The notion of being bitten or sharing blood did not appeal to him. The werewolf did enough of that for his taste.

So she had become the animal he already was, and he was having trouble dealing with it?

Lifting his head, he sniffed the air through the open patio door in their bedroom. The snow cleaned the fall rot from his senses and his focus immediately found her. She was behind him, sweet with lemon shampoo and minty toothpaste.

Yet he wasn't confident he truly wanted to be here.

Yes, he was.

Probably.

"h.e.l.l, pull it together, man," he muttered.

She smelled like the Bella he remembered. But there was something else. Some undertone he didn't want to translate into thought.

Yet his mind processed the scent and reacted to it before he could argue. His body stiffened, his fingers arching into claws. A defensive tickle ran up his neck.

Vampire.

"Severo?"

Shaking out his hands at his thighs, he cursed his instincts and put on a smile as he turned to her.

The white silk robe clung to her nipples. Like a bride marching down the aisle for her groom, Bella stepped up to him. Winter's blossom-with a taint of blood.

He hated that he could not make this perfect for her. For himself.

You can. Just put off all doubt. See her for the woman you first fell in love with. Remember you savored her fear?

He could scent that same fear now. And he hated himself for making her feel that way.

"You look great, sweet. Two days away and I'd almost forgotten how bright your eyes were. Come here."

Yes, he could do this. He wanted to do this. He needed to make the effort of stepping into the usual, with the hope that it would erase his rising doubts for the future.

Her body fit against his. The scent of lemon in her hair and the silk threads briefly overwhelmed her clean smell. And yet she was no longer clean or human.

Her chest melded with his. He buried his nose in the crown of her hair. She might be tainted, but she was his mate."I missed you," she said. "I didn't know if you'd welcome me into your arms. I know this is hard for you."

"Nonsense," he murmured and stroked her hair down her back.

The feel of her made his body react as it always did. He hardened and the l.u.s.t surfaced. Good, then. He hadn't lost the desire.

The quick interlude out in the alley had simply been a reaction to something so intense. This was different. They were alone now.

No secrets. No lies.

"You're mine, Bella. My mate. Forever. Did you learn what you needed from Ivan?"

"He was a perfect gentleman and showed me the ropes. I've blooded my fangs, as Ivan called it." She smirked. "I like that.

Sounds so decadent."

She was different. Not so uptight, easier with him. Accepting of what, he imagined, was an incredible change in her life.

A stroke of her finger along his beard, accompanied by sad eyes, made him look aside. "It made me feel good that you took me in the alleyway, after watching," she said.

"I needed you. It was an instinctual thing."

"It felt great. Like it always feels when I'm with you. You controlled me. I belong to you."

"As I am yours."

"Will you kiss me now?"

A kiss?

Why the h.e.l.l had this been done to him and Bella? They had been so perfect. His future had been designed with her at his side.

Even the werewolf loved her.

All that had changed now. The werewolf would never accept a vampire. Never.

"I won't bite," she whispered, a touch of hope lifting her voice.

A nudge of her nose along his jaw sweetened the l.u.s.t, which predominated over the all the emotions he'd rather not deal with right now. Maybe she had the right idea.

Just let go. Concentrate on the now.

Severo kissed the corner of her mouth. She tasted like Bella. Soft, salty, clean.

Things would be fine. This kiss bonded two souls. It drew the two together, wanting and needing and giving.

They hit the bed stripped of their clothes. Bella couldn't have dreamed of a better welcome home than this. He had accepted her.

The werewolf had welcomed a vampire into his home.

He'd once said to her that she would always have his heart. And she did still.

Severo's hand glided up her back as he pulled her on top of him. She bent to lick his nipple, a small, hard jewel. His satisfied groan heartened her. A familiar tune, yet one she could listen to over and over.

His fingers ma.s.saged her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her loins tingled, aching for his entrance. He flipped her on the bed so she lay on her stomach. He trailed kisses down her spine as he slipped a finger inside her.

"So ready," he growled. "So hot. I've missed this, Bella."

"Quickly, please," she cried.

Gripping the pillow, she spread her knees as he lifted her under her hips and brought the backs of her thighs against his. His favorite position.

He pushed inside her and she gasped as his length filled her. Fast and frenzied, he worked them both up to a spectacular climax.

Bella gasped and reached for the headboard. He drew her up against his chest. She wanted to wrap her arms around him. This position gave her an incredible o.r.g.a.s.m, but it always left her aching for face-to-face contact.

It was the wolf in him that liked to take her this way, and she loved it for that reason. When his body relaxed, he dropped onto the sheets by her side.

Bella kissed him along his torso, licking the sweaty moisture and reaching to grip his semihard shaft. A lick to his bicep, and she trailed her tongue upward and kissed his neck. Opening her mouth wide, she leaned in- "b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!" Severo shoved her off him and scrambled away. The palm of his hand, held before him to keep her back, hurt worse than a slap. "No fangs, Bella."

