Page 107 of Wolf Blood

"Nolan, then."

"He's consoling a few heartbroken males who wanted to mate with you."

I rolled my eyes and continued working.

"Are you locking Rhone out of your apartment?" Oren asked.

"Yes. He barged in last night and refused to leave. I need to avoid a repeat."

"Why?"

"He wants us to live separately. Doesn't want to develop feelings."

"Didn't you just spend two weeks fucking him? And end up mated?"

"It was just sex. He made it very clear that when we came home, he wasn't mine anymore. The bite was all fate."

"I heard he offered to mate with you when you got back."

I looked at Oren. "Who is telling you these things? Rhone doesn't tell Nolan anything."

He mimed zipping his lips.

I refocused on the lock. The lights flashed, and the damn thing timed out.

Shit.

I started from the beginning.

"He only offered because he was too possessive to let me mate with someone else. He said he was doing it to keep me stable for Maverick's sake."

I finished with the keypad and started working on disconnecting it from the tower's security system the way I had with Rhone's, so no one could break into it that way.

"Rhone will come around. Most werewolves would enjoy being mated to a vampire. You saw how fast Bloom's list filled up."

"I didn’t."

"Harper, over half of the people she texted were interested in being mated to you."

"They don't even know me, so they don't know what a mate bond with me would be like."

"Nolan and I have been together a long time. They've all seen us enough to know what it's like. We hated each other at first, but the constant need for connection and blood is exciting for a stable immortal being like a werewolf. It keeps things lively."

I frowned at him. "You hated each other at first?"

"Of course we did. We met on a battlefield. I was devolving, and Nolan was there to kill devolving vampires. Instead, fate took over and forced him to bite me. Nature made me bite him back. We were enemies with a sudden, intense mate bond. We both nearly died half a dozen times while Nolan dragged me off the battlefield, writhing in pain."

"What happened afterward?"

"Maverick was Nolan's general. He asked what Nolan wanted to do about me after the battle, and Nolan said he didn't want to kill his mate. Mav sent us out to a cabin in the middle of nowhere to figure our shit out. We couldn't stand each other. Snarled and fought constantly. But we fucked even more."

"Eventually, we came to a truce, and feelings started to grow. Maverick or Rhone came by to see how we were once a week or so. When they realized I'd never fully devolved, they put it together that wolf blood was keeping me stable."

"But it wasn't the wolf blood," I pointed out. "It was the mate bond."

Oren didn't say anything.

When I glanced over again, he looked... surprised. "Wolf blood is what brings a turned vampire back to sanity. We've tested it."