Free Feral: Book Two by Velvet DeHaven Page A

Treviso doesn't know!"
    He nuzzled his nose against my ear. "I just do not see any relevance with boring you with the tedious and wholly unexciting details."
    He started purring happily. Or perhaps to distract me. Either way, I burst out into giggles. "You don't know!" He growled playfully and began sucking on my earlobe before kissing his way down my neck to latch onto a familiar patch of skin, and I gasped. "If you keep doing that, it's never going to go away." When he chuckled ‘I know’, I huffed. "Everyone is going to start noticing if I wear a scarf every day of the year!"
    Suddenly, our positions changed, and he was leaning against the headboard with me sitting between his strong thighs, his arms wrapped tightly around my mine, with my back against his chest. He rested his chin on my head and sighed. "This is a small town, cara mia, so I fear that it will not be too long before the whole of it knows of the change in our relationship."
    "Oh God!" I moaned. "I still haven’t introduced you to my father."
    Simon nuzzled against my ear. “Oh, perhaps I exaggerate somewhat, and your secret dalliance will not be made town gossip. The university, though, I’m quite sure, will soon be abuzz with the news. Your father we were going to tell anyway.”
    I nibbled on my lower lip as the glaringly obvious question bounced around my brain. "Simon, I don't want to offend you, but where are the others now?"
    “They fled to the woods before we mated, but now, they are returning from only a few miles off.” He growled softly and his grip tightened. "Before they departed, Kendal said they would remain on the veranda until I was reacquainted with their presence. Once I am comfortable with them being that close, they will open the front door to allow more of their scent into the house. From there, they will move into the kitchen and wait for us to come downstairs to them." He slowly climbed from the bed pulling me with him and urging me to get dressed, and when we were both clothed, he pulled me back on the bed to sit with him. “Hopefully, we can all take precautions to avoid too many incidents over the next few years.”
    I blinked in confusion as I scooted closer to him. "Next few years? Surely, that can’t be right?”
    He sighed and bowed his head, and I could tell that he was embarrassed at the moment since he hid his face in his hands. When he looked up, I noticed that his eyes seemed to be an even lighter shade of pink. " Mia diletta , unfortunately the entire mating process does not end with the physical act of mating, nor does it end when a human mate is changed. Due to the nature of vampires, most have exceptionally dominant personalities—not violent or cruel, just very assertive and dependent. The males, obviously, are far more dominant; however, unmated and recently turned females are a rather aggressive force, so when an unmated female finds her mate, it generally takes about a year or two for her to completely submit to the male's dominance. The same amount of time applies to a recently turned female."
    He lifted me into his lap and tucked me closely against his chest. "It is within the male's nature to want to protect his mate, and a newly mated female still has her instincts to fight for herself in situations where she does not need to. As dated as it sounds to a human, a female should not be fighting for or protecting the male unless they are overwhelmed by others or the male is severely injured and unable to protect his mate any longer. It is the male's responsibility to protect both himself and his mate against danger, and as I said, it takes a year or so for a female to fully submit to her male."
    I was shocked by this information and was not completely sure of what to make of it. "So… for the next few years, we're going to be… um… I mean, really?"
    "I am sorry, mia cocca ," he cooed, his eyes full of emotion. "I am not completely certain of the intensity we will feel during our mating. You must