Compelled (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 5)

Our kissing picked up the pace, and I briefly forgot my plan. But then he said against my lips, in a voice filled with sex and pain, “Feed.”

That was the opening I needed, and as I started to kiss along his jaw, I took my time to taste his skin, which held the faint scents of cherry, sweat, and spice. Lucien tasted like life, and considering I’d always thought of vampires as the “undead,” it was quite ironic.

As I kissed down his neck, fine stubble made texture under my lips and tongue. He continued to hold onto my hips like they were his anchor to the world, and I’d never felt so wanted. So safe. So at home in my existence.

As terribly weak as it sounded, part of me would be lost forever if Lucien walked away.

Still, he’d called me his mate, and that had to mean something. Even if his vampire was in charge, Lucien was too old and strong to say what he didn’t mean.

My wolf rose as I kissed and tasted my way along his body, my jaw shifting to incorporate my new fangs and canine setup.

Lucien’s chest rumbled. “Feed, Bee. I can feel your hunger, and I need it sated. Right. Now.”

I chuckled. “Patience, Crimson.”

He growled again, and now he sounded like a shifter. Maybe my blood was affecting him, just as his affected me. I doubted vampires had fed off shifters before; we weren’t big on sharing our blood with creatures of darkness. This was the unknown for both of us, but so far, I couldn’t complain.

When I continued along the lines of his abs and down to the sexiest fucking V in the world, Lucien’s muscles tensed under my touch. My fangs grazed him, small trickles of blood filling my mouth, and my mind went a little cloudy at this point.

Part of me wanted to frenzy feed like Lucien had done, but I’d had an aim with this path down his body, so I forced myself to focus. His cock was hard, the tip shiny as precum beaded the slit, and it drew me closer as I wondered how it would taste and how much I could take.

I’d never done this before, my movements pure instinct at this point.

Darting my tongue out, I swiped it across the head, enjoying the low groan from the vampire above. His hands moved to my hair, sliding into the long lengths, and as he tightened his hold, parts of my body tightened with it.

The urge to touch myself while pleasuring him grew.

Opening my mouth wider, I swirled my tongue across the silky steel before I swallowed as much of his cock as I could. I had to be careful not to cut him with my sharper teeth, which meant I could only take about one tenth of his actual length. It didn’t appear to matter to Lucien, who groaned, his hold so firm I wondered if he planned on keeping me here forever.

Fine by me.

My hand working his shaft, I sucked and licked across the head of his cock, tasting a spicy cherry, very much like his blood. Unable to help myself, my fang pierced the side of the slit on his knob.

“Fuck,” Lucien rumbled. “Whatever you’re doing, don’t fucking stop, Bee.”

At this point, I drank his blood and worked his cock with one hand, while my other hand was on my pussy, stroking the wetness pooling there. This was literally too much stimulation for me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain this pace for long. I needed to climb my vampire and screw him until we were both breathless.

Or dead.

Whatever.

I’d take death at this point just to keep feeling all of this.

When I’d had enough blood, I allowed my fangs and canines to recede to really give this dick sucking a thorough attempt. Lost in the moment, I almost bit a chunk from him when Lucien’s hands shot under my arms and lifted me. It was so fast that he popped from my mouth with a loud sound.

He was inside me in the next second, and to no one’s surprise, I came almost instantly.

The orgasm was fast and intense, but I rode it straight into another one. Lucien came with me, groaning my name as he thrust a few more times, both of us breathing heavy enough to wake the damn dead.

“Fuck,” he repeated and didn’t say another word.

No other words were really needed.

When we managed to catch our breath, he strode toward the shower with me in his arms, cock buried and pulsing inside me. In the stall, he finally released me as our bodies separated, and I wasn’t okay with that, to be honest.

We didn’t linger under the water, since Shadow and Mera were somewhere in the house, probably laughing at how damn loudly we’d been fucking. Also, I was ready for this selection to be done, which meant getting back to the chambers and ending it.

Lucien took a moment to wash me gently; he never used a cloth, preferring his hands on my skin. “Why didn’t you answer Mera’s question about claiming me truly as a mate?”

The question slipped out before I could stop it. We weren’t even really together, and I was already acting like a damn clingy girlfriend, but…

You know what, fuck that noise.

There was nothing clingy or wrong about asking for clarification from the dude you were sleeping with. If he had my body and my blood, then I deserved to know where this was going. From this day forward, I would be stronger than I ever had before.

I was done being the poor, unlovable shifter.

The damage from my parents might be real, but it didn’t have to last forever. I had the choice now to try and grow past it, and I was determined that eventually I would.

“My vampire was in charge, and we could think of nothing except claiming you,” Lucien said. “The library is not your damn home,” Lucien repeated his words from before, “because your home is here. With me.”

Butterflies took flight in my stomach, but I needed more clarification. “With you. As in forever? As in, you want me as a mate? You said you would never take a true mate, so…?”

Lucien stepped into me, backing me against the wall, his big body completely covering mine as his cock slid against my pussy. He was hard again, and I needed to feel all of him, but not until he answered.

“I know what I said,” he murmured, low voice sending tingles across my skin, his lips pressing to my throat. “I’ve been fighting against the pull between us for too long, but since we started feeding… I haven’t needed blood.”

Despite his lips on my throat and dick between my legs, I managed a coherent sentence. “You’ve drunk my blood.”

Lucien’s laugh was low and husky. “Exactly. I’ve been filled with energy from your blood alone. Which shouldn’t be possible except with a—”

“Blood call bond,” I whispered, finally understanding what he’d been trying to tell me.

His fangs scraped against my skin. “Your blood tastes like life,” he murmured. “It tastes like energy. I can’t let you go now, Bee. If you don’t feel the same, then you’re going to have a fucking vampire following you everywhere to ensure your safety while he tries to convince you to take a chance on love. You’re part of me now.” He leaned back far enough to clamp a hand over his chest. “You’re in here. In my blood and energy. In my cells. There’d be no point to life without you. So, yes, I am claiming you as a real mate.”

Holy shit. We were doing this. We were really fucking doing this, and I was so overwhelmed that my fuzzy head felt like it was about to float away.

Get it together, Simone.

This was an important conversation, and I needed all of my brain cells.

“Your blood tastes like life to me too,” I told him, my voice wavering. At the truth of this, tears slipped down my cheeks to mingle with the shower water. “Not just life, but home. I’ve never had that before. My parents’ house was not a home. The closest I ever had to feeling like I was part of a family or a pack was with Mera. And I still feel that, but she has her own little pack now, which has left me on the outside.”

“Not with me,” Lucien said fiercely, his hands cupping my cheeks. He then leaned in and kissed me softly, his tongue tracing against mine and then across my cheeks to catch my tears. “You’re never on the outside. You’re everything.”

“You chose me,” I choked out. “Even when you didn’t have to.” Blood-call bonds might be fated, but Lucien had never been the type to follow a path unless he wanted to.

He nodded, those brilliant green eyes boring into me with not a sliver of darkness. “Long before I knew the taste of your blood, you consumed my mind and thoughts. My vampire had already claimed you; the rest of my stubborn ass just had to catch up.”

My throat closed over, and I was crying so hard that my chest shook. I didn’t try and stop it this time, allowing the cleansing nature of tears to wash through me and wash away past pains and hurts.

Lucien didn’t say anything, he just held me.

When I pulled away, it was to find peace on his beautiful, perfect face, and I couldn’t believe I got to look at him for the rest of my life.

We just had to end this selection first.