Want (Vampire Beloved Book One)

By R.E. Butler

Wolf shifter Angie Beaumont has had erotic dreams for the last few years. She both looks forward to and dreads going to bed each night, because the dreams leave her wanting and aching for the two males who appear in them. She can’t see their faces clearly, and the only thing she knows for certain is they’re vampires and her truemates. Wolves and vampires aren’t on the best of terms, but Angie doesn’t care what her alpha brother thinks – not only because they’re vampires but also because there are two of them.

Vampire twins Vex and Rage have been around for several hundred years, and until recently, they’d never shared dreams. They’ve been sharing dreams of a female they believe is their beloved mate. Planning to go to the wiccan coven on the full moon for help in determining who their mate is, they’re surprised to scent her in the club, surrounded by vampires who want to feed on her.

The twins are consumed with making Angie theirs and sharing their immortality with her. But not everyone is happy that a wolf and two vampires are together, and it’s not just the alpha wolf who doesn’t approve. Angie’s caught in the crossfire of a never-ending war with a fanatical group of vampire haters. Can Vex and Rage get to her in time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.E. Butler
• Release date: May 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463449622

R.E. Butler

A Midwesterner by birth, R.E. spent much of her childhood rewriting her favorite books to include herself as the main character. Later, she graduated on to writing her own books after "retiring" from her day job as a secretary to become a stay-at-home mom.When not playing with her kids, wrestling her dogs out the door, or cooking dinner for her family, you'll find her typing furiously and growling obscenities to the characters on the screen.Her best-selling series Wiccan-Were-Bear, The Necklace Chronicles, Hyena Heat, Wilde Creek, Were-Zoo, Arctic Shifters, Norlanian Brides, Saber Chronicles, and Ashland Pride are available now.

Book preview

Want

Vampire Beloved

Book One

By R. E. Butler

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Excerpt from Need

Book by R. E. Butler

About the Author

Copyright

Chapter One

Angie Beaumont couldn’t really see anything, but damn could she feel. Two pairs of large, strong hands running over her body, setting her on fire. Two male bodies caging her in, all hot skin over smooth muscle. Fangs pricking her neck in the lightest of ways, a taste of what was to come.

A hand cupped her throat, fingertips rough and calloused, drawing her to a mouth for a kiss that made her body riot with sensation, while the mouth belonging to the other male kissed a line down her body, pushing her thighs roughly apart.

As one male devoured her mouth, the other devoured her pussy, driving her wild until she rode the edge of pleasure.

It was just within reach. A few more licks on her clit, and rubs of a finger deep within her, and she’d be tossed right into a climax that she’d been waiting for years to happen. Just as her stomach tightened and her world narrowed down to the sensations cascading through her, the mists and shadows that kept her from seeing what the males looked like intensified, separating them and their delicious bodies from her. She struggled to stay in the dream, to finish what was started every night. To know what it was like to fall apart with the two males. But like every night previously, she had no control over the dreams.

She rolled over with a groan, shoving the blankets down to alleviate the fever coursing through her. It did nothing to quench the fire within from the overly hot dream. Though hidden in shadows and mist, she’d known they were vampires when they bit her neck, not to mark her in mating but to feed. She’d been dreaming of the two vampires for several years. After the first time, she hadn’t dreamed of them again until the following full moon, and then slowly, as the months had dragged by, she’d reached the point where she now dreamed of her mystery males almost every night. Her body was strung tight, her nerves frayed and her sleep unrestful. She both looked forward to and dreaded her dreams, knowing that she’d be blissfully happy for a while, but once dawn broke and she left the males behind, she’d feel empty and unfulfilled.

It was heaven and hell wrapped up together.

The only person she’d told about the dreams was her sister-in-law, Cinder, a special type of hybrid wolf, known as a lygisa. Born of a wolf father and wiccan mother, when Cinder mated Angie’s brother, Adam, she’d shifted for the first time into a pretty, golden-furred wolf with the power to protect the pack from any who would harm them. Before mating, Cinder had worked for the Whalen Family Clinic which was run by Doc Whalen, one of the pack members. Once Cinder became alpha female, she’d quit working for the clinic and Angie had taken her place at the reception desk. She enjoyed working there, even when she woke up exhausted from tossing and turning all night thanks to the erotic dreams. But Angie was reaching the breaking point and needed to find the males.

Unfortunately, that task wasn’t going to be easy since she had a few things going against her, including the fact that wolves and vampires generally didn’t get along. Decades ago, vampires kept shifters in what were known as blood dungeons, where they bred them to create more shifters to feed from. Shifter blood was more potent than human blood, and shifters had long memories and held grudges. Although the local vampire coven had alliances with all the supernatural groups in the area to allow the groups to help each other if needed, wolves kept to themselves and never ventured into Fang, the coven-owned club in downtown Cleveland. So aside from the glaring issue that her truemates were vampires, the larger matter was that there were two of them. To her knowledge, neither vampires nor wolves shared mates, and her brother willingly allowing two vampires to join the pack as her mates seemed like an impossible feat.

