Page 41 of Claimed

He’s talking as though what he is saying makes sense and is very reasonable. I know I am not really being given a choice. I could refuse and resist, but then what would happen? What would a vampire with the ability to control my mind do to me if I tried to deny him his plan?

I decide not to test it, because so far he seems interested in looking after me and little else.

“What do you want from me?”

“I want your respect, and perhaps one day, your love. Not romantic love, you understand. I have a tenderness for my children. You have several siblings. You will meet them in due course. For the moment, simply make yourself comfortable and try and be obedient. It is easier for us all if I do not have to manage your mind constantly.”

“But I need to go home. I need to get back to the pack. Alexei will be worried about me. He will be trying to get me back.”

“Don’t worry. I have sent word to your Alexei. Now, my dear daughter, indulge me. Let me look after you.”

There is a madness in this creature. He does not care what I think or what I want. He has taken me for his own ends and he expects me to take the role he has assigned to me.

“What if I won’t?”

“I have many ways of controlling you,” he smiles, a hint of sadism entering his eyes and his smile. “I have been gentle, because I have no desire to damage you, but if you wish to make this difficult, and be treated like the beast you are, then…”

“I’m not a beast!” I don’t know how I manage to be offended. Perhaps he’s relaxed his mind control. Maybe he is allowing me to have my own thoughts for his own amusement.

The way his upper lip curls when I say those words makes me think that might be true.

“Of course you are. A female shifter is both beauty and the beast. She wears the skin of a pretty lady, but underneath pure brutality courses in her veins. You bristle with potential for violence, Anya. It has been bred into you.”

My mother always made it clear that our animal side was for protection. That’s the only time I ever saw her take her wolf form. She could have been a monster if she wanted to, but she always chose being civilized.

Dom sees the worst in me. The smallest in me. The most base and basic in me.

CHAPTER 11

Alexei

I am running through the streets of Rostayvik, moonlight in my eyes and pure fury in my heart. The scent of vampire draws me through the cold blue streets, cast in cobalt by my animal vision. The vampire scent is red to my gaze; I see it stretching out ahead of me, smoky wisps leading me to my prey.

I had been warned that this day would come. I wish I had listened more closely, heeded the warnings, understood that once an alpha has a mate, he becomes a target.

We are at war.

The pack is on the hunt, day and night.

I intend to kill vampires until I find my mate.

The trail thickens ahead, swirling around a door. They had to pause there in order to enter, and in doing so they left what amounts to a big red smeared dot in the world.

I stop in the midst of their trail, and I leave my animal form. I came prepared, strapped with a very particular weapon. I catch it in my hand as it falls from where it was strapped around my neck. It is a gun, of sorts, a modified harpoon-style weapon complete with an ash stake.

The door is not locked. Vampires don’t worry about anybody getting into their homes. They are not used to being hunted… yet.

I stride into the vampire den. Even to my human form, the place stinks of them. I am naked, which functions as an effective distraction as I step into the lounge and find a vampire sitting in an armchair. It stands up as I enter, a motion that happens so quickly it would terrify any normal mortal.

It hasn’t noticed my weapon. It is too busy looking at my naked form. Vampires of all genders are lustful creatures. They cannot help themselves. Human flesh in all its forms is attractive to these things. So it stares at me as if I am a lamb delivering itself for the slaughter.

“Well, hello. Look at you,” the vampire purrs. “A naked David walking right into my lair. My dear, you are carved like Michelangelo…”

“Do you know where Anya is?”

I ask the question, because it has been impressed on me that if I do not ask, I am risking losing potential intel on the location of my mate. The truth is I am leaving the interrogations to my pack mates. They are more measured than I am. I loathe these creatures so deeply that I am unable to be in their presence without wanting to kill them.

“Anya?”

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