Chapter 4
1281 Words
Drake POV
Now I will go and do it.
Standing up to anyone in the royal family was a death wish, but what other option did I have?
I could not let my mate die at the hands of a temperamental vampire.
Nicole had been shocked when I slammed into her, knocking her down to the ground.
She got up with fury in her eyes, but she waved them off when others came to rescue.
“You have some sort of claim on this girl?”
I swallowed. Not really, but I would eventually. Or I planned to. “She’s my mate.”
Nicole glanced down at her rolling and groaning on the ground.
“She does not know?”
“I just found her”, I said. “I’m…working on it.”
She tilted her head to the side and grinned like some sort of demon conjured from hell.
“Well, consider this her one and only warning. If she crosses me again, it’ll be the last thing she does. I won’t forget this, or you. You know who my father is?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“Good” she said, turning on her heel as she disappeared around the corner of the building. Her posse luckily went with her.
Bending down, I hauled Alice into my arms and lugged her toward my truck.
I had warned her, but she seemed to be a person that needed to learn things on her own, and not be told what to do.
Ultimately I admired that, but not in a situation like this that could have been avoided.
Lowering her to my backseat, I raced around toward the driver’s seat and pulled out onto the road.
Alice moaned occasionally in the back seat, moving around and twitching, but never fully waking.
I was not sure if I should take her to the hospital for a possible concussion, or nurse her back to health myself.
The idea of nursing her back health sounded good to me. Having her in my apartment, in my room, in my bed, would make me feel better that she was safe.
Pulling into the parking lot, I parked and got her out of the back. Her body was limp in my arms.
I tried not to envision what she looked like under that uniform.
I love the idea of how curvy she was, and how she would feel in my palms. It was not the time, so I pushed the ungodly thought out of my brain and brought her into my apartment.
The room was cold, considering my lack of needing warmth, so I took her to my bed and placed her down.
She groaned, and turned onto her side, her body becoming still.
I went into the kitchen, grabbed a vacuum-sealed piece of meat and took it back to her. Placing it on the back of her head, I noticed the blood for the first time.
I had been so worried about her that I did not notice.
Now, I noticed.
My body tensed at the smell of it. It was hearty, and it called to me.
Being mated to a human had its complications. The desire to drain them would be strong, but I would never let that happen.
I would never hurt my mate that way.
Curling my fingers into the sheets of my bed, I pressed the meat to the back of her head and tried to hold my nose.
I needed to feed soon. The pack of blood in the kitchen was calling my name.
The real food I ate was to fit in. I did not need it to survive, I needed the blood.
After several minutes, I dropped the meat and walked toward the kitchen.
I grabbed the bag of blood, ripped open the plastic, and guzzled it. It was nice and cold sliding down my throat. Nothing satisfied my desire more than human blood from the source, but this was enough for me to survive.
Some human and vampire couples were close enough that the human let them feed, but I couldn't sense if Alice would be one of those or not.
Time would tell.
Wiping the remains off my bottom lip, I walked over to toss the empty blood bag and walked back into my room.
Alice wasn't on the bed. I stopped in the doorway, hearing her breathing behind the door, and I slowly began to shut it.
Alice yelped, and swung something at my head, missing by a few inches. "Damn!" I shouted. "Kill me, why don't you?"
She held a baseball bat that I had perched behind the door, eyeing me through heavy eyes. "Why am I here? What happened? Why is my head bleeding? What did you do to me?"
I grabbed the bat swiftly and tossed it onto the bed behind me. "Calm down, Alice. Listen. To. Me. You know the group you pissed off at work. They attacked you-"
"Good try!" she said, putting up her fists as if she wanted to fight me. "Likely story. And you just so happened to show up and save me?"
I put my palms up. "I followed you because I know the redhead. She's mean, and I figured she would corner you. You had better be glad I did. She knocked you into the dumpster, and you hit your head. That's why you are bleeding."
She tilted her head and gave me a onceover. "I don't know if I believe you."
"What other option do you have?"
She dropped her arms and looked around.
"My head hurts. I need to get home."
She took a step but stumbled forward. Reaching out, I caught her in my arms and brought her to my chest. I watched as she tried to gather herself, "You need to come sit down -, "
"I want to go home," she mumbled, grabbing her head.
I took her toward the bathroom and sat her on the counter.
Alice’s hazel gaze snapped to mine.
"This isn't home."
It would be, one day, maybe.
"I think you need to stay here tonight."
Alice tossed her head back in laughter but grabbed her head and groaned.
"Ouch. I'm not staying with you."
"I'm afraid she followed us home. I'll sleep on the couch. Just tonight. Then tomorrow morning you can go back to watching the guy down the hallway, and tossing me sideways looks."
She rested her head against the mirror and groaned. "Make my headache go away and I'll stay the night."
"Come here," I said, grabbing a washcloth and wiping the blood from her neck. "You'll need a shower in the morning, but it doesn't look like you need stitches or staples. Let me get something to wrap it up. Do you want to change clothes?"
Alice bit her bottom lip. "Can you run next door and get a t-shirt from my middle drawer?"
I didn't trust her not to run. "You can wear one of mine."
She waited patiently while I cleaned her off, and brought back a t-shirt. I slipped out of the room and took a deep breath. That was going to take some time to get used to.
Several seconds later, Alice walked out with a blush on her face. My gaze lowered to her bare legs in my t-shirt, and how she filled it out.
This was definitely going to take time to get used to.
What would I do to rip it off her?
She placed her fists on her hips. "Do you need something? A camera to take a picture."
I smiled. "Don't worry. I have a photographic memory. No camera needed."
- Writer
