Reclaiming Angelica

Chapter Seven

The silky glide of Raul’s penis leaving her inner depths woke Angelica out of her light doze, and she rolled to face him. Raul caught her close, nuzzling his face in her neck. “I love you, baby. You have no idea how much. Please don’t ever leave me again.”

“I won’t,” she promised, cupping the back of his head. “I only did it to get your attention. I was tired of the secrets between us.”

He lifted his head to look at her. “Why can’t I sense that you’re a vampire? Normally I can smell them.”

“My mother is human. The vampire gene is recessive in me. I’m a little faster than the average human, a little stronger, and occasionally need blood, but mostly I read as human.”

He mulled that over. “That explains it, I guess. How often is occasionally? I never noticed you feeding.”

“Once or twice a week. Less if I feed really well. Besides, you’re gone a lot. It was easy to hide. All I had to do was wait for you to leave,” she admitted.

He winced. Yes, he had spent a lot of time away from her in an attempt to hide what he was, and all along she’d known. What a waste. That brought up another issue. “If you knew all along I wasn’t human, why didn’t you tell me you weren’t either?”

“Why did you freak out so bad earlier?”

Raul instinctively tensed at the reminder of his earlier behavior. No more secrets, he reminded himself. “I was afraid if you knew what I was, you’d leave me, and I couldn’t risk losing you. You’re my mate. I love you too much. It would destroy me to lose you.” He thought of his father’s suicide.

Your uncle lost his mate, and he’s still here, his wolf reminded him.

The thought made him pause. While Uncle Joey definitely mourned the loss of his mate, he didn’t seem suicidal. Maybe the loss of a mate didn’t automatically mean the death of the survivor. It took balls to deal with that sort of pain and still keep going. He was beginning to understand why Uncle Max had called Poppa a coward. Poppa hadn’t gone after Momma and brought her home where she belonged, even though he had obviously known where she was. And he hadn’t loved his son enough to stick around.

Angelica tapped him lightly on the jaw to get his attention. “I love you. Knowing the truth wouldn’t have changed that.”

“Yes it would.” He told her about his parents and what happened to his family when he was a child. As he finished, Raul shook his head. “Humans fear us. You can’t love what you fear.”

“I’m not human,” Angelica reminded him.

He narrowed his eyes. “But I didn’t know that, did I?”

Angelica dropped her gaze to his chest. “I was afraid to tell you. Vampires and shifters don’t have the best relationship under normal circumstances. I couldn’t be sure how you’d react.”

He lifted her chin with his forefinger. “As long as you love me, I don’t give a damn about you being half vamp.”

“I’m glad.” She smiled, and her eyes glimmered with the sheen of unshed tears.

“So you’re coming back home where you belong?”

Angelica bit her lower lip as her gaze slid sideways. “I was kinda hoping you’d move in with me. The house is so much nicer and larger than this place.”

He quelled the urge to instantly reject the idea. Raul could tell the house meant a lot to her. “What about the guys? I can’t leave the pack.”

She drew circles around his nipple. “The house really isn’t that far from here.”

He grabbed her hand and held it still. Her touch was destroying his ability to concentrate. “It’s in the middle of a human subdivision. How long do you think it will take for someone to notice that we’re not exactly human?” A thought struck him. “You didn’t buy that house, did you?”

Angelica squirmed. “The price was too good to pass on.”

He felt a sinking in his stomach. “Damn.”

“I want kids someday, with you. There’s no room for babies here.” Her eyes pleaded with him to understand.

The idea of children with Angel was a kick in the chest. Raul had known she was his mate from the moment he met her, but hadn’t thought beyond claiming her and hiding what he was. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, kids would be nice.”

Kids with Angel would be fucking fantastic.

“So we can live in the house?” she asked hopefully.

Inwardly he frowned. It was his job to provide their home, not the other way around. A man took care of and provided for his mate and pups and saw to their safety. Raul thought quickly.

The properties on either side of the apartment complex were up for sale. These buildings were built during a time when building zones weren’t as stringent, and it wasn’t strange to see duplexes, quads, and apartment complexes in the same neighborhood as houses. The property on the left was a two-story duplex. The one on the right was a ramshackle house with a huge yard. If they also purchased the empty lot in the back of the house, they’d own the whole block, and the pack would be near for extra security.

