Hermione struggled for breath. The chocolate brown eyes of Viktor darkened to black in a blink of his eyes. He stood taller, his broad shoulders blocking her view of the room. Viktor took a step closer to her and stretched his hand out to her.  Again, the delicious smell Hermione had begun to associate with Viktor’s veela side filled the air around her. When Hermione did not take the veela’s offered hand, he took another step to close the distance between the two.

                “You vill take everything I offer you, Mate,” the veela’s voice echoed in Hermione’s head. “You vill deny me nothing,” he continued, circling around Hermione. He stopped behind her again. “Such a beautiful mate, you are. My heir vill be very handsome vith you as his mother.”

                “Viktor,” Hermione’s voice quivered as she felt the veela’s ice cold breath on her neck, “let’s get this over with so I can get my magic back. Bite me or whatever it is you have to do.”

                A laugh that chilled Hermione’s bones filled the room, “I vill mark you, Mate,” the veela teased, “but you vill not get your magic back until, I give it back. The human has no say. I vill give your magic back only after you are carrying my heir.”

                Hermione turned around swiftly, “What do you mean,” she protested, “explain yourself.”

                “Ah, something my brilliant mate does not know,” the veela whispered into Hermione’s ear as he wrapped his powerful arms around her slender waist, “I am not your human, Vitya. Ve share the same body, but our minds are different, Mate. Both the human and I vant different things from you, Mate.”

                Hermione felt helpless and threatened, “Let go of me,” she demanded, her voice strained as she pushed against the chest of the strong man in front of her. “You can not force me to have children for you.”

                The veela allowed Hermione to continue to struggle against his chest. “Again, you have not paid attention, my mate. I vill not force you. I haff agreed to do that for the human, but you vill meet my request of you vill never haff your magic back. You chose.” The stress from the situation caught up to Hermione and she felt hot tears slip from her eyes. A sob escaped her lips. “There, there, Mate,” the veela’s voice soothed her, “no need for tears. If you meet my request, I vill give back your magic. My presence in the human vill be gone as vell. He vill haff some of my traits, but he vill not haff to struggle against me now as he does. Do you vant the human to suffer because of you,” the veela questioned. Hermione slowly shook her head no. The veela smiled and pulled Hermione’s hair back and tied it with a black ribbon that seemed to appear from no where. “Of course not. Now give yourself, your mind,” the veela’s voice ghosted over her skin, “your body,” his hands roamed down the front of Hermione allowing them to stop on her stomach, “and your soul, to me.”

                “Okay,” she choked out, turning her head to give the veela access to her neck.

                “Say it, Mate.”

                “I give myself,” Hermione sobbed, “to you.”

                “Vhat parts do you give to me, Mate?”

                “My mind, body, and soul,” Hermione whispered, placing her hands on top of the veela’s.

                With Hermione’s gift, the veela bit down on the juncture between her shoulders and neck, breaking the skin. Hermione inhaled a sharp breath as she received her mark as a veela mate. He sucked and licked at the mark he made on his mate’s body, his saliva helping to heal the wound. Hermione turned around and wrapped her arms around the veela’s neck.

                “My veela,” she spoke, feeling more powerful, possessive, and attached to the veela before her.

                “Always yours,” the veela added, carrying Hermione over to the bed.

                “I want to mark you,” Hermione proclaimed, sitting up on her knees. The veela twisted his head to the side in an almost avian way. Hermione continued to explain, “I want the world to know you are mine.”

                An act very rare occurred; the male veela in front of Hermione bowed his head and exposed his neck to his mate, allowing his mate to mark him. Hermione, though she didn’t know how she knew, licked a similar spot on the veela’s neck. She placed a gentle kiss to his neck before sinking her teeth into his flesh, bringing his blood to the surface. The veela yelled out in pain as Hermione ran her tongue over the wound she had inflicted, tasting briefly the sweet blood of her veela.

                “Our bond is stronger now, Mate,” the veela explained, pulling Hermione from his neck and nuzzling his face into Hermione’s neck where he marked her. “You haff claimed me as yours. The human vill never be allowed to touch another voman in a vay you may find displeasing.”

                “Veela,” Hermione addressed the creature directly rather than his human side, “I will bear your heir in exchange for my magic,” she proposed, moving so that she was looking directly into the black eyes of the veela.

                The veela pulled the ribbon tying back Hermione’s hair and smiled at her in a most possessive way, “Agreed, Mate.” The veela focused his eyes on Hermione as the black ribbon floated to the floor, forgotten by both parties.

              
Chapter 8: Mate