“I will.”
“The consequences of breaking this will mean your death.” Her look was firm and unyielding.
“Do you understand the gravity of this?”
“Yes.”
Ellery clapped her hands with a brilliant smile on her face. “Very well.” She placed her hand on Chase’s head. “Chase, consort to Kellen and Hadley, you are protected under their status with the Pacific Northwest.” She stood from her chair in one fluid movement.
“Follow me.”
Before Chase even had a chance to stand, I leapt forward and hugged him. “I’m so happy. It’s like we got married.”
Chase returned the hug and stood with me attached to him. “Fucking weirdest ceremony I’ve ever been to.” He kept an arm around my waist as we followed Ellery out of the sitting room.
Just down the hall, Ellery stopped and opened a door. “I must leave you now and I say,” she glanced Chase up and down, “it is a shame I cannot stay to enjoy this, but I am expected elsewhere.”
“Thank you for meeting with us.” Kellen leaned in and gave Ellery a proper kiss across her cheek.
“Just don’t keep me long, Kellen,” she replied in haste with the snappy tone I knew was usually Ellery’s way. “You have duties to attend to.”
Kellen gave her a firm nod in acknowledgement of her order. “My duties will be done with Hadley by dawn. I will return to Slade the moment the sun goes down tomorrow night.”
Right then, a deep voice sounded through the air, “Mistress, we must be off.”
I glanced toward it to see Locke—a scruffy vampire turned in the fifteenth century that still held the Viking appeal. I’d met him the last time I was here and he was a kind and loyal vampire who made me feel welcome whenever I came by.
When he stopped in front of us, I said, “Nice to see you again, Locke.”
He bowed his head in a proper way. “Pleasure is all mine, Hadley.” He glanced to the Mistress.
“We need to leave at once.”
Ellery patted Locke’s cheek and gave him a genuine smile. “What would I do without you?”
He grinned at her and winked. “You’d be late.”
Ellery glanced back at me and the smile remained on her face. “Off you go then. You will not be disturbed here.” She took one final look at Chase, sighed a moment, then followed Locke down the hall.
Chase leaned into the room then immediately snapped back, his eyes wide as he looked at me.
“I’m taking it that bed isn’t for sleeping purposes?”
“No chum.” Kellen laughed, slapped him on the back then pushed him into the room.
“This is the honeymoon night.”
Chapter Nine
Hesitation raged through me seeing the confusion on Chase’s face. I had to dig down deep to find guts to tell him what was about to happen. “Part of the ceremony is a blood exchange.” I placed my hand on Chase’s forearm and it flexed beneath my fingers. “We need to take in your scent and you need to wear ours to affirm to other vampires that you have been claimed. It is a warning to them that you are our consort and you cannot be touched without serious consequences—like death consequences.
We normally exchange blood by…you know.”
Chase’s eyes grew wide, disbelief held strong in his eyes. “With him here too?” He gestured toward Kellen.
I smiled awkwardly and laughed just the same. “Ahh…” This was so normal to my kind. The more intense the sexual experience the better. Having multiple lovers was not abnormal, but mortals tended to shy away from this kind of interaction. Well…some did.
Chase was apparently one of them.
Kellen laughed, a deep gravelly challenge. “Afraid of a little competition, are you?”
Chase’s wide eyes lowered to slits and his brows came together in unhappiness. “I am afraid of nothing, but I don’t do the guy thing.”
“Nor do I,” Kellen snapped, then in a swift move he grabbed Chase’s wrist, bit down, sucked a moment then released it. He clamped down on his own wrist, took a swipe of blood on his finger and shoved it in Chase’s mouth.
Chase swatted at him but Kellen was too fast for him to actually hit. “What the f**k was that?”
he roared at Kellen and examined his bloody wrist.
Kellen grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “That was our blood exchange.”
I threw Kellen an annoyed glance. His way of doing things were just so harsh. “Was that really necessary?” At the same time, I was actually glad that part was over. I hadn’t any idea how to get Chase to exchange blood with Kellen, even the little drop that was needed to seal the bound. So his plan had worked even if it was a bit aggressive.
