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Finding the Perfect Mate just got way more complicated.

When Perry pledges abstinence until he meets a Perfect Mate—a rare mortal perfect for a vampire—he doesn’t expect to be tested. Especially by another vampire. But Mandy smells like heaven. Has a sexy British accent. And is the smartest person he’s met. She’s just so … perfect. If he holds on to his fantasy, will he lose his chance at love?

Finding the perfect vampire was never on her radar.

Mandy has kept a secret for 500 years and she will protect it until her dying day. Then she meets Perry, a mix between bad-boy and nobleman. He’s sexy as sin and makes her laugh. He’s just so … perfect. But being his mate requires telling her secret. Can she trust him not to turn her over to the authorities or does she keep mum and let him go?

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Prologue

Barnet Groves, Head of the Committee for the United States vampires, sat on the cement bench next to a cement table in a rest area off I-71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. He’d been sitting there for an hour watching truckers park for the night. Sitting and watching the few travelers dodge snowflakes as they stopped to use the facilities. Sitting and watching traffic drive by. But mostly, just sitting. After having actually touched Janie, an unbonded Perfect Mate, he was still feeling the effects. Or rather, one part of his body was.

What an insult to his late wife, Rachel. How many times had he jacked off in the woods since he’d touched Janie? Too many to admit. And every time he’d thought he had it under control, one tiny memory of Janie’s scent or the warmth that had spread throughout his body when he’d touched her would poke him in the gut—or rather, his libido—and it would start all over again.

Was it just a coincidence that every Perfect Mate he’d been in contact with had the same wild meadow fragrance as Rachel? The Perfect Mate story indicated that every unbonded Perfect Mate of the desired sex would smell like home to a vampire and since he considered Rachel home, maybe not so coincidental.

“Forgive me, Rachel. You deserve better than this.” His people deserved better than this. He was the God-damned Committee Head. He had to set an example. If he couldn’t control his urges, how could he expect the same from other vampires?

Were Perfect Mates a God-send or were they an enemy? Barnet believed the former, especially after having met several. Just because they couldn’t be controlled or turned, and no vampire could read their minds, didn’t mean they were an enemy. Just meant they were different. And boy, what a difference.

His libido was still giving him fits.

This Perfect Mate business was going to get worse before it got better unless he could locate Alexi Popolov, the vampire credited with writing the Perfect Mate story. A story that had been considered a myth up until a year ago. But Alexi had gotten himself buried alive somewhere in Russia and Barnet’s notes from the few Perfect Mates they’d discovered were inadequate at best. Certainly not enough to convince the other Committee Heads that Perfect Mates were not a threat. He just hoped their existence didn’t bring about another vampire war. Vampires had survived discovery after the last one, but social media hadn’t existed. Neither had television nor radio. And the population hadn’t been near as large. It had been so much easier to hide back then.

His phone vibrated in his pants pocket. He’d been talked into trading in his old flip-phone for this newfangled smart phone that he still didn’t trust. He pulled out the device and frowned at the screen. The number belonged to Dimitri Kalashnikov, not that Barnet saved any number in his phone. Owning one of these contraptions meant being safe with it, which meant he’d delete any call he received, too. He didn’t need a record of calls and his vampire memory was more than adequate to remember phone numbers.

Was the Russian Committee Head finally ready to talk? Barnet had only called their Headquarters ten times in the last week. Each time the call had been answered by Felicks—one of the members—and each time he asked to take a message. Whatever the reason for the call, Barnet relished the distraction so he could head back to Dayton erection-free.

He pushed the accept button. “Hello, Dimitri. Glad to see you finally got my messages.”

“Barnet. I hear you’re looking for Alexi Popolov. You need to stop.”

Maybe it wasn’t the ten messages that got Dimitri to call. Maybe it was the snooping. “I know you’ve had issues with him in the past, but did that warrant burying him alive?”

“That is a lie. Who told you that? I want his name.”

Funny how Dimitri always assumed a man was responsible. In this case he was wrong, but Barnet wasn’t going to correct him. “So you can bury him alive, too?”

“The man lies. Alexi is missing. His last meeting was over five years ago.”

Yeah, a meeting he couldn’t make because he was buried. Barnet rubbed the back of his neck. Time to take a different approach. “Dimitri, Alexi’s story about Perfect Mates is not a myth. We’ve discovered them. I only want to talk—”

“You have discovered freaks. Nothing more. Popolov lies. He lies about everything.”

“He didn’t lie about this. They’re out there and once they’ve bonded—”

“They are freaks and must be killed! Do you not understand? Go on back to your committee. Destroy the freaks and stop poking around where you are not wanted.”

“Dimitri…” Barnet hung his head. “They aren’t a threat.” If anything, they were the most wonderful creatures on Earth.

“Anyone who cannot be controlled is a threat. Are you a threat now, too?”

The words, “go on back to your committee,” kept running in Barnet’s head. Two cars had been in the parking lot for almost as long as he’d been here, but he’d been too frustrated to notice until now. “What is that supposed to mean? Are you willing to start a war over this?”

“Are you?”

“You can’t bury the truth. And you can’t just kill innocent people.”

The cars were empty, which meant the occupants could be anywhere. Damn it. Why hadn’t he paid attention?

“We do not kill innocents. We destroy threats.”

“Is that what you’re going to do with Alexi? Destroy him?”

Dimitri sighed. “Popolov is missing. He either dead or rogue. But if alive and foolish enough to be caught, yes, he will be destroyed. Is that not what we all do to rogues? But first he will suffer. Be set as example.”

Suffer. Yeah, that was Dimitri’s modus operandi. So was spying. And apparently he’d sent people here to spy on, or rather, follow Barnet. Unauthorized Russians. In the US. He should have noticed. But his mind had been so consumed with Perfect Mates he never even considered the consequences.

“So you’re saying even if he’s found, I won’t have a chance to talk to him?”

“If you do, it would be the last words you ever spoke.”

“Okay, now that sounded like a threat.”

“Is not threat. Is fact. You are not allowed to interfere.”

“You’re right. My apologies. But this Perfect Mate business is not over. I’ll just have to find another way to convince you. Good day, Dimitri.” Barnet disconnected the call and shoved the phone in his pocket. No one lurked around. He made a dash for the car.

Barnet collided with a wall, or rather a man resembling a wall. Pain lanced from his belly and he crumpled to the ground.

A tazer. He’d been tazed. A vampire’s second worst nightmare.

Wall Man turned Barnet onto his back. Another bruiser stepped up and smiled just before he drove a stake into Barnet’s heart.

Yeah, that was the worst. Being staked.

One good thing: he no longer had an erection.