Read Online Eternal Demon: Mark of the Vampire by Laura Wright - Free Book Online

though his tone held no malice. “But I don’t give a shit what anyone feels or what anyone thinks except for my
veana
.”
    Synjon grunted.
“Your
veana.”
    “Don’t go there, man.”
    “Haven’t you gone there? Over and over in your head?”
    “Don’t know what you’re talking about. Kinda don’t want to.”
    “That’s rubbish and you know it,” Synjon said. “What happens when her actual true mate shows up? When he claims her? No matter how she fights it, doesn’t want it, she won’t be able to stop her body’s attraction to that chap. She’ll be
his
veana
.”
    The growl that blasted out into the hall made Bron jump. “No one will ever touch her,” Lucian raged, sounding ever more the Breeding Male beast he carried within him. The beast that would never have a true mate, but loved his
veana
and
balas
more than his own life. “No one! I don’t give a shit what calling card the male sports. I would kill anyone who laid a hand on what’s mine.”
    Refusing to allow fear to anchor her, Bronwyn leaned in and glanced into the room. She found both males on their feet, aggressive in their stances. But it wasn’t Lucian she worried about or even took the time to look over. It was the sight of her once close friend, the
paven
she’d protected when they were young and the
paven
who had agreed to mate with her when she was so afraid she’d be given over to the Breeding Male.
    Oh, the irony. Now she was with the Breeding Male, her blood able to keep him sane, her unbeating heart filled with the hope that her real true mate would never find her.
    Her gaze ran the length of her friend. In the seven months since she’d seen him last, Synjon Wise looked like a shell of his former self. He was tall and still shockingly handsome, but far too thin and pale. And his eyes . . . they were dark and sunken, and though they’d always flashed with a deadly fire, now they just looked dead, empty.
    “What are we looking at?”
    Bronwyn jumped at the whisper near her ear and whirled around to find two bright blue eyes staring curiously at her. “Jeez, Sara. You scared me.”
    Alexander’s mate grimaced. “Sorry.” She gestured to the library door with her chin. “Who’s in there?”
    “Lucian and Synjon.”
    Sara’s eyes widened. “Synjon? Really. What’s he doing here?”
    “I don’t know.” She felt tired all of a sudden. “I didn’t even know he was here.”
    Sara glanced past Bron’s shoulder, her growing belly pressing against the
veana
’s flat one. She gasped softly. “Oh, my gods. What’s wrong with him? He looks like he hasn’t fed in weeks.”
    More like months, Bron was willing to bet. That was long-term starvation. “I have no idea.”
    “Well, don’t you want to go in and find out?”
    Bronwyn couldn’t blame the female for asking. Alexander’s true mate was a psychiatrist who was used to getting to the root of people’s problems, then fixing them. But Bronwyn didn’t know if she wanted to go there with Syn. She cared for him deeply, always had, but the guilt she felt for mating him, then succumbing to her desire, her love, for Luca was still so strong within her. She’d never had his forgiveness—and she knew she didn’t deserve it.
    “Maybe later,” she told Sara, who looked as though she were waiting for the right answer but had just gotten the wrong one.
    “He’s your friend, Bron.”
    Yes, exactly
. Gods, Sara couldn’t possibly understand this. Synjon Wise was her friend, had been her best friend, and she’d taken advantage of that friendship, betrayed him in every way possible.
    No doubt seeing her internal struggle, Sara put her hand on Bron’s shoulder and softened her tone. “You look miserable. What’s wrong?”
    She glanced up into her sister-in-law’s gentle, encouraging face and crumpled. “All he went through, all that I put him through, and then the
veana
who died in Cruen’s compound . . .”
    “Synjon’s
veana
,” Sara finished for her,