“I saw you at the portal. I see the way he looks at you.” Again he hooked his finger under her chin and forced her gaze to meet his. “More important, I see the way you look at him.”

She held in a groan. How many people knew about them? Everyone who’d gone to the vortex, obviously, but had anyone else in the clan noticed these “looks”? “He’s mating my sister.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

She huffed. “There’s no answer, because there’s no Hunter. You need blood, and I’m willing to give it to you. End of story.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What about what you need?”

The virginity problem. Right. She felt her face heat. “Let’s… just see how things go. And no more talk of Hunter.” She swept her hair away from her neck, and as if she’d flipped a switch, Baddon let out a low purr, his gaze zeroing in on her jugular.

“Hunter?” Baddon’s warm breath swept over her throat, sending shivers across her skin. “Fuck Hunter.”

No, she thought, as Baddon’s tattooed arms hauled her against him, that won’t be happening.

Hunter stalked down the halls, melting snow dripping off his bare skin as he walked. He wore only a deerskin loincloth, and even if the passages had been bustling with people, he wouldn’t have been given a second glance.

For two hundred years, he’d run off his anger, his anxiety… any emotion that got too intense to contain. Usually, he ran naked, so yeah, the loincloth wouldn’t draw attention at all. Clan members were all too familiar with his uncontrolled sprints through the forest.

The difference between all those other times and now was that before, a top-speed run until he was exhausted took the edge off whatever was bothering him. Tonight it was as if he hadn’t run at all. As if he hadn’t come across a group of vampire poachers and taken them apart.

What was truly coming apart was his life.

He was about to be mated to a female he hated. A high-ranking clan male had betrayed him. The forest was crawling with humans who wanted to slaughter or enslave vampires. He suspected that someone in the clan was a spy. And the female he wanted… he couldn’t have.

He let out a vicious snarl and stormed toward his chambers, hoping for Rasha’s sake that she wasn’t there. His footsteps echoed in the passage, which was empty of people but rife with the erotic tension of moon fever. His skin tightened, almost as if forming a shield against the maddening lust in the air.

He needed to feed, but Rasha had already been used. There were more females than males in the clan, so he could easily find a partner, but dammit, he didn’t want any female but Aylin.

With a curse, he slammed his fist into the wall and kept going. And going. Until he found himself heading in the direction of Aylin’s quarters. Heat flooded his veins, and his heart beat faster. He breathed deep, tracking Aylin like a wolf.

She was in her room.

Lifting his face, he inhaled again, seeking her scent as he got closer. He caught it, stronger now, a tangle of grass, sunshine, and dew that made his nostrils tingle and his body harden. Damn, but something about the way she smelled made him fantasize about taking her in a sunlit meadow, the sounds of a rushing river softening her passionate cries.

Twenty feet away, he forced himself to stop. More than anything in the world, he wanted to knock on her door. The driving desire to touch her, to kiss her, to feed from her, raced through him like burning gasoline.

Resist.

He inched forward.

Come on, ass**le, you’re stronger than this.

Another step. Her door was within reach.

You’re… stronger… than… this.

Sweat beaded on his brow, but he managed not to take another step. Or to grab the doorknob and rip it out of the door in his urgency to get to Aylin. He couldn’t make things worse for her.

Pivoting on his heel, he spun around. Deep inside, he swore his bear roared. And then it went dead silent as Baddon’s scent filled the air. And with it, the unmistakable aroma of arousal.

It was coming from Aylin’s room.

Instant, possessive rage overcame him.

He was going to break down the door if he had to. Rational thought fled, leaving behind only the primal desire to make the female his and destroy whatever – or whoever – stood in his way.

31

Baddon’s lean, muscular body pressed against Aylin’s, his tattooed hands brazenly stroking her h*ps as he kissed his way up her throat and jaw. He’d nicked her skin with his teeth instead of going for a full feed right away, and her pulse thudded painfully hard inside her veins as her own body reacted to his blatant seduction.

