Obsession: A Rejected Mate Shifter Romance (The Mate Games #1)(36)

The connection between us snapped, a barricade appearing and sealing me from her. Had I done that, or had she?

I’d been able to communicate with my family telepathically from a young age. It was something most of the vampires in my family could do. We talked to each other, annoyed each other, and my sister regularly invaded my thoughts when we were younger just to torture me. We’d been trained to protect ourselves from hearing things we didn’t want to know, a warning from our father that privacy was a gift and we were not to squander it.

He’d taken me aside one night after one of our yearly Blackthorne masked balls, where shifters, witches, and vampires alike gathered to scold me for my clumsy attempt to read the thoughts of a witch I’d been toying with. She’d been easy to read but never had it gone both ways. She hadn’t heard me, been as present in my mind as Sunday had. This was a two-way street, and that was . . . troubling.

“Fuck. What the bloody hell just happened?”

After cleaning up and wrapping a towel around my waist, I stalked through the flat in search of the pants I’d discarded in my rush to get a handle on my situation. Something was wrong with me. That had to be the answer. I’d never been so focused on a single creature, so conflicted about whether she was prey or meant to amuse me. But the feelings in my chest when I thought of Sunday didn’t add up to either of those categories.

I was loyal to her.

I cared about her.

I wanted her safety, her security, her love.

But she was a wolf.

I fished my cell out of a pocket and scrolled until I found my uncle Lucas’s name. Dialing, I paced the floor as the phone rang.

“Ah, nephew, what have you been up to that warrants a call at this hour?”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Tell me how you knew Briar was your mate.”





Chapter

Nineteen





SUNDAY





“Stupid asshole vampire and your stupid perfect face,” I grumbled to myself as I stormed my way around the deserted campus.

It was the middle of the night. The light of the moon bathed everything in a pale glow, buildings casting shadows across the grounds. Noah Blackthorne might’ve vanished without a trace three days ago when he ran from my room like a bat out of hell, but he still did dirty things to me in my dreams. Night after night, I woke with the memory of his lips on me, leaving me swollen, aching, desperate, and with no choice but to take matters into my own hands.

Thankfully, these Noah fever dreams happened after my initial nightly rendezvous with my mother, who told me everything and nothing all over again. I was keyed up. Wound tight. Ready to snap. If I kept going like this, I’d die of exhaustion and dehydration before I ever had a chance to live.

“Something troubling you, Miss Fallon?”

Caleb’s—no, Father Gallagher’s voice curled around me from somewhere to my left. “Skulking in the shadows? How fitting for a vampire.”

“I’m not skulking. I’m patrolling. And you’re supposed to be in bed, Miss Fallon, so what’s your excuse?” He stepped from the trees and halfway into a shaft of moonlight.

His face, even partially obscured, was ruggedly handsome. I imagined he would’ve been the object of desire of anyone he wanted if he hadn’t devoted himself to God.

“I didn’t realize the school needed someone to patrol. Aren’t there protective wards set all around the grounds?”

His lips twitched in the barest hint of a smile. “Who do you think set them off?” Then his smile faded. “Although, with the recent hunter attack on one of our students, I admit I’ve been cautious. Never hurts to be careful.”

My side gave a dull throb, a reminder of the very attack he mentioned. The one he’d saved me from. A spark of fear ignited in my chest. “I can’t sleep. That’s all. I needed to blow off some steam and get my thoughts under control.”

His gaze sharpened, and a flicker of something . . . concern, perhaps, flashed in his eyes. “Have you been practicing what I taught you?”

“Yes, I get down on my knees every night, Father.” I couldn’t help but poke at him a little. I loved watching the set of his jaw change at my insolence. So sue me, I had daddy issues.

“Apparently not correctly if you’re forced to resort to nightly wandering and putting yourself at risk. I’d feel much better if you allowed me to join you.”

I had to fight the urge to tease him again with another dig about me being on my knees. Instead, I sighed and nodded. “If you want.”

He didn’t say a word, simply fell into step beside me, his warm earthy scent of incense and spice filling my senses.

We walked together in silence, around the well-kept path through the wooded area on the property, then stopped at a clearing that overlooked a small lake. The moon glowed across the water, a sky of twinkling stars our canopy, the air thick with the aroma of night-blooming jasmine and a symphony of crickets chirping our soundtrack. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this setting was almost romantic, and this little midnight stroll of ours was a perfect first date.

But I did.

The awkward silence between us was the most telling thing of all. Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I asked, “So were you hired to be the resident lurker, or do you actually do something here? Besides tormenting me?”