Mated by the Warrior Vampire
Book 3 of the Doms of Darkness series.
A submissive rose that’s mine to tame.
For hundreds of years, I was a mercenary, a warrior with no ties to the mortal world.
Until I met Rose.
A mind cursed by dark magic that can only be healed with pain and pleasure.
A firm hand is what she needs.
She will obey and beg for discipline.
Will I be able to tame her before it’s too late?
Excerpt
I woke up with a start, jolted awake by my own piercing scream. My body was drenched in a cold sweat, the chilly air sending shivers down my spine as I sat up.
The nightmare was so real. I could still see the fear in my mother’s face as the vampires burst into our house. Reaching up, I touched the side of my neck. The skin beneath my fingertips was smooth and unscarred, but the nightmare felt so real. The spot ached with the phantom bite of a vampire’s fangs.
Suddenly, the door burst open. A large lumberjack of a man rushed in.
I screamed again.
“Who are you?”
“Rose! It was just a dream. You’re awake now.” His voice boomed like thunder. He reached out as if he wanted to grab me, but stopped himself halfway. “It’s me, Dante. Do you remember me?” He fumbled along the walls and flipped on the lights. I squinted as the sudden brightness blinded me. Slowly, my vision cleared as my eyes adjusted.
Intense green eyes stared down at me as if he could see what I was thinking. Stubble peppered his chiseled cheeks, and his ebony hair fell in a cascade of unruly curls down to his shoulders. He wore an old pair of jeans, work boots, and a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his thick forearms.
“Dante?” His name sounded familiar. Deep down, I knew that I knew him, but I couldn’t remember who this strange man was to me. I shook my head as if I could clear the fog of confusion that settled over my brain.
“Your sister and I found you on the streets. We rescued you, and you came to live with us. Do you remember?”
Did that happen? I rubbed the cat talisman that hung from my neck. My sister, Amanda, and I had matching talismans that interlinked with each other in a circle. I remembered crouching with my sister in an alleyway as we linked our necklaces together. What happened after that was a blur.
As if comforting a scared animal, Dante crouched down next to my bed until I looked down at him.
“Shhh, it’s alright, little one. It was only a nightmare.” Dante picked up the pitcher on my nightstand and filled a glass with water for me. I accepted the glass silently. Tingles traveled down my arms to my chest when our fingers brushed.
I took a tiny sip and wetted my parched, cracked lips.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Dante asked in a low, calm voice.
“It’s always the same dream. I keep remembering when the vampires came for us. Mom and Dad…”
I shook my head. There was nothing that talking would solve. The past couldn’t be changed. Humans had lost in the battle against the vampires, and they now sold and traded the living like cattle. Even in my clouded mind, that fact was crystal clear.
I reached over to place my glass on the nightstand. An image of a vampire biting into my mother’s throat flashed in my mind. I jerked back in shock and my hand bumped into the glass, sending it flying to the floor. The glass shattered on impact, sprinkling a million shards of glass all over the room.
I threw back the covers and got down on the floor to clean up the mess.
“Rose, no!” Dante’s shouted in warning, but it was too late.
Splinters of glass embedded themselves in the soles of my bare feet. It took a moment before the pain registered in my mind. Dante swept me up in his arms and deposited me gently on my bed.
“Shit,” he swore under his breath. Dante rummaged in the dresser on the other side of the room and came back with a tweezer and a bandage roll.
“The glass–“
“Leave it,” Dante said gruffly. “Hold still.” His giant hand dwarfed my foot as he grabbed it and held it still. One by one, he plucked out the slivers of glass with the tweezers. I cried out as pain radiated from the wounds. Blood oozed out of the wounds, tickling my foot as it started dripping out.
Dante put down the tweezers and closed his eyes. He turned his head away from me and took in a deep breath as if fighting for control.
“Dante?” What was wrong with him?
“Give me a sec,” he growled out.
His shoulders heaved. He refused to turn around and look at me. I placed a hand on his back.
He let out a low rumble that burst out of his chest. Turning around, he pinned me to the bed with both hands on my shoulders. “What part of give me a sec do you not understand,” he rasped out around his fangs.
I screamed, over and over, trembling as I tried to scramble backward away from him. Dante swore and stormed out of the room.
I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to make sense of what was happening. Why was I here living with a vampire? Where was my sister?
As if she sensed me calling out for her, Amanda stormed into the room.
She rushed over and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I clung to her like I was drowning, and she was the only thing keeping me afloat. “Oh, Rosie.” She pulled back and examined the mess in the room. “You’re bleeding everywhere.” Amanda grabbed the roll of bandages that Dante dropped and began wrapping my feet.
My sister was glowing. That was the only way to describe her. Her chestnut hair was shiny and smooth, her cheeks flushed a creamy peach color. Even her eyes sparkled. I looked down and suddenly understood why. Her belly was swollen and large enough to hinder her movements as she bent over to bandage my wounds.
Amanda caught my eyes and followed the path of my gaze. She blew out a breath and chuckled. “Yep, that’s how I reacted when I first found out.”
“What are we doing here, Amanda? And why are you…” I gestured at her stomach.
Amanda gave me a strange look. “Do you remember what happened after I found you?”
I racked my brain, but failed to recall any memory of what happened. “I remember how happy I was to see you again. We hugged, and then–” I shook my head. “There’s nothing. I don’t remember a single thing.”
Amanda finished bandaging my wounds. “It’s okay. Don’t stress yourself out.” She clasped my hands in hers. “The witches you were living with, before I found you, they kidnapped us. The head witch, Althea, was going to sacrifice us to get to the vampires.”
“Are you sure?” I didn’t want to believe it. Althea was like a mother figure to me when I was hiding with the coven.
Amanda nodded. “She was going to kill us. She’s the one who placed the curse on you that trapped you in a coma. Lizzy was the one who figured out how to reverse the curse and free you.”
I bit my lip. From what I remembered of my life with the coven, Althea never threatened us and her sister, Lizzy, couldn’t cast a simple spell to make a pencil float. It made no sense, but I knew deep within my heart that Amanda was telling the truth. My sister would never lie to me.
“And how does all that tie in with your pregnancy?”
“The father of my baby, my mate, is a vampire. The master vampire, as a matter of fact. We’re living with the Diamantis clan in their headquarters in Los Angeles. They’re the ones who have been protecting us from the other vampires who have been kidnapping humans and selling them as slaves.”
My sister’s words only increased my confusion. How were we safe when we were living with a bunch of bloodsuckers? None of it made any sense, but I trusted my sister with my life.
“I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Amanda.”