The Lost Mate

Lillian

The moment we got back to his rooms, Wulfric had me precede him inside with another mocking show of gentility. He didn’t say anything as he locked the door with a painful click behind us.

Because I never let myself be lulled by any of his more polite and gentler actions, I wasn’t surprised when he dropped the act without warning and roughly pulled my back against him. His fangs sank into the side of my neck with a sharp pain.

I fought back the nausea of the touch of someone who was not my mate like I always did. It had pissed him off when I had vomited the first time, and I’d received a slap and a comment that I smelled bad enough even before the puke. Since he couldn’t really see my face I didn’t waste energy schooling my features into bland acceptance for a moment, allowing my lips to turn down in disgust and letting hatred burn in my eyes.

He readjusted and bit me again since my first wounds were closing up. That didn’t surprise me, either, because even with my wolfsbane self-medication, I still healed faster than a human, and I could feel my body trying to repair the damage and replace the lost blood. In the beginning I would have preferred death to this, but now I only wanted to live to protect my little boy.

I could picture Jonas like he was in front of me, those cherubic cheeks, the bright intelligent eyes. Right now, he would be in his bed, watched over by possibly the only decent vampire in existence.

I’d observed the anguished expression Terry made when the most recent hostage child disappeared from her care. Her grief was the one thing that gave me comfort. Even if she couldn’t go against her master, I was sure she was against him in heart. She was almost as trapped as the rest of us. And Jonas was safe, at least right now, as long as nothing screwed that up.

Forcing my mind away from the vampire who was stealing my lifeblood, I wondered what Max was doing right now, remembering the shock on his handsome face when I had told him about Jonas. His light brown eyes had widened and his lips had opened involuntarily, as if there were words he couldn’t form that wanted to escape. It had been a marvel to see him so off-kilter, since he was usually so calm and blasé. I wondered what he would have looked like if circumstances had been different, if I had given him such news back in Glenhaven before everything had crumbled.

I’d been shocked when I had first realized I was pregnant while lying in that cell, waiting to be fed upon, a captive observer to suffering, but unlike Max, I’d had time to get used to the idea of having a child as my pregnancy had progressed.

Maybe neither of us should have been surprised. We’d had sex most days back before Glenhaven fell, but we’d been so careful during my heats that it hadn’t felt like a real possibility. Jonas’s existence would have been a surprise, but a good one, back in our pack. Instead, I had been terrified for the child I would bring into this hellhole. And I hadn’t been wrong.

Montgomery had been delighted when he had found out about my condition, since my new weakness was as good as gold to him. I was so much more productive doing manual labour during the day and hostessing at night than sitting around in a cage being unproductive.

Wulfric bit down again hard into a new spot, and unprepared, I failed to hold back my gasp of pain. His body moved with his quiet chuckle against my back as he readjusted his grip harder on my arms. I was starting to get a bit lightheaded and those vile hands helped keep me steady as he continued to drink my life from my veins.

My heart beat more quickly than it should as the volume of my blood decreased, but I was used to that. What felt even worse was the ache that I couldn’t ignore now that I had seen Max again. I almost missed when I thought I would never see him again, because it was new and raw and so much harder to take now.

When Wulfric pulled away from me, I nearly crumpled to the ground, and then I did when he released me. Unconcerned, he walked away, and I heard water running in the kitchen as he washed my ‘werewolf filth’ from his hands. He was so screwed up, and it was my misfortune that I’d been dragged into his sphere.

“Tend to yourself, pretty mutt. You’re useless dead.”

That was all the permission I needed. I forced myself to my feet, and I wobbled as dizziness threatened to ground me again. Staggering, I headed to the kitchen and grabbed the first edible things I saw in the fridge and moved them to the counter, leaning on it heavily. I was so tired this time, he’d taken a lot more blood than usual. My head cloudy, I ate and drank as quickly as I could to replenish what he’d stolen from me. I needed to survive for my baby.

And for my mate. I missed Max so much. The memories of him kept flooding my mind, both recent and old. It was tearing me up.

Once finished eating, I sank back down onto the floor, and I no longer fought the swirling darkness that saved me from reality.

—————

I woke up with a foot jabbing harshly into my rib. I groaned, and peered up at the sadistic vampire from the same spot on the kitchen floor where I had collapsed. “You should be recovered by now.”

“Somewhat, my lord,” I said. I still felt weak, but the spinning had disappeared. Surely he didn’t want more again tonight after he’d already half sucked me dry. Like he said himself, he couldn’t glean pleasure from tormenting me if I were dead.

“Eat some more,” he ordered. I pulled myself up, using the counter as support, and found a plate that had clearly been ordered from the kitchen. The superficial kindness of the gesture might have confused me at the beginning, but I saw through it for what it was now. It was either a game to try to let down my guard, or even more likely it was practical so I might restore my blood faster so he could feed again. There was no chance that it was out of concern for my wellbeing.

Keeping hold of the counter as I rounded it, I sat on the stool by the plate, and picked up the fork and methodically began bringing the meal to my mouth.

“It’s really a shame that you were born into such a repulsive species, pretty mutt.”

I’d heard his insults so often that they barely even registered anymore. I just nodded and kept eating.

“If I’d found you and you had been human, I would have made you my fledgling after drinking my fill rather than selling you.”

“You flatter me, my lord,” I lied, keeping my horror from my voice. As his fledgling, my life would be worse than Terry’s, without even the comfort of aging and dying as a final escape.

“Maybe I even would have tried, if only werewolves could be turned. I could have discovered if the purity of the vampire would have cleansed the mutt from you. But sadly, the filth is too strong for even the purity of my blood.”

I kept my mouth shut at the revolting idea. He was trying to get a reaction out of me, and I didn’t want to give it to him, my own quiet, harmless rebellion. I was thankful for whatever aspect of my wolf protected me from being turned into a disgusting leech with an eternity with him as my sire.

He moved closer to me. “If I could rid you of the stench,” he said, his voice low and musing as he ran a finger along my jaw. I froze and let him, forcing my mind away from the situation and towards my little guy. He was worth this torture. He was worth not shifting and biting the vampire’s finger off. No doubt his blood would taste as bad as he claimed mine did, but the satisfaction would make the taste of rot worth it.

My wolf was clearly stirring. I’d probably lost a lot of the wolfsbane along with my blood. That wasn’t great. There were still hours he could toy with me before dawn, and I couldn’t afford her heightened emotions influencing me. I only hoped my patience would hold out for the night. Tomorrow was a problem I could face later.