“What about this? We buy the house and lot next door, tear it down, and build to suit on the land. We can stay in your house while it’s being built, then rent it out for extra income. The guys will be happy to each have their own place. Eventually, they’ll find mates and the pack will grow. I’ll speak to them about purchasing the rest of the properties on the block. We can fix them up and rent them out as well. This way we control who our neighbors are, and it gives us room to grow should there be a need.”

Angel drummed her fingers on his chest while she thought. Finally she sighed. “I really love that house, but I understand your need to be with your pack. You are alpha, after all. Can we afford it?”

Raul smiled. “Yes, the business is doing well. Between the two of us, we’ll have no problem financing a loan. Property values are real low here. Overall, I’d wager it will be cheaper for us to build than to buy the house you’re in now.”

Angel rose gracefully to her knees and straddled him. “Speaking of families, I need to introduce you to mine and soon. After that stunt at the club tonight, the word will be out about our relationship. My father won’t be pleased to see I’ve bound myself to a wolf, but once the deed is done, he’ll have no choice but to accept it. My mother will bring him around.”

He stroked his finger over the mating mark on Angel’s shoulder. “This says you’re mine, and there’s not a damn thing he, or anyone else, can do about it.”

Angel shrugged. “That’s a shifter mark. We vamps have our own mating process.”

Raul scowled, not liking the sound of that. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means in your world, this mark signifies me as belonging to you. In my world, I’m considered still available. Just as humans have their marriage ceremony to signify a mating, vamps have their process.”

He rose to his elbows. “You’re mine. Whatever we have to do that makes that apparent in both our worlds, we’ll do it. And speaking of marriage, we’re still getting married so find your engagement ring, wherever you stashed it, and put it back on,” he ordered.

She laughed. “The wolf’s out of his cage now, isn’t he?”

“Damn straight.”

Angel rocked her hips back and forth, her slick lips sliding up and down his shaft until it was a rigid pole between them. “Our mating process is rather simple. I think you’ll like it since it involves blood and sex.”

Raul smiled, already liking the sound of it. “Whatever you need to do to me, baby, I’m yours.”

“As I said, it involves sex.” She rose, angled his penis for penetration, then sank down, slowly engulfing the shaft.

“Yes, sex,” he hissed, loving the feel of her tight, slick cunt clenching around his aching arousal.

She rode him slow, eyes closed, back arched. He angled forward and sucked one pert nipple while pinching the other. Angel moaned.

Taking her moan as a sign of encouragement, he slid a hand between them and lightly rubbed circles around her clit, gradually drawing nearer to the bud until he stroked it directly.

Her breath caught. She began to pick up speed, rising and falling fluidly. He was her mechanical bull, and she rode him with exquisite grace. A flush rose from her chest to her face, a signal that she was getting close.

“Sit up so we’re chest to chest,” she instructed.

Hating to give up his prize, he licked her nipple one last time before complying.

“When I…come, I’m going…to bite…you. Don’t…come…until I do,” she gasped. “When I strike…lock your canines…into my shoulder…and drink. Don’t stop until I do,” she finished in a rush. “Oh God! So close.”

She rode him harder, faster. Raul grabbed her hips, pulling her down as he pumped up. He knew his woman and what it took to push her over. He used his knowledge ruthlessly. It didn’t take long for her pussy to clench tightly around his shaft even as she sank her fangs deep into his neck.

“Shit!” His wolf raced to the surface. Without a thought, Raul sank his canines into the mating mark he’d left, and drank. The orgasm that rocked through him tore the breath from his lungs and caused him to see stars. His muscles locked while his hips pumped furiously. He came so much his seed overflowed Angel’s vagina to soak his balls and inner thighs, and still he kept coming. Raul felt half-dead and completely drained by the time Angel lifted her head and ordered him to stop feeding.

She licked the blood lingering on his lips before thrusting her tongue in his mouth and tangling hers with his in a hungry kiss. When she trailed her mouth down his jaw to his neck, then nibbled on his ear, Raul caught her face in his hands. “I never thought I’d ever say this to a woman, but I need a moment, honey. You totally drained me.”

Angel laughed and hugged him tight. “It’s the blood loss. I took a lot. You’ll feel better in a moment.”

It was the year’s worth of cum he’d spurted into her, Raul thought ruefully.

She cupped his face and kissed him again. Amazingly, Raul felt his cock twitch. Dumb bastard didn’t have enough sense to stay down.

“You’re mine,” she said, grinning. Happiness caused her eyes to glow.

“Forever,” he agreed.

Raul had set out to reclaim his mate and instead found himself claimed. Funny how life worked.