“Aylin,” he breathed. “I need to taste you.”

His desire burned out of control as he leaped up, and in one quick move, he yanked her pants down to her ankles. The damned things caught on her feet, but she kicked them off, apparently as impatient as he was. Her damp panties, plain white cotton, were nearly see-through, revealing two plump hills and a deep, shadowed valley he couldn’t wait to part with his tongue.

Mouth watering, he climbed onto the mattress and kneeled between her legs. Aylin watched him, wide-eyed, her lips glistening from his kiss as he smoothed his hands up her calves. The fragrance of her arousal filled the room, and he purred with approval.

He feathered light strokes over the skin of her thigh and followed with nibbles and licks that lingered the higher he went. She squirmed on the mattress, panting, making her impatience clear.

“If anything I do makes you uncomfortable,” he said softly, “I’ll stop.”

“If you stop, I’ll kill you.”

“Noted.” He should have known she’d leap into this fearlessly. This was the female who had volunteered to travel to a dangerous demon realm and fight to the death. Sex certainly wasn’t going to scare her.

More eager than ever, he spread her thighs wider and opened his mouth over her center. She inhaled raggedly as he licked at her through the fabric of her panties, tracing the contours of her sex with the tip of his tongue. When he probed her cleft, she dug her heels into the mattress and pushed against him, seeking more.

More? No problem. He was a gentleman that way.

With a throaty purr, he tore her panties away with his fangs. She was open to him now, her center pink and swollen, and wet with arousal. Greedily, he slid his arms under her h*ps to hold her while he kissed her deeply. Her plump lips parted for the sweep of his tongue from her core to her clit. She let out a soft mewl as he rubbed one fang back and forth over the sensitive nub.

She tasted like rainwater and apples, like sugar and sin, and he knew he’d never get enough. Replacing his fang with his finger, he plunged his tongue inside her, loving how she arched up and called his name.

“That’s it,” he murmured against her succulent, tender flesh. “Take what you want.” He tongued her again, deeper this time, and was rewarded with another cry of pleasure.

Using the pad of his thumb, he circled her cl*t as he made love to her with his mouth, alternately licking and sucking until she was panting uncontrollably. He could feel her on the verge, and his body responded, tightening and aching with the need to get inside her and take them both over the edge.

But he would have to wait. He wanted her to come, to be completely open to him when he broke her barrier.

“Hunter,” she rasped. “I’m… I… oh, yes.”

She bucked and twisted, her beautiful face contorted in sweet agony as her cl**ax took her. His c**k felt like it would break as he reared up and poised himself at her entrance. He hesitated only a moment, and then he rocked his h*ps and sank to the hilt inside her.

She cried out in surprise, but a heartbeat later, she moaned as the brief moment of pain gave way to pleasure.

Gritting his teeth, he held himself in check as she pulsed around him, her inner walls spasming and squeezing as her orgasm rode her. As she started to come down, he began to move, slowly at first, but he was too worked up, his body too ready for this, and he doubted he lasted thirty seconds before he was pumping his h*ps wildly. He drove into her, reading her breaths and sounds as she began to climb again.

“Aylin,” he groaned. “You feel… so… fucking… good.”

He dropped his face to her throat and bit down, not enough to puncture her skin but enough to hold her for his frenzied thrusts. Every part of his body was inflamed with passion for this female, so much so that he couldn’t think beyond how she made him feel and how badly he wanted to feel this way every day.

The sexy sounds she uttered as she rocked her pelvis to meet his plunging h*ps added to the building heat, until he couldn’t take it anymore. The rush of ecstasy crashed over him as he emptied himself into her. Her tight sheath contracted with her second cl**ax, milking every last drop he had to give.

When it was over, he collapsed on top of her, shifting slightly to the side to avoid crushing her. The room, its air thick with the earthy scents of their lovemaking, filled with the sound of their labored breaths.

Nothing could be more perfect.

“You’re in my bloodstream, Aylin. Literally.” He brushed his lips over hers, then lingered there for a moment, showing her with a kiss just how serious he was. “I’m not letting you go. We’ll find a way.” If he had to give up everything, including his clan, he would.

That was when he felt it. The localized burn all males both desired and dreaded.

He lifted his arm, and there on the back of his hand was an inch-long red mark, and as he watched, it began to take the shape of a feather. His heart pounded, and his pulse raced, and holy shit, he’d imprinted.

So much made sense now: his intense physical attraction to Aylin, his possessiveness, his jealousy. Samnult had said the whole thing was genetic, so it made sense that he’d have an extreme reaction to a genetically compatible female.

Abruptly, he broke out in a cold sweat. He’d had an extreme reaction to Rasha, too. Granted, he’d had the opposite reaction from the one he had to Aylin, but with them being twins, he was pretty sure that Rasha was genetically compatible, too.

Which meant that if he’d slept with her, he might have imprinted on her.

He’d dodged a bullet. A big one. A fifty-millimeter. With a hollow point.

“Hunter?” Aylin’s voice was groggy and husky, a welcome interruption. “What now?”

What now, indeed. He stroked her hair, his gaze focusing on the feather on the back of his hand. “Now we face the music.”

She squirmed away from him and propped herself up on one elbow. “Face the music?”

“We tell Rasha. And then we tell your father.”

The color drained from her face. “We can’t. You need to mate with her, and —”

He quieted her with a finger on her lips. “I told you that you’re mine. I meant it. I don’t care if we have to run away together and live in the middle of nowhere. I’m not giving you up.”

“The middle of nowhere? Such as?”

He shrugged. “Dunno. Canada?”

Her blond eyebrows rose. “Isn’t that where Baddon is from?”

“That’s why it’s so funny.”

