BEATRICE

A snort that sounded more like a haggard cough came from Riaghaire. A small part of Beatrice worried for his health, but he’d managed to survive this long; it was doubtful a snort was going to kill him.

At least, she hoped it wouldn’t.

“Do you still believe you will escape this place?”

Beatrice shrugged. “I’m stubborn enough to keep trying.”

“How very interesting…”

“You forgot the ‘for a human’ part,” she reminded him.

“Ah, my apologies. How very interesting, for a human.”

“Thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“How will you prevent your mate from sealing the bond?”

“Wait. Are you saying it’s not already set in stone?”

“Well…” he hedged, finger tapping his chin again. “The bond is complete when the pair mark one another. A bite, near the base of the neck.” As he spoke, Riaghaire motioned to where his neck and shoulder met.

“So… they’re vampires now?”

He started coughing again, as if to cover up a laugh. “Most definitely not. They are not, in any sense of the word, part vampire.”

“But… vampires exist, I take it?”

Those glittering eyes of his watched Beatrice as she tried to avoid looking directly at them. “Yes. Vampires exist.”

“Just checking,” she said, keeping her tone light. “So. A bite to the neck, huh?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “It leaves a unique mark behind — a branding — that tells the world they are mated.”

“Great. So it’s a possessive thing.”

“There is magic involved in it, though I know nothing more than that.”

“Does that make them wizards? Or witches?”

“Will you be comparing them to any being that comes to mind, if only to verify that they exist?”

“Only if it’s relevant to the topic. Otherwise I’d just be interrupting the flow of conversation.”

Riaghaire shook his head at this but Beatrice had a feeling he still found her amusing instead of annoying. “If you are marked, there is a chance the bond will begin to affect you. Whatever immunity you seem to possess will be no more.”

Every bone in her body wanted to contradict the man. She wanted to say there was no way in hell she’d allow some magical bond have a say in how she felt about anything; but, the truth of the matter was, she had no way of knowing if fighting it was even possible.

Having a crush on someone wasn’t anything magical but you still couldn’t just change how you felt about them at the drop of a hat.

“Well, since whatever magic the bond is suppose to have isn’t affecting me right now, I can just keep saying no, right? If they do anything without my consent, I am more than happy to make the rest of their life a living hell, in any and every way I can come up with.”

Riaghaire tilted his head to the left, then the right, a thoughtful look on his face. “I have never heard of a wolf having a human mate, though I am more the type to kill them than have a conversation. Unfortunately, I have only one last thing to tell you on this matter. One should always tread carefully where the Moon Goddess is concerned. They do not take kindly to those who deny Her gifts.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Not that it would help. Beatrice had never been one to treat lightly, even when her life depended on it. She spoke her mind regardless of the situation, and rubbed people the wrong way more often than not. Her tongue was sharp and she wasn’t the type to worry over whether or not she offended others.

“By the way; do you get anything out of the mate bond thing, other than it making you fall in love with someone?”

It was a minute before Riaghaire answered the question. “I believe… there is an exchange of… not power, but something else. It intertwines the two in such a way that, should one die, the other will suffer a large blow to their spirit, rendering them weaker than they were prior to the bond. Wolves rarely survive the loss of a mate, and those that do are a shell of their former selves.”

“Killing their mate weakens them,” she summarized with a slow nod. “And I’m human. Why the hell would anyone want a human as a mate? Anyone they piss off will just take it out on me and it’s not like I can take on a werewolf.”

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