Mine - Shane Barrett, Sierra Aguirre-Stoker

Shay can’t sleep.
Most of that is just the simple fact that the home earth he brought with him for this case is miles away in a literally underground fight club that he and Sierra left on fire. Without that, he’s incapable of getting actual rest.
Another reason is the blood withdrawals. He hasn’t fed on real human blood now in over twenty-four hours and his body is refusing to accept that. They don’t have replacement synth-blood, which is part of the reason it’s getting this bad, but he’s been through this enough times now that he knows nothing really helps. His body wants real blood and doesn’t like settling for the substitute, which he won’t get until Sierra gets over the host version of the same thing and can drive them to civilization.
But even if he’d had everything else he needed, he can’t stop replaying what his answer to the vamp running the ring would have been, given a couple more seconds to get his brain out of crisis mode. 
I didn’t tell you she used to be a hunter because she’s mine. I didn’t want anyone else thinking about her the way I did, wanting to get their teeth in her too. And I didn’t want someone else ripping her throat out while I was in the middle of a fight because they hate hunters on principle. 
Sierra would probably tell him it’s a logical, valid response.
It would have been.
Probably wouldn’t have satisfied their captor, given the spectacle of making a vampire and their host fight each other was likely just too tempting to pass up for any reason, but still.
The truth is, his brain had stalled out less from the sheer stress of the situation and more from the fact that when the answer had popped into his head, it had seemed too right.
It was a bone-deep, visceral, instinctive response.
Mine.
Maybe it’s his own fault for letting the hosting go on to keep their cover.
Maybe it got to him.
Because there’s no way he should be thinking of Sierra as his. His partner, sure. His friend, sort of, in the weird way hunters and vampires sort things out. His roommate, even, as weird as that whole situation has been.
But not just his. 
Even now, watching her toss and turn in the throes of the bite withdrawals on the bed he insisted she take, he wants to help. Every instinct in him is screaming that his problem and hers can be easily solved. If he would just do what his nature demands and feed.
But he let it go on too long already. If it was turning him into a possessive monster, he can’t risk even one more feeding, not even if it’s to buy them time to get somewhere there’s help.
Sierra shifts again and looks over at him. Enough sunlight is sneaking into the cabin through the various cloth scraps they used to cover the windows that it’s picking out the flush in her cheeks that contrasts against the unnatural paleness she’s developed from the hosting.
“Can’t sleep?” She asks, words slurring a little.
“Uh, no. No home earth,” he says.
“Sorry. Stupid question.” She shrugs. “Brain’s a little…scattered.”
She’s rubbing at her arm where he was biting her. 
And he can’t not bring up the elephant in the room.
“I’m sorry.”
“If anyone should be sorry it’s me. I got caught and messed up the whole plan.” 
“I meant about the whole host thing. I guess I let it go further than I thought.” He stares at the wall. 
Sierra frowns. “We both agreed this was the play. If we’d faked it we would have been caught. I can deal with the withdrawals. Would be nice not to have them, but I wasn’t asking for easy when I signed on for this.”
Shay shakes his head. “This isn’t about the withdrawals.”
“Huh?”
“When he asked why I hadn’t told anyone about you.”
“That whole thing took us all by surprise. I don’t blame you for not having an answer.”
“The problem is I did.” Shay can’t meet her eyes. “I wanted to tell him it was because you were mine and I didn’t want anyone else to lay a hand on you.”
“That’s a good one. You just thought of it a second too late.”
Shay swallows. She’s thinking of it exactly the way he expected. As him finding a logical answer that would have satisfied their captor. 
“I didn’t have to think about it.” He clenches his fists until his nails dig into his palms just a bit. Not enough to do damage, but enough to keep him grounded as a wave of hunger washes through him. Just another instinct he can’t crush far enough down. “It just wanted to come out.”
And that had scared him more than the threat hanging over their heads.
It’s one thing to face down the people in the outside world who want to kill them, human or vampire. 
It’s another thing entirely to be reminded, viscerally and undeniably, that there’s a monster inside him too. A hungry thing that demands and takes and claims. That no matter what he does, no matter how much he tries to control it, can twist parts of him he never wants to let it touch. 
“Oh?” Sierra sounds less angry and more confused. 
“I don’t know if it was being surrounded by so many vampires, or that I’d been feeding on you for days, or some combination of that, but I genuinely felt possessive.” He halfway glances at her. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry for instinctively wanting to protect me?” Sierra asks. 
“When you put it like that…” He shrugs. 
“It’s just part of who you are. Vampires bond to their hosts and get pretty defensive about them.” She shrugs. “Honestly, I’m fine if you want to call me your human if you’re fine with me calling you my vampire now and then.”
Shay raises an eyebrow.
“That sounded weird, didn’t it.” 
“Yeah. It really did.” He chuckles in spite of himself, feeling just a bit less awful. Despite everything, they’re still what they always were. She still puts her foot in her mouth at the most awkward possible times. Guaranteed to break the tension even if it’s in the weirdest way he can think of.
She doesn’t hate him.
Maybe she should, but she doesn’t. 
Now that this case is over, he can squash whatever part of him still wants their bond to be any deeper. It’ll be a lot easier now that they’re not intentionally playing into it with a cover story. 
“Besides,” she adds sleepily, drawing his attention back, “you didn’t actually say it. You stopped yourself because that’s not who you wanted to be, regardless of whether it would have gotten us out of that mess.” She shrugs. “If you had said it I’d have kicked your ass in that fight anyway.” 
He laughs. “Think you’ll remember this in the morning?”
She frowns. “Dunno. Why?”
“Because the look on your face if you do will be priceless.” 
She flings the flatter of the two pillows from the bed at him. 
He catches it out of the air. “I am going to ask if sober you is still cool with being called my human.”
She laughs. “As my vampire, you do realize that might have consequences.” 
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”