A Mate for Lazarus(3)

The female in his arms smiled. She squeezed his trapezius muscle. “I’m sure you have to work pretty hard to maintain a build like this.”

Lazarus snorted. “Twice a day, six times a week. That excludes all the training sessions on the field.” Lazarus frowned. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Am I too big?” He sucked in a deep breath. “I’m damned tall and seriously stacked, but is it too much? I’ve always worked hard at being the best, the strongest. Vampire females love my physique yet human females seem to be afraid of me.” He shrugged. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this program after all.”

Jenna’s eyes softened and she chewed her bottom lip for a second. “Don’t say that. Don’t listen to any of them. The truth is, is that you are a damn sight bigger than most human men…” She smiled. “Come to think of it, I actually think that you’re bigger than all the human men I have seen. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you though, or that you can’t make a human woman happy. You have amazing eyes, full kissable lips and really great hair. That whole 6 o’clock shadow thing you have going on there, well, it really works.”

“My eyes, huh?” A growling noise escaped him. “You called them amazing, yet they are the color of mud.”

“They’re brown.” She laughed. “They happen to be really dark and expressive. You have really great eyelashes. Thick and black. Most women would kill for those.”

“What?” He made a snorting noise. “I have eyelashes that belong on a female?” He shook his head. “That’s terrible.”

“No it’s not. I happen to think that a big, muscular guy with really beautiful eyes is sexy.”

Lazarus pretended to look around the room. “You’d better be careful, you’re going to get me hurt talking like that. Gideon will break my nose… Again.”

“Shhhh.” She put a hand to her lips. “No one can know.” She looked anxious as she spoke.

“Don’t worry. It’ll all work out tonight, you will see.” He gave her waist another squeeze, feeling another shot of jealousy.

Jenna nodded. Gideon was definitely in way over his head with this female. Lazarus did not think that there was any going back for the male. The way he looked at her and spoke of her made it clear to Lazarus. It wouldn’t be long before Gideon took Jenna as his mate. He could only hope that he would find a female of his own as well. Right now, it didn’t look very promising. Not at all. He had to suppress a groan of frustration.





Chapter 3


The next day…

There was no way in hell that she was accepting this treatment. No way whatsoever. The letter in her hand clearly stated that she had been accepted into the first heat of The Program. It stated that she would be notified of the mandatory training session and final start dates.

No one had contacted her and The Program had started without her. Her phone calls to the vampires’ head office had resulted in her hair thinning from pulling the strands out, since no one would help her.

Out of pure desperation, she stood at the main gate. The guard had finally allowed her onto vampire territory so that they could talk without being surrounded by protesters. Not that being inside the gates was helping her any.

“There is no way that you are one of the chosen human females.” The guard said, his eyes weary.

“There must be a way because I am one.” She put her hands on her hips and sucked in a deep breath. “Call whoever it is that is in charge. This is completely unacceptable. Read this letter.” She waved a piece of paper under the stupid head’s nose.

The idiot guard looked confused. His eyes were wide and a gigantic frown appeared on his forehead. She was in for a treat if all the vampires were like this.

“It doesn’t matter what that paper says,” he said. “All the females are here and accounted for. My king will have my—”

Alex sucked in a breath, intent on arguing.

“What’s going on here?” A huge ass motherfucker stepped up.

Hallelujah. “Finally,” she said, as she turned her eyes on him. Maybe this guy could help. Maybe he had some sort of authority and could do something. Despite his bulging muscles, his eyes glinted with what looked like intelligence. A girl could hope. “I’m hoping you have a brain.” She looked up at the sky. “I pray to god that you will be able to help me.” So help her she wouldn’t be responsible for her actions if he couldn’t.

The big brute frowned. His eyes hazed over. The guy looked less and less intelligent by the second. Argh! Alex took a step towards him, having to crane her neck to maintain eye contact. Damn but he was big. There was no way she would allow him to intimidate her. One kick to the balls and he would fall just as hard as the next guy. She kept her eyes on his. “Read this.” She thrust the paper into his hand. “Do it now.” She had wasted far too much time already.

His eyes glazed over even more and his nostrils flared nosily as he seemed to…to…be sniffing her. “Hello…big guy…I’m talking to you.” Enough was enough. She gave his arm a slap to draw his attention back to the letter in her hand and off of her.

He looked startled that she would dare put her hand on him, well tough, he would have to deal. “Take it. Read it, dammit.” She tapped the document in his hand, hoping he would catch a clue and read the damn thing already.

The big guy held her gaze for way too long before finally looking down at the piece of paper in his hand. His brows pulled closer together and then the glint from earlier returned. This was the part where he would apologize and make a few calls…maybe invite her in.

“Nice try.” The big guy grunted, his voice was deeper than any human’s she had ever heard. He gave the letter back to her and like an idiot, she took it.

“Not you too.” She snorted and even rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help herself. “Another brainless idiot.”

“Excuse me?” He narrowed his eyes, his jaw tightened.

Oh oh! Maybe she should try and be nice. Not! “Deaf too I see. What does a girl have to do to get some help around here? I want to speak to someone of authority, ideally one of the kings. You two are complete morons.”

“Well that’s not going to happen.” He growled. An honest to god animal noise left his throat. Interesting. Kind of sexy too if she was honest with herself but this was no time for enjoying such things. He needed to know that she meant business.

Using her index finger, she poked him in the chest, loving how his mouth fell open in shock. “Yes”—Poke—“It”—Poke—“Is”—Poke—“I’m done”—Poke—“Waiting”—A really hard poke just to be sure—“I’m about to seriously lose my patience.” She smiled while shooting daggers with her eyes. “You don’t want to see bitch Alex. Bitch Alex will tear you apart and laugh while doing it.”

True story.

“Do you seriously expect us to believe that you are Alexandra Stone?” The vampire brute narrowed his eyes at her for a second before his gaze dropped to her lips and then down to her boobs. It looked like all men were the same, vampire or otherwise. Their dicks overruled common sense…every time. Pathetic really.

“Eyes up here, buster. Trust a man to think of sex at a time like this…”

“I wasn’t thinking about sex…yet, I was checking out your—”

“Well stop, dammit. I will be forced to burn your eyes out with a hot poker if you put them on my boobs again. Do you hear me?” There was no way she was giving him a chance to respond, instead, she dug in her purse and pulled out her identity document. “Look at this instead.” She waved it in front of him. “It clearly states that I am Alexandra.” She tapped her chest. A mistake since his eyes tracked the movement and his pupils dilated as they landed on her tatas.

The guard let out an exasperated sigh. “It looks like she is who she says she is. Maybe she’s telling the truth.” The moron actually looked upset at the prospect.

“Yeah.” Lazarus gave her the once over, keeping his eyes narrowed. He was clearly trying to intimidate her. Pretending to give her the evil eye while checking her out. She had to hold back an eye roll.

At long last, his intense dark stare locked back with hers. Her neck almost hurt from having to strain it to maintain eye contact. Even his jaw was strong looking. His nose was quite broad and his lips were…she licked her own…they were soft looking. They were the only thing about him that looked soft. Everything else looked like it had been forged from steel. Including his eyes which narrowed even more. “And maybe she’s just really good at talking bullshit. I don’t buy it. You thought you could come here dressed like that and get away with it? That we would just let you right in?”

Alex looked down. “Shorts and a t-shirt. What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?” She looked back up and raised her brows at him.

“Shorts that barely cover your plump ass and a tight shirt that showcases those.” He pointed at her boobs, his eyes actually seemed to glow for a second. Then she remembered that he’d just accused her of using her body to gain entrance.