His Warm-Blooded Mate

LILITH

I learned at a young age that there was a difference between living and surviving. Living meant your life had a purpose. You found all types of emotions in it; happy, sad, love, loss, friendship, heartbreak, anger. Living meant you allowed yourself to push boundaries and limits. You went out into the world and faced it as if it were a new adventure. You enjoyed what life gave you, embraced the downs, and celebrated the ups.

Surviving was very different. I would know. I wasn't living, I was surviving.

Surviving meant going out there and seeing the world for what it really was; a cold place where people with soft skin and warm hearts had no place. I toughened out every day as if it were my last. Because living the life I was born into wasn't all sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns and I was okay with that. I made peace with it. Life wasn't easy, it wasn't meant to be but as long as I survived through the twenty-four-hour day then I knew someday things would be better.

I held onto that faith.

After all, I was a rogue werewolf living a human life. The alternative, on the other hand, was something I despised. I would rather live as a human than as something feral living off the lands. Why rogue wolves turned to that lifestyle was beyond me. I thought I had everything figured out and I thought the last thing someone like me would have was a destined half that I wanted to call mine. That I wanted to lay claim on.

How was I supposed to handle a possessive mate with the job I did?

But the Goddess didn't only bless me with a mate. No. She blessed me with someone I could never possibly be with. My other half was someone I could barely stand the smell off and yet I always wanted to wear his sweet scent as if it were my own personal brand of perfume, made only for me.

He was cold, hard, and dead. I was warm, soft, but we shared the last thing in common and maybe that was what made us perfect for one another. He could live for eternity whereas I came with an expiration date.

It didn't help that he was good-looking. Tall with the most unique eyes I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He had a good build and he was strong, obviously. He was quiet, intimidating, and my new boss. If that wasn't enough to deal with, I quickly realized that he was part of the supernatural council — the King of Vampires.

How could I be the Queen when I wasn't even a vampire, to begin with?

There were so many reasons I wanted him to reject me but there were just as many for me wanting him to accept me. I wanted to know what it felt like to be loved by your other half. I wanted to know what it felt like to be complete. All the years that I had lived I never once realized there was a part of me missing. Not until I met him and realized that there was a gaping hole inside of me that only seemed to get bigger the more time we spent apart. But every time we were together that hole gradually filled.

Of all the species in the world, the Goddess decided to bless me with a mate that was my complete opposite and someone that was meant to be my enemy. However, I soon realized that there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for him.

Because, a vampire and werewolf pairing, what could possibly go wrong.