Protecting His Vampire Mate (Blood Bonded Mates #3)

"Protecting His Vampire Mate" is the third book in Jay Castle's Blood Bonded Mates series.

["Bryan
After everything I've done, I don't deserve love. Especially not from Tobias Hawthorne—the brave, gorgeous, annoyingly perfect warlock who insists he's my fated mate.
Actually, I might already be halfway in love with him, but Tobias doesn't need to know that. Because it can't happen. I can't put him in danger. Not when I've hurt so many people already. Instead, I'll use this darkness to hunt monsters and make the world a safer place. Love doesn't factor in. And if I just keep telling myself that, maybe someday I'll believe it.

Tobias
At fourteen, I cast a spell to see the face of my fated mate. I never expected it to be a vampire. And I denied it for years. Then I met Bryan, and my world made sense for the first time. Until he left.
It's fine. I'm the coven's go-to warlock for banishing big bads. Work keeps me distracted. Except when it doesn't. Which is always. But Bryan needs space, and I'll give him anything he needs, even if it hurts. But then a demon shows me a future where Bryan dies. I have to protect him, no matter the cost. He doesn't want a warlock bodyguard. Too bad. I'm not going anywhere, even if saving him makes him hate me."]

This one was a hard read. It was mentally and emotionally taxing. Bryan had been through soooo fucking much (like all of the trigger warnings (and more) are about him). He was struggling something fierce. It was hard on him (obviously), and it was hard on Tobias. The two of them almost didn't make it. I almost cried (okay, no almost).

Quote of the Day (Bryan about Tobias): "Just knowing he was out there somewhere made it possible to get through my worst days, even if I had no desire to call him and wreck him all over again." Romantic and heartbreaking...aka the entire novel.

Gotta be honest, not sure how I feel about the next book...but we'll see.

Trigger Warnings: violence, mentions of death/loss of loved ones, on-page depictions of mind-control, a character coping with a trauma that has tones of surviving sexual assault (though no sexual violence of any kind occurs on-page, nor is it mentioned anywhere within the book), and more.

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