Embrace the Passion (The Blood Rose Series) by Caris Roane Read Free Book Online Page B

reached the back door, she shifted to fae only as long as it took to create fingers and pull the door wide.
    Resuming her wolf shape, she leaped onto the nearby path and ran as hard as she could up the steep mountainside, disappearing into the forest itself, following lesser animal trails to avoid detection.
    She’d made a den for herself soon after her arrival to the area, setting up a series of enthrallment layers to protect herself from other realm-folk, especially shifters, vampires, and most importantly, Margetta.
    Once inside the den, she curled up on the padded, fur comforter, trembling and trying to calm herself. She bore a thick winter coat and was comfortable physically, but her emotions swirled in her body, tearing through her mind, creating an upheaval she couldn’t seem to settle.
    She licked the top of her paws and breathed hard. She’d just had sex with the man of her dreams. And it had rocked.
    She whimpered, a pure wolfish sound, and huffed a sigh.
    She was a blood rose, but she didn’t want to be. She’d watched Batya all that time, as Quinlan had pursued her, chased her, then brought her down.
    Her shifter nose had caught the scent of sex between them and the powerful fae part of her had felt the vibrations as they connected.
    She’d never connected with anyone, but the blood rose experience was as profound as it was comprehensive. There didn’t seem to be a middle ground, no playing at sex and offering her vein when it suited her. This would be a full-blown commitment and she didn’t know how to do that.
    She’d also heard that Seth had almost sunk his fangs into Batya.
    She rose up swiftly, her fur lifting all along her back. She growled at the thought of Seth drinking from Batya or any other woman.
    She paced in a circle, disgusted and frightened by so many overwhelming and contradictory reactions, as though she rejected a bond with Seth with the same force that she desired him.
    For a moment, while she moved back and forth, a different kind of vibration reached her, very faint, and having more to do with the shifter community in Walvashorr than with Seth in particular.
    She paused, waiting to see if she could decipher the meaning of this new vibration. Something about the frequency gave her the sense she needed to be moving, but to do what she couldn’t quite figure out.
    After a few minutes, the frequency stopped and she curled up once more to the fur comforter, crossing her front paws and settling her muzzle on top of them and wondering what Mastyr Seth made of all that had happened.
    * * * * * * * * *
    Seth stood at the backdoor of his home. The sun was almost gone and it would be full-dark soon. He stared up at the steep ridge and noticed a faint but very real trail of silvery-teal light.
    Instinctively, and in a very realm way, he knew he was looking at Lorelei’s imprint, something only he could see. The sex had established a private marker, something that had occurred when he’d taken her blood, created because of his mastyr vampire status and her blood rose ability.
    None of the bonded mastyrs had mentioned this kind of phenomenon, but then Lorelei carried so many species within her that the silvery-teal trail might be specific only to her or perhaps as a result of her shifter DNA.
    Part of him, the same part that had jumped on her the moment she’d swept her hair back from her neck, wanted desperately to follow that trail. He wanted to grab the wolf by the scruff of the neck, and haul her pretty ass home, straight into his bedroom where she belonged.
    On the other hand, the civilized part of him that believed in self-control above everything else, rejected chasing the female.
    He was a man, not a beast.
    Yet he’d been all beast when he’d taken her blood, then coupled with her. He hadn’t even known who she was.
    His conduct appalled, yet in turn, excited him—one helluva dichotomy.
    Lorelei was a shifter, which made her more connected to the earth and the animal world than