But even as her skin heated and her br**sts began to throb, her mind was looking for a way out. This was wrong. It was something she’d wanted for so long, and maybe if she hadn’t fallen for Hunter, she could go through with it. But now there was no way she could give herself to another male. Not while she was under the same roof as Hunter.

Bizarrely, this felt like cheating.

A hysterical laugh threatened to spill right into Baddon’s mouth. How could she cheat on a male who was going to be mating her sister? Who was probably, right now, in bed with her?

Aylin was a fool, but she couldn’t control how she felt. When one hand slid beneath her sweatshirt, she cried out in both pleasure and regret. “Baddon,” she breathed. “I —”

Suddenly, everything went cold and still, as if an arctic air mass had settled over them. Baddon’s head came up, and he barely had time to whisper a harsh “Fuck” before the door burst open with a crack of exploding wood.

He spun around, keeping his body between her and… Hunter?

Her heart screeched to a halt. Hunter’s massive shoulders spanned the width of the doorframe, his lips were peeled back to reveal sharp fangs the size of her pinkie, and his entire body threw off lethal menace as he zeroed in on Baddon.

His entire nearly na**d body. Spirits have mercy, the skimpy loincloth only made it worse. She knew what the deerskin flap concealed, and she wanted to rip it from his h*ps with her teeth.

Her fangs tingled in anticipation.

“Leave, warrior.” His gravelly voice was so deep and powerful that the vibrations got her heart going again… but in an unstable, terrified rhythm. “Now.”

Baddon took a single, heavy step toward Hunter. “She’s not yours.”

Oh, shit. This was not going to end well. On the best of days, a confrontation between two angry alpha-male vampires could end in disaster, but when moon fever set in and everyone was jacked up with the need to feed and mate, people could die.

“It’s okay,” she said quickly, but as if she hadn’t spoken, the two males snarled like beasts out of hell and met in the middle of the room, nose to nose, chest to chest.

Both were born vampires, but Hunter was taller and probably outweighed Baddon by twenty pounds. But she’d seen Baddon fight. He was fast, and he reportedly ran a motorcycle gang that was notorious for torturing and killing its rivals. He definitely fought dirty.

“Get. Out.” Hunter’s hands clenched into fists. “Last warning.”

Baddon’s answering growl spurred her into action. Desperate to prevent bloodshed, even as a small part of her reveled in the fact that two males were competing for her – well, for her blood, anyway – she laid her palm lightly on Baddon’s biceps. His leather jacket creaked as she squeezed to get his attention.

“I think it’s for the best if you go,” she said softly. “Please. Thank you for coming by.”

It was an eternity and a half before Baddon stepped back. He flung one last, defiant glare in Hunter’s direction and then turned to Aylin. “My door will always be open to you.” He stalked out of the room, slamming the destroyed door behind him.

Hunter rounded on her before the sound even faded in her ears. “Did you feed him? Have you fed any of my warriors tonight?”

Annoyed by his arrogance and intrusion into her private life – even if part of her secretly loved it – she folded her arms over her chest and glared. “You interrupted before that could happen.”

He raked her with his gaze. “Did you f**k any of them?”

Abrupt anger doused the warm fuzzies of being fought over. “That’s none of your business. And if I’d participated in an orgy with a dozen of your warriors, it would still be none of your business.”

His expression went flat. Cold. “You’re mine.”

“Yours?” She gaped at him in disbelief. He seriously thought he could just take what he wanted, when he wanted. As a clan chief, he was apparently no different from the rest. “Where’s Rasha?” she mocked. “You know, your mate. The twin who is yours.”

“She fed another tonight.”

Aylin sucked air. Even though Rasha and Hunter weren’t officially mated, Rasha had made a stupid choice. She wondered what male would have been dumb enough to risk Hunter’s wrath. She also wondered what had happened to that male. “Well,” she said, “I’ve always been second to her in everything. I will not be second to her in this.” She pointed to the door. Such as it was, anyway. “Now it’s time for you to leave. I won’t be a consolation prize.”