"What?" She ran her tongue along her teeth and a sharp canine p.r.i.c.ked it. "Oh h.e.l.l, I didn't realize. I would have never-"

He stood. The back of him, naked and muscled, flexed as he gripped his fists.

"I wasn't thinking," Bella offered. "I didn't feel them come down. I don't know why-"

"Because your kind have s.e.x and they want to take blood. And vice versa." He spun on her. "Didn't Drake teach you that?"

"Well, yes, but like I said, he was a gentleman. We didn't do anything...s.e.xual."

Though the swoon had been s.e.xual. She couldn't deny that. Ivan had explained about the blood and s.e.x desires being intertwined, though at the time, she'd thought it incredible. Every time she had s.e.x, she'd want blood?

That wouldn't be good for this relations.h.i.+p.

"I must need more time to get a handle on things. I'm so sorry, Severo. I didn't mean to freak you out."

"Well, you did." A heavy sigh lifted his chest. "I don't want your bite."

His confession hurt. Deeply. He was denying her. Denying her very nature.

He approached the bed to sit at the edge. "I mean, I love you, Bella. And I know you can bite me, and nothing untoward will come of it, save an increase in blood craving, but...there is a stigma attached to wearing a vampire's bite."

"You were never bitten, and if you were now, it would mean you'd succ.u.mbed to the captivity once again."

He winced.

"I won't do that to you, lover. I don't need to bite you. I think. I may need to give Ivan a call." She rubbed a palm down her leg and s.h.i.+vered. s.e.x was over. But was the relations.h.i.+p? "Can we make this work?"

The ferocity of his gaze chilled her. Once she had admired that look, so intense and ever focused only on her. Now it made her scared for what he might never share with her. He put up a good front, but the truth was Severo might never be able to accept her.

"It's not what you think," he said carefully, so gentle. "Bella, I can accept you as you are now. And those fangs, which fit so prettily over your bottom lip? They're kind of s.e.xy."

He reached to touch her mouth, and only then did Bella realize her fangs were still down. She willed them back up.

"Mine are bigger," he said with a smirk.

"What about the werewolf?"

"The werewolf." He pulled her so she sat with her back against his chest. The touch of his hair on her shoulder tickled her. "That is what is keeping me from surrendering to you, sweet. I know the werewolf, and it doesn't like vampires."

"It loves me."

"Bella, the werewolf takes off vampire heads for entertainment. Why do you think it would be any different with you?"

"Because it does love me. Aren't you willing to find out? If the werewolf could accept me, could you?"

"Of course I would, but I'm not willing to set you out as bait for a vampire-hating beast. I won't do that. I can't."

"The full moon is in two weeks. You can't stop me from trying to seek out the werewolf. No matter how far away you go."

He hugged her tightly. Bella wanted him to break her, to fit her into his soul and keep her there forever.

"Don't ask me to sacrifice you," he whispered. "Please, sweet. Just accept what we have now."

Accept him as a lover, but never as a soul mate?

"It's my sacrifice, as well. Don't you think I make a sacrifice when I'm out in the yard with the werewolf? A facsimile of you takes me quickly, and to fill a need, and then later, when you are a man, you have no recall!"

"It hurts to hear you say that. I never asked you to make such a sacrifice."

"You wanted the werewolf to accept me so I could be your mate. Well, I'm asking a sacrifice of you now. Let the werewolf come to me. Give it the opportunity to decide if I truly am the mate it desires. I know it will harm me only if you allow it to."

"Bella, you know I have little control over it."

"But you can influence it."

"Yes, in small ways. But what if something goes wrong? What if..."

"It tears me apart? That's a chance I'm willing to take."

Severo stood abruptly. "Vampirism has made you bold, Bella. Perhaps stupidly so."

"It's freed me, lover. It's made me not care about the past. Not care what others think. Give me this one small gift, please?"

He grimaced but nodded. "I'll think about it."

It was all he could offer, and Bella accepted that. But she fully intended to go out wandering when the moon was round and high in the sky.

Two weeks later, when the moon was full, Severo did what he had to do.

He'd hated to do it. To lure her into the a.r.s.enal on the pretense that he wanted to lock away the weapons he used against vampires-as a sign of acceptance. But while Bella had collected the wooden bullets he'd purposely dropped on the floor, Severo had locked her inside.

She'd pounded on the steel door, pleading for release. It had cut into his heart to hear her tearful pleas. She would be safe from the werewolf for the night.

Now he tore away his s.h.i.+rt and stepped out of his pants. The air was cold and fat snowflakes fell like down from the heavens. He s.h.i.+vered and s.h.i.+fted into the furred wolf.

Taking off through the backyard, the wolf loped into the valley, intent on tracking that rabbit Severo had sighted earlier in the day.