Dylan didn't let him finish. A hope so bright it was a blinding burst to life inside her as she launched herself at Rio and threw her arms around him in a fierce hug. "Oh, my God! Rio, thank you."
He peeled her off him with gentle hands. "It's not a guarantee. It's only the slimmest possibility, and even that is being optimistic. The odds are very good that Tess won't be able to help."
Dylan nodded, accepting the idea that it was a long shot, yet elated that there might be even a glimmer of a chance to save her mother.
"She would have to be brought here, to the mansion. Dante won't risk letting Tess travel now that she's expecting. And we can't risk letting your mother know where we're located or what was done to her, so if this is what she wants, it will mean scrubbing her memory of the entire thing once it's finished. And that's still no guarantee that her cancer will be cured."
"But it's a chance," Dylan said. "That's more than what she has now. Without that chance, she probably only has a few more months. And if Tess can help her..."
Then that miracle would likely buy her mother years, even decades. At sixty-four and in good health, it wouldn't be unreasonable for her mom to live another twenty-five or thirty years.
At what point would Dylan be willing to abandon her for her own slice of happiness back here with Rio?
She looked at him and saw that the question was one he'd already considered too. He was willing to try to help Dylan's mother because he knew Dylan couldn't bear to lose her, even though he also knew it could mean pushing what he wanted that much farther out of his reach.
"Rio..."
"I would wait," he said solemnly. "Until you're ready, I will wait for you."
She closed her eyes and felt his love pour over her like a balm. That he would give her such a selfless gift - the gift of hope - made Dylan adore him all the more. She kissed him with all the devotion she felt in her heart, needing to be close to him...to feel him inside her in every way possible.
She thought of the bond he'd mentioned - that of blood, something to be shared as his mate. She wanted that. Needed to feel linked to him in that very primal, exclusively Breed way.
"Make me yours," she murmured against his mouth. "Right now, Rio...I want you to make me yours through blood. I want to be bonded with you. I don't want to wait for that."
His low, approving growl made her tingle with anticipation. "It's unbreakable. Once done, it cannot be undone."
"Even better."
She nipped his lower lip and was rewarded with an answering graze of his fangs as he rolled over with her and pressed her down beneath him on the bed. Sparks of amber crowded the smoky topaz color of his irises. His pupils were razor sharp, fixed on her in desire. He kissed her, and Dylan let her tongue play at the tips of his long fangs, dying to feel them piercing the fine skin of her neck.
But Rio drew back, bracing himself over her on his fists. He looked so powerful poised above her, so beautifully, nakedly male. "I shouldn't do this to you," he said softly, reverently. "If you take my blood into your body, Dylan, then I will always be a part of you...even if you decide to live your life without me. You will always sense me in your veins, whether you will it or not. I should give you more freedom than this."
Dylan stared up at him without the slightest reservation. "I want this, Rio. I want you to be a part of me always. My heart will know you forever, whether or not we bond by blood right now."
He cursed softly, shaking his head. "You're sure this is what you want? You're sure that you want...me?"
"Forever," she told him. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
His breath rasped out of him raggedly as he straddled her waist and sat back on his knees. He brought his wrist up to his mouth. With his hot amber stare fixed on her eyes, Rio curled his lips off his fangs and sank the sharp points into his flesh.
Blood began a steady run down his forearm, the punctures pulsing with each hard beat of his heart. Very gently, he raised Dylan's head and shoulders up from the pillow and held his wound out to her.
"Drink from me, love."
She felt the hot, wet liquid against her lips, smelled the spicy dark scent of his blood as she drew a breath and covered his bite with her mouth.
The first brush of her tongue across his open vein was electric. Power crackled through her entire body at the first tentative swallow she took from him. She felt her limbs tingle, fingers and toes prickling with a strange, enjoyable heat. The warmth spread, into her chest and stomach, then into her very being. She was melting with the intensity of it, desire starting a swift, steady burn in her core.
And God, he tasted so good.
Dylan drew from him, lost in the pulsing heat he fed her from his veins. She glanced up and found him watching her, his look one of raw need and pure masculine pride. His cock stood fully erect, larger than ever.
Dylan reached for him, stroking him as she suckled hard at his wrist. When she spread her thighs and guided him toward her, Rio threw his head back and hissed, the cords of his neck as taut as cables. He dropped his head back down and she was blasted with amber from his passion-swamped eyes.
It took only the barest flex of her hips to seat him at her core. He entered her on a long, hard thrust, stretching his legs out with hers as he covered her with his body.
"You are mine now, Dylan."