The Vampire King’s Captive

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“It was good to have you here.” Corey forced a smile but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “This house is definitely going to feel it now that you’re leaving.”

Bran, too, forced himself to smile when it was the last thing he felt like doing. His head was too occupied with the woman standing a few feet away from them, and also, he was worried about his friend.

Corey had shut down completely after finding out that his ‘mate’ was not actually his mate after all, which answered a lot of questions that people-including Bran-had been asking.

Actually, he was quite relieved.

He didn’t want to speak bad about a dead woman but he’d never really liked Ruth to begin with. She’d been a bit stiff, always complaining about something and she’d also never been interested in the things Corey liked.

But since he’d believed that she was his mate and that fate could not pair one with someone that didn’t suit them, he’d decided to let it go.

Well, what he said about fate was definitely not true. Take his situation for instance. He was mated to a woman he’d initially planned to kill. A woman that had killed his parents and captured his sister.

A woman that he’d tortured.

Fate had done Bran dirty, and a huge part of him believed that it was punishment.

For what? He didn’t know.

“I’ll visit as soon as I can,” Bran told him then paused. “Or you could come when all this is over.”

By ‘all this’, he meant the killing and capturing of demons. On top of dealing with Ruth’s betrayal, Corey had his hands full with the case as he was trying to come up with the best way of keeping the humans out permanently and freeing the captured demons.

It had turned into a war of some sorts and a lot of immortals from other factions of the lore were also trying to get their people back. If they could all put heads together and fight the humans, they would be able to conquer them no matter how powerful the humans’ weapons were.

Corey nodded and his eyes drifted over Bran’s shoulder. “What are you going to do about her?”

Bran knew who his friend was talking about. Of course he did. What other ‘her’ would Corey be talking about other than Maria?

But Bran still turned anyway, anything to steal glances at his mate. She had a small smile on her face as she talked to her maid and he noticed that they were holding hands as they spoke.

In all Bran’s life he’d never met someone so close to their maid as Maria was. She treated the maid like she was a real person with feelings and not just someone that saw to her needs.

An odd feeling of tenderness took root in Bran’s chest as he watched them. He knew that she wasn’t pretending to care about the maid because there were people watching. He’d spied them several times and all those times, the look on Maria’s face had been genuine.

“You might not know what to do about her, but I know you definitely want to keep her.”

Those words pulled Bran out of his thoughts and he turned to his friend, blinking to clear his head.

There was no point denying it, was there?

“Honestly, I still don’t know what I’m going to do.” Bran admitted, a truckload of tension leaving his shoulders because he was finally talking to someone. “I need her but I can’t have her. Not only would that mean betraying my family, I’d also be betraying my kingdom. There’s no picking her over my kingdom.” Bran shook his head. “If it comes to that, I’m going to have to let her go even though she’s my mate.”

“It’s still so impossible to believe that she’s your mate,” Corey grunted. “A more unlikely pairing has never been made.”

Bran sighed. “Tell me about it.”

He barely held himself back from bringing up Corey’s mate and how something like that had never happened in history before, but he knew that it was too soon to joke over it. The wounds were still fresh in Corey’s mind and the slightest mention of it might hurt him.

Bran didn’t want to turn a perfectly beautiful day sour.

“I believe it’s all going to play out eventually. Fate doesn’t do anything without thought and the fact that she’s your mate is definitely not a coincidence. If you’re meant to keep her, you’ll find a way. But if you’re not, then you’re not.”

The words were simple enough. But the situation? Not so much.

A honk announced the arrival of the SUV that was going to take Bran and Maria back to the palace and at the sight of it, Bran pulled his friend into a hug and clapped him on the back twice.

“I still think you should merge forces with the other factions of the lore who are being affected too,” Bran told Corey before he pulled away. “Think about it.”

Since they’d come to the demon realm with nothing, they were returning back with nothing and that was why they didn’t have bags to keep in the booth.

He saw Maria hug the maid before turning and entering the car.

It was going to be a long ride. A painful one too-if Maria’s short gown was anything to go by. It wasn’t really short in the ideal sense-t was knee-length. But when she sat, it hiked up to her mid-thighs, revealing the golden, supple flesh that Bran fought the urge to mark with his teeth.

He squeezed his eyes shut and tipped his head back on the headrest, pretending that he was taking deep breaths when in truth, he was inhaling her irresistible scent.

She smelt like all the beautiful things of life and looked the epitome of it. She smelt like a place where Bran would want to be, a place where he would like to let go of all his problems and rest, like a place where he would like to go back to at the end of the day, like…

Like home.

Maria smelt like home.

His home.

When his eyes popped open, he saw that she was staring at him with those mesmerizing greys. Her lips were compressed in a small frown and her hands dug into the leather seat on either sides of her, her left hand only a few inches from his thigh. The awareness of her had his legs bunching with tension, his body springing to attention as he hardened in his pants.

His eyes dropped to the juncture where her shoulder met her neck, bared by her gown and he swiped his tongue along his lower lip as he imagined his fangs digging into that flesh, puncturing her skin and marking her as his.

The need to do it was so strong, so overpowering, he actually leaned a few inches forward.

The vampire craved it’s mate. Craved to ruin her perfect skin, to taste her blood, to make her carry his mark.

Her blood would fill his mouth, blessing his taste buds and he would groan from the rich taste, while she would feel intense pleasure from his bite-he’d been told as much-and she would orgasm faster than she ever had, her body going wanton with the sensation.

He went hard as stone in his jeans and he grunted with inconvenience. With the way he was sitting, his hard cock dug into his zipper and pain lanced through him.

Gritting his teeth, he shifted on the seat as best as he could to relive his torment-which wasn’t much because she still had her eyes on him and he didn’t want to let her know that she’d won.

A vein almost popped out of his head when her eyes flashed silver with lust, her lips parting.

Fuck, she wanted him too.

She suddenly wanted him after a week of pushing him away?

Now, Bran might think with his lower head sometimes but in certain situations, his pride won over.

And this right here was one of those situations.

He hardened his gaze and looked away, staring out the monochrome windows. He wasn’t really looking at anything, he just needed to take his mind away from the situation.

When he finally managed to get himself under control, he spoke, eyes still trained on the window. “When we get back to the castle, you’ll not be returning to the cells.” He started. “You’ll keep staying in the room you used before we left and a maid will be assigned to you. If you want to have short walks around the castle, you’re free to, but you will never step foot outside the gates and your assigned maid-along with a few guards-must be with you at all times. You also must not stay out longer than an hour a day. Am I clear?”

When there was no response, he turned and saw her staring through the opposite window, her posture calm for someone who was being lectured.