She’d be lucky if Adam didn’t try to just kill them outright.

But perhaps the problem bigger than the animosity their groups held for each other was that she didn’t know who the males were because she never saw their faces in her dreams. She suspected her wolf could recognize them on sight, but she wasn’t sure how to go about even finding them in the first place.

She picked up her phone, saw it was nearly dawn, and decided to get up anyway. She could grab some breakfast and head into the clinic before her family was up, thereby avoiding any questions about why she looked so tired.

Slipping from the bed, she took a cool shower to wake herself up, ignoring the ache in her belly from the need that coursed through her. She dressed in a skirt and short-sleeved top, before finding her favorite pair of sandals next to the bed. In the kitchen of the large house she shared with her family, Angie opened the pantry and took out a few granola bars from a large box on the shelf.

She shut the door and turned around, barely stifling a scream of surprise at her cousin, Brick, who was standing right behind her.

Shit! she said, swatting him on the shoulder. You scared the hell out of me.

He grinned. I’d apologize but I don’t think you’d believe I was sorry.

You’re right.

Heading into work early? He took a mug from the cabinet and popped a coffee pod into the machine.

Yeah.

Not sleeping well?

You could say that.

He turned and leaned against the counter, giving her a long look. You feeling the need to mate?

Wrinkling her nose, she went to the refrigerator and took out the lunch she’d packed for herself the night before. I absolutely don’t want to talk to you about sex and mating.

We’re family.

Exactly. She shut the door, tucking a bottle of her favorite mango iced tea under her arm.

I wouldn’t tell Adam, you know.

You know that’s not true, Brick. If Adam thought you knew something about me and he wanted to know, he could just order you to tell him. Besides, it’s nothing you can help me with anyway. Unless he could make her dreams come true by bringing her the males from her dreams.

You look pretty miserable, Ang. Everyone is worried about you.

I’m fine, really. You’re sweet for wanting to help, but you can’t.

He frowned, his brows dipping down. If you wanted to mate a human or another type of shifter, Adam would get over it, you know. He wants you to be with a male of good standing in the pack, but obviously no male in our pack is your mate or you’d already be mated.

It was tempting to tell her cousin about her dreams. On the one hand, she trusted Brick because he was family and a good male. But on the other hand, he was her brother’s right-hand male and that meant that his loyalty to her went only as far as Adam would allow it. Which meant she couldn’t tell him anything.

I’ll be fine, she promised.

He gave her a long look and she felt like he was trying to read her thoughts. Thankfully mind-reading wasn’t a wolf trait. The full moon is in a week. Perhaps you’re feeling out of sorts because of that.

It was true that wolves tended to be extra-strength horny on the full moon. There were more male wolves than female wolves, so she and other unmated pack females often had sex with the unmated males on the full moon to help alleviate their needs. Ever since she’d been dreaming of her truemates, however, the need to be with anyone but them was long gone.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, she smiled at Brick. I should get going. Thanks for thinking of me, though, but I promise I’m fine.

Ang, he said.

I’m fine, she said, a little more forcefully than she intended. Before he could say anything else, she hurried from the kitchen and outside, tossing her lunch and drink onto the seat of her car. Her shift didn’t start until seven, but she knew that Doc Whalen wouldn’t mind her coming in early. There was always something to do, even in the downtime.

Turning her thoughts to the drive, she pushed away the memories of her dream, as well as the discussion with Brick, and focused on the road. It was going to be a long day.

Chapter Two

Vex stood at the top of the stairs leading to the family room and stared down at the crowd. Fang was packed. Owned by Mishka, head of the largest coven in the Midwest, the bar was a place for vampires to gather, to socialize and to feed.

Vex and his twin, Rage, had joined the coven decades earlier, and were part of Mishka’s inner circle, which he called the family. There were seven members of the family, including Brone, a one-thousand-year old vampire, and Cella who was three-hundred and had been turned by Mishka himself. Vex and Rage had been changed on the same day by their brother and joined a coven in Mississippi. They met Mishka as he was building his coven and now worked in the coven’s offices inside the club. They, along with Brone, handled security not only for the club but for the coven’s other properties in and around Cleveland, Ohio.

The club also housed the coven’s daytime resting places. The family lived in the basement in private rooms. He and Rage had separate rooms connected by a door in the bedrock. Because they were twins, they shared everything, including a desire to take a single female as their mate. For years they’d shared females during feedings and sex, but then a year ago, both Vex and Rage had a dream about a female. They couldn’t tell anything about her except that they were positive she was their beloved, the one female on the planet meant for them. The trouble was that despite a years’ worth of dreams, they had zero clue where to find her or what she even looked like.

