Chapter 6: Killing Everyone who tries to hurt her.

Continuation.

Darian POV. 

Earlier that same night before I came to the Club, while she was still at the clinic, some human bastard had smiled at her when she handed him his medication. Asked for her number like he had the right. I was already outside waiting. I followed him two blocks, dragged him into an alley, and snapped his neck before he could finish whatever line he was practicing in his head. No one else got to look at her like that. No one else got to want her. She didn’t know. She never would.

My phone buzzed once. A short message from one of my people: movement near the clinic. Council is on the move.

I stood.

Sven rose with me. “You’re leaving?”

“She’s getting off soon. I’m picking her up.”

“Darian, if they already know—”

“If they touch her, I end them. Tell my father that if he asks. The mark is permanent. She’s under my protection now. Anyone who comes for her answers to me.”

I left the club without looking back.

I parked outside the hospital building and waited, cigarette between my fingers. I took out my phone and texted her.

**I’m outside.**

A few seconds later she answered.

**I know.**

Good. She was learning.

She came out looking tired, scarf wrapped tight around the marks I’d left on her neck. I straightened when I saw her. She wrinkled her nose the second she got close.

“I hate the smell of smoke.”

I put the cigarette out immediately and tossed it. Didn’t even think about it. Opened the passenger door for her.

We didn’t talk much on the drive. When we got to her apartment she went straight to the bathroom to freshen up. I moved around her small kitchen and put together a plate—nothing complicated, just something warm she could eat without thinking. By the time she came out it was ready.

She sat and started eating. I watched her for a while.

“Say what’s on your mind. I can feel it.”

She set the fork down. “This morning you mentioned the Council. What is that?”

I smiled, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “Not something I can explain properly right now. I’ll tell you later.”

She would be scared if she knew everything now. The Council. My father. What the mark actually meant. How many people already wanted her dead because of me. Better she stay in the dark a little longer.

I stood and walked around the table. The air between us changed. I stopped right in front of her, close enough that she had to tip her head back. My hand came up and rested against the side of her neck, thumb brushing the side of her neck.

“I’ve been thinking about you all night,” I said quietly. “Every time your mind drifted, I felt it.”

She didn’t get the chance to answer. I kissed her—slow at first, then deeper, harder. My hands were already under her scrub top, pushing it up and off. I backed her toward the bedroom without breaking the kiss.

Clothes came off fast. I stripped her, then pushed her down onto the bed and settled between her thighs. I looked at her for a long second before I lowered my head. My tongue dragged through her folds, slow and thorough, tasting her the way I’d been thinking about all night. I licked her open, sucked her clit until her hips jerked, then pushed two fingers inside her and fucked her with them while I kept working her with my mouth. She was already wet, already shaking. I kept her right there on the edge, licking and sucking until her legs were trembling and she was gasping my name. Only then did I let her come, mouth sealed against her, tongue working her through it until she was twitching and oversensitive.

I moved up her body while she was still catching her breath and pushed inside in one hard thrust. The stretch forced a broken sound out of her throat. I held still, buried deep, eyes locked on hers.

“You’re mine,” I said. Not a question.

“Yes.”

I started moving—deep, controlled strokes that made her take every inch. One hand pinned both her wrists above her head. The other gripped her hip hard enough to leave bruises. Every time she got close I slowed down, grinding against her just enough to keep her desperate.

“Please.”

“Please what?”

“Let me come.”

I gave it to her. Fucked her harder, deeper, until the orgasm ripped through her and she clenched around me so tight it pulled my own release out of me. I came deep inside her with a low, rough sound, face buried against her neck, body locked tight against hers.

We stayed like that for a while, breathing hard.

Sleep came eventually.

She jerked awake with a sharp gasp sometime later. I was already holding her, arms tight, mouth against her temple.

“It’s just a dream,” I murmured. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I’ve got you.”

Her heart was racing. I pressed her face against my chest and tried to slip into her mind the way I usually could through the bond—just enough to see what had scared her. Something blocked me. Hard. Like a wall I hadn’t expected. I pulled back, jaw tight. Whatever she’d dreamed, it wasn’t ordinary.

She touched the tattoo over my heart, and asked quiet questions. I gave her vague answers. She would understand soon enough.

Morning came. I took her shopping because she needed better clothes and because I wanted every inch of her covered in things I’d paid for. Things that said she belonged to me. She tried to argue about the money. I shut it down. As my woman she would take what I gave her. That part wasn’t up for discussion.

On the drive back I told her she was moving.

I expected pushback. I got it.

She fought me in the car—voice sharp, eyes flashing, telling me I didn’t get to control her. That we only fucked. That I didn’t own her.

I stopped the car hard enough to throw her forward.

“You still don’t get it,” I said, voice low. “That mark on your neck isn’t just a bite. It’s a claim. My claim. It ties you to me. Body, blood, everything. The Council doesn’t allow it. My father doesn’t allow it. They see a human carrying an heir’s mark as a threat. Something to erase before the bond gets stronger. That’s why they sent people after you. Not because we slept together. Because I made you mine and they refuse to accept it.”

She stared at me, still angry, still not fully understanding.

When she got out of the car and started walking, I felt the shift in the air a second before the arrow flew.

I was in front of her before it reached her. I caught it. Snapped it.

Three of them stepped out of the shadows. Council hunters. My father’s men.

One of them spoke. “Darian. The Council found out about the human. They sent us to take her out quietly.”

“She’s not something for you to take out.”

“Your father gave the order. A human and a vampire don’t belong together. You’re the heir. He will never allow this bond to stand. The mark makes her a liability. We end her, the problem ends with her.”

I looked at them, eyes already red. “Then go back and tell my father he just made a mistake. The mark is permanent. She’s under my protection. Touch her and you die.”

They didn’t listen.

So I made the message myself.

The first one came at me fast. I put my hand through his chest and tore his heart out while he was still looking at me. Dropped the body. The second tried the blade from behind—I broke his neck before the steel cleared the sheath. The third lunged. I caught the dagger mid-air, turned it, and drove it into his own heart hard enough that the tip came out his back.

Blood hit the pavement. Hit Lila. She was screaming, frozen, covered in it.

I got her out of there before more of them showed up.

I took her to the secure apartment—the one with wards, cameras, and no way in or out without my blood. Locked the door. Made sure she was inside, shaking but alive.

“You’re safe here,” I told her. “No one gets in. The mark means they will keep coming, but they won’t reach you inside these walls. Stay put. I’ll deal with the rest.”

Then I left.

My father would be waiting.

I drove straight to the estate, blood still drying on my hands, the bond pulling tight with Lila’s fear and confusion behind me. She didn’t understand yet what she’d become the second I marked her.

She would.

And if my father thought he could take her from me, he was about to learn the same lesson those three hunters just did.

I don’t share what’s mine.

And I don’t forgive.