Chapter 65 65
Aidan
She touched the collar on my chest, and I felt my fangs slide forward.
It was the first time this had ever happened while I was wearing the collar. It was supposed to control and suppress all of this—so what the hell was happening? I couldn’t stop it. My body was responding on its own.
This wasn’t good—Ezequiel and more wolves were nearby. My head would roll, and so would my father’s. I wasn’t the only one in danger.
I tried to focus, to force the fangs back, but my body reacted to the thirst, to my hunger. This was the first time I’d ever felt this kind of consuming need.
My breathing turned erratic, too fast. Ezequiel was here, and the other wolves too. The fight outside echoed through the cave entrance; he was close, guarding it somehow.
“He’s here,” Lois whispered against my ear.
I stopped breathing altogether to keep from inhaling her blood. A moment ago, I had been fine with it, but now I wasn’t. Outside, there was wolves’ blood too. The fight was brutal—but the only scent that called to me was hers.
That overwhelming scent sliding into my pores, pushing my real nature out, the damn collar unable to keep it contained.
“What did the collar tell you?” I asked, maybe desperate for answers because I saw no reason for my body to react like this. “When it spoke to you, what did it say?”
I breathed again, and it was worse—her scent flooded me all at once. I had to get out of here. I had to run from her, from that smell. Staying inside the cave wasn’t helping. Lois wasn’t helping.
“Drink!” Lois shouted, grabbing my hand. “That’s what the collar told me. That’s what it keeps saying.” Her fingers pressed against the collar. “Drink from me, Aidan. Drink.”
Maybe—maybe—it was a solution. Maybe I had to drink from Lois. It was true that I was thirsty, and that I wasn’t getting out of this unless I drank.
The wolves outside knew a vampire had been in the area, but they didn’t know it was me—unless they saw these fangs.
If I drank from her, if I fed, maybe I’d calm down, maybe the thirst would fade.
But it was Lois.
It was Lois. A moment ago she’d been whimpering in pain, her wounds still open, then after drinking my blood she healed too fast, instantly. And now she was acting strange.
What if I became strange too?
The internal struggle was tearing me apart. My vampire instinct begged for her, demanded her, but the rational part of me knew I had to resist. Yet Lois kept insisting—her voice, her touch, like a lure pulling me in.
“You need it. I’m offering it. I’m not afraid. I’m not scared of you drinking from me, Aidan.”
“Lois, I can’t…” I said, my voice shaking from the effort of holding back—and because outside was her mate, who would kill me the moment he sensed anything happening to her.
“Yes, you can,” she whispered, bringing her neck closer to my lips. “I trust you.”
She trusts me? What the hell does that mean? We’re talking about drinking her blood. Taking it straight from her.
“I’ve never done it. I don’t want to.”
“There are wolves out there who sensed a vampire just minutes ago. Your fangs—” her fingers brushed my lips, making my mouth tremble. I felt her fingertip move along my fangs when my lips parted, “—they’ll see them. We don’t want that, Aidan.”
The pressure became unbearable. My fangs pushed down even more, and finally—I gave in.
As if I’d had any other choice.
It was either this or expose everything, destroy what my father had fought for, put his life and mine at risk.
I had to do it if it was the only way out.
I was terrified of drinking from Lois.
Exactly because she was Lois.
My small, growing obsession.
“Don’t panic, don’t feel afraid, don’t project anything to Ezequiel, and don’t feel threatened.”
“I’m very relaxed,” she said with a crooked smile.
That wasn’t good.
“No… no, it’s better if I leave. I just have to slip out before Ezequiel comes in. He won’t see me. I’ll go.”