Based on what they’d experienced in the dreams, Vex and Rage believed their beloved was a wolf. But they couldn’t just show up in pack territory and demand to see all the unmated females. Aside from not being sure if she was even part of the Cleveland pack, the relationship between the vampires and the shifters in Northern Ohio was tenuous at best. Eons ago, vampires kept shifters in blood dungeons, tapping their veins against their will and breeding them indiscriminately. Although Vex and Rage had never fed on anyone against their will, shifters had long memories and held grudges.

So they waited, hoping the dreams would reveal more about her, or that she’d know they were vampires—if she was even having the dreams herself—and come looking for them at the club. He scanned the club nightly, always hoping to get a glimpse of her dark hair or the sweetly wild scent of her skin.

Movement at the bottom of the stairs caught his attention and he watched the two guards part to allow Rage to come up the stairs.

Harmony said Mishka wants to meet with the family in the offices in ten, Rage said.

I didn’t get a message.

She told me in person and I said I’d let you know. Anyone in the family room?

Just the bartender.

Rage turned midway up the stairs and looked out over the crowd. The club was packed. Loud music pumped from the speakers and the dancers writhed together, their bodies painted with strobe lights and lasers. On Friday and Saturday nights, Harmony, Mishka’s beloved mate, played live music with her band, Fluffy Venom. Her bandmates—Wyst, Tamar, and Bridge—were shifters, and worked at the club in various positions.

Any luck? Rage asked.

Vex didn’t have to ask what he was referring to in order to answer. It was the same question they both asked each other.

Where was she?

No.

Rage blew out a breath. The full moon’s in a week.

The wiccans had agreed to allow the twins to join them on the full moon for one of their ceremonies. Lorene, the leader of the wiccan coven, had said they might be able to cast a spell to give them insight into finding their beloved.

Rage shrugged. Do you have any better ideas?

Vex scrubbed his hand over his face. Not remotely.

They’d already been waiting a year, and while a week wasn’t all that long to add to the wait, the want for his mate that coursed through Vex was driving him crazy. He’d never wanted another being so much in his long life, and the full moon couldn’t come fast enough.

He followed Rage down the stairs. They made a quick circuit around the dance floor, checking for issues, and when they found none, they headed to the coven offices. Bellamin and Dylan, two coven members, stood at the glass doors to the office, pulling them open when they saw the two coming down the hall.

Evening, Bellamin said.

How’s it going? Vex asked.

Good, Dylan said. Are you heading to the meeting?

Yep, Rage answered.

Would you please let Cella know that the SyBl delivery is going to be delayed tonight, the truck had mechanical issues.

Vex stopped and looked at the male. What kind of issues?

Don’t know the specifics, but they loaded it and couldn’t get it started. The phone was ringing and Arissa was busy, so I answered. I sent someone from the coven garage to check it out.

He hummed and looked at Rage. That’s weird.

We’ll let Cella know about the SyBl, Rage said.

Dylan nodded.

Vex and Rage walked through the empty reception area, where Arissa, Brone’s beloved mate, sat most nights. They entered a code to access the hall leading to the offices and headed toward Mishka’s. The rest of the family was already there. Mishka looked up as they joined the group. He leaned back in the large leather desk chair and took Harmony’s hand, kissing her knuckles.

Now that we’re all here, he said, let’s get to business.

After he nodded to Harmony, she cast her gaze around the room and then smiled. We finally have the plans for the new restaurant finished and approved by the city council. Construction starts on Monday. We’ve hired tiger king Midas’s all shifter construction company to work during the day, and the coven’s construction company will be working at night. Midas is overseeing the entire project.

Vex hummed. The restaurant—Bistro Rouge—was Mishka’s idea, after a particularly harrowing date with Harmony, when they’d traveled to a restaurant that was meant for vampires with non-vampire mates and were attacked by crazed humans who hated vampires. Having a coven-owned restaurant next door to the club was an excellent idea.

That’s great news, Temple, one of the family members said.

Both crews will be wearing ID tags at all times with their names and photos. If you see someone in or around the restaurant who isn’t wearing a tag, make sure to check them out. Security is a priority, Mishka said.

Vex nodded, thinking how easy it would be for someone to slide into a busy project and be missed among the workers.

Is the tiger pride handling security during the daytime? Rage asked.

Harmony nodded. Yes. During construction, we’re also doubling our daytime security as a precaution. We want to meet separately with you, Vex, and Brone to discuss the specifics.

When the restaurant is finished, Mishka said, we’ll have a dedication ceremony and a special dinner for the coven.

That won’t be until January, though, Harmony said.

Harmony passed around sample menus. The point of the restaurant was to give vampires a place to take dates. SyBl was served for the vampires and real food was served for the non-vampires, whether they were humans or shifters or other supernatural creatures. Vex glanced at Rage and thought about how they’d be able to take their beloved out on a date once the restaurant was open. He’d never been on a date in his life. He’d fed from humans over the years, had