"Yes. It is what it is. Father will be angry but will learn to deal with it. You'll have a bond with Kay, Thane will be happy, we will have thwarted Azera, and Kay will understand things better,"

Frowning at his fiance's calm assessment, he toyed with a fountain pen.

"With me being a vampire, Claudia, marking her before claiming you will put her first and elevate that bond above yours."

The werewolf tilted her head, considering the information.

"Then mark me first. All of this is a done deal. There will be no reneging, and my father won't remove your balls before he has a grandchild," Claudia mocked, and he hissed at her.

Despite her smirk, she growled yet was dead serious.

"Just like that, no sex, no getting to know each other, no wedding or wedding night? Just claim you like it's nothing?"

Claudia shrugged.

"Marcus, I am not Delia and am no romantic. Yes, I would have secretly liked the bells and whistles, but we're on a deadline.

"Plus, I enjoy being one move ahead of my opponent. Father has no sons and did not raise me to be all girly, and, as you well know, Mother is a practical woman. You're an honorable man and don't have to prove that. Have I not seen you at your best and worst? Is it not why we are here now? I trust you to do the right thing."

Marcus stared at her like a little sister that was suddenly all grown up and not the woman he was about to marry, while the word Delia seemed loaded with innuendo.

This thing between Marcus and Claudia was a contract, not a love thing; that much was evident.

"Remember that when you go into heat before we're married and have to be locked in a cell."

Was he kidding? Kay had no idea how this thing with vampires and werewolves worked.

"Unfortunately, I will curse you to hell and back. Are you chicken or not?" Claudia asked, baring her shoulder, and he glared into her eyes for what seemed like a long time.

"Don't blame me if this goes horribly wrong and your father cancels the wedding."

Gently placing his hands on Claudia's shoulders, he pulled her closer. Should she be witnessing this? Yet she had nowhere to go and could not tear her eyes away from them.

With a basic idea of what marking was, she could not believe it to be true.

Why would one person bite another?

"Great, then we don't have to wait to be naughty, and we'd have to move to some unknown island," Claudia mocked but then growled low in her throat when those fangs sank into the soft flesh of her shoulder, resisting the bite for a moment before slumping into his embrace.

The werewolf hadn't passed out; she just seemed to experience some deep and profound emotion. As her pupils dilated to the fullest, then shrunk, she sighed, but it was more of a moan and had little to do with pain, reminding Kay of Azera caught in mid-feed.

Marcus lifted his head, revealing a raw, bleeding bite mark on Claudia's shoulder that ruined her blouse, his mouth bloody.

He licked the wound, and it sealed shut, but instead of fading or disappearing as the punctures healed, they became silvery and obvious, like a birthmark or a tattoo.

Their body chemistry altered, and when their lips met, it was no chaste kiss.

Daniella looked away.

This moment was more intimate and intense than sexual heat, leaving her uncomfortable.

"Okay, slow down, tiger," Claudia warned, her voice lower, slower, and sexier, but Marcus instantly snapped out of the thrall of whatever they shared. "That's all you're getting until that ring's on my finger," Claudia warned, suppressing her emotions and controlling her breathing.

"I can guarantee that your father won't believe it was all we did," Marcus warned, sounding slightly different.

"If you said it, he won't, but he'll believe me," Claudia glanced at Kay, and her stomach knotted.

***

Marcus walked over to Kay, and she fought the urge to flee but suspected it would do her no good. The vampire pulled her to her feet; his hands were firm and decisive but not rough. It was the first time since her capture that a man touched her with respect.

Kay did not want this, but what would happen to her if he didn't do it? At this point, she would do anything not to land back under Azera's thumb.

As he shifted the material out of the way, Marcus looked right into her eyes, and she could not look away.

Barely having time to brace herself or protest, his teeth sank into her flesh, and although it hurt, it wasn't unbearable, and the pain faded quickly. Understanding came of what Claudia experienced as heat exploded from the wound and rapidly passed through her body as if someone had removed a veil between them.

Kay reacted to him like a woman does to a man she loves but did not love him. His tongue on her skin did wicked things to her libido, and she breathed raggedly as he allowed the fabric to fall back into place.

Although she was aware of him in a way she could not have imagined existed, it wasn't just on a physical level. There was something between them, like a string or umbilical cord. When Marcus moved away from her, she almost protested.

How shocking.

The bond was much more complicated than she realized as something shifted inside her and clicked into place. She could vaguely sense his riled-up emotions but also that he regretted having to do this to her.

The vampire never wanted a bond like this with anyone but the woman he loved, and now he had two. One with a woman he was fond of like family and another with a stranger for whom he experienced sympathy, if not outright pity, but little else.

Pity woke in her as she noted the sorrow in his eyes, and she instinctively followed him to the window as he struggled to control his emotions.

Why did she suspect he had found the woman he loved, and she died? But his sorrow was not only for himself; had Claudia also known and lost her love?

"I must go before you realize you're not marrying a virgin," Claudia mocked, and he glanced at her with a smirk, his eyes still filled with shadow.

"What a shocker. I will make you feel like one," he teased, and it was not all play.

With him being more himself, Claudia chuckled.

"Marcus Andrew Cartier, they warned me about your ahem... prowess, and I have more than one female friend who will never speak to me again after you put that ring on my finger. As long as you understand this contract..." Claudia motioned between herself, him, and Kay, "is binding. Don't make Father turn you into a eunuch."

The vampire sobered instantly.

"My word is my word," he said in a measured voice, and the werewolf became serious.

"Do I not know and understand you better than anyone else? Our marriage will succeed, and I won't ever indulge in the little f*cked-up games that I grew up with," she assured him, and his attention wandered to Kay.

"How do we know Kay is not the jealous or spiteful type? Or the dangerous other woman?" he asked reasonably, and Claudia studied her briefly.

"She's way past the spoiled little princess stage and has what neither Mother nor my stepmother has; maturity and a sense of responsibility. Otherwise, she would just have fought us tooth and nail," Claudia aimed for the door.

"Don't do anything I won't," she teased.

Her touch was gentle as she put her hand on Kay's shoulder in passing, comforting.

Marcus raised a brow.

"So pretty much anything goes?" Marcus said to the closed door, and outside, Claudia's laughter echoed in the corridor.

But his face sobered when his gaze returned to her, and her breath caught in her throat at the heat she spied in the depth of his eyes, despite his best efforts to hide it.

"Go to your room, Kay. Settle in, rest, and we'll speak in the morning," Marcus dismissed her, seeming drained by having to deal with more than his two unexpected bonds.

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