Shadow Queen by Cyndi Goodgame

think.
                  He sighed like he was reluctant to say but went on anyway, “How we are turned is kept to the privacy of the one it belongs to.  We don’t talk about it.”
                  “But you told me?”
                  “Would you have rather I hid it?” he snipped readily.
                  “No,” I cast my eyes down.  “I’m honored to know you trusted me.” 
                  His chest rose up and then down.  “It isn’t something we share.”
                  “Then I am truly honored, Cas,” I put my hand on his thigh.  He looked down at it then back to the road.  I left it there.
                  “In our faction we hold it very sacred those with whom we find companionship with.  We don’t favor disloyalty or infidelity.  We do not mask our feelings when we find that person and we don’t participate in an organized marriage proposal and wedding practices.  When you have the one you are with, you are just with them.”
                  I crinkled my nose.  Either the Valkyries were strange or the Vampires were that liberal.  I knew long ago that many human customs had made their way to the supernaturals, but perhaps not so much to all of us.
                  “What about the Weres?  Surely if they are ceremonial on death they are ceremonial on marriage.”
                  “They are,”Cas said exiting off the highway.  “But it is their tale to tell or keep secret.”
                  “But you know?” 
                  He nodded.  He wasn’t saying and that made all kinds of red flags go off.  Maybe I didn’t want to know how he knew.  Maybe it was a girl.
                  “No where close, love.  I happened upon it one night by accident.”
                  “Can I ask?”
                  “Only that I took the current leader away, Cord’s Were father, to help with an ordeal.”
                  “Oh.”
                  He waited for a while and then said low, “And then there’s the sharing of certain things during intimacy.”
                  Sharing...of things .  We’ve been down this road.  “You biting me?” He slid my hand off his thigh and placed it on my own, then kept a keen eye on the road like fog was clouding over by the bucketfuls.
                  I didn’t want to talk about it, but I didn’t want him to hate me for it.
                  “I don’t hate you for it Kissa, I love you.”
                  “Then why won’t you look at me?”
                  His head snapped to me.  Oh!  Oh!  Oh!  “Got it!”
                  I slammed my feet to the floorboard and gripped the front of the seat with my fingernails.  I refused to look his way but I knew he’d turn to the road again.
                  “I can’t change who I am,” he half growled all gravely.
                  “I didn’t say I want you to.”  My swallow was late coming.
                  “It is the way we are made.  You’re blood, Anastacia, it calls to me.  It’s how I know you’re mine.  How I know you belong to only me.”
                  I mishappenly sniffed the air like I might be able to smell myself. 
                  “I’ve tasted you, Anastacia.  I’d be able to track you anywhere.”
                  I disregarded what my belly did in reaction to his words and went with the other part.  “I thought it was a five mile radius thing.”
                  “Only the hearing part.”
                  Oh!  Lots of shockers today.
     
                  13. My taste is imprinted on his lips with the ability to track me
     
     
                  Pulling into the Vampire court,