Mia's Return by Tracy Cooper-Posey

plainly too, Wyatt.”
    He blinked, surprised.
    Alexander laughed. “Do not ever
underestimate Mia, my friend.”
    “Okay, fine.” Wyatt pointed at
Alexander. “Why didn’t you let Mia know you were alive after
Zachariah made you?”
    Alexander sobered. “It was the price
for turning me. We are forbidden from revealing ourselves to humans
unless the human is to become a vampire, or is one of select
criteria, including hunters like yourself. The penalty is death of
the vampire and death of the human.”
    Mia drew in an unsteady breath. Wyatt
had told her this within minutes of meeting her and she had
forgotten.
    “Did you know this the night when you
came to see me, Alex?” she asked. The night he had taken her
virginity and proposed to her. She felt her clit throb. The memory
had stayed with her for a decade and influenced her heart and her
life.
    Alexander shook his head. “I only knew
that Zachariah was a businessman in New York who spoke of new
opportunities and of starting over. He hadn’t revealed himself that
night. But gut instinct told him something was wrong and he came to
find me. He got there in time.”
    Mia sat up. “You mean that was the
night you were…you died ?” She felt Wyatt’s hands on her
shoulders, steadying her.
    Alex nodded. “They picked me up on my
way back to the apartment from seeing you.” His gaze was
unwavering. “I knelt in that basement believing it was game over. I
didn’t know about Zachariah’s option then. All I could think about
with that gun against my head was you.” He drew a breath. “Then
they fired the gun and I woke a vampire and Zachariah explained
that I had a second chance to put things right…but that second
chance included never seeing you again.”
    Mia knew she was crying but didn’t
care. What had it cost him to turn away from her this afternoon,
outside the elevator? Now she knew why he had asked his
question.
    “Now you want to know if I still love
you,” she said, finishing the thought out loud.
    “She does love you still,” Wyatt
said.
    Alexander looked at him, his brow
lifting.
    “While you were with Zachariah, Mia
told me she saw this bonding as a way to be with you forever. If
that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.” Wyatt shrugged. “Of the
three of us, Mia is the only one who hasn’t hesitated or questioned
whether she is going ahead with this. She knew as soon as she saw
you this afternoon that if there was any way to keep you in her
life, she was going to take it. This is the way. That makes her one
of the bravest people I’ve ever met, because I heard what Zack,
Lindál and Seaveth described tonight as well as she did and I’m
scared spitless.”
    Mia turned to him. “Wyatt, no, don’t
be.” She cupped his face.
    “Truth?” He looked at her and
Alexander. “The only thing that stops me from running into the
night screaming is you two, which is the scariest part of it.”
    Alexander said quietly, “That it
happened so quickly?”
    Wyatt nodded. “I know part of it is the
bonding. But not all of it. Mia, you’re so fucking beautiful it
makes my heart break. Alexander, I know you understand that, at
least.”
    “At the very least,” Alexander agreed.
“Do you love her, Wyatt?”
    “I’m already there, yes. Impossible as
it seems.” Wyatt’s black eyes were smoky with emotion. “It started
to happen when you held me while I was telling you about Julie.
Those two things have never happened, the telling and the
holding.”
    “Finish the rest of your original
thought,” Alexander prompted.
    “The rest of it?” Wyatt took a breath.
“That would be you.”
    Mia’s heart pounded with the sudden
tension in the room.
    Alexander’s gaze was steady, provoking
Wyatt into speaking again.
    “I’ve never felt this way before. It’s
confusing. Especially with Mia.”
    “You’ve never had male lovers before,”
Alex said calmly.
    “No.” Wyatt sighed and relaxed. “Up
until now I considered myself aggressively