Maker help her, if she wasn’t so angry, she’d probably be happy to be a consolation prize for Hunter, and how sad was that? But dammit, all she wanted was to rid herself of her pesky virginity with someone she chose to be with. Someone she loved. She wanted those memories to hold on to when she was miserable in another clan chief’s cold bed.

“Consolation prize?” Hunter’s eyes shot wide. And then they narrowed to slits, and in the blink of one of those ebony eyes, he had her on the bed, his body covering hers and his mouth sealed against her lips. “You could never be a consolation prize.” His voice was fierce, the force of his conviction ringing through her. “I want you, Aylin Redmoon.”

Tears stung her eyes. She wanted him, too, but aside from Rasha being a fool of the highest order, nothing had changed. Her heart was all in, but her brain was screaming warnings.

Wedging her hands between them, she palmed his chest and shoved. “That’s the moon fever talking.”

He looked down at her, his eyes glowing, his jaw a hard, aggressive line. “It wasn’t the moon fever talking when we were at the vortex. It wasn’t the moon fever talking when we were in the cave and I made you come. And it sure as hell wasn’t the f**king moon fever chatting you up yesterday when I told you I wanted to strip you, lick you, and be the one who makes love to you for the first time.” His gaze fell to her throat, where the tiny nick Baddon had made was still bleeding, and he cursed. “I don’t know how things are going to play out, but I do know I’m not letting you go.” He dropped his head to her throat and dragged his tongue over the little cut. “I can taste him. I want him gone.” One hand dropped to her hip and hauled her hard against his erection as he sealed his mouth over the wound and then drove his fangs deep.

Her gasp of pain eased into a moan of pleasure. He drew deeply, the erotic sensation spreading through her body and all the way to her core. It was like at the vortex, when she’d felt a cl**ax building from out of nowhere. Rasha had always said that with the right male, moon feedings were sex without getting naked.

Yup.

Hunter undulated against her, rubbing his hard length against her sex. A shock of pure arousal streaked through her, and any doubts she’d had a moment ago were silenced. The future was something to worry about later. She needed to feed a male for health reasons, and she needed to lose her virginity to lose any appeal she held for Tseeveyo.

More important, she was dying for this experience. She had no doubt there would be real consequences, both for her heart and for Hunter, but right now, as his hand slipped beneath her shirt and caressed its way upward, she didn’t care.

Hunter had never been this turned on before. Oh, he’d shared a lot of wild nights with a lot of females, and truth be told, the two occasions he had been with Aylin at the vortex and the time in the cave had overshadowed all those other nights.

But this… this was going to blow everything apart.

Her silky blood cascaded down his throat, satisfying the biological demand for nourishment, and as the hunger waned, a deeper, darker craving bloomed. There was more of her to taste, and he wasn’t going to waste another second.

Disengaging his fangs, he sucked gently on the punctures he left behind. Aylin moaned in response and arched against him, twining her legs around his as her h*ps rocked upward. His c**k slipped out from the loose buckskin covering him, and the little vixen found it with her hand.

It was his turn to moan as her inexperienced fingers explored with light, tentative strokes. “Is that okay?” She sounded breathless and nervous, and so sweet he couldn’t resist smiling against the satin skin of her neck.

“More than.” He kissed his way down her throat, nipping at her collarbone and then soothing the bites with his tongue.

“Mmm… that feels good.”

“Baby, you ain’t felt nothin’ yet.” He pulled back just enough to strip off her sweatshirt, leaving her upper body gloriously bare. He loved that she didn’t wear a bra. And that she blushed as he admired her. He dipped his head to kiss both ni**les, letting his lips linger on the stiff tips.

Aylin made a sound of surprise and pleasure, both hands coming up to hold his head as he deepened his kiss to suckle one swollen peak. She liked this, and as he worked the fly of her jeans, she arched her back, seeking closer contact.

Chuckling softly, he opened his mouth wider and swirled his tongue in lazy circles. His body buzzed, high from her blood and her response. He didn’t see how he could possibly get any higher, but when he slipped his hand inside her jeans and found her soaked panties, he felt like he’d been plugged into an electrical outlet.