Page 35 of Blood Submission

Immediately, he was assaulted with various scents of human blood, all slightly different and yet very familiar to him. Before he could investigate further, he was met at the end of the foyer by Luukas and the other Hunters.

“Dante,” Luukas greeted him. “We were just wondering about you. What happened to yourhead?”

Dante rubbed the large scab on his forehead. He’d nearly forgotten about it. By the tenderness there, he could tell the wound wasn’t quite healed yet. “Nothing. I ran into thedoor.”

One side of Luukas’s mouth quirked up in amusement, but he didn’t comment further. “We’d like to introduce you to everyone properly.”

Dante gave him a nod. “I apologize for last night. I was…thirsty.”

“I assume you’ve taken care ofthat?”

“Yeah.”

Luukas nodded. “Good. Remember, the females that are here are very important to us, and if you think you can control yourself, I’ll introduce you and we’ll talk about everything that has happened in the short time you’ve been gone. If you can’t control yourself, you will need to find different accommodations immediately.”

Dante looked over the group of males. Four pairs of deadly serious eyes stared back at him. They weren’t fucking around. “Where isShea?”

“She’ll be along,” Christian said. “Told me she needed to do something real quick.”

Dante turned his attention to him. There was something different about the male. There was something different about all of them. “Dowhat?”

Christian shrugged. “I don’t know, man.”

“Are you ready?” Luukas asked.

Dante gave a nod. Although the humans smelled pretty damn good, enough to tickle his throat, he’d fed from Laney. He no longer had the crazy thirst from earlier.

The group of males turned as one and walked in front of him like a human shield. More than once, he was checked out over a muscular shoulder to make sure he was keeping it under control.

Dante cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“Keira, come here,” Luukas said. The wall of brawn split to reveal the dark-haired woman from before. The resemblance to his Laney was still there, but he could see quite a few differences now that he wasn’t blinded by blood lust. “This is Keira,” Luukas introduced her. “Keira is a Moss witch, as are the rest of the females here. A glitch in a curse that I will explain later.”

A Moss witch? No shit? “I apologize for trying to feed from you earlier,” Dante told her, dead serious. “I was very thirsty, and you smell very fuckinggood.”

Luukas bared his fangs at him with a hiss of warning. But she put her hand on his arm. “Calm down,” she told her mate. “He’s messing withyou.”

Dante gave a little tilt of his head. Yes andno.

The female, Keira, smiled at him. “It’s good to meet you, Dante. And no apology is necessary. You are what you are. Besides, what Luukas tends to forget is that I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself, especially against powerful vampires. And I can tell that you are very old, and very powerful.”

He gave her a small nod of acknowledgement. Inhaling a deep breath, he could scent Luukas’s blood in her, and her blood in him, now that he was feeling halfwaysane.

The others that were there came forward. He met Emma, Keira’s bright-haired sister and Nik’s mate, capable of immobilizing a vampire or other creatures where they stood, and the one that had kept him from attacking her sister the night before. Grace, Aiden’s mate, had healing powers that may come in handy. Last, he met Ryan, the seductive redheaded female that had finally tamed Christian. When he asked what her magic was, she just smiled. “Keeping everybody in the loop,” was her answer. Dante wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but he honestly didn’t reallycare.

“So, where is she?” Aiden asked once the females had gone up to Nik and Aiden’s, and the Hunters had gathered behind the glass walls of Luukas’s office and found chairs.

Dante cocked an eyebrow. “Who?”

“The female you’ve matedwith.”

Dante stared at the male like he’d lost his fucking mind. Which he was pretty sure had happened a long time ago. “Come again?”

“Come on, commander. Don’t be obtuse. We can all smell her, no matter how hard you just scrubbed yourself.”

Narrowing his eyes, Dante looked at each of them in turn. “What the fuck is he talking about?”

“Aiden.” Nik shook his head at his friend with a frown.

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