Chapter 152: Chapter Sixteen

Mason

I regretted the words as soon as they’d left my mouth. Hell, I’d even regretted them as I was saying them.

Still didn’t stop me from acting like an ass or stop everyone else from staring at me like I’d just grown an extra fang and tried to bite off Alex’s head.

“What?” I shrugged, trying to appear calm when there was a tumultuous storm of emotion raging inside, fighting for dominance, pulsing with every pump of Serenity’s blood. My mouth watered for her blood, for her taste. Could she tell? Could my family? Was it possible to see the need so etched within my soul that I was having a hard time concentrating?

I wanted to take her again and again.

My wolf wanted its mate.

Whatever vampire part of me just wanted blood.

And the other?

Well, that was the part I was afraid would awaken if I took more blood, if I actually had sex with Serenity — if the mating process was followed through to the end.

I’d already bitten her.

Twice.

If I was a vampire, we’d be well on our way to being mated; then again, she wasn’t human — ergo, she wouldn’t die without my blood.

And yet, I could see the thirst in her eyes when she’d suddenly glanced at my neck with such longing I wanted to fall to my knees and beg her to suck me dry.

“You—” Ethan jabbed a finger in my direction then frowned. “—not only let her feed off you, but… you fed…” He seemed to struggle with getting the word ~fed~ out. “…off her?”

~“Monster. Monster. Monster.”~ A voice inside me chanted.

It was wrong.

Something was wrong with me.

I gave a jerky nod.

“Was this before or after you guys did it in the produce aisle?” Alex asked in a bored tone.

I shot him a glare. “We didn’t do it next to the produce.”

“Oh, so the cereal then?” he asked.

“Alex!” Cassius’ booming voice shook the house; his eyes darted to me. “The only way for you to have any breath of vampire DNA in your body would be if it was mixed with an angel’s.”

I gulped.

And then my mind raged as dark laughter filled my head.

An angel.

A fallen.

“Gadreel,” a voice had whispered.

The room chilled as Stephanie entered. She looked between me and Cassius and then stopped.

Her chest heaved with exertion as Cassius started speaking in an angelic tongue my wolf didn’t—couldn’t—understand.

And then…

My mouth tried to move.

I restrained myself. Barely.

“Allow it,” Cassius said in a thick voice.

“No!” I roared.

Cassius gripped my throat. “You will never be free of this unless you face it.”

“And if I never face it?”

“Then it will destroy you from the inside out.” Cassius released me. “I never thought you were a coward.”

Red filled my line of vision as I lunged for him.

He swatted me out of the way as if I was a fly buzzing around his head. I went sailing into the stainless-steel fridge and slumped against the ground.

“Mate,” Cassius said in a voice that dared me to argue. “Am I your king, Mason?”

And there it was.

The room fell silent.

Shame washed over me.

Had it been so long ago? When I’d been revered as a king? As a leader over all the wolves? I’d led them through battles, through centuries of war, and there I was, on the kitchen floor, weak.

Defeated.

Starving.

Pathetic.

“Are you saying that someone mixed vampire blood with angel blood, and somehow got it into him?” Serenity asked in a small voice.

“It would appear so,” Cassius shook his head. “I would have to go back in order to see…”

“Field trip,” Alex rubbed his hands together.

Used to his antics, Cassius nodded and then held his hands out.

Serenity gaped at all of us.

I stood and pulled her to my side as Cassius pressed a hand to my head. The room stilled.

And we were falling.

My family.

Me.

Everyone in the room who had touched his wing.

When my eyes opened…

I wasn’t in the kitchen anymore.

I was in my old home.

The one I’d been sent from.

I was in my castle in Scotland.

It was covered in blood.