She laughed, the tips of her fangs glistening, her clear-water eyes sparkling.

He liked that. He wanted to see her this happy every day. She’d known too few joyful days in her life, and he wanted to make sure every single one from now on made up for her shitty past.

“Promise me you won’t do anything… mean to him.”

He had to hold back the jealous growl condensing in his chest. Had he not arrived when he did… There went the growl. “I won’t do anything mean.”

She gave a doubtful snort. “Why don’t I believe you?” She poked him in the sternum. “Promise me. He really was a gentleman. You know, as much as he could be with the moon fever riding him. And he was here to help me.”

It was Hunter’s turn to snort. “My ass. It wasn’t a sacrifice for him.” At her stern expression, he sighed. “Fine. On my honor as a clan chief and pureblood vampire, I won’t cause him any trouble.”

“Thank you.”

“But if he so much as looks at you wrong, I’ll lay him out.” He gave her his best innocent look. “What? He’d expect as much from an imprinted male. I can’t disappoint my people.”

“I guess. But —” She sucked in a harsh breath. “What did you just say?”

He feigned ignorance. “I said I can’t disappoint my people.”

“About the imprint.” She sat upright, her entire body trembling, and he couldn’t tease her anymore.

Taking her hand in his, he kissed her fingers, allowing her a primo view of the back of his hand and the feather that marked it. “See,” he said softly. “You’re mine. On some level, I think I knew from the moment I met you.”

“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered brokenly. “Are you okay?”

He laughed. “Am I okay? You make it sound like I broke a bone or took a bullet.” He swept her into his arms and held her tight. Her hair smelled like apples, but the rest of her smelled like him. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m honored to bear this mark.”

“You’re sure?”

He arched against her, pressing his c**k into her belly. “I’m sure.” Sliding his hand over the plump globe of her ass, he let his fingers dip between her legs. “And now I’m going to show you just how sure I am.”

32

“Hunter?”

“Hmm?” He kissed Aylin’s forehead as she lay tucked against him with her head on his shoulder, her palm resting on his sweat-dampened chest.

“Have we made a huge mistake?”

He shifted so she was lying on the pillow and he was propped on one elbow, looking directly into her gorgeous eyes. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but this isn’t one of them.”

“But this is going to have huge repercussions.”

Yeah, it was. “I don’t want you to worry about it. I always manage.”

She gave a skeptical sigh. “This is huge. Tseeveyo… my father… my sister.” Closing her eyes, she groaned.

“Hey.” He palmed her soft cheek until she opened her eyes again. “We’ll work through it. Everything happens for a reason.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “And what is the reason for what we just did?”

Hunter blew out a long breath. “Remember when I told you that I had to make a decision to refuse my cousins entry into MoonBound?” When she nodded, he continued. “In a way, that decision is why all of this happened.”

She blinked. “You’ve lost me.”

Smiling, he brushed her hair back from her brow. “A couple of decades after they left, I took a female into the forest to hunt. And… you know.”

She rolled her eyes. “I get the picture. Too clearly, really.”

“Well, my cousins had apparently decided it was time to make me pay for refusing them entry into the clan. My mother had been communicating with them all along, and they all figured now was the time to take the clan from me. They ambushed me while I was hunting and beat the ever-living f**k out of me. If they hadn’t been interrupted by a MoonBound patrol, they would have killed me. As it was, they took the female. We searched behind every damned tree and under every rock for the bastards, but we never found them. I still don’t know where they went or what they did for a full century, but I do know that after the humans learned about us and began to enslave us, they were captured.”

“Killed?”

“Worse.”

Aylin cursed softly. “The female, too?”

“She was turned into a pleasure slave and shipped overseas.”

The sheets rustled as she shifted to face him more fully. “Wait… how do you know all of this?”

“Because one of my cousins escaped. Riker found him and brought him back here.”

“And you allowed that? After what he did to your female?”

“Trust me, there’s no love lost between us.”

“He’s still here?”

“Yup. But we no longer call him by either his given name or his chosen name. We call him by his slave name.”

“Which is?”

He paused, feeling the weight of a lot of bad blood between them. “Myne,” he said finally. “The warrior who fed from your sister tonight.”

33

Myne? Was Rasha insane? As Aylin climbed out of bed, she had to wonder. She’d known for years that Rasha secretly met a MoonBound warrior on the nights of the full moon, but she’d assumed Rasha would be smart enough to let that relationship go when she was promised to Hunter.

When would Rasha learn that every action had a consequence?

“I’m going to tell Rasha about us,” Hunter said. “I want you to stay here.”

“Not a chance.” She headed for the shower. “I need to be the one to tell her.”

“I don’t trust her,” Hunter called out.

He said something else, but Aylin turned on the water, drowning him out. This wasn’t something she was going to back down on. Rasha was Aylin’s sister, and she deserved to hear what had happened from Aylin’s own mouth.

Aylin washed, letting the cool water soothe her heated skin. Hunter hadn’t been rough with her, but she wasn’t used to intimate activity. Not that she was complaining. She’d be happy to feel that special ache every day.

After her shower, she found Hunter in jeans and a maroon T-shirt, his gaze glued to the TV. “Rike brought me clothes,” he said. “And a heads-up that we made the news. Nicole’s video leaks are all over the screen.”

Ugly scenes from some kind of sprawling, prison-like facility flashed on the screen. Her gut churned as horrific images of dead and dying vampires in cells and on autopsy tables scrolled to the commentary of a beautiful dark-haired news anchor.

“I can’t watch this,” Aylin said. “I’m going to go talk to Rasha.”

Hunter turned to her. “I still don’t like it.”

“I’ve survived more than a hundred years with her,” she reminded him. “I can handle this. I have to.”