formed beneath the clear surface—horrific, bloody, violent.

She saw a Breed male covered in mangled, melted skin. Dark soot and grime smeared all over his shoulders and burned head. He held a screaming human in his jaws. The man’s throat was torn open as the predator siphoned his blood in gulp after greedy gulp.

“Bella?” Ettore’s voice was flat with dread.