Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 83401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
I ignored the looks we got as we made our way out of the airport.
“This is why I fooking hate leaving the Highlands,” Odhran growled in Gaelic.
He wasn’t much for speaking in English unless absolutely necessary. And he was a surly fucker on the best of days, but being surrounded by humans, especially when they pointed and whispered in our direction, the stench of their awe and fear scenting the air, made him even more pissed.
And I couldn't blame him. I was on my last leg of patience, and knowing my mate was out there but not having her at my side had this clawing beast inside me rising up violently.
The longer I was away from her, the more I wanted her, and I knew once I had my sweet little mate in my arms, there was nothing on this fucking planet that would take her from me.
“They’re harmless,” I muttered back in Gaelic.
“That's only because ye now have a mate, and a human one at that.”
I chuckled softly.
“Ye tolerate the humans more because of her.”
I ran a hand over the back of my neck, ashamed that for a very long time I’d thought humans so weak and below me that they were a waste of my time to even think about despite the fact we coexisted. I was bitter, that lonely darkness in me making it unbearable on any given day.
“Yes, a lot has changed.” I hated myself for many years.
Odhran grunted in acknowledgment but otherwise said nothing, thankfully dropping the subject. Everything had changed, my whole life spinning on its axis. My mate was human, delicate and fragile, and I’d always protect her.
I focused on the humans we walked by again, anything to keep my mind off my mate right now, because I was driving myself crazy with my need for her. My wolf was pacing back and forth in my body, his desire and fierceness to go to her strong despite the fact that I was in control right now.
“Momma, they’re like giants,” a little girl whispered as she tugged on her mother’s dress.
We were big males, our Lycan genetics making us tower over even some of the tallest human males. Our bodies were made up of corded muscles and intense strength. Humans didn’t know what to think of us, two males over six and a half feet in height and so much bigger than a human male. Their normal reaction tended to lean toward fear.
But some were really fucking brave as they stared with huge eyes at Odhran’s face, the scar that started at his hairline and curved down the side of his face hard to ignore if you were seeing him for the first time.
He was a trigger-happy bastard with an anger problem, and it had only gotten worse—a hell of a lot—decades ago when his mate was stolen right out from under him. The low growls from his inner animal were steadily coming from him.
“I kno’ how much ye want tae start finding yer mate,” Odhran said, and I didn’t bother looking at him, just kept making my way through the airport, the stench of human congestion causing this low-level hum of irritation to burn under my skin. “But I want tae remind ye we have tae pay respects tae Adryan, seeing as this is his territory.”
I grunted in acknowledgment. I knew we had to let the vampire leader know we were here, although I suspected he was already fully aware. The fucker had eyes everywhere, especially in his city. Any Otherworld creature stepped foot on his territory and the bastard knew right away.
“Adryan and his psychotic cousins are back from Scotland, so let’s get this done and over with.” I cracked my knuckles, rolled my head around on my neck, and felt tension start to move within me at the very prospect of having to speak with the vampire fucker face-to-face, let alone be in the same room with him. Although he was an ally to the Scottish Lycan clan, given that his sister, Luna, was married to Banner, the relationship between vampires and Lycans was still tremulous at best.
And it was all because Adryan was one sadistic motherfucker who played by his own rules and didn’t give a shit who he trampled over.
As an alpha, I respected him for that. But it was also because I was an alpha that any challenge had my canines lengthening and a growl rumbling up from my chest.
The fucker better not try to stop me from finding my mate, or I’d have no problem opening up a war for the first time in centuries between vampires and Lycans.
8
Cian
An hour and a half later, we were being led through a dark back hall of Sinner, Adryan’s newest nightclub in the city.
All around Odhran and I were members of the American Vampire Clan, mainly Adryan’s male soldiers, but there was an abundance of human women who loitered. It was clear by the healing bite marks on their necks and almost euphoric gazes as they stared at the male vampires that they were very willing blood donors to the leeches.