Covet Me (Immortal Vices and Virtues: Her Monstrous Mates, #1)

by Kel Carpenter

I would take the punch, but I wasn’t walking away from Nikki.

I wasn’t backing down. He had to realize that. If we weren’t together in this, we were against each other—and it would make Nikki’s life much harder. And truth be told, I didn’t want to be against my best friend.

“You won’t try to get in the way?” he finally asked, uncharacteristically vulnerable. “You won’t take her from me?”

And he let out a chuckle. The sound teased at some sort of faraway memory, like it was reaching for something, but I couldn't understand what. Like maybe I'd heard his laugh before? Like an echo from another time.

“What I am, is surprised that you left her alone. Once you had her in your general vicinity, I thought you might try to smother her.”

My animal snuffed at him in a haughty manner, not at all interested in what my best friend had to say. The dragon couldn't understand why Nikki didn't feel the same. He felt like we should claim her, and then she would understand and be happy about it. I might be emotionally stunted, but even I knew that wasn’t how it would go down.

It bothered me that she didn't seem to remember me or feel any sort of pull. Meanwhile, I was burning in lust for her. My skin was hot and tight. I was perpetually hard because just the smell of her had my hormones in full rage and my blood pressure rising.

He was good at pretending to be a shallow playboy prince with little depth or emotion.

“I’d heard rumors that Nikki had found her mate but that her father sent him away. They couldn’t be about me. The timelines didn’t match. I was hoping they were wrong . . .” He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw.

Ty emitted a growl that had the hairs along the back of my neck rising. Niall started toward the door, eyes shifting to a reptilian slit. Dragon. Fuck.

I stopped at her side and placed my hand on her lower back, almost flinching at the contact. Her skin burned, radiating heat like glowing embers. I fisted my hand in the back of her baggy T-shirt and tugged gently, twice.

I don't give a fuck what deal you made with my father, but I can tell you this, Rose: Dead men don’t get married.”

I wanted her words. Her truths. I wanted to know her past. I wanted to know what she thought of the bond. Whether she was planning to accept it or not.

“Just sleep, Nikki. I’m not going to try anything. I promise.” I might smell her hair if she got close enough, but that wasn’t the funny business she was talking about.

Yet, somehow, there was this strange piece missing. I couldn’t explain it. Even with a mate standing on each side, I wasn’t whole.

An unseen but powerful connection pulled at my psyche, but my mind never showed me what it was. Who it was.

My arm was coiled around his muscular torso, and my head rested on his chest. My legs twined through his, holding him tightly. Honestly, more of me was on top of him than not.

The touch of his bare skin was heated as it pressed against mine—and gods it felt good. Wait . . . why can I feel his skin . . . I bolted up, shoving him away from me as I felt over my breasts, my stomach . . . I was naked. My fingers touched fabric just below my navel. No, just topless. I still had underwear on.

“What the fuck?” I said, scrambling to the other side of the bed. “You said you wouldn’t try anything. You promised!” He sat up, flinging his legs over the bed. “The agreement was that I wouldn’t try anything—and I didn’t—but we did...

“A beautiful woman who is my mate press her breasts against me while she slept?” He snorted in amusement like I was crazy. Yeah, I guess he was only doing what any mate would.

you also latched onto me like an octopus and told me to stop moving because I ‘felt good.’” He lifted a dark brow, equally devilish and delicious. I was such a goner. “What else was I supposed to do?”

“I . . . I didn’t.” I said that? “Indeed you did.” He winked at me,

“Or you could reject me,” I added softly, hating my vulnerability. I’d been rejected once, and that was bad enough.

“There's nothing you could say that would make that happen. I'm syndicate, Nikki. Whether you like it or not, I was born into this world, just like you. Niall and I were there that night making a deal with your family, playing our part in the syndicate matrix that is New York. I’m not really the judgmental type.”

