Bless The Beauty - By Stacey Kennedy Page 0,26

agreeable in any way and this was part of the ceremony, the only way we would be able to stay together. He had to accept this. “It’s just what vampires do. It really doesn’t mean anything.”

“Then what is the point of it?” Chase demanded.

Kellen took a quick right and let out a long deep sigh that sounded very annoyed.

“So you don’t get your ass killed.”

I snapped my gaze toward him and my glare came quick. “Must you be so forward?”

He wasn’t helping. We had to take this slowly. There was so much to my world that Chase didn’t know, simply because I didn’t want him to. I had to ease him into this as gently as I could.

Kellen gave me a sideways glance with a smug grin on that handsome face. “I must.”

Then he focused his attention back on the road.

I snorted and looked back at Chase. Instantly, I felt mortified. He had so many emotions running across his face I couldn’t even decipher them, and I could only imagine how difficult hearing all this was.

You need to become my pet because if you don’t, you could die. Not really how I wanted to ask him to be my consort. Damn Kellen for making this much more difficult than it had to be.

“It’s just protection,” I told him as gently as I could. “It’s the way we do things. By letting us stake the claim on you, you could never be touched by another vampire.”

Chase’s brows rose up to his hairline. “Us?”

“You will belong to me too,” Kellen said with a smirk.

“The fuck I will.” Chase pounded on the back of Kellen’s seat with his fist, but Kellen just laughed it off.

I sighed. Will he never shut up? “Enough, Kellen.” I focused on Chase. “It’s just added protection. Kellen is a shield.”

His raised brows rose even higher, an expression of complete blankness filled his face. “A what?”

I’d never seen him at such a loss for words, which told me how unsettled he was with all this. He couldn’t even truly comprehend what was going on here. Before I had a chance to come up with an answer, Kellen said, “A hunter. A killer. Any of those will do.”

“What exactly do you hunt?” Chase asked, with a note of scepticism to his tone.

“Vampires who have broken the laws,” I replied before Kellen could say something horrible. “It’s why he must claim you too. If you’re attached to me and he pisses someone off, they could come after you for revenge. If Kellen is attached to you, they won’t. It would be a personal threat against him.”

Chase thought a moment, then asked, “If he didn’t claim me and if someone attacked me, wouldn’t it be a personal attack against you, therefore piss Kellen off?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t work like that. Vampires are bound by strict laws. We have to adhere to them. Kellen could never hurt anyone for doing anything to my consort.

If it was his too, that is quite different.”

Chase sighed, his expression still a mask of hesitation. “What is this claiming bit then?”

Oh good, he was coming around to the idea. Asking questions was a good thing, right? Maybe Kellen’s straightforwardness actually helped here. It got the facts right out on the table leaving Chase to just face it dead on. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting him to settle into resignation so soon and was quite glad of the direction this was going.

“Nothing happens really. We just go before Mistress Ellery and state our decision.”

“A Mistress?” Chase laughed, a deep confused sound. “Now you’ve lost me completely.”

Kellen answered before Chase finished laughing. “She is the leader of the Pacific Northwest.”

Chase’s laughter ceased as his expression swept back to confusion. Oh boy, he was going to be spent after tonight—shifting moods so quickly had to be exhausting.

“We, as vampires, are ruled by a leader. They are known to us as Mistresses.”

Chase’s confusion only deepened so I added, “Each Mistress has been granted a region within the United States that they run as they please. It is their territory to protect, prosper—you know, that kind of stuff.”

Chase was silent a moment, blinked, then laughed. “You have got be fucking kidding me!”

I shook my head, slow and serious. “No joke, really.” Regret filtered through me that I hadn’t told him any of this earlier. Then at least, he’d have more time to accept all this, instead of just being thrown into it all head first. But what was done was done. I