Forbidden Vampire Mate Read online

  Forbidden Vampire Mate

  MatchMater Paranormal Dating App #3

  Laura Greenwood

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Afterword

  Also by Laura Greenwood

  About the Author

  © 2020 Laura Greenwood

  * * *

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the published, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address; [email protected].

  Visit Laura Greenwood’s website at:

  www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk

  Cover Design by Ammonia Book Covers

  Forbidden Vampire Mate is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Blurb

  Nothing is more forbidden than a bite...

  * * *

  The first time she uses the MatchMater App, Effie finds the one person she can't have. Forbidden from mating with anyone who isn't a faerie, she has to go against every belief her people have if she wants a chance at happiness.

  * * *

  Wendell isn't one for tradition, and he couldn't care less what his mate's people say. He is going to prove to her that the forbidden fruit is often the most delicious.

  * * *

  Forbidden Vampire Mate is book 3 in the MatchMater Paranormal Dating App series. It is Effie and Wendell's complete romance.

  Chapter One

  Wendell

  * * *

  Wendell sighed and rubbed a hand over his face as he studied the brief in front of him. It was dull reading, but he had to do it if he wanted to get the promotion at the end of the year. Perhaps he should have listened to his mother when she suggested he worked in a vampire focused firm, instead of one that worked with humans too.

  Most of the time, he didn't mind. He liked it when he could help people with their problems, especially when it looked bleak for them. But the firm was going through a dry spell when it came to interesting cases.

  The door to his office cracked open.

  He looked up and groaned inwardly at the sight of a blonde-haired woman he knew only too well.

  "What do you want, Cora?" he asked, hoping she'd tell him and then disappear to go do whatever it was she did.

  Instead, she took it as an invitation into his space.

  He sighed and shut the folder, not wanting her to see what he'd been working on. It wasn't that he didn't trust her...actually, it was. Cora was one of the least reliable people he'd ever met. As well as one of the most cunning. She didn't even work in his building, and yet had managed to get past the front desk.

  Again. He'd have to talk to them about that, though it likely wasn't their fault. She'd probably used some kind of compulsion on them. She'd never told him whether or not she could use the vampire specific skill, but he'd always assumed so.

  "What do you want?" he asked again when she stayed quiet.

  Cora hopped up onto his desk and crossed her legs, letting her skirt ride up higher than she should and reveal her stockings.

  He looked away and sighed. Gone were the days when showing an ankle was frowned upon. Where Cora was concerned, he wanted them back.

  "Can't I just come say hello?" she purred.

  "I've told you, we're not together," he pointed out.

  She leaned in and took his tie in her hand, giving it a gentle tug so he came closer. "We're mates, Wendell, you can't deny it."

  He pulled his tie away from her, and tucked it back into place before leaning back in his chair. "How many times do I have to tell you, we're not mates, Cora. We spent one night together a couple of decades ago."

  "And yet you haven't been able to stay away from me since."

  Wendell took a deep breath. How had she not got it all through her head yet? He'd done everything he could in the past twenty-or-so years to separate the two of them, including moving to a completely new town to be away from her. It hadn't worked for long. She'd found him after only two years.

  Unfortunately for him, he'd fallen in love with the town during that time, and didn't want to leave. He loved the laid back feel of it, as well as walking down the paths next to the estuary, the smell of the sea in the air, and the breeze rushing past him. He'd lived in big cities his entire life, like most vampires, this was a nice change of pace.

  Cora grabbed his phone from the desk before he had a chance to stop her. He should have thought about and moved it away the moment she stepped into the room. He never learned fast enough where she was concerned.

  "What's this?" she hissed, jabbing a finger at the screen.

  "I don't know. You tell me." He shrugged. It was hard to tell what she was annoyed about if he couldn't see it.

  "Why have you downloaded this?"

  His mind raced through all the things he'd downloaded to his phone, but he couldn't come up with a single thing that could have triggered her. Of course, that didn't mean anything as far as Cora was concerned. She was a loose cannon, and one he was ready to be rid of.

  "MatchMater." Venom dripped from the single word.

  Oh. That would explain her annoyance.

  "My friend recommended it, I thought I'd try it."

  "And what about me?" Anger flared in her eyes.

  "You're not my mate, Cora. We'd know about it by now." This was getting tiring. He didn't know how many times he could have the same conversation with her and still maintain his patience.

  "You should give us a chance..."

  He groaned. When would she understand all of this? Maybe he should put her on MatchMater. He dismissed the thought as soon as it came to him. He couldn't do anything without her permission. He'd just have to hope she made the decision on her own.