He caught my wrist, pulling me close, and wrapped an arm around my waist. My hands splayed across his broad chest, and I looked up at him.

I leaned into his touch. It was new and exciting but also comforting. Heat zipped along my skin as desire rushed through me.

I had more questions, so the damn mate bond needed to chill out.

Adrian’s muscles tightened when I started to move away. “I won’t claim it was right, but I’m not going to apologize for doing what I needed to do for Niall.”

Flashes of smoke and fire speed through my mind. Visions of Niall’s face and a phantom voice calling to me while I looked up at a burning sky filtered through my thoughts.

“We haven’t completed the bond,” I countered. “You haven’t rejected it either,” he said, though the inflection in his voice made it sound almost like a question. “Unless . . .” “No, I’m not going to. I want this. Us,” I murmured, feeling heat rush through my body at the thought of being with him.

Of having a person that was completely and wholly mine, and would never leave or abandon me. Who would fight for and with me.

Coveting me.

“If the fates chose more than one mate for you, who am I to argue whether you have one or three?” “Three?” I coughed as I said it. Was three a crowd? Not that it mattered, but wow.

Why hasn't he conceded?” Adrian pulled his bottom lip into his mouth, biting it, and wincing as he said, “That's a longer story, and honestly, I think he needs to be the one to tell it.”

“Why can't you just tell me?” “Because his secrets aren't mine to share,” he whispered. He looked so conflicted, and I wanted to know why.

No sane person would have blamed me for wanting that comfort as a child, but after that beating, it never happened again.

After that, I couldn't even be under the same roof with Nikki without feeling some level of anxiety that Ty would lash out if he thought I was too friendly. Too comfortable.

Back then, I was scared she would side with Ty because he was her brother, so I made a point to never put her in a situation where she’d have to choose between me and her family. That didn’t mean it was easy.

The mate bond hit me first. I ignored the urges and tried to bide my time; to be patient until she felt it too. It was hard when she didn’t feel it at the same age I did. But these things were different for everyone.

I wasn't going to push her into something if she didn't want it. She was my safety. My comfort. My home. She was my everything.

So after nearly three years of wanting her and being unable to do anything about it, it crushed...

Phaon warned me that if I even touched his daughter, he’d kill me—regardless of the fact that it would destroy her emotionally. He didn’t care that the physical destruction of losing a mate would take its toll, maybe even driving her to madness. He swore I’d disappear, and she’d never know what happened, or that he had a hand in it.

Her ability to live her life normally rested on my shoulders. All I had to do was walk away.

Amusements filled me, even though I was also feeling more than a little jealous of Adrian at the moment.

When she still isn't acknowledging my existence—” He cut himself off, not wanting to elaborate further or acknowledge the vulnerability he’d just let seep through his stony exterior.

“She doesn't remember me.” Niall said defensively. “Oh?” I questioned. “How does she not remember you? If you're her mate . . .” If looks could kill, I’d be dead on the floor, torn apart limb by limb. He’d probably beat my bleeding corpse with the bloody stump of my arm.

The way he aggressively knocked twice wasn’t as soft as one would suggest when trying to politely wake a person up. Rather, it was more akin to the way someone pounded before barging in.

She took a long look at the plate Niall had made for her. Awkwardness colored her features, and a slight blush started to stain her cheeks. “That's . . . really nice of you”, she said, then cringed. I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. “I’m not very hungry right now, though.” Her stomach grumbled loudly, calling her out like the liar she was. I lost it. My drink swished, the ice clinking as I doubled over in laughter. Nikki shot me a sharp glare from the doorway. “I guess I’m hungrier than I feel,” she mumbled.

Every time Niall and I talked it left me on edge. He acted like he knew me and was upset that I didn't reciprocate. I had a feeling this was why. It made it impossible to have a conversation. Those visions though . . . they felt so real.

“What are you suggesting?” Niall clenched his fists, posturing with his best friend. I wasn’t a fan of that either.