Read Vampire Coven Book 3: A Vampire's Embrace for Free Online Page B

bears were being hunted by a male hunting party. A man had spied Hope. In desperation, she had left her child in the deep cavern of ice, hoping to lead the men away.
    Now her baby was gone. The vampire had taken her. He had killed her child already, a mere snack. Hope curled into a small ball and watched as the last of her fire died down. Hungry, alone and smelling as vile as a human could get she would sleep, and then join her little one in death.
    “There you are.” Boomed an unwanted voice. Hope sat up. She glared at the vampire.
    “Go ahead, do your worst, you monster. Oh wait, you already did that by killing my baby.”
    The vampire came closer, scrunched his nose then tossed more wood onto the fire from a distance.
    “Poor little Ann. Have other children teased her about her mother’s stench?”
    “How do you know her name?” Hope crouched onto her knees and felt her heart begin to pound.
    “She asked me to bring back Dooder.” He leaned in a little closer. “That’s her doll.”
    “She’s alive?”
    “No, I just told you; Dooder is a doll.”
    “Ann, my Ann is alive?”
    “Actually my Ann is alive. And she wants her doll.”
    Hope looked at him in confusion. He was keeping her child. Oh God. “Please, she needs me. Don’t hurt her.”
    The vampire circled her as though pondering. Hope swallowed hard. “You’ll give her some noxious disease smelling like that.”
    “I only did it because the men came. I saw them coming. I was trying to repulse them.”
    “So you don’t have some shit fetish?”
    “I don’t have some shit fetish,” she ground out through gnashed teeth.
    “I might be persuaded to take you to Ann. If you bathe and behave yourself.”
    Hope became concerned. “It will take forever to completely bathe. I might freeze.”
    The vampire crouched down in front of her, still he kept his distance. “I’m certain we can come to some understanding.”
    Swallowing her pride Hope looked at him as demur as possible, needing to hold her baby in her arms. “I’ll do what you want. Anything, I swear.”
    “Good,” he said and rose to his feet. He went to a dark corner and grabbed a huge white polar bear skin. “We keep skins in certain areas for when we catch prey we want to keep,” the vampire explained. “Now strip.”
    “Huh?”
    “Get naked.”
    “But, but.”
    “Yes I’d love to see your butt.”
    “I’ll freeze to death.”
    “As soon as the shit covered furs are dropped I’ll wrap you in this nice clean fur.”
    “And do what?” she whispered.
    “Compel you to shut up. Then take you to a hot spring where you can wash.”
    “My poor baby,” Hope said feeling her tears wet her eyes.
    “Your poor baby is no doubt having a pony back ride from the good doctor Caine and eating her veggies and drinking her milk.”
    “A doctor?” Hope squealed. A healer. Oh God. She raced towards him. The vampire stuck out his palm which smacked into her forehead keeping her at a distance.
    “My God woman, ten day old dead fish guts baked in the sun smell better than you.”
    Hope didn’t care how it looked, she stripped naked to bare feet and stood shivering before him before he changed his mind. The vampire walked around her. She felt smaller than ever. He was a huge bastard. He lifted a strand of her greasy hair.
    “You’re as thin as your daughter, woman.”
    Was that pity in his voice?
    “My name is Hope.” The last of their food had gone to Ann; Hope hadn’t eaten in two days.
    “My name is Rhett. I’m your master or whatever floats your boat. You can call me Rhett. You belong to me. For now. Don’t piss me off.”
    In a single action, Hope felt herself grabbed as the fur wrapped around her entire body, skin side out. Rhett was staring into her eyes. The white glow scared the crap out of her. She gasped.
    “I may or may not hurt you. For now you will sleep. You will wake when I decide…and you will never cover yourself in shit of any kind again. Got it?”
    For some