  "Cora, it's not going to happen," he said firmly. "I know you think you feel some kind of mating bond with me, but I don't feel it back, and we'd know about it by now."

  She pouted as she shifted on the desk, giving him another flash of leg as she did.

  "We could have so much fun together, Wendell," she promised, her voice dropping low as she did.

  He knew she was trying to turn him on, but she did nothing for him any more. One of the many reasons he knew they weren't mates.

  "I'm sorry, Cora. I have a lot of work to do. Can we do this later?" It was the only thing he could think of to get her out of his office. It was almost as bad as when he had to go somewhere he knew she'd be.

  "But Wendell..." She eyed him as if she was about to strip him and have her way with him. He wished she wouldn't.

  "Go. Cora." He gave her the sternest look he could manage, though he doubted it would be enough to put her off. He truly didn't understand what her obsession with him was. There'd been nothing noteworthy about their night together. At least, not that he could remember. He'd made no promises to her, and nor had she to him. That was how it had to be with other paranormals.
Unless all the parties involved were mates, nothing serious could ever happen. It was as simple as that.

  She looked as if she was going to argue, but then decided against it.

  Relief flooded through him as Cora slunk off out of his office, leaving him alone and able to focus again. He turned back to his computer and pulled up his list of meetings. If he was lucky, he had time to grab a coffee before the next one.

  But not before he sent a message to Jim. The incubus had gotten him into this predicament by recommending that he got MatchMater in the first place, he could help get him out of it by figuring out how to ditch Cora once and for all too.

  Chapter Two

  Effie

  * * *

  Effie dimmed the lights, setting the ambience for something more soothing than the harsh light the nursing home gave them. The door creaked open as her two o'clock stepped in.

  "Hello, dear."

  Effie gulped. Something always felt a little off about this woman, no matter how many times she treated her.

  "Good afternoon. Same as usual?" she asked.

  "Yes, dear. That sounds good. But be careful around the wing area."

  She stiffened. "The wing area?" She hoped the woman meant bingo wings and wasn't trying to insinuate that she knew something about what Effie was. That wouldn't go down very well with the rest of the Faerie Council.

  The woman gave her a knowing look. "Do you really need me to say it out loud?"

  "I find that communication is always the best way to ensure a positive customer experience." Her voice waved as she spoke, but she knew it had to be said. Dealing with her very human boss would be even worse than dealing with the Faerie Council.

  "I'm just asking as one-winged being to another, that you be careful around the delicate area. Though I do have to say, you're much better at that than the other one." The woman sat down on the massage chair.

  "Winged being?" she squeaked, while still going through the routines of a normal massage. She wouldn't have anyone say that she was bad at her job. Even when she was surprised by conversations like this one, she was determined to do the right thing and see the appointment through.

  "Please, you're leaving pixie dust everywhere," the woman pointed out.

  "Faerie," Effie muttered under her breath without thinking.

  The woman chuckled. "That's the quickest way I know of getting a faerie to admit what they are."

  "How did you know?" There was no point denying it at this point, not when the woman had already worked it out.

  "I've been around a long time. There are few things I haven't seen in my time, and faeries are included in that."

  "But how? We only came out of hiding five years ago." Most faeries hadn't even moved out into the human world yet. They were too scared of the consequences. Mostly due to stories like the one about the boy dressed in green who used faerie dust to fly.

  "I lived on the other side of the portal while the faerie still lived with the fae. Nasty split, that." She shook her head, seeming genuinely sorry for the situation.

  "But...how?"

  "Please, you can't be naive enough to not know that paranormals are long-lived. That wasn't even half my life ago."

  Effie's eyes widened at the thought. Living so long wasn't something most faeries experienced. Mostly due to boredom and stupid mistakes. A lot of faeries would dare one another to do dangerous things, and often would end up hurting themselves beyond repair.

  "Are you on MatchMater yet?" the woman asked.

  "MatchMater? What's that?" Effie frowned, trying to work out what that could mean.

  "It's an app. You have a phone, I assume?" The woman held out her hand, clearly expecting Effie to just hand it over. "Don't worry, it's been approved by the High Council. You won't be breaking any laws by using it."

  Effie couldn't see a way to argue with that. Not when the woman seemed to know so much about her from the little they'd interacted. And without revealing some of the intricacies of faerie politics, she couldn't say no.

  She restrained a sigh as she handed her phone to the old woman. Perhaps it wasn't her best idea, but something deep within her was telling her she should go ahead and do it. That this would lead to something good for her.