Kellen nodded, very unashamed. “I am relieving him of his worries, that’s all. Our part in this is over, now we can move past this and simply enjoy.” Then, in a second, he stripped himself of his clothes.
I gasped at the sight and heat pooled between my thighs. His body was something to marvel at and I couldn’t withhold my appreciation of it now. Hard lines met a thick physique of splendid man.
“Holy f**k.” Chase voice came out strangled.
His shock was more from how quickly Kellen undressed than seeing his na**d form in front of him, I didn’t doubt that. Chase had nothing to be jealous of. He was sexy in his own right and in the male department, he wasn’t lacking.
I forced my gaze away from marvelling at Kellen to look at Chase. “If you’re not comfortable with doing this, we can just exchange blood and leave it at that.”
I wouldn’t push him into this. It sounded like he would have a hard enough time just sharing me with Kellen in relationship form. I had anticipated his reaction to this, and now here, I simply had no idea how he was going to react.
Chase stood silent for a moment then said to me, “You have done this before?” He nodded again toward Kellen. “Been together…with others?”
Um…how to put this? Guess there’s no real easy way to say that you’ve been between a few bodies at the same time. “We like to share, Chase.”
He snorted loudly. “Apparently so.”
“I am growing impatient,” Kellen snapped.
I glanced at him. He wasn’t exaggerating. His hand was wrapped around his c*ck as the need had evidently consumed him. With long slow strokes, he readied himself.
Watching it made me just as impatient, but I wouldn’t rush Chase. If he didn’t want to do this, I wouldn’t force his hand. “We can just do the exchange like you and Kellen did, then if you want, we can leave.”
Chase glanced between Kellen and I then repeated the gesture a few times over. The silence grew heavy.
Suddenly, Kellen let out a deep rush of breath and lunged forward, making quick work of my clothes. Before I knew it, I was na**d.
Kellen ran his hand gingerly along my breast, my eyes closed and a sigh escaped my mouth at the feel of it. The lightness of his fingers across my taut nipple was enough to dampen my pu**y.
“Are you willing to deny that this woman needs pleasure?” Kellen asked Chase.
I opened my eyes to see that Chase was not dumbfounded anymore. His eyes had grown deeper, darker. The tension set in his jaw I’d seen so many times declared his arousal.
Kellen stepped in behind me, left my na**d body exposed for Chase to see. He swept my hair across my shoulder as he began to bask my neck in his glorious, open-mouthed kisses.
I couldn’t take my gaze off Chase. I thought this might annoy him to see another man touching me. Apparently, it had the opposite effect. As I began to shiver from Kellen’s touch, Chase began to tremble with the obvious need to consume my body.
Just as my need spiked with equal force, Kellen’s fangs grazed my neck and I couldn’t withhold the moan that came from my mouth.
“Ahh…this is what you want,” Kellen purred before he bit down.
My eyes shut on their own accord as Kellen had his taste. He wasn’t greedy, not yet anyway, he only sampled me. When he backed away, I felt denied.
Kellen stepped around me, trailed his fingers lightly along my shoulder and down my arm.
“Come here,” he said to Chase.
Nerves racked me. I knew what Kellen was about to do and I’d never gone there with Chase. Of course, I drank from him, but that was all he knew of vampires. I was excited, but worried about what his reaction would be. Would he be greedy like I wanted him to be or would he just take a lick to seal our bond? The anticipation was incapacitating.
Chase stared at my neck as the blood dripped from the wound. It only took him a minute before he took the final steps to close the distance between us. He grasped my face and twisted my head to the side. He gave me a grin that sank deep into my stomach and fuelled the heat raging through me, then laid his lips across the two puncture marks.
With two tough tugs, he swallowed the first taste of vampire blood. He groaned deeply as his body instantly tensed. I’d witnessed this before. The taste to a mortal was nothing they’d ever known.
As I understood, it was sweet and titillated their senses.