“Say I buy that.” He started to move in my direction, but stopped when I countered his action with a hasty step back. “Why in the hell would a demon send you to me? Why here? Why now?”
“Zagan didn’t send me to you, you arrogant prick. As for the here and now, it sent me one hundred and one years into the future to deliver a message to Disco. You just happened to cross my path shortly after my arrival.”
Our gazes clashed, and we stared at each other, neither willing to back down. After a moment, he raked his fingers through his hair and seemed unsettled. “Since we’re being honest, it’s only fair I offer up some information of my own.” His eyes found mine before quickly darting away. “You’re mine, Rhiannon.”
Faulting my ears and hoping like hell I’d misinterpreted him, I blurted, “What did you say?”
“You’re mine.” He met my gaze when he clarified, “As right of my position, I get to choose my intended—my mate. As you know, there aren’t many women to pair with. I chose you the night I saw you. I knew you’d be strong enough to lead my people.”
Oh god. Not now!
I hated what-the-fuckery.
I groaned and resisted the temptation to walk to the wall and bang my head repeatedly against the surface. His mate? What in holy hell did that mean?
He was an animal. A big, hairy, razor-toothed thing that went bump in the night. I’d seen him change with my own eyes. Maybe his declaration had something to do with that? Or perhaps he was part caveman? Too damned bad he wasn’t the idiotic GEICO variety.
I quickly decided against the caveman theory.
Carter could shift his form into some scary-ass version of Beauty and the Beast, but he’d maintained control of himself. He never would have been able to change back to hold me after I tumbled down the stairs otherwise. He was animalistic—that much was clear—but how far did his feral tendencies go?
“I’m sorry to break it to you like this, but that’s not going to happen. You’ll have to find another breeder. I belong to someone else.” Quickly, I added some clarity of my own, “I love someone else.”
He wasn’t as graceful as Disco in his speed, but he was equally powerful.
Animalistic? Check.
He jumped over the mattress and stopped in front of me before I had the opportunity to run. I pressed my back into the wall with nowhere to go. Large, tanned hands landed on either side of my head, and I had to stifle an instinctive jerk. Carter moved closer, and I noted the shifting of his irises, the steely gray becoming vibrant silver. His voice was garbled and no longer wholly human.
“That may be true, but your lover is dead. You said so yourself.”
“I was with him just the other day,” I whispered hoarsely, and my eyes started to grow hot with tears I refused to shed. I collected myself enough to bite out, “I’m not lying. This isn’t my reality. All of this has taken place in a matter of hours for me.”
His face gentled at that, but he didn’t move away.
He pressed closer to my naked legs and scantily clad body. His body temperature was several degrees warmer than mine. He was in full alpha mode. Debating the specifics would get me nowhere. Carter wasn’t willing to bend or to break. I had to work this out carefully—with manners and tact—which meant I was fucked six ways from Sunday.
Those were traits I wasn’t genetically manufactured with.
“I have to find someone,” I said. “He’ll know what to do about the demon.”
Carter’s nose blurred as his face crowded mine. “And this someone would be another vampire, I take it?”
I would have pressed my head into the plaster to get away from him if I could have. As it was, his breath brushed against my mouth in a heated caress. He wasn’t joking about this you’re mine thing.