  Even if it wasn't what the Faerie Council had in mind for its people. She didn't imagine there were many faerie men on the app, and even if there were, she'd probably already met them and dismissed them as not her mate.

  "There are some yummy looking men on here," Mrs Stein mused as she clicked on buttons, doing...something. Effie didn't pretend to understand half of the things her phone was capable of doing. She only used it to communicate with the people she worked with. They'd found it odd that she didn't have a phone when she first started her training.

  "I'm sure there are," Effie agreed, though she wasn't sure why. She shouldn't be encouraging the old woman. Even if a part of her did want to meet her mate, the rest could only think about the ban on inter-species mating from the Faerie Council.

  It was a complex ruling that she didn't really understand. Apparently, if someone found their true mate, then it would be accepted, but faeries were banned from looking if it wasn't within the faery community. She wasn't sure what the punishment for it was, though. No one did. As teenagers, they'd whispered about banishment, but there hadn't been anyone with the predicament during her life, which made it difficult to be sure.

  "Oh, he's nice. I have a good feeling about this one," Mrs Stein said, pulling Effie back from her thoughts. "I should swipe him for you..."

  "No," Effie half-shouted, before remembering where she was and who she was talking to. If she lost this job, then she doubted her parents would let her leave the faery realm for work. She knew she shouldn't be letting them rule her life now she was in her twenties, but for a lot of the older faeries, it was a given that children followed their parents rules for their entire lives.

  Mrs Stein chuckled and handed Effie's phone back. "I'm sorry, dear. I shouldn't have pried so far. But seeing my grandson happily mated has made me think I'm a bit of a matchmaker." She smiled reassuringly.

  "No, I'm sorry, Mrs Stein. I forgot where I was, and that isn't acceptable." She slipped her phone back in her pocket. Perhaps she should delete the app first, but a small part of her didn't want to. There was something exciting about it.

  Forbidden, even.

  The rest of her day passed in a blur of patients and thoughts of what she was going to do about the app on her phone. She shouldn't be thinking about it. She should delete it and have done with it all. Nothing good could come from using it. She'd end up either heartbroken, or expelled from her people, neither of which sounded particularly fun if she was honest with herself.

  And yet, she was resistant to press uninstall. Actually, if she was honest with herself, she wanted to use it. There were worst things she could do than look for her mate under the radar. She left the faery realm all the time, which meant she could meet someone that way. And if any of her people asked, then that's what she'd say. No. That was what she'd have to say.

  Effie sighed as she tidied up the room she'd been using for the day. The decision could wait until tomorrow. One day on the app wouldn't hurt.

  Chapter Three

  Wendell

  * * *

  His flat was deathly still when he returned for the evening. Wendell sighed and made his way through the rooms, checking for Cora. It wouldn't be the first time she'd broken into his flat and waited for him. He was fairly certain she had a key made. Not that something as flimsy as a lock would stop her. He wasn't sure how she did it, but Cora was a mastermind when it came to getting in places. If she put half the energy she spent on Wendell on something else, she could build a career for herself.

  Satisfied the female vampire wasn't lying in wait for him, he made his way to the kitchen. It had been a long day at the office despite the lack of interesting cases, and he hadn't managed to eat anything since lunch.

  He pottered around the small room, ma
king a cup of tea while he waited for the oven to heat up so he could put a ready-made lasagna in. His Mum would be disappointed if she knew how much he relied on ready meals, but there was no way around it sometime. If he had someone else to share his life with, then perhaps it would be different. He did enjoy cooking, having learned from his Mum when he was still a boy.

  With a sigh, he pulled open the fridge for some milk, spying his blood pouches in the process. His stomach growled with a different kind of hunger. He counted back the days since he'd last had blood, but lost count. Had it really been that long? His blood subscription arrived every two weeks, no matter how much he drank, so that wasn't anything to go by. The older he got, the less often he had to drink. It was a common thing that happened with vampires, and one that made them a lot less cool than human fiction made them out to be. He suspected that a lot of humans would be disappointed to learn the truth about his species.

  All of that paled into insignificance considering how much he needed to drink now. He grabbed the blood pouch along with the milk. After milking his tea, he set the bottle down and turned his attention to the blood. Within a few moments, he had the top of the bag open, and the blood sloshing into the mug. He wasn't sure what they did to it before they delivered it to vampires like him, but it was thinner than straight from the vein, and also tastier. He suspected the company added something to it to make it last longer. After Wendell had been introduced to it by a friend, he'd never turned back. Drinking from humans was messy to say the least, and if they'd eaten the wrong thing, then it could taste bad. This way, at least he knew what he was putting into his body in advance.