Ashes of Midnight by Lara Adrián

long as he drew breath. He would be bound to her always, drawn to her always, regardless of any vow she’d made to another male.
     
Even through the smoke and fog of his recovering mind, he could still recall how hard it had been to exercise control where his hunger for Claire was concerned. But he’d been careful. As hard as it was, he’d been a pillar of restraint, right to the end.
     
If he’d known then that she was going to waste so little time giving herself to Wilhelm Roth…?
     
Reichen growled just thinking on it.
     
His fury wasn’t so cooled that he didn’t entertain the idea of slaking his thirst on her right there and then. He leaned in, unable to tear his hungering eyes away from the rhythmic beat of her pulse. Her scent beckoned him as much as the rush of her blood beneath her skin.
     
She was even more beautiful than he remembered. This close, she robbed him of breath. Made him ache to touch her.
     
Jesus Christ, she made him burn far worse than sunlight or fury.
     
It stunned him to realize that he wanted her still, after all this time. After all her mate had done to destroy him. He wanted Claire for his own… still.
     
Reichen drew in a rough breath of air, his lips peeling back off his fangs. He wanted her, and, by God, he would take her.
     
“No,” he growled to himself. “Damn it, no.”
     
Claire’s eyes snapped open and went wide. She gasped, drawing back as far as she could get from him with the chair blocking her escape. Her dark brown eyes searched his face, too intelligent to misunderstand what had nearly happened.
     
Reichen mentally yanked himself to heel, despite the hunger that was still making his gums throb with the urge to feed. “Pleasant dreams, Frau Roth?”
     
“Not at all,” she answered, staring hard at him. “After what happened here last night, I’m sure I’ll be having nightmares for a long time to come.”
     
A pang of shame jabbed him, but he ignored it. He hadto keep his eye on the ball. “You didn’t happen to pay a dreamtime visit to your mate just now, did you?”
     
Claire didn’t so much as blink. He could see the recollection in her steady gaze, the realization that although many years had passed since they last saw each other, Reichen had not forgotten her special psychic ability. Her cheeks darkened a bit, and he wondered if she was thinking of all the times she had dreamwalked into some of his most erotic REM fantasies during those intense, passionate few months in which they’d fallen in love.
     
He had not forgotten a single moment they’d shared, awake or joined in dreams, and he had damn sure tried.
     
“Wilhelm doesn’t like it when I intrude on his dreams,” she murmured.
     
“That’s not really a denial,” Reichen replied. He kept his hands braced on the arms of the chair, trapping her there while he continued his interrogation. “Where is he, Claire?”
     
“I told you, I don’t know.”
     
“But you do have some idea,” he said, trying not to be distracted by his hunger or his sudden, growing awareness of just how close their bodies were to each other. He could feel her heat mingling with his own, making his healing, irradiated skin feel as though it were being touched by flame. “Make no mistake, I will find him. The others weren’t able to run, nor will he.”
     
She looked wary, repelled. “What… others?”
     
“His faithful hounds, the ones who carried out his orders with no regard for innocent lives. I’ve put them all down, one by one. Not him, not yet. I’ve saved him for last because I wanted him to know that I was coming. I wanted him to understand that he was going to have to pay for what he did.”
     
Claire swallowed, gave a small shake of her head. “What you said last night—that Wilhelm is responsible for what happened to your Darkhaven… you are mistaken, Andreas. You have to be mistaken.”
     
“What I said is the truth.”
     
“It can’t be—”
     
“Why not?” he snapped. “Because that will mean you’